The Weekly Sneak: Feminism, Anti-Intellectualism and Politics

Okay, I know I said I wouldn't mention Cape Town again, but I need to for this blogpost. You see, while there I came to realize that Open Forum 2012 was a heavily feminist conference. This meant an extremely high concentration of high-achieving women, and perhaps even a higher concentration of females than males.

So I came home pumped full of the vim and vigor of all that feminine power, convinced that the future of Africa would have a female face. It was a glorious week of delusion, work was going great and no incidents occurred to burst that bubble. Then the feeling faded and I was back in Dar again. And it hit me that in fact, no. Things are indeed great on a certain level, and I do believe that women are riding the wave of Africa's "emergence" on the world charts. However, this only applies to a minority of us, and only in some spheres of our lives, and only some of the time. The rest of the time we're right there with the rest of humanity, taking bull poop from the patriarchy and just dealing with it.

And then Anne-Marie Slaughter decides to tell us that in America, women can't have it all after all. And that feminism better own up to this, stop misguiding younger women, roll up its sleeves and get back on the job of fixing whatever still needs fixing. A gender equitable society, like a perfect democracy, is still more of an ideal than a reality in our times. Anyways, the article got me thinking along feminist lines, specifically wondering about what the fundamental challenges are for female leadership in Tanzania:

"I think that there are two main culprits, and they are related. The first is our culture of anti-intellectualism, and the second is simply the insidious practice of deference. About the anti-intellectualism: yes, we suffer this problem. We do. But it is particularly offensive in our society to be a thinking woman. Because this then raises the second problem: deference. By our rules, women are expected to defer to men. That's the bare bones of it, and it is far more problematic than the anti-intellectualism. All this expected deference is killing careers."

For the most part I try to stay relatively friendly when in feminist mode, but it doesn't always work. Although I may be writing about general challenges and more abstract ideas, at the end of the day it is deeply personal, as gender politics must be for any woman who just can't bring herself to obediently "stay in her place."

Coming Soonish To a Blog Near You- An Long Overdue Upgrade

I have finally gotten around to getting some support for the blog. It has only taken four years :) The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and I have been intending for a very long time to upgrade the blog and refresh its look and rethink a number of things. Hasn't happened. 

When I started blogging, I had all the time in the world plus a free internet connection. It was easy to research what I needed to know more of, manage the blog by myself. These days it's a challenge just finding enough quiet time to write. So I have done a smart thing- I have asked someone else to handle all the non-writing stuff for me. 

In the coming two months we're hoping there will be some decent changes to the blog. A bit of redesign, better widgets, a refreshed blogroll, that sort of thing. We'll try to make it as trouble-free as possible. Thanks for stopping by, keep reading and take care.

Yes.

Opened my inbox this morning to a wonderful email with very specific instructions:

"Hi Elsie,

...I'm writing to ask whether you could add a 'subscribe by email' feature to your blog to make it easier for me - and I'm sure other - interested readers to follow you.

Thanks!"

My pleasure, reader. And thanks for the great suggestion.

Femi Kuti's Hot Sweaty Towel: Open Forum 2012 The After Hours

Open Forum took good care of us while we were in Cape Town. Frankly I didn't have it in me to run through the gauntlet of nightly entertainments they had planned and I did have a night-time mission to fulfill. But here are some selected highlights from behind the scenes:

1. Stacey Ann Chin- performed on the first night. She's like crack for a certain kind of feminist, you know. And maybe a certain kind of poet. Good times- I love the way she doesn't hold back. The conference was small enough to afford me several chances to hang out with her. Got her book, and autographed too- I asked for something that might inspire a failed poet never to give up. She obliged. Maybe with a talisman like this in my library I'll finally get around to producing non-sucky lines.

2. The Mission: live Jazz in Cape Town. I found out from the nice concierge who drove me to Asoka that there weren't many places that still offer live Jazz in Cape Town, which makes me sad because Cape Town without Jazz is like a cat without claws. Still, managed two hours with a nice quartet and a nice single-malt that I only recently learned is NOT pronounced La Frog (don't pick up your style tips from the movies, it will show). If you are a Jazz aficionado going to Cape Town, it might be worth a look-in. The Manager knows some very interesting ways of consuming cheap alcohol, the bartenders are naughty fun and the Congolese doorman doesn't mind sharing a cigarette on the sidewalk if you're nice to him. Must be the coastal thing. Jazz on Mondays and Tuesdays.


3. Femi Kuti's hot sweaty towel: yes, I have it. Femi and his band (plus tattooed dancing girls), two hours of live music with that African beat. Four guys in the brass section, one keyboard, drumkit and percussion, two guitarists I think, bass guitar and of course Femi himself rotating across saxophones and his keyboard. Since I had waited many years to be within sweat-spray distance of Femi, only the scion of the great Fela himself, I did not plan to leave empty-handed. Two hours with this excellent musician just a couple of feet away? Of course I asked for his stage towel. Differences in politics cannot get in the way of passion. :) It's sitting in the freezer while I decide if I should frame it or just keep it frozen for... er...cloning purposes. Don't judge me.

Ok, done now! Officially laying the Open Forum 2012 to rest on the blog. Also I know that the picture has a vertical video problem going on, but I couldn't fix it. So.

Open Forum 2012: Sex

I only made it to one session because I saw the sun come up over CT after a nightcap the previous night that went on longer than anticipated. How people survive conferences is a mystery to me- if I had known how intense they can be I would have prepared for this one like a marathon runner. As luck would have it, I picked a great session to be awake for.

Disclaimer: I’m going to write about the S-E-X now. Please move along if some pretty clinical talk about this aspect of human life might offend whatever sensibilities you have. Please click the hyperlinks if you're curious despite your sensibilities. I won't tell. Undisclaimer.

I attended the talk titled ‘Politics of Sexual Pleasure,’ featuring Kopano Ratele, Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, ZaneleMuholi and Rudo Chigudo and moderated by the effervescent Jane Bennett. I highly recommend checking out Nana’s blog and Zanele’s photographs for the artistic element, the information and of course the inspiration. 

There was a lot going on here since sexuality is a very big topic, but clear themes did emerge: how politics impact on our personal lives in amazing ways, such as regulating what sex is to begin with, who should have it with whom and what acts are punishable…not to mention the consequences of sex. Rudo Chigudo started us off with a performance piece about a woman who could not get an abortion in time after being gang-raped to ‘fix’ her lesbianism ‘problem.’ I leaned over and asked- naively- where this kind of thing happens only to be told that it is quite common in South Africa.

We talked about sexual identities and the apparent problems that Africans are having accepting non-heterosexual monogamous coupling and various other hot issues. 

As interesting as it was to go down that road, I got uncomfortable because I was actually hoping- again naively- that we wouldn’t be bogged  down by the pathologies. Here’s an experiment: Google ‘African’ and ‘Sexuality’ right this minute. Out of the top 100 hits, see how many of them manage to avoid HIV/AIDS, female genital mutilation, rape, Jacob Zuma (just jokes… sort of), homophobia etc.  One could get the impression that sex on the continent is fraught with nothing but death, disease, danger and a hefty dose of clinical insanity.

There is another side to the story, one that needs to get told. As a friend likes to say, we have Victorian sensibilities*- I guess we were infected by missionaries during colonialism- that we haven't gotten over yet. Frankly I was kind of hoping someone would talk about present-day practices that manifest continuities with our pre-colonial sexual cultures, and the opportunities that some of them present for a much healthier, saner and happier sexual life in modern times. I wanted to hear the sex-positive celebrated and see our history understood for what it was so we can quit stressing about adopting or avoiding so-called Western behaviours. In particular I was curious to see if there are any incidences of people using the accepted practice of polygamy to make the case for polyamory. Early days, guess...

I was tweeting this session and only managed to find this one link to illustrate some of what I was hoping to see more of: Myths and Realities of African Sexualities. If I come across more interesting stuff, I'll post it because this is a conversation that needs to be had. But the conclusions were clear: Sex is good for you, human beings need to be touched with affection to stay healthy. Practice, practice, practice makes perfect. And definitely don't try to fix people's sexuality, bad things happen when you mess with something nature has been perfecting for a very. long. time. 

*The Victorians were one hot mess when it came to sex. They were seriously repressed, which made them hella kinky too. Guess who invented orgasm machines to "cure" female hysteria so that housewives would stop bothering their husbands with their mood swings? Yeah. You could get one of those therapies at your doctor's office without involving the ethics committee. Happy times. And let's not forget: Sigmund Freud. Hard to tell if they were a blessing or a curse, those Victorians. 

Open Forum 2012: Power

I was primed for a day of powerful and passionate dialogue on the POWER day... but then I went to the Google Zone to charge my laptop with the dicky battery when I saw Binyavanga Wainaina in the corner being interviewed. In a lime green Kitenge jacket. That was the end of any morning session plans. 

After I managed to pull myself away from Binyanvanga, I just about barely made it to the main auditorium for a session titled: "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly: how elections in Africa confirm and confound what we know about inequality." On the panel: Joaquim Chissano, Mamphela Ramphele, L. Muthoni Wanyeki and Brian Kagoro. Moderator: Siphamandla Zondi. 

1. When there is a Head of State in the room, no matter how former, S/He will absorb the attention in the room like a dense star. This as the case with H.E. Chissano who, to be fair, didn't maunder on endlessly as some of his agemates are wont to do. It is what it is. I didn't mind so much except that it meant that quieter voices like L. Muthoni Wanyeki didn't get as much mike-time as I was hoping. EA columnist in the house! I wanted to hear more from her, for what she was saying was demanding of reflection. 

2. Mamphela Ramphele and Brian Kagoro frankly got me overexcited. Ms. Ramphele is the kind of leftist I thought were extinct: erudite, confident in her arguments, able to convey her ideas with such intellectual certainty, panache, exquisite vocabulary...in 2012! And then there was Brian Kagoro, inserting humour into what could have been a terribly dense experience and getting away with saying some rather racy and daring things. I want him, quite badly, to be President of Tanzania and of East Africa though I didn't get a chance to tell him so. That campaign is coming. There will be t-shirts. 

But really, the highlight of the day was the panel with the artistes in the afternoon: A New Generation of African Artists and Activists Talk Politics. There were the aforementioned Binyavanga Wainaina, songstress Simphiwe Dana (huge voice in such a tiny body), writer Petinah Gappah, Google lady Ory Okolloh and Femi Kuti moderated by Bibi Bakare Yusuf co-founder of Casssava Republic Press. Some parts of that panel were a holy rolling mess- it only took about five minutes for the yelling matches to start. But, you know: where there are creatives, there will be passion. 

I just want to focus on one little thing here: the pan-Africanist question. Things were moving along just fine until someone raised the issue of language on the continent. And then it got very, very interesting. There are apparently quite a number of Africans who are down with the one-continent-one-language idea. I can't really imagine the politics of that, and I live in a country where we've managed quite well in using a Bantu language administratively without the usual heinous violations of culture that accompanies such nationalist projects. What made me sad was that instead of aiming for real brilliance- such as continuing the African practice of being the most multilingual continent on the planet- we're having arguments about whether it should be Yoruba or Zulu or Kiswahili. Sometimes I think it's not that pan-Africanists are misguided, I think the visions are limited and perhaps not in keeping with the times. 

Open Forum 2012: New Media for Health and Rights Activism- Opportunities and Challenges

That was the title of the panel I was on in the afternoon of the Money day of the Open Forum. It is impossible to self-blog, so I am just going to give space to the people I was honored to share a table with. Let me direct your attentions to the following links:

1. Our moderator, Paula Akugizibwe (writer, activist). I can't actually capture how good this woman is in a few words, and so I invite you to please Google her, read her work and watch her videos. 

2. Rachel Gichinga of Kuweni Serious, a very serious operation against apathy in Kenya. Doing good work, and Ms. Rachel sure brought the passion. 

3. Lukonga Lindunda of BongoHive fame in Zambia, active on the ground and in the cyberspace.

4. Brett Davidson, an old hand at new media and the man who brought us together. 

My regret is that time, exhaustion and ulterior missions did not allow me nearly the time I should have spent plumbing the depths of my fellow panelists' experience and wisdom. I highly recommend their sites and am wondering how to lure them all down/up to Dar for some more exchange. A warm thanks to Brett, for making this happen. 

Open Forum 2012: Money

"Money, money, money/It's so funny/Makes the world go around"- ABBA

I spent the morning of day one hunched over a bowl of minestrone trying to convince my respiratory tract to cooperate, which it did eventually, allowing me to finally enter the Forum in an afternoon panel session about African Philanthropy. Here are some highlights of what turned out to be a riveting conversation:

1. Amusingly enough, there was a point at which the various Foundation representatives on the panel tried to defuse the argument about dirty money funding activism with a simple message: philanthropy is conscience laundering. I believe it was Hadeel Ibrahim, scioness of Mo Ibrahim and Board Member of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, who offered the phrase. I loved it because it acknowledges the tensions between the money-making ethos and the nearly diametrically-opposed philosophies of social change- activism for equity. 

Because this is a contradiction that I find difficult, so far I have chosen to avoid it by practicing an almost monastic rejection of the commercial on the Mikocheni Report. And yet here I was, staying at 15 on Orange with a magnificent view of Table Mountain to greet me every morning and evening. with a pocket full of Uncle George's money giving me the sexy eye from my side table*. It didn't help that Jay Naidoo chose his moment to strike at the core of what bothers me about working as an activist today, and getting funded to effect +ve social change. He tugged on his salt-and-pepper goatee and lobbed an "in my day," challenging young activists to get up and do what they need to do without waiting for perdiems, for donors, for friendly Foundations to organize them. I don't think that's the case with all youth and activists but I do see his point about the insidiousness of the donor model in civil society in general, and its effect on manufactured activists in particular. (manufactivists?...there's a smash-up word lurking in there somewhere). 

It would be easy enough to say to people with a cause that the best way to avoid that moral dilemma is to simply avoid funding, raise their own funds for activities, focus on voluntarism and that sort of thing. But at the end of the day, it cannot be denied that money has its uses and that sometimes to get things done we do collaborate with the self-safe corporations that we so love to denigrate. The only answers are found at the individual level, or that of the organization, where decisions must be made about how to navigate these complexities. 

2. On the panel we had: Ms. Ibrahim and Mr. Naidoo- already hyperlinked above- as well as Janet Mawiyoo, Wieber Boer who heads the Tony Elumelu Foundation** and Cedric Ntumba being moderated by Akwasi Aidoo. There was a lot of money sitting up there along with the obligatory sheepish admission about how murkily the money may, or may not, have been made- necessary considering the crowd. Ironically as the week progressed one of the big issues I picked up listening to the SA news was a story about some kind of salary subsidy that the government has been giving to 'young' citizens- I wasn't clear on whether this targets students of people in the workforce. In combination with the consumer culture that has SA by the short and curlies, it has unfortunately been subverted in a culture of conspicuous consumerism that's putting people into debt with clothing stores not to mention the occasional kid who commits suicide because they can't keep up with trends, and other interesting behaviors in-between. Hm. 

Until we can craft a post-money world, I am resigned to the fact that we need this stuff, this construct, this system in order to function at the levels of complexity that underpin contemporary life and globalization. However, I am worried that there is a de-coupling between the making-money bit of things and the making-a-change bit of things. Social Entrepreneurship, like Corporate Social Accountability, is a term that fills me with bemusement as I try to grasp how it can actually work without being overwhelmingly self-serving. Ideology has been pushed aside in favor of these flavorless terms that are too malleable for my liking. 

More importantly, as we grow a generation of Africans who are going to make their millions from our natural resources and other means, as we push the enterpreneurship (capitalist) agenda, why aren't we also talking about what should be done with the astronomical profits that more of us stand to make in the next ten, twenty years? It would be good to see a lot more effort put to selling philanthropy as a way of consuming those future fortunes, along with the Courvoisier and the Maybach. With all due respect to Mr. Naidoo, I don't think his generation was suffering quite the same pressures of materialism as we are... and it will only get worse. It was all too brief a discussion, as all good ones are. 

And then after a quick lunch where I finally understood how small plates really do work well for portion control, a confab with my fellow panelists for our afternoon session and a brief hug with the Jetsetter who was operating at speeds that are not seen in nature in East Africa I managed to attend at least 45 minutes of a session titled: "Democracy for Sale? Secret party Funding- South Africa's next democratic challenge." Just two brief points to make about this session: 

1. This was set up almost like a university lecture, which gave me no end of pleasure. The panelists were: Barbara Hogan, Anthony Butler, Ebrahim Fakir, and Daniel Weeks- who was facilitating the encounter I think. I particularly enjoyed Barbara Hogan's framing of the South African party funding mechanism and Ebrahim Fakir's quick tour through the continent with sound-byte descriptions of mechanisms across roughly 8 countries. I didn't get a chance to ask him what he knew about Tanzania, but he gave some excellent starting points on what to look for in the democratic architecture of a country. Really didn't get a chance to absorb much more but the good thing is that with academics there will be materials, so I'll be on it soon enough. 

2. To bring this home, in Tanzania our public funding discussions are usually focused on things like extractive industry tax revenues and how much MPs are paying themselves out of our pubic coffers but I don't recall seeing any real attention being paid to party funding mechanisms outside of election years. And I am immensely curious as to how we have set up that area of our democracy,  and of course I am ye Grand Old Party the eye. CCM you cynical Socialist, where are you getting your money? Where are you investing your money? Who is giving you money and how much of it are you taking? Of course I must shine the light of unwanted questions on Chadema and CUF too... and, for color, what has got to be the most consistent, well-funded one-man show in parliament- Mr. John Momose Cheyo's United Democratic Party. 

I had to run off to my panel and freestyle for participants who were interested in the meat and potatoes of this social media for change business, so did not finish this excellent session. But I got enough to know where to start digging for more. 

* If you are wondering, I got over my guilt very quickly. Luxury is indeed seductive. And thanks to Uncle George, I managed to afford a certain electronic toy I have only been slavering over for the past forever. I put it down in my "productivity tools" column in the expenditure tracker ;) 

**It occurred to me that George Soros stands out for not having named his Foundation after himself. I wonder why. It's not like it's easy to leave behind bronze cast statues of yourself triumphant, or build a pyramid or a Basilica anymore as a way to be remembered through the ages. The urge to carve 'I Was Here' into the face of human history is definitely not a motive force to be ignored,  and it is always interesting to see how the successful choose to do so.