Author: RFLD Reserach Team
No sustainable development can be established without the effective participation of women in Africa’s socio-economic era. Many cases have illustrated our theme, such as Rwanda, which was a country in crisis, but which today is a nation that has made an international name for itself in terms of development and economic growth. Rwanda now has a considerable majority of women in parliament and government, and its results are remarkable both in Africa and worldwide. Without going too far, the fact that the Chairperson of the African Union Commission is a woman has led to the continuity and improvement of several factors on the continent. For the first time, we had Dr. Dlamini Zuma’s Email for the Future addressed to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, local projects, the organization of numerous youth consultations and summits all over the continent, a strong motivation for young people to join the African Union and represent it at university and national levels, simply because a woman has taken over the head of the African Union Commission.
Women’s access to agriculture has increased agricultural productivity and lowered the famine rate, not to mention the fact that women were highly organized among themselves in the 19th century, even before our fathers came up with the idea of getting together to create the OAU, which is now the AU. Women must be placed at the forefront of our institutions, and we must encourage them to take a stand, because African society does not allow women to express themselves. We need to promote the education of African girls, to prepare them for the social future of our countries, and to ensure that we put up barriers against their exclusion and discrimination.
The real potential of the young African woman remains an ideology rather than a reality in our African societies, due to pressure from the family, botched education, lack of training, and lack of support from civil society and government institutions that should normally help them integrate. We must therefore first promote the culture of the young African woman to help her realize her responsibility to her country, and then establish concrete relations between the First Ladies of Africa so that they can set up an effective and ongoing commission to make and implement decisions concerning the future of their sisters at grassroots level, and to help them concretely to be self-reliant. It is important and urgent to build raw material processing factories in rural areas of Africa to promote the autonomy of rural women, reduce the cost of schooling for young girls up to university level and give them hope that one day they too could become a Dr Dlamini.
Africa today is marked by the presence of thousands of NGOs doing remarkable grassroots work in their communities, and many of these NGOs are run by women. Are these women magicians or characters from another planet? I won’t answer that question, because you and I know the answer. So, we need to sensitize our governments, public and private companies to give more stewardship power to women moving from Dakar to Cotonou, from Lagos to Addis Ababa, from Tripoli to Khartoum and from Kinshasa to Johannesburg. The time has come for us to have a massive presence of women in Africa’s governments, in our parliaments and in Africa’s civil societies. We must ensure that the rate of rape of women during conflicts in African societies comes to 0%.
The African Union, in collaboration with its member states, must ensure that training courses on female leadership are organized for young girls in every university and youth center in Africa. It must also launch campaigns against violence against women in African society, and run university campaigns to encourage female students to complete their studies, in order to boost the percentage of women in the administration. In Africa, we often notice that the fields of technology, architecture, politics and international relations are mostly represented by men, whereas one of the objectives of Agenda 2063 is to have a strong representation of women in all sectors of society, so we’re encouraging women to take the lead.
How can we ensure that a young girl in a remote African village receives the same information as a young girl in a wealthy African city? How can we ensure that a young girl in an African village is not given away in marriage at the age of 14, and at 28 is already the mother of 10 children? what can we do to ensure that every village in Africa has bookstores and playgrounds, so that the village girl isn’t taken for a ride into town, where our men are as sharp as a tack?
our men are as sharp as a sword that has just been sharpened, how can we ensure that our women can benefit more from micro-credits in rural areas, how can we ensure that our African girls and women who fight for peace, education, health, agriculture, the press can also one day receive a Nobel Prize? How and where?
Each of you has the answer to all my queries, for you are wise men, for in Africa it is said that few words are enough for the wise man to understand the message. Today, AIDS/HIV is on the rise, and a good number of women are vulnerable because they can’t provide for themselves and sometimes for their children. This must come to an immediate end, because the African Union has a duty to put pressure on its Member States to ensure that adequate and sustainable programs are in place in each Member State, so that the continent is no longer exposed to the suffering that women go through on a daily basis. I’m sure that by 2063, we’ll have a strong presence of women in African governments, parliaments and civil societies, but do we have to wait until 2063 to have it?
Every African must start working to make this a reality, not an ideal. To conclude, I’d like to share with you my vision for this new era.
I see a world where Africa will no longer bend, a world where Africa, thanks to the talents of its children, will be worthy of being called a continent of peace, a continent where the effective place of women in society will be recognized, and where women will be represented in all the administrations of society, a continent of wealth, job creation, understanding and equality.
I see an Africa where the trust of the weak will no longer be abused, where young people will no longer be puppets to be used in election campaigns, an Africa where all peoples will have the same spirit, an Africa where the strong will be masters of goodness, a country where my brothers and sisters from the West African region, East Africa, Central Africa, North Africa and the remaining regions will be able to hug each other, where in every nation, every government, every royalty, every commune, every town, every creed will reign peace, prosperity and love.
Vive les Femmes Africaines, Vive l’Afrique…
