Moremi is an initiative under an NGO in Ghana called WISE, it aims to identify and groom upcoming African women leaders and help them harness their leadership potential. Every year, 25 young emerging female leaders from all over Africa and the Diaspora are selected through a very competitive application process to undergo training in leadership, empowerment and development.
This is the third year of this programme and for each of the three years since its inception; The Gambia has had representative(s).
I am the 2011 Moremi Initiative for Leadership, Empowerment and Development (MILEAD) fellow from The Gambia. I have just returned from Ghana after a three week intensive summer institute which is the first part of the one year fellowship. This year’s fellows were trained on the topics: the genesis of the concept of feminism/gender, different human rights documents of the UN and the AU, Personal Branding and effective CV writing, Resource Mobilization and Financial Management, Networking and Solidarity Building, Project Planning and Implementation and a host of other relevant topics.
As part of the programme , seminars on domestic violence laws and legislations in Ghana with prominent stakeholders such as lawyers, doctors, police officers and representatives of NGOs working in that area. Women’s political participation was an integral part of all discussions as well as the status of women in different communities all over Africa.
Many shocking revelations came to the fore; women are not allowed to own land, they can only raise two legged animals, women are not allowed to eat certain cuts of meat such as the gizzard of poultry(in that particular country, women who do so are divorced by their husbands because it is reserved solely for the men),food taboos etc certain chauvinistic sayings were also cited such as “a woman can own a goat but it is the man who can sell it”, “how can property own property” ,jigaen sopal te bul wolu; you can love a woman but you must never trust her ” among others, ‘women believing that it is their husbands right to hit them as punishment for things they did wrong’, girls not feeling bona fide members of the community if they haven’t undergone genital mutilation.
The way we are socialized by our societies in not promoting the teaching of domestic chores to boys as well as girls and not encouraging girls to pursue certain professions/ areas of interest to them which a considered “manly” even if they show potentials of doing well in those areas, contributes to raising a generation of unfeeling men who grow up to view women as subordinates who are only cut out for doing the odd jobs in the home and girls not growing up to believe in their potential and harness it for national development.
Each of us upon our return to our country is supposed to implement a community project that seeks to address a specific problem affecting her community on a moderate scale as a way of giving back to their communities.
We also had a heated debate against the University of Ghana Debating Society on the motion: “gay marriages should be legalized in Africa and couples given the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts” on which they spoke against the motion.
There are many dangers and challenges faced by advocates all over Africa and the world at large, including threats to life, damage to property and sometimes even damage to reputation and being stalked, but these giants still persist. meeting these strong and determined women has inspired me and made me believe even more that “where there is a will, there will surely be a way”. As one of our presenters said and I quote:
"obstacles are the things we see when we take our eyes off the main goal, know when to step back and draw more strength so that you can live to fight another day”.
Fellows had the opportunity to meet and discuss with former president of Ghana; Jerry J Rawlings who is now the AU envoy to Somalia,we were later hosted to an exclusive Chinese lunch by him.
 |
| Meeting with JJ Rawlings, Former President, Ghana |
We also Visited Cape coast which is one of the oldest slave trading points in west Africa at that time as well as the Kakum National Park of Ghana. We had the opportunity to visit the Kofi Annan Centre for Peacekeeping Studies and the Ghana House of Parliament
It is understood that eradicating these social and economic injustices requires a gradual transition of which education at all levels forms an integral part. Due to advocacy over the years, some headway is being made but there are still some deep rooted practices detrimental to the well being and development of women which are still going on, and so there is still a very wide gap to be cemented.
You, me and everybody has a pivotal role to play in making the world a woman-friendly place and bringing up the next generation of gender-sensitive individuals and communities and making men and women equitable partners in society and championing the course of women’s rights and fighting exclusion of women and other socially marginalized groups.
Now is the time to act!
