February 2009: DR. DZINGAI MUTUMBUKA

November 2007: BETTY BIGOMBE

October 2007: KESUMA OLE KASIKASI

December 2005: EFUA DORKENOO

November 2005: RUDO CHITIGA

September 2005: JEANETTE ENO

July 2005: WANJIRU KIHORO

June 2005: PATRICIA DE LILLE

May 2005: LAURIE MARKER

April 2005: FLORA NWAPA

March 2005: SARAH NYENDWOHA NTIRO

December 2004: NAWAL el SAADAWI

November 2004: WANGARI MUTA MAATHAI

October 2004: SPECIOZA NAIGAGA WANDERA KAZIBWE

February 2009

DR. DZINGAI MUTUMBUKA

Dr. Dzingai Mutumbuka, a native of Zimbabwe, is the chairman/president  of the Association of Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) which is a network of all ministers of education in Africa, development partners supporting education in Africa, researchers and education practitioners on the continent. He is has also been the chairman of the Zimbabwe National Commission of UNESCO since Zimbabwe joined in 1980 and he has attended every General Conference of UNESCO from 1978 onwards. He is the former World Bank Sector Manager as well as the former Zimbabwean Minister of Education and Culture following the country's independence. In his professional and political career, he has delievered numerous speeches locally and internationally and has published many articles on education and human resource development. He has attended and chaired many national and international conferences, workshops, and seminars on education and related development issues.

November 2007

BETTY BIGOMBE

Betty Bigombe is a former Uganda government minister and consultant to the World Bank. She is an ethnic Acholi and has been involved in peace negotiations to end the insurgency of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) of Uganda since 1994. As of 2005 she was acting as chief mediator between the LRA and government of Uganda. She has a master's degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. As well as English and Acholi, she speaks Kiswahili and Japanese. Bigombe is currently a senior fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace, which recently produced a video about her latest work in Uganda.

October 2007

KESUMA OLE KASIKASI

Kesuma Ole KasiKasi is the founder of Kitumusote, a grass-roots, community-based, registered non-governmental organization that was established in Mondulli Juu, Tanzania in January of 2005. He is a self-taught anthropologist and environmental activist who has six years of experience as an exology researcher and indigenous plan specialist. He is trilingual (speaking English, Swahili and Maasai) and thus has acted as a translator for many anthropologists researching about the Maasai in his area. To visit his website please go to: www.kitumusote.org.

December 2005

EFUA DORKENOO

Efua Dorkenoo is a Ghanaian campaigner against female genital mutilation (FGM). Director of Forward (International) a non-governmental London-based organisation which promotes the good health of African women and children, Dorkenoo has a nursing background and a Masters Degree from the London School of Hygeine and Tropical Medicine.

She has worked and written tirelessly on the issue of FGM and the campaign to eradicate it. She was awarded an OBE in 1994 for her work in women's health and her greatest success in the campaign to eradicate FGM so far has been in the UK where a law now prohibits the practice and there is a much greater awareness and cooperation amongst health professionals.

Dorkenoo first encountered FGM as a child in Ghana, but only when she was working as a midwife with African women in the UK did the full impact of the situation hit her. She went back to research the subject and found that different degrees of mutilation were practised. She dealt with the issue in the human rights organisation, Minority Rights Group and researched it further at the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. With several other women she formed FORWARD (The Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Development) which started off as a broad women's health organisation but became concentrated on FGM because of the opportunity the organisation gave for pushing the issue in the west. FORWARD sees the importance of consciousness raising at the grass roots in Africa.

Western feminists are often criticized by African women for writing about FGM but Dorkenoo points out that any media attention which raises the profile of the struggle can only be to the good as far as getting funding from the west is concerned. WHO and UNICEF now fund projects in Africa around FGM and Ghana has passed a law against it.

Her publications include Cutting the Rose: Female Genital Mutilation: The Practice and Prevention (1994).

 

November 2005

RUDO CHITIGA

Dr Rudo Chitiga is the Deputy Director of the London-based Commonwealth Foundation, an inter-governmental organization of 54 members. Its main mission is to strengthen the ability of citizens and civil society organizations to work together towards good governance, people-centered and sustainable development and poverty eradication.

Originally from Zimbabwe, Dr Chitiga brings to her work a deep understanding of the challenges Africa faces: "Strategies to get Africa out of the present crisis should reflect a long term vision of a self sufficient continent able to meet its basic needs…socio-economic development strategies which emphasize local resource development and mobilization, popular participation in policy formulation and strengthening the role of African institutions should be encouraged".

Dr Chitiga's responsibilities include overseeing the program, grant-making and communication work of the Foundation. She is responsible for conducting five regional civil society consultations in preparation for the Commonwealth People's Forum in Abuja, Nigeria from 1 to 7 December, 2003. With the theme of Citizens and Governance, the meeting agenda will include discussions on development issues of common concern to civil society organizations, notably achieving the Millennium Development Goals, youth participation, sustainable development, poverty eradication and HIV/AIDS. The People's Forum will be the culmination of a process that will produce recommendations for presentation to the Commonwealth Heads of Governments (CHOGM) to be held after the Forum. The Foundation will fund participants to attend the civil society meeting.

 

 

September 2005

JEANETTE ENO

Although born and bred in Sierra Leone, Jeanette Eno proudly describes herself as a true West African as she is half Sierra Leonean and half Ghanaian and is married to a Nigerian. There is do doubt then that if anyone deserves an ECOWAS passport it is Jeannette! Jeanette came to the UK in the late 1970s to study but her links with Africa were never left behind. In fact they have been such a priority for her that she has recently relocated to Sierra Leone with her family.

Her interest in Africa's development and the African women's movement appears to have provided a foundation for her studies. In 1982 she graduated from the University of Hull, UK with a BA Hons in Sociology and Social Anthropology. Six years later, in 1988, she received an MA in Rural Social Development, from the University of Reading, UK. Whilst working towards her MA, Jeanette worked for the London Borough of Brent, managing a grant fund for non-profit sector organisations. The need for this focus was vital as it was realised that many such organisations lacked the requisite management capacity to maximise the benefits of cash inputs or indeed to satisfy basic funding conditions. They needed skills in narrative reporting, networking, fundraising, management and finance, as well as capacities for strategic and business planning, monitoring and evaluation and managing change, in order to access funds in the first place as well as to use them efficiently (1). Working on the project enhanced Jeanette's interest and expertise in this area and set her on the career path in which we now find her. Her professional experience in organisational management and the training needs of the non-profit sector was reflected in her ongoing academic work. During her Masters degree she specialised in management and training and her dissertation explored how traditional approaches to women's training had not advanced or empowered women. In this way she managed to combine her interest and expertise in management with her commitment to the development of African women.

Between 1990 and 1999 Jeanette worked as a freelance development consultant whose main aim was to support small organisations in the NGO, public or private sectors, in achieving their aims. In addition to organisational management and development, Jeanette's areas of expertise covered conflict management, managing change, leadership development for African women, gender planning, strategic planning, fundraising, project design and evaluation. She also researched (and continues to do so) widely on women, training and leadership in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia. In the field of organisational development, she has published writings on models of managing institutional change and has presented several papers on women's leadership, peace building and conflict management. One of the notable projects she undertook as a consultant was for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The need for the project emerged from the Beijing Platform for Action and a Malawi government initiative. In essence the project focused on the gender mainstreaming in the country's public administration. Jeanette was charged with assessing the potential for each ministry to incorporate gender perspectives into all projects rather than relegating and isolating gender issues to the Ministry of Women. For Jeanette the project was enlightening as one of her findings was that the Ministry of Forestry and Fisheries already had good gender sensitisation, whereas other traditional ministries believed that gender concerns were the jurisdiction of a separate department. The project concluded that gender mainstreaming could transform women's lives and suggested practical measures for this to be achieved (2).

Her commitment to the development of African women both in the UK and on the continent has been at the forefront of her career. Whilst working on the African Women Prisoner's project, Jeannette developed her ideas on how she could assist African women to let their voice be heard and to enable them to take control of their own development. As a result she joined Akina Mama wa Afrika, a leading African women's NGO established in 1985, with offices in London and Kampala and is part of a team of expert trainers at the African Women's Leadership Institute (AWLI) held across the continent every year. In fact Jeanette was involved in the first ever AWLI for twenty-five women from all over Africa in Kampala, Uganda in March 1997. One of the exciting features of this event for Jeanette was how the trainees used the input they gave to empower themselves. Although recently a new orthodoxy of involving men in gender based projects is emerging, Jeannette justifies women only projects by arguing that the need to redress the balance, envisaging the eventual mainstreaming of gender issues as an integral part of all programmes (3). She eventually became the president of Akina Mama in 1997.

In November 1999, Jeanette was appointed as the West Africa Programme Manager at Conciliation Resources (CR), an international NGO founded in 1994 and based in London working in conflict prevention and transformation, with a special focus on support for civil society and marginalised groups who are particularly vulnerable during conflict. As West Africa Manager, Jeanette is responsible for CR's largest programme area, with projects in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria and also on a sub-regional level. In Sierra Leone, following a joint strategic review with their local programme partners, CR's work is focusing on: community-based peacemaking initiatives; peace work with youth; women's peace initiatives; strengthening women's capacities to manage and transform situations; the media in their conflict and peace reporting, aiming for high quality and constructive reporting; and the national peace process particularly through continued work with the Civil Defence Forces and their 'Peace Campaign'. The approach taken is important as it responds to the needs of the most marginalised communities in Sierra Leone with whom CR has built relationships. It further reflects a position that peacemaking and peace building must take account of the local operating context, enhance capacity-building opportunities and proceed on a multi-dimensional basis to help bring divided communities together (4). At the sub-regional level, CR, led by Jeanette, has begun working with national and international collaborative networks to promote and consolidate 'peace constituencies' in the Mano River area, consisting of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Moreover, a new regional project aims to strengthen African women's capacities as conflict managers and has drawn in numerous women's organisations from various West African countries. In order to be closer to the projects, Jeanette has recently relocated to CR's Sierra Leonean office in Freetown and will be continuing her work from there.

August 2005

AWA OUEDRAOGO

Born in 1954 in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso's second city, Awa Ouedraogo completed both her primary and secondary education in the country's capital, Ouagadougou. On completing her BA Degree in Linguistics at the University of Ouagadougou, she embarked on a Maîtrise and Diploma of Advanced Studies in Linguistics at the University of Paris III Sorbonne in France. She then stayed at the Sorbonne to complete her doctorate, which was centred on and further developed her interest in linguistics studies.

Recently Mrs Ouedraogo has been combining her interest in linguistics with diplomacy and human rights and development. In addition to teaching linguistics, she designs and conducts research into teaching materials for primary education and provides training in literacy. On a diplomatic level she holds two interesting and similar positions: she is the Cultural Advisor for both the Permanent Mission of Burkina Faso to the United Nations in New York and the Embassy of Burkina Faso in Washington DC, charged with managing cultural, social and humanitarian issues. As a representative of Burkina Faso at the United Nations, she has participated in preparatory meetings and various conferences including the World Summit for Children (1990), the International Conference on Assistance to African Children, the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights (1993) and the Beijing World Conference on Women (1995). Following this last conference, she reported to the Third Committee of the United Nations (1) in October 1996 and wisely urged Member States to 'not spend too much time on the theoretical side; rather efforts should be directed towards formulating a pragmatic approach and careful analysis' (2).

Mrs. Ouedraogo has long been interested in children's rights. In the past she has served as the Vice Chair of UNICEF's executive board, particularly responsible for coordinating the agency's African group. In 1997 she replaced Ms. Akila Belembaogo - also of Burkina Faso - on the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, which is the body responsible for monitoring the implementation of the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child by State Parties who have acceded to it. The Convention, originally a Polish initiative (1978), was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 20th November 1989. All countries except the USA and Somalia have now ratified it.

However, there's a general consensus that the chief weakness of the Convention lies in the mechanisms for its implementation, which is governed by the principle of the best interests of the child (Article 3). As part of the implementation machinery the Committee has not been able to escape from these weaknesses. The Committee has found it increasingly difficult to manage its workload. It has been argued that 'even with the assistance of civil society organisations, it faces a major challenge in effectively scrutinizing and challenging the actions and behaviour of all the world's governments' (3). Furthermore, appointment to the Committee is subject to political considerations, which is believed to have weakened its authority and effectiveness (4). However, as Sarah Muscroft argues, these limitations are not fundamental obstacles to the Convention's implementation and can be addressed provided that the political will to do so is there (5). And as part of the Committee, Mrs. Ouedraogo is in an excellent position to contribute to addressing the constraints afflicting the implementation of the Convention as well as the Committee itself.

July 2005

WANJIRU KIHORO

A distinguished economist, Dr. Kihoro graduated from Columbia University and went on to earn an MA in Development Studies and a PhD at Leeds University. Over the years she has gained the respect and admiration of many for her dedication to matters of gender, equality, justice and democracy.

A long time London resident, Dr. Kihoro was one of the founders of the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners in Kenya formed in 1982. The Committee fought to highlight the plight of university lecturers, students and other so-called "dissidents" incarcerated in various Kenyan maximum security prisons. Largely as a result of the Committee's pressure, most of the prisoners were adopted by Amnesty International and other international human rights organisations as prisoners of conscience.

In her capacity as Director of ABANTU for Development, Dr. Kihoro has garnered an international reputation as one of the most recognised names in the African feminist movement. Her organisation has held numerous workshops, seminars and training sessions in East, Central and Southern Africa. She has also been a keynote speaker at various international conferences in Europe and North America.

During her 20 years in the UK she has worked at the Africa Centre, been a trustee of OXFAM, a member Debt Campaign Network, a member of The Nelson Mandela Reception Committee and a founder member of Akina Mama wa Afrika. She was also awarded the Hansib Award for Services to the Black Community.

 

June 2005

PATRICIA DE LILLE

One of the Pan-African Congress's three Members of Parliament, De Lille has proved herself to be one of the most credible voices in the South African opposition.

Born in 1951 in the Karoo town of Beaufort West she completed her schooling in 1969. Initial employment as a laboratory technician in the paint industry opened the door for her involvement in the South African Chemical Workers Union, and she was elected Regional Secretary in 1983. De Lille became the first woman on the executive of The National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU) when she was elected National Vice-President in 1988. Politically NACTU was to the PAC what the Congress of South African Trade Unions was to the African National Congress, and it was a logical step onto the National Executive of the PAC in 1989. In 1990 she became the PAC's Relief Aid Secretary, and at a time when the PAC's leadership problems threatened its own survival, De Lille emerged as the leader of its delegation in the constitutional negotiations that preceded South Africa's first democratic election in 1994. In the period leading up to the second elections De Lille lent the PAC a semblance of stability, as leadership problems persisted to plague the organisation. In 1997 she was elected to Parliament where she was appointed Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Transport, and also the Chief Whip of the PAC.

A hard working MP who set a precedent by volunteering to have her working days broadcast on the internet, De Lille has a reputation for her unrelenting pursuit of corruption in government. She is also outspoken on other sensitive issues, including land, AIDS, xenophobia, and children in prison. A working class favourite who is quick to respond to requests for assistance, De Lille also finds time for extra-parliamentary activities as a Trustee for both Nelson Mandela's Children Fund and the National Children's Rights Committee. Another interesting aspect of De Lille's politics, particularly when viewed in the climate of racial tension in the western Cape between ('black') Xhosa communities and ('brown' or 'coloured' ) Afrikaans speaking communities is that, despite having been classified mixed race under apartheid, she argues that "You must be proud to be African" and she therefore embodies the core ideology of the PAC that there is only one race, i.e. the human race. Her trademark braids, in a social milieu where hair straightener is more common, is more an expression of her cultural identity than a facile fashion statement.

De Lille's championing of controversial causes are sometimes dismissed by the ANC government as political opportunism, especially since she provides good media copy. However the converse is more accurate as her beliefs and principles have led her to stick with a party that commentators are fond of writing off. A truly 'opportunistic' politician with her skills would be a good catch for the ruling ANC, particularly in the western Cape where it has failed to adequately understand the nature of the racial politik, causing it to fail in its attempts to win elections in the province. De Lille does not choose easy options for herself, but her integrity and persistence mean that it is often her opponents who have the rougher ride.

May 2005

LAURIE MARKER

Laurie Marker began her life's work with cheetahs by helping develop a US and international captive program to assist this listed, endangered species, establishing the most successful captive cheetah-breeding program in North America during her 16 years (1974-1988) at Oregon's Wildlife Safari. In 1990 she co-founded the not-for-profit Cheetah Conservation Fund, moving to Namibia to develop a permanent conservation Research Centre on one of the world's last strongholds of the cheetah, the expansive Namibian farmlands. In 1992 CCF was registered as a Namibian Trust. By July 2000 CCF had opened their new field research station, complete with a Cheetah Museum and Visitor/Education Centre.

Laurie had first come to Namibia in 1977 when she brought a captive-born, hand-raised cheetah to Namibia to determine if a cheetah must be taught to hunt or if the process was fully instinctual - first-of-its-kind research to better understand if there was a chance for captive-born cheetahs to be re-introduced into the wild. She learned about the conflict between livestock farmers and cheetahs in Namibia, discovering that wild cheetahs needed help. In the early 1980's, with collaborators at the National Zoo and National Cancer Institute (USA), she helped identify the cheetah's lack of genetic variation, one of its major challenges to survival. In 1988, in collaboration with these two institutions she became the Executive Director of the Center for New Opportunities in Animal Health Sciences, based at Smithsonian Institution's National Zoo. She continues to serve as a NOAHS Research Fellow. In 1988 she developed the International Cheetah Studbook, a registry of captive cheetah worldwide, and continues as International Studbook Keeper. In 1996 she was made a vice-chair of the World Conservation Union's (IUCN) Species Survival Commission's (SSC) Cat Specialist Group. In 2000 she was recognised as one of Time Magazine's Heroes for the Planet. In 2001 she was honored in Namibia itself, receiving Namibia's farming community's public recognition of Laurie's and CCF's contributions.

Laurie works actively to carry out CCF's mission: "to secure habitats for the long-term survival of cheetah and their ecosystem through multi-disciplined and integrated programs of conservation, research and education". CCF's activities include: radio-tracking research to understand more about cheetah distribution and ecology; bio-medical research to learn more about over-all health, diseases and genetic make-up; habitat and ecosystem research; wildlife and livestock management to reduce predator conflicts; and non-lethal predator control methods, including the highly successful and renowned Livestock Guarding Dog Program. CCF also supports extensive environmental education programmes. With only +12,000 cheetah remaining worldwide, earth's fastest land animal, the cheetah, Africa's most endangered cat, needs immediate help to ensure its survival. Laurie, through the internationally focused work of CCF, is the cheetah's greatest ally.

April 2005

FLORA NWAPA

Nigerian novelist, was the first Nigerian woman to write novels; she also wrote short stories and stories for children, and she was a publisher, again the first Nigerian woman. She was born at Oguta in Imo State of eastern Nigeria. With a BA degree (1957) and a diploma in education (1958) she began her professional career as a civil servant and subsequently served her community as a commissioner in various ministries in the then East Central State post-Nigeria-Biafra war government. She established the Tana Press and Flora Nwapa Books in Enugu and received the Merit Award for Authorship/Publishing of the University of Ife Book Fair in 1985.

Nwapa is known as a writer mainly for two novels, Efuru (1966) and Idu (1970), set in the early colonial period in the Oguta area of Igboland. The novels examine from different perspectives the problems of women in traditional society, particularly in relation to their ability to bear children. Here, as in the later novels, she reverses the usual positions of men and women, making women central. A short semi-autobiographical novel, Never Again (1975), is based on her experiences during the civil war. Her last two novels, One is Enough (1981) and Women Are Different (1986), have a modern urban setting; the former explores the themes of childlessness and women's economic independence, and the latter insists that women have options other than marriage and motherhood. As a short-story writer, Nwapa maintains her focus on women's experience: her first collection, This Is Lagos and Other Stories (1971), focuses on societal ills such as sexual exploitation of women, criminality, and violence; in Wives at War and Other Stories (1980), women defend their rights to freedom from oppression. She began writing for children to satisfy her own children's needs for stories with which they could identify. The dual purpose of teaching and entertainment runs through the stories beginning with Emeka-Driver's Guard (1979) through The Miracle Kittens (1980), Adventures of Deke (1980), and Journey to Space (1980).

Nwapa's prose writing is evidence of her mastery of the art of storytelling. She adapts her style to the content and mood of her characters. In Efuru and Idu, the high frequency of proverbs and imagery reflects the traditional African's use of language. In Never Again, the recurrence of very short sentences creates a broken rhythm that corresponds to the staccato rhythm of life in the war zone and accentuates tension. Although she did not consider herself a feminist, her vision emphasizes the need to liberate women from all forms of fetters.

March 2005

SARAH NYENDWOHA NTIRO

Many have described Sarah Nyendwoha Ntiro as a 'Woman of Many Firsts'. She was the first female graduate from East and Central Africa and was one of the first women members of the Bunyoro Rukurato (Kingdom Parliament) in 1957. She also was one of the first two women members to be appointed in Uganda's colonial Legislative Council in 1958. She has since played a pioneering role in education and is renowned for championing girl-child education and equality status for women in their work places.

Sarah Ntiro was educated at King's College Budo. She then proceeded to Makerere College for her teacher training, where she obtained an Arts & Education Certificate in 1950. While at Makerere, although she excelled in mathematics, she was forced to take arts subjects after the mathematics teacher there refused to teach the class, with her in attendance, in what was a male dominated class. She later left for Britain to pursue further studies. In 1954, she graduated from St. Anne's College, Oxford University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and later in 1955, graduated from Bristol University with a postgraduate Diploma in Education.

Ntiro started her teaching career at Kyebambe Girls School in 1950 and later joined the teaching staff of Gayaza High School in 1955, before moving on to teach at Duhaga Junior Senior Secondary School, where she became the Headmistress of the school. It was in these two schools that her contribution to the training of future women professionals and scholars was perhaps greatly impacted. Her demand for equal pay with her male colleagues while at Gayaza High School led to the intervention of the Governor's wife, Lady Cohen, who later brought her plight to the government's attention. She succeeded in this protest and received equal pay status with that of her male colleagues.

While working in the Ministry of Education between 1965 and 1967, she started the Teaching Service Committee and later in 1970 joined Makerere University as a member of staff in the Vice Chancellor's Office. However, due to the political situation in Uganda she was forced to flee into exile to Nairobi in Kenya, where she established an Educational Consultancy of Higher Education for African Refugees.

Sarah Ntiro has been involved in numerous women voluntary movements and non-governmental organisations. These have included the Uganda Council of Women and the Young Women Christian Association (YWCA), where she served on the World YWCA Executive as Vice President for Africa between 1971 and 1979. She was also a member of the Uganda Association of University Women and the Family Planning Association of Uganda. She co-founded and is Patron of the Development Network of Indigenous Voluntary Associations (DENIVA). She also serves as a goodwill ambassador for the Forum for African Women Educationalists-Uganda (FAWE-U), promoting girls' education, and travels widely in the country visiting girl's schools encouraging the students to excel.

In December 2000, Sarah Ntiro was honoured by FAWE-U with a Sarah Ntiro Lecture and Award ceremony in recognition of her contribution to girls' education and the cause of women. FAWE-U has since held 3 Annual Sarah Ntiro Award and Lecture events at which other 'Women of Firsts' have been awarded and honoured.

In May 2003, Sarah Ntiro received a Doctorate of Humane Letters from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Sarah Ntiro was widowed in 1993, when her husband Professor Sam Joseph Ntiro passed away. She is a mother of two sons.

December 2004

NAWAL el SAADAWI

Nawal el Saadawi was born in Kafr-Tahla, Egypt in 1931 and dedicated her life to seeking reform through her work in medicine, politics, government, literature, and cultural analysis for the equality of Muslim women in political, economic, and domestic life. She is the founder of the Arab Women's Solidarity Association, a founder of the Arab Organization for Human Rights and an author of 27 books focused on women, particularly Arab women, their sexuality and legal status.

Indeed, el Saadawi's writing and speaking have been very effective weapons in the struggles she has adopted, such as her campaign against the practice of female circumcision extensively practiced in Egypt and elsewhere in North Africa as a means to control women through their sexuality. She speaks against social processes within Egypt and other African communities that inhibit self-determination for both men and women. Her frankness has made her a target for both anti-feminist and anti-secular critiques, though she never officially rejected Islam.
Due to the political and religious climate in Egypt, el Saadawi was dismissed in 1972 from her position of Director of Public Health in the Ministry of Health with the publication of her work, Woman and Sex. She also lost her positions as the Chief Editor of Health magazine, and as the Assistant General Secretary in the Medical Association in Egypt. Noon magazine, for which she was an editor, was ordered closed. From 1973 to 1976 she researched women and neurosis in the Ain Shams University's Faculty of Medicine, and from 1979 to 1980 she was the United Nations Advisor for the Women's Programme in Africa and Middle East.

In 1981, she was arrested and imprisoned for a year in a crackdown by government authorities. Upon her release, she founded the Arab Women's Solidarity Association (AWSA), an international organization dedicated to "lifting the veil from the mind" of Arab women. In 1985, AWSA was granted consultant status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations as an Arab non-governmental association. Despite the association's success, the Egyptian government closed AWSA down in 1991 and diverted its funds to a religious women's association after AWSA criticized US involvement in the Gulf War.

In addition to writing her autobiography and other publications, el Saadawi's current project, forming an Egyptian Women's Union, an umbrella group to unite and strengthen her country's fragmented women's movement, has already been declared illegal by a top Egyptian government official, and promises to be a difficult challenge.

November 2004 - Feature: Women in Sustainable Development

WANGARI MUTA MAATHAI

Wangari Muta Maathai was born in Nyeri, Kenya in 1940. Winning a Kennedy scholarship in 1960, Dr. Maathai earned a master’s degree in biology from the University of Pittsburgh and became the first woman in East Africa to earn a Ph.D.

Shocked by the degree of forest degradation and the destruction by top soil erosion, Dr. Maathai addressed the problem by introducing the idea of planting trees through citizen foresters.  With support of the National Council of Women of Kenya, efforts to halt and reverse the degradation in 1976 led to the formation of the Green Belt Movement.  Through the Green Belt Movement, Dr. Maathai has inspired the planting of more than 20 million trees on farms, schools and church compounds throughout Kenya and East Africa.

The virtuous circle of empowerment through conservation is serving as a model throughout the world, where women both individually and collectively are entrusted with money and material to invest it in ways that make a difference to their daily lives. Dr. Maathai’s Green Belt Movement is a excellent demonstration of how a single person with an idea can radically change thousands, if not millions of lives, by empowering others to change their perspective of themselves.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Dr. Maathai faced increasing resistance from the government of Daniel arap Moi. She was frequently the target of government sanctioned vilification, physical attacks and imprisonment because of her Refusal to compromise her faith that resource management in Kenya was corrupt and could be better sustained if responsibility of the resources was given to the public at large.

Elected in January 2003, Dr. Maathai is the Assistant Secretary for Environnment, Wildlife, and Natural Resources in the democratically elected Kibaki government. Even though she is now a goverment official, her belief in sustainable resource managament remains her guiding principle. A recipient of numerous awards for her work on environmental and social issues, Dr. Maathai was honored with the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. She currently lives in Nairobi, Kenya.

---

October 2004 - Feature: Women in African Politics

SPECIOZA NAIGAGA WANDERA KAZIBWE

She was born on 1 July 1955 in the Iganga District in Eastern Uganda. A medical doctor by profession, she studied at Makerere University in Kampala. She is mother of four and has adopted several more from disadvantaged families in various parts of Uganda. Dr Kazibwe was elected Ugandan Vice-President in 1994, became the first and only woman in Africa to hold such a position. As Vice-President, her dynamic presence was evident; she was an endless source of new ideas for government in terms of strategic decision-making.

She started her political career as a committed member of the Democratic Party (DP), serving both the youth and women's wings. During the Museveni regime, she was elected village leader under the National Resistance Movement (NRM). Her involvement at this level encouraged her to be more active politically and she was later elected Women's Representative for the Kampala District in the NRM Council when it was in power. She later became Chairperson of the Advisory Committee to President Museveni's successful election campaign. Subsequently, Dr. Kazibwe held a number of positions in the NRM government including serving as Deputy Minister for Industry from 1989 to 1991, as Minister for Gender and Community Development and in 1994, when she appointed Vice-President and Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries. She was extremely active in her position as Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, acting with vigour and vision. Her message to all has been to look at agriculture as a business. In the same year, 1994, Dr Kazibwe was elected member of the Constituent Assembly that drafted Uganda's new constitution. In 1996, she was elected Member of Parliament for the constituency of Kigulu South in the Iganga District.

Dr Kazibwe has dedicated her life to "advancing women, reducing poverty and the high level of illiteracy, and promoting social justice." Since her election as Ugandan Vice-President in 1994 she focused her objectives on women's concerns, on reducing the high level of illiteracy and on promoting social justice in her country. A great deal of her time and energy goes into advocating for affirmative action for women and other marginalised groups, including the elderly and disabled. An educated woman herself, she feels that education is the key to the emancipation of women in Uganda. Her position in the government provided in her a role model to girls throughout the country. It also underlined the role of women in the overall development of society. Indeed her active campaigning for gender, peace and development issues contributed to the creation of the AWCPD, a committee jointly established by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), to which Committee Dr Kazibwe is currently chairperson. The Committee aims to bring women into the mainstream of efforts to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts, while ensuring their full and active participation in development initiatives at the highest decision-making level. Thus she her statement; "My mission is to see the emancipation of rural women through functional skills development and access to micro-financing to ensure internally generated improvement."

Dr Kazibwe is an active member of a wide range of local organisations. She is Chairperson of the Senior Women’s Advisory Group (SWAG) on the environment, and a member of both the Uganda Women Entrepreneurs Association Limited (UWEAL) and the Uganda Women Doctors Association. She is current Chairperson of the newly created African Women's Committee on Peace and Development (AWCPD).

Her active involvement in all these fields is reflected through her nomination for many awards and the appreciation shown by people and organisations in Uganda and abroad. In 1994, Dr Kazibwe was named "Woman of the Year" by The Monitor. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) awarded her the "Ceres Medal" for her contribution to food security and poverty eradication in 1998. In the same year, she also was nominated "African Woman Entrepreneur". The CEDPA also crowned her with their Leadership Award.

------------------------------------------------
Last updated: Janaury 2006