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Gendered Modes of Resistance: Power and Women’s Songs in West Africa
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Gendered Modes of Resistance: Power and Women’s Songs in West Africa

By Brian Hogan – University of California, Los Angeles

Biography

Brian Hogan is an ethnomusicologist, drummer, and percussionist currently pursuing a PhD in ethnomusicology at
the University of California, Los Angeles. His research areas include African and African American music, with
specializations in xylophone practice in West Africa, and jazz performance in the United States. His current
research projects include a biographically centered depiction of Lobi xylophone music in Ghana through the
perspectives of two blind xylophonists, a chronicle of the life and death of world renowned Lobi xylophonist
Kakraba Lobi, and the article published here on gender and power as they relate to women’s verbal arts in West
Africa.

Abstract

For many women in West Africa, the verbal arts are a crucial medium of political contestation, social unification,
and personal expression that flourishes where written discourse fails. With regionally, nationally, and historically
variable literacy rates amongst women in West Africa, the pervasiveness of culturally established oral traditions,
and the substantial linguistic diversity of most all West African countries, song remains a uniquely powerful mode of
expression for West African women. In Niger, Nigeria, and Guinea in particular, women have historically challenged
socio-cultural norms and political formations through song, as is documented in the ethnographic works of
Africanists Beverly Mack, Saidou N’Daou, Aissata Sidikou, and others. Through performative acts of resistance,
these female poets, singers, and activists confront many aspects of West African life, ranging from low literacy
rates amongst women, immodesty by young Muslims, and the challenges of maintaining traditional Islamic practice,
to the discontents of polygamy, the patriarchal organization of Muslim society, and the large scale political
mobilization of rural minorities. Yet these songs, slogans, and performances are not inserted into the fabric of daily
life without contestation or disruption, nor do they unanimously achieve their goals. Surveying the diversity of
purpose, form, content, and effectiveness of West African women’s verbal arts, this article examines why women
choose song as a strategy for empowerment, exactly how they contest and breach structures of inequality through
song, and to what extent they succeed in their goals.

Song as Empowerment

Women of all ages in West Africa, despite the relative scarcity of their voices in contemporary histories and political
discourses, continue to confront local social issues and transnational political conflicts through performative acts of
resistance. Sometimes illiterate and often relegated to subordinate social status, many women across West Africa
engage the challenge of social unification and mobilization through verbal arts that promote social solidarity and
political action. While generally not afforded the same access to institutions and mechanisms of social change as
men, West African women have maintained longstanding discourses and dialogues through alternative strategies,
cutting through the hegemony of the written word and patriarchal political discourse with performative oral
traditions. While these expressions of socio-political empowerment are as diverse as the nationalities, ethnicities,
and life experiences of the people encapsulated in the broad category “West African women,” I focus here on
women’s songs in Niger, Nigeria, and Guinea as a way to begin to understand how West African women voice their
struggles and selves in the context of powerful national and transnational political flows. By attending to oral modes
of expression, I promote an expanded historiography that includes contemporary forms of verbal and musical
expression as a way of understanding the experience of rural and lower class predominantly Muslim West African
women, whose perspectives are not always addressed in African literature. Rather than approaching written and
oral expression as opposed, my goal is to examine the ways in which oral expression effectively functions in social
contexts where written expression does not. Such social contexts include not only communities where literacy rates
are low, but also communities in which cultural critique or political mobilization cannot safely or effectively be
achieved through writing. Often spontaneous and fleeting, oral forms of expression both comment on and
constitute historical narratives of West Africa. Through the ensuing discussion of women’s songs, we begin to
understand the agency West African women from different regions, countries, and communities exercise in relation
to restrictive religious and social frameworks, as they manipulate and reinterpret social structurings for their own
empowerment. With a long history of social contestation by women in West Africa that likely predates written
records, we can also identify the advantages of the verbal arts as a strategy for confronting inequality from the

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position of women in West African society. In the three recitative traditions that I examine here, we find West
African women defining, reacting to, and reshaping their worlds through a communally authored and communally
accessible creative artistry.

The scope of this discussion extends across national and ethnic boundaries, as well as several decades of African
history to locate contrasting degrees of sociopolitical resistance in African women’s songs. I draw examples from
Niger in the 1990s, Nigeria in the 1980s, and Guinea in the 1990s, as well as during Guinea’s struggle for
independence in between 1946 and 1958. My goal in comparing these contexts of expression is to illustrate the
contrasting effectiveness of verbal arts as a strategy for empowerment, using ethnographic works of three
Africanist scholars as a foundation for the analysis of expressive strategies amongst West African women. Beverly
Mack’s Muslim Women Sing: Hausa Popular Song (2004), Saidou N’Daou’s Sangalan Oral Traditions: Histories,
Memories, and Social Differentiation (2005), and Aissata Sidikou’s Recreating Words, Reshaping Worlds: The
Verbal Art of Women from Niger, Mali, and Senegal (2001) each portray complimentary dimensions of women’s
oral expression in West Africa, hinting at the diversity of the verbal arts in the West African context. I have chosen
these particular contexts of Guinea, Niger, and Nigeria because of the temporal closeness of the authors’ fieldwork
in each area, and because each musical practice engages a different type of audience through song. While Hausa
women in Nigeria primarily sing to a community of female peers, Hausa and Songhoy-Zarma women in Niger
perform to an audience of peers while also communicating dissent to the community as a whole through the
spectacle of their performances. In Guinea, women of numerous ethnicities engage a national audience through
their decidedly more politically charged songs, sung in opposition to colonial and post-colonial political formations.

Content on this page requires a newer version of Adobe Flash Player.

[1]

Turkaka Music of Kano – September 1st, 1999.

This group of elder Hausa women, led by a single lead vocalist, create a polyrhythmic foundation on
k’warya gourd idiophones over which various praises are sung. This recording provides a sense of the
strong character that typifies women’s organizations such as those discussed here, as well as the
polyrhythmic use gourd bowls. Note that the k’warya are struck with sticks, beaten with hands, and
suspended in water, all for different timbral effects.

One of the central issues addressed in this article is why, and to what degree verbal art is effective as a strategy for
women’s empowerment. This entails an examination of the complicity or disempowerment that also breathes
through these forms of cultural expression. In their introduction to Women in Developing Countries: Assessing
Strategies for Empowerment (2002), Rekha Datta and Judith Kornberg stress that empowerment is a fluid and
dynamic term that has different meanings in different cultural contexts. They point out that women’s empowerment
cannot be easily assessed, noting the importance of differentiating between empowerment as a process, and
empowerment as an outcome. This distinction helps us to understand that while the outcome of resistance may be
intangible, the process of resistance remains a source of strength and momentum for women’s organizations and
movements in developing countries throughout the world. There are also varying levels and degrees of
empowerment, experienced differently by individuals in local and national communities. After introducing the three
main oral traditions represented in the works of Mack, N’Daou, and Sidikou, I turn to an analysis of women’s songs
and verbal art in terms of the degrees of empowerment and complicity they project, rather than trying to brand each
as radical or complicit.

Reconciling Islam and Empowerment

Islam has become so deeply embedded in African life and culture in Nigeria, Niger, and Guinea that it is impossible
to understand women’s expressions of discontent with certain aspects of society without placing it in the context of
Islamic practice. Putting aside dogmatic stereotypes of women under Islam, I focus instead on the ways that
Islamic practice is interwoven with the existing structures of inequality and injustice that these women oppose. With

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the widespread discourses of Islamic feminism that circulate in Africa and across the globe, it would also be
inaccurate to confine the ways that women engage Islam to the verbal arts, or even conscious expression alone
(Cooke 2000). Instead, let us place these forms of resistance within an expansive discourse of Islamic and
non-Islamic practice, manifested in many different forms in today’s local and global religious/political formations.

The religion of Islam reached the savannah region of West Africa in the 8th century C.E., marking the beginning of
written accounts of West African history. It spread throughout the early empires of the Kanem-Bornu and Songhay,
and across Mali and Hausa-Fulani land, as evidenced by epigraphic evidence from the 11th century C.E. (Moraes
de Farias 2003). Surveys and estimates indicate that by the 1980s and 1990s nearly half of West Africa was
Muslim, with deeply entrenched religious practice based on complex histories of social, cultural, and religious
integration. When we consider the countries discussed here, the prevalence of Islamic culture is obvious. In 2007,
the Muslim population was estimated at roughly 85 percent in Guinea, 80 percent in Niger, and approximately 50
percent in Nigeria (CIA 2007).

With the pervasiveness of Islam in West Africa, much of women’s public activity continues to be conducted in
relation to behavioral guidelines dictated by local religious communities. These Islamic codes vary regionally and
are embedded in distinct cultural worlds, yet also retain degrees of observance of the worldwide Shariah. This
generally results in the gendered division of activity and labor, and consequently in the gendered division of public
and private space. While somewhat permeable, these boundaries between public and private space are
maintained by locally and globally inherited gender roles that are historically deeply rooted in daily practice. In the
music of Muslim West African women, we find several different invocations of this experience of Islam. Sometimes
contested, other times reified and amplified, Islamic practice is a common theme in women’s music, often emerging
in the context of the assertion of an African Muslim identity. Thus in an attempt to understand the degree to which
women are resisting and responding to society, culture, and Islam, it is important to understand these concepts as
deeply interconnected and overlapping.

I approach these issues of cultural contestation from three different angles. First, by looking at the oral poetry of
Hausa women in Kano, Nigeria in the 1980s, I explore dialogues between women and their local communities
surrounding issues of women’s rights and obligations. Second, I turn to the verbal art of Hausa and
Songhoy-Zarma Nigerien women in the 1990s as an example of an empowering expressive practice, one which
creates a public counter-hegemonic narrative to polygamy in Niger. Verbal art in the context of these songs is used
to create a critical public space for the contestation and digestion of constrictive patriarchal social practices. Third, I
recall the political mobilization of women of several ethnicities in Guinea in the 1990s, and its antecedents in the
1940s and 1950s. Political mobilization in Guinea has historically been achieved through songs and slogans,
authored and sung by women. Through my discussion of women’s role in Guinea’s political history, I address the
tangible empowerment these forms of oral expression achieve in West African contexts. Because of the paucity of
research in this area of women’s verbal art, I draw examples from women of Niger, Nigeria, and Guinea,
acknowledging major differences in the cultural, historical, and political currents of each nation, and the differences
between women’s experiences within and between these nations. I believe there is much to be gained from this
juxtaposition, as it illuminates the strategies employed by West African women to contest and reshape their
immediate social contexts, and demonstrates the ways in which they critically reinterpret Islamic and other social
frameworks for their own empowerment.

Hausa Women in Nigeria: Voicing Collective Experience

Hausa culture in West Africa is known for its widespread integration and dissemination of Islamic practice,
maintaining a reputation as conservatively Muslim. Stretching across the West African hinterland, Hausa cultural
and linguistic influence speckles nearly all of West Africa. The prevalence of Islamic themes in women’s music in
Nigeria is to be expected, especially in light of the conflicts surrounding Islam in Nigeria. The marked differences in
culture and custom between the northern and southern majorities in Nigeria have been major sources of
socio-political tension. Despite these circumstances of conflict, Hausa culture is widely characterized as
conservative and focused inward toward the family unit. When looking at Hausa women’s songs in Nigeria, then, it
is fascinating to see the maintenance of a conservative lifestyle conveyed through a form of expression that also
radically transgresses gender norms.

In Muslim Women Sing: Hausa Popular Song (2004) Beverly Mack documents the musical repertoire of Hausa
women poets, demonstrating how they “inspire audiences in myriad ways, simultaneously proclaiming their
religious obligations to domesticity and declaiming—reclaiming—their equal rights under that same Islamic law”
(Mack 2004:12). Hausa women’s songs generally take the form of praise poetry, admonitions to the local

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community, eulogies for local and national figures, and interpretations of current events. The role of women’s
poetry for social mobilization in the region dates back to social reforms introduced in the jihad of the 1800s by
Shehu Usman dan Fodiyo against the Hausa, actualized for women by his daughter Nana Asma’u, who became
prominent as a scholar and exponent of women’s intellectual potential under a critical interpretation of the Qur’an.
Nana Asma’u used oral poetry to communicate to illiterate or uneducated women, creating a transmittable series of
teachings that extolled the virtues of an active public life and challenged the practice of seclusion. While Nana
Amsa’u wrote in Arabic and Fulfulde, her teachings were effective because of their oral form. While several of the
poets that Mack researched during her fieldwork in the 1980s could also write, their songs primarily proliferated
orally. This oral form was especially effective in light of women’s illiteracy rates in Nigeria, which have dramatically
declined from 78% in 1980, to 70% in 1985, 62% in 1990, 52% in 1995, 44% in 2000, to 39% in 2003 (CIA 2007,
UN Common Database 2007 [UNESCO statistics], Globalis 2008).

Wife seclusion (kulbe) is one of several Islamic practices that has caught international attention through the work of
women’s rights activists. Generally framed for the international community as an example of women’s
disempowerment, seclusion is given a more nuanced treatment in Nigerian, Nigerien, and Guinean women’s
songs. Hausa women’s songs often address the restrictions of seclusion, while simultaneously recounting the
moral dangers of street life, and offering specific guidelines for how to live a proper life as a practitioner of Islam.
While often only practical for middle to upper class Muslims who can pay someone to go to market, seclusion can
be viewed as strengthening women’s domain of influence at home while restricting their sphere influence to
include only the family and local community of women. Alternatively, seclusion can be viewed as an extension of
oppressive systems of control exercised by men over women. While I believe there is no definitive interpretation,
my interest here is to demonstrate the ways in which this and other Islamic practices are invoked and interpreted in
women’s songs.

Hauwa Gwaram, an educated Hausa poet and teacher whom Mack recorded and interviewed, recounts the virtues
of traditional Islamic practices in many of her oral and written poems, impressionistically outlining the experiences
of women who stray too far from traditional Islamic practice. In the following excerpt from a performance recorded
by Mack, she promotes the wearing of a full veil for women, pious and modest activity in public, and dependence
upon men as mandated by God:

I will stop here and rest, sisters,
Continue to be pure,
I will clothe myself properly,
A body cover is mandatory,
A full veil is best for women

May God forgive us our sins,
He has mandated that our men,
Provide for us with patience,
May He ease our troubles,
A full veil is best for women.
(Mack 2004:139-140)

This particular poem demonstrates the use of sung verse to promote specifically Islamic values, expressed by an
independent woman who was twice divorced and very well educated. While in this song she promotes the
maintenance of certain Islamic values, her life history offers clear evidence that she transgressed other Islamic
prescriptions for women’s activity. Preceding the song is a monologue by Gwaram, in which she explains the
inspiration behind this particular composition. She recounts her observation of women walking immodestly down
the street, engaging in morally questionable activity, and generally projecting an attitude of religious impiousness.
Such lived experiences give Gwaram’s poetry strength and authenticity, helping us to understand why Gwaram
prescribes a somewhat conservative lifestyle in light of her own achievements.

Hausa poetry itself evolved out of a long-standing tradition of Islamic poetry spoken in Arabic and Fulfulbe, which
later crossed over into Hausa (Mack 2004). Influenced by the couplet and five-line form of this longstanding poetic
tradition, the tradition of male Hausa poetry occupies the space of a formalized cultural expression, with
well-established stylistic guidelines. While Hausa women’s poetry stands in opposition to the gendered restrictions
on women’s public performance, it draws heavily from traditionally masculine recitative forms.

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We find evidence throughout the ethnographic data of women working with preexisting cultural concepts and
materials that maintain traces of patriarchy. What is remarkable about the artistic expression of the women in these
cases is that they manipulate these typically masculine concepts, categories, and practices for their own productive
ends. In so doing, they both buttress and subvert the power structures that perpetuate their position of social
subordination. This complicates the popular conception in contemporary scholarship that women’s experience
forms a kind of subordinated and subjugated knowledge (Foucault 1984). While applications of Foucault’s schema
of power relations have been essential to feminist projects, it seems that the case of West African women’s song
complicates the extent to which we can envision the poles of empowered and disempowered as mirroring
masculine and feminine gendered expressions. Instead, gendered forms of expression are manipulated to navigate
culturally inherited power relationships while recasting them in the wake of contemporary lived experience.
Women’s expression in African Muslim communities does seem to reflect the decidedly male gaze of Islamic
culture, and in that sense is subjugated to the panoptic gaze of a male oriented worldview. Yet as Mack’s research
suggests, women dissect this gaze in private spaces, and perform various transgressions of it in public spaces,
while preaching to other women about the possibilities for fulfilling lives that extend beyond the boundaries of
acceptable women’s activities under more orthodox interpretations of Islam.

The field recordings of linguist Robert Randell displayed here demonstrate some of the ways in which Nigerian
women in Kano perform interpretations and transgressions of gender dynamics in local life. This excerpt of shantu
music features a leader chorus based composition accompanied by shantu idiophonic percussion. The song text
introduces, in succession, several prominent ethnicities and common occupations in Nigeria as potential suitors for
the singers’ daughters. For each ethnicity/occupation introduced, the singers subsequently provide a reason why
they would not like their daughter to marry them. Indulging in stereotypes and playful critiques, this performance
extends beyond the bounds of proper behavior for many Muslim women in West Africa. Like Mack’s research,
Randell’s videos offer a window into the discourses of contestation and acceptance of gender roles in Hausa
communities in Nigeria.

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[1]

Shantu Music of Kano – September 3rd, 1999.

Singing in Hausa while accompanying themselves using the shantu gourd idiophone, these Hausa women
of Kano, Nigeria cover a range of topics in their performances through a leader/chorus based narrative.

These videos are used courtesy of Robert Randell, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, Stanford, who made
these recordings while conducting linguistic research in Nigeria. Translations of the song texts provided by
Russell Schuh, Professor of Linguistics, UCLA.

Real and Imagined Communities: Empowerment and Complicity

Through Hausa women’s poetry, we can see how individual poets communicate with an imagined community of
women. Saidou Mohammed N’Daou, through his research on early 1990’s Sangalan oral traditions in Guinea,
(which I will discuss later) suggests that these oral performances constitute “embodied ideologies,” which in turn
function as “social imaginary worlds” (2005:183). Similar to Benedict Anderson’s theory of the imagining of
community through textual forms (1983), women’s songs also render their audience a unified community of women
who share similar perspectives and experiences. Given the religious and moral content of Hausa women’s songs,
these women also seem to be invoking a sense of belonging in a larger Muslim community, similar to the concept
of Dar al-Islam. It is here, in the space between immediate and projected community, that the project of
empowerment can run aground: women’s ascription to a larger Muslim community can smooth over oppressive
institutions, framing them as the natural outcome of Islamic practice.

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The concept of Dar al-Islam (the “world of Islam”) was invoked daily in the context of colonial Senegalese life to
enact a kind of “imagined community” that gave Senegalese Muslims a sense of place within a global community of
Muslims while simultaneously making them vulnerable to the manipulation of that category by state propaganda
(Robinson 2000; Anderson 1983). As David Robinson notes in Paths of Accommodation (2000), the concept of Dar
al-Islam was used both for the empowerment and disempowerment of African Muslims, as it provided a foothold for
ideological manipulation. He identifies the political position of Sufi orders in colonial West Africa as mediating
between local and colonial culture, allowing African Muslims to maintain internal religious, social, and cultural
independence while cooperating with their subjugation to colonial political and economic exploitation. Robinson
suggests that in the case of Senegal the French manipulated the concept of Dar al-Islam in order to effectively
assert control through Sufi orders and thus govern Muslims in West Africa. This strategy also allowed France to
situate itself inside the sphere of the Muslim world, protected by a façade of local governance and religious
freedom, which veiled economic and political subservience to the French empire.

With regard to the expressive traditions of Muslim West African women, it is thus crucial to consider the ways in
which religious frameworks and communities can be manipulated for political ends. Robinson’s research reminds
us that the yoke of colonialism was effective because it infiltrated preexisting social structures. Thus we may be
wary of the remnants of relationships of inequality active in the expressions and expressive forms of female African
poets. For example, to what degree does asserting a Muslim identity mean accepting the terms of social
subordination for women in Muslim society? Alternatively, to what extent does critiquing the gender divisions that
underlie Islamic practice perpetuate stereotypes about the disempowerment of women under Islam? To begin to
address these questions of the residue of culturally embedded power relationships, I move now to women’s verbal
art in Niger as an example of the mixed outcomes of oral performance as a means of social empowerment.

Song as Interpretation and Manifestation: Women’s Songs in Niger

Niger, like Nigeria, has longstanding traditions of men’s and women’s performed poetry that can be differentiated by
several distinct formal qualities, including the use of specifically gendered language in each respective recitative
tradition. Acknowledging such differences, women’s songs in Niger are in general structured both formally
according to traditional men’s songs, and contextually to the patriarchal political structures of society, reinforcing
the notion that women rework preexisting cultural materials towards their own productive ends. Drawing from
Aissata Sidikou’s field research conducted between 1994 and 1996 in the Songhoy-Zarma region of Niger, I will
discuss below the marchande and maani foori songs, which are sung in the context of two unique public events. In
these performances a ritual space is created for the expression of resistance to the limitations imposed on women
in the overwhelmingly rural context of Nigerian life. These songs constitute the one form of verbal art of a rural and
largely illiterate population, with a 1995 United Nations report placing women’s illiteracy rates in Niger at 93% (UN
1995). In light of the impossibility of textual discourse, these songs act as a critical tool for the assertion of …

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Information and communication technologies and gender in climate change and green economy:
Situating women’s opportunities and challenges in Zambian policies and strategies

Justina Namukombo

Abstract
Zambia’s 2012 report on the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (RIO +20) identifies existing opportunities on the

country’s transitioning to green economy. The RIO +20 conference of 2012 has resulted in new momentum in addressing problems of

sustainable development. However, this article argues that there are practical challenges that require paying attention to, especially those

involving women. The article addressed one key question: To what extent can women participate in the transitioning process to green

economy in Zambia and what opportunities and challenges exists? The study used document analysis to answer the above question. National

policy documents were reviewed to understand interventions on environmental management. Whilst going through the documents, the study

used gender analysis frameworks (education, skills, roles in family and society, access to infrastructure) to bring out qualitative and

quantitative information on women. Using suggested green economy interventions in the literature as benchmark, qualitative analysis was

used to project possible participation of women in green economy activities and possible challenges to be faced. The study found that

participation of women will be limited despite existing opportunities because of challenges of access to information and communication

technology infrastructures, low educational levels and skills and financial constraints. As Zambia undergoes a transitioning process, these

limitations should be addressed in planned green economy policies and interventions to maximise benefits.

Introduction
A decade after the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, the world leaders again gathered at Rio de Janeiro in

Brazil to look at the future of the environment. This time one of the themes was green economy, sustainable development and poverty

eradication. Green economy was defined by the United Nations Environmental Programme as development that leads to social well-being

and social equity whilst at the same time addressing effects on the environment (UNEP 2011). On practical part, green economy is

development confined to low carbon, renewable and efficient energy technologies and environmentally friendly farming and fishing practices

(Fulai 2009). Currently, governments are looking at the option of green economy as a way to prevent and mitigate effects of climate change

and take on different approaches to development (Africa Progress Report 2014; UNECA 2012; UNESCO 2013).

Since then, most countries in Africa, Zambia inclusive, have been trying to contextualise the concept in local environmental interventions. In

Zambia, attempts have been made through articulation in the RIO +20 Report by convening meetings by necessary ministries like Finance

and National Planning, Ministry of Environment Tourism and Natural Resources and other stakeholders working in the area of environmental

protection. The article forms part of the broader efforts to understand how green economy initiatives can be interpreted and contextualised in

national policies and strategies and their implication. The article specifically focuses on implications of gender and Information and

Communication Technologies (ICTs) in climate change and green economy using Zambia as a case study. The Zambian Report on the United

Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (RIO +20) has already identified existing opportunities on the country’s transitioning to

green economy. For example, the existence of the Renewable Energy Strategy whose objective is to promote measures aimed at investing in

renewable sources of energy such as solar, biomass, wind and biofuels. National Climate Change Response Strategy (2011:ii) has a vision of

ensuring that the most vulnerable sectors of the economy are climate proofed. For example, development of sustainable land use systems to

enhance agriculture production and ensure food security. The National Climate Change Policy (2012:10–12) has put up adaptation and

disaster risk reduction–related measures in most vulnerable sectors like water, agriculture, forestry, energy and infrastructure. In the water

sector for instance, the aim is to enhance investment in water capture and storage such as dams, strategic boreholes and tanks, construct water

basin transfers and improve drainage.

The article explores the position of women in the green economy transitioning process of Zambia. The key question raised is: To what extent

can women participate in green economy initiatives? The analysis is performed using gender approaches to understand access problems for

women including those of ICTs. Women have been sidelined in most development activities because of their low educational levels, poverty,

sociocultural factors and access problems to physical infrastructure (Hafkin 2002). On the other hand, ICTs have been identified as having

potential to facilitate the transitioning process to green economy (Ciocoiu 2011; Young 2011). ICTs include a ‘variety of analogue and digital

technologies: telephones, radios, television and computers’ (Lotter 2007:3). Devices like radio, television and cellular phones can facilitate

access to information and enable participation in development activities.

In Zambia, ICTs are intended to be part of climate-resilient technologies in various regions of the country (Zambia Climate Policy 2012). The

Zambian national gender policy also intends to facilitate participation of women in development by promoting changes in patterns of

socialisation and gender division of labour (Zambia Gender Policy 2004). There is no doubt that women would face similar challenges they

have faced in prior development interventions. It is important to spell out these challenges and existing opportunities that are specific to

green economy initiatives. This is important as countries contextualise the concept in their environmental management policies and

strategies.

Research methodology
The study addressed one key question: To what extent can women participate in the green economy transitioning in Zambia and what

opportunities and challenges exist for them in this process? The study used document analysis to answer the above questions. A number of

national policy documents were reviewed. Namely, nine national policy documents on environment were reviewed to understand

interventions on environmental management and how women participation has been addressed; two policies on gender and ICT to learn on

interventions aimed at addressing women needs and local reports on proposed ways of achieving green economy were also reviewed. The

process involved first purposively looking for local policies and regulations on environment, review documents (local and international)

including journal articles making suggestions on how to achieve green economy. The study also made an extensive review of statistics on

access and use of ICTs by women, access to education with specific focus on ICT subjects and other barriers which women face. Information

on suggested ways of achieving green economy is later used to project possible participation of women in green economy activities.

Document analysis has been used before in environmental and climate change studies. For example, Nhamo (2014:3) used document analysis

in his journal article ‘addressing women in climate change policies: A focus on selected east and southern African countries’. He critically

analyses climate change policy documents from selected countries to establish his empirical evidence on his topic. Document analysis is

therefore a credible method of data collection. However, it has challenges of biasness as the researcher will most likely not include

documents with opposing views to their study. Table 1 shows the policy documents used as sources of information. With these limitations in

mind, the study included international documents to supplement local sources of information.

TABLE 1

Reviewed policy documents.

Findings and discussion

Zambian context: Climate change and green economy

Zambia has a population of 13 million people, and it is growing at a rate of 2.9% per annum. Women in Zambia make up 51% of the

population. According to the Zambian Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS), about 64% of the population live in poverty (LCMS

2010). Only 22% of the country’s population has access to electricity (Zambia Energy Policy 2007). Zambia is also endowed with vast

natural resources and 60% of its land is covered by forest. However, the country faces environmental problems. For instance deforestation

has been responsible for loss of about 250 000 ha – 300 000 ha of forest per annum (Zambian National Policy on Environment 2006). In

2000, Zambia is reported to have produced about 54 718 metric tons of carbon dioxide, and estimates are that between 2000 and 2030,

emissions are expected to increase from 54.718 metric tons to 216.8 million (Zambia RIO +20 UN report 2012). This has led to

manifestation of some effects of climate change. Based on country assessments and also international assessments, effects of climate change

have been brought to light. The Zambia Metrological Department report increases in frequency of extreme events like floods and droughts

over the four decades and emerging tendency of delayed onset and earlier ending of rainfall (Zambia National Climate Change Response

Strategy 2011). UNDP report on Zambia’s climate change profile indicates increase in annual temperatures by 1.3 °C since 1960 and increase

is at an average rate of 0.29 °C per decade (Zambia National Climate Change Response Strategy 2011). Table 2 shows the occurrence of

natural disasters for the indicated periods.

TABLE 2

Occurrence of natural disasters from 1980 to 2009.

From the above described effects of climate change, there is no doubt that Zambia needs to work at any mechanisms that are believed to avert

this situation.

The United Nations RIO +20 Zambia report identified pathways for Zambia’s implementation of green economy. The basis upon which

Zambia is adopting the green economy agenda is the many environmental management policies and regulations that the country has been

implementing. To date, Zambia has about 33 legislations and a signatory to about 21 international conventions on environmental protection

(Environmental Council of Zambia 1994). In addition, the Sixth National Development Plan and Vision 2030 have articulated how

development will be made sustainable through implementation of many sectoral policies and programmes. In other words, Zambia has some

aspects of the ‘first’ green economy readiness as Nhamo (2013) described it. However, there is a need to postulate how women will be able to

participate in green economy initiatives in the context of the many challenges they have faced before including their recent access to and use

of ICTs.

In Zambia, the first initiative to explore on green economy began with the African Development Bank workshop cosponsored by the

Organisation for Economic Development in January, 2013. The workshop was on ‘Green Growth in Africa’ and was held in Lusaka, the

capital city. As a follow-up to the earlier workshop, Ministry of Finance and National Planning and Ministry of Lands, Natural Resource

Management and Environmental Protection jointly organised a workshop on ‘Inclusive Green Growth’ (IGG) from 04 to 05 July 2013. The

workshop was attended by 26 participants from government, private sector, academic and research institutions and civil society.

From the workshop, participants attempted to come up with a definition of what green economy or IGG meant in the Zambian context. IGG

was defined as ‘inclusive development that makes sustainable and equitable use of Zambia’s natural resources within ecological limits’

(Banda & Bass 2014:3). The workshop participants made suggestions on how in the Zambian context development activities could be

tailored in the green economy direction. The following suggestions were made:

investing in natural resources that can make money for the poor

investing in people’s capacity to combine green and inclusive approaches

long-term perspectives to build institutional and economic resilience as well as financing models that are more ‘patient’ for their

returns

making business houses and civil society take the lead

focus on both projects and governance. That is working on the institutional framework: policy, finance and enabling environment

(Banda & Bass 2014:11).

The ultimate output of the workshop was to produce an operational Zambian IGG Strategy. Because this article relied on secondary sources

of information, it was not possible to establish if the strategy has been formulated. The suggestion is to carefully take into account women’s

contribution and the challenges they would face.

Apart from these recent articulations Zambia has been implementing a number of policies and has enacted a number of regulations with

regard to environmental protection. These could be used to start specific programmes and projects aimed at achieving objectives of the green

economy. Table 3 highlights some of the policies and regulations and their possible contribution to achieving IGG or green economy.

1

TABLE 3

Policies and regulations on environmental protection in Zambia and their possible contribution to achievement of Inclusive Green

Growth or green economy.

Theoretical positioning of women in transitioning process

Having looked at the policies and regulations on environmental management and also suggestions being made on how to achieve green

economy, it is possible to position women in this transitioning process. This is presented as a framework in Table 4 by showing the extent to

which women can participate and the possible challenges that can be faced.

TABLE 4

Theoretical positioning of women’s participation in green economy initiatives and expected challenges.

Gender implications of transitioning to green economy: Situating women’s opportunities and challenges

Women’s access to information and communication technologies and possible participation in green economy Access to information in Zambia is

through both the electronic and print media. Electronic media is through television, telephones, Internet/emails, whilst print media is through

newspapers, magazines and posters. Television services are offered by government and private sector. Three broadcasting stations are

operational: namely Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC), Trinity Broadcasting and Muvi TV. The government broadcasting

services (ZNBC) are found in every province of the country. The general challenge in the electronic media is limited coverage across the

country (Zambia ICT Policy 2006).

As of 2004, Zambia had three licensed mobile cellular providers: Zamtel, MTN and Air Tel. By the same year, Zambia also had 300

telecentres offering telephone and email or Internet. Access was in major urban centres with large coverage along the line of rail. Though

there has been increase in access to ICTs from 2004 to 2010, very few people own ICT assets. Table 5 shows increases in ownership from

2004 to 2010 between rural and urban areas.

TABLE 5

Trend in access to Information and Communication Technologies assets from 2004 to 2010 in percentages.

Ownership in television sets slightly increased from 27.1% in 2004 to 29.7% in 2010. Increases were also experienced between the rural and

urban areas with urban areas having significant improvements. During the same period under review, 32.4 of the rural population had mobile

phones compared to 80% in urban areas. According to statistics provided by the Zambia Information Communication and Technology

Authority (ZICTA) on their website, as of third quarter of 2014, there were 9316 mobile cellular subscriptions and 3 362 056 mobile Internet

users and 23 fixed Internet subscriptions (ZICTA 2014). However, there are differences in access of ICTs between men and women. Table 6

shows these discrepancies.

TABLE 6

Ownership of Information and Communication Technologies assets by sex.

As can be seen from the table, ownership amongst women of the most commonly used sources of information in Zambia (television, radio

and cellular phones) is poor. For example, the 2010 survey shows 31.7% of men having television sets compared to 23.1% of women. By

2010, only 42.5% women owned mobile phones compared to 51.5% males. Such poor access of ICT amongst women would limit

participation in interventions on green economy. The Research ICT Africa survey results (as cited in Gilwald, Milek & Stork 2010) for 2007

had similar findings. According to the survey, Internet is accessed and used differently between men and women. Apart from Cameroon, the

rest of the countries including Zambia had more men than women claiming to know what Internet is and having email addresses. In the

country-level analysis amongst the 17 countries where the survey was conducted, Zambia had about 71% of the men listening to the radio

compared to 45% of the women. For television, men almost double (48% against 26%) the number of women who are able to watch

television. About 58% of the men were also found to own a mobile phone or active Subscriber Identity Module card as compared to 37% of

the women.

Women education and skills and possible participation in green economy There has been differential access to education for men and women in

Zambia. This has resulted in more women not being able to read and write as compared to men. About 77% of the men are able to read and

write compared to 58% of the women (Republic of Zambia 2006). Data on access to education reported by the Zambia Living Monitoring

Conditions Survey show that overall, gross attendance rates increased for primary grades 1–7, from 105% in 2006 to 108% in 2010. The

secondary gross attendance rate (grades 8–12) increased from 55% in 2006 to 64% in 2010. However, in both years gross attendance rates for

boys were consistently higher than those for girls (LMCS 2010:63). Though participation and access to science, mathematics and technical

subjects has been improving between male and female pupils, some schools still have more males enrolled in these subjects. A survey

conducted in Zambia by the Forum for African Women Educationalists in Zambia on access and participation of girls in science,

mathematics and technical subjects highlight some of these discrepancies (FAWEZA Report 2011:33). Table 7 shows the numbers of girls

and boys taking science, mathematics and technical subjects in surveyed technical schools.

TABLE 7

Girls and boys taking science, mathematics and technical subjects (combined).

In the context of climate change and green economy, it has to do with ability to use various ICTs and access digital information. It is about

understanding the use of ICTs and being able to operate them. For one to be able to use ICTs, computer skills, information literacy and

language will be very important. Because most women are less likely to be literate, this could be a barrier to use of ICTs. According to

UNDP (as cited in Huyer 2003), literacy is in various types: functional literacy which enables a person to perform daily life activities with

less difficulties, for instance, the ability to read newspapers, books and pamphlets. Functional literacy will enable one to operate a cellular

phone or Internet connection. Medium of communication in using ICTs is usually in English which most illiterate people are not able to

understand. This effect extends to the ability to read newspapers, books and pamphlets. With so many women not being able to read and

write, this means being left out of the whole system. Scientific literacy enables one to respond to everyday issues in an informed manner.

These include decisions on sources of energy, preservation and use of natural resources and ability of communities and families to make

appropriate decisions concerning resource allocation, diet and sanitation and community development.

Financial resources amongst women and their participation in green economy In Zambia, more female-headed households are considered poorer

than male-headed households (57% compared to 49%). Average monthly earnings between men and women also differ. In 2005, a Zambian

woman earned on average ZBK 196 453 (approximately $ 242) compared to a man’s earning of ZBK 354 453 (approximately $ 506) (LCMS

2006). Usually, women have less access and control over resources. For instance, resources in agriculture regarded important for production

like land, equipment and inputs are usually owned by men (World Bank 2004). Initiatives on green economy will require women having

access to various information on green economy and access to energy-saving technologies.

Opportunities

Despite the above discussed challenges, there are a number of opportunities for women to participate in climate change and green economy:

Women in Zambia constitute over 51% of the population. Initiatives should therefore target them as they will be assured of reaching

greater numbers.

In the agriculture sector, studies in Zambia have shown that women spend more time carrying out agricultural activities than men.

For example, women spend 53% of total hours in agriculture work compared to the 47% spent by men (World Bank 2004:19).

The poor in general are considered to have high dependence on nature for their livelihoods. Women are usually in worse condition

with regard to poverty levels. Initiatives on protecting the environment can therefore be more appealing to them.

Women in Zambia are also amongst populations that earn their livelihood from scavenging from dump sites. Projects on recycling

can therefore involve them.

Women are most likely to be involved in alternative sources of energy as they are the ones who use charcoal as a source of energy.

Conclusion
The article has reviewed suggested requirements for transitioning to green economy both at the international and regional level. Zambian

early perspectives on the concept of green economy have also been captured. That is, investing in natural resources that can make money for

the poor, investing in people’s capacity, long-term perspectives to build institutional and economic resilience, making business houses and

civil society take the lead and focusing on both projects and governance. In addition, Zambian policies and strategies on environmental

protection have also been reviewed with an aim of pointing out their possible contributions to green economy aspirations. Parallel to these

discussions, factors limiting the involvement of women in development in general have been discussed. These have been used to postulate

possible or no participation of women in the green economy interventions. The article argues that women participation in green economy

interventions will be limited as they have problems of access to ICT infrastructures, low levels of education, lack skills and have constraints

of financial resources. With these challenges, Zambian situation has been used to substantiate these arguments and the article argues that

green economy interventions should have in mind these limitations, for example, low education levels amongst women compared to that of

men, low enrolments in science, mathematics and technology subjects, low access to assets commonly used as channels of communication

like mobile phones, radios and televisions. However, opportunities have also been identified for possible participation of women in the green

economy initiatives: they spend more hours in agricultural activities and are users of unsustainable sources of energy like charcoal. This

makes them better targets for implementation of green economy activities.

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the University of Zambia for giving me time off to attend the International Conference on Innovation for Sustainability

under Climate Change and Green Growth in Johannesburg, which led to the developing of the manuscript.

Competing interests

The author has no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced her in the writing of this article.

Footnotes
How to cite this article: Namukombo, J., 2016, ‘Information and communication technologies and gender in climate change and green economy: Situating women’s

opportunities and challenges in Zambian policies and strategies’, Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies 8(3), a243. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/jamba.v8i3.243

Article information
Jamba. 2016; 8(3): 243.

Published online 2016 Apr 12. doi: 10.4102/jamba.v8i3.243

PMCID: PMC6014032

PMID: 29955317

Justina Namukombo 1,2

1

Department of Political and Administrative Studies, University of Zambia, Zambia

Department of Literature and Languages, Geography and Environmental Education unit, Lusaka regional centre of expertise on education for sustainable development,

Zambia

Corresponding author.

Correspond ing author: Justina Namukombo, [email protected]

Received 2015 Sep 17; Accepted 2015 Dec 17.

Copyright © 2016. The Authors

Licensee:AOSIS. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

Articles from Jàmbá : Journal of Disaster Risk Studies are provided here courtesy of AOSIS

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Jean Ait Belkhir, Race, Gender & Class Journal

Women, Climate Change and Liberation in Africa

Author(s): Filomina Chioma Steady

Source: Race, Gender & Class, Vol. 21, No. 1/2, Race, Gender & Class 2013 Conference

(2014), pp. 312-333

Published by: Jean Ait Belkhir, Race, Gender & Class Journal

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43496976

Accessed: 26-04-2020 15:34 UTC

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Race, Gender & Class: Volume 21, Number 1-2, 2014 (312-333)

Gender & Class Website: www.rgc.uno.edu

Women, Climate Change and
Liberation in Africa

Filomina Chioma Steady
Africana Studies

Wellesley College

Abstract: Women in Africa have been among the first to notice the impact of climate
change and its effects on the agricultural cycle, human and animal life; food
production and food security. As major custodians and consumers of natural
resources, the lives of women in rural areas are profoundly affected by seasonal
changes, making them among the most vulnerable to climate change. Their pivotal
role in any measure aimed at mitigation and adaptation is indisputable. Despite
Africa’s minimal emission of green house gases, it is one of the most vulnerable
continents to climate change and climate variability and is prone to ecosystem
degradation and complex natural disasters. (United Nations Environment Programme,
2006). This article examines women and climate change in Africa as an aspect of
Africa’s environmental problems. It is argued that the ideologies that drive the
exploitation of the earth’s resources are linked to the legacy of colonialism and its
aftermath of economic globalization. Both have important implications for continuing
oppression of the environment and people, with important implications for race,
gender and class. Particular attention is given to women in rural areas in Africa, who
are the main custodians of environmental conservation and sustainability and who are
highly threatened by environmental degradation and climate change. Yet, they are
often marginalized from the decision-making processes related to solving problems
of Climate Change. The paper combines theoretical insights with empirical data to
argue for more attention to women’s important ecological and economic roles and
comments on the policy implications for Climate Change. It calls for liberation that
would bring an end to economic and ecological oppression through climate justice
and gender justice.

Keywords: Africa’s vulnerability; women; natural resources; colonial legacies;
hazardous waste dumping; land grabs; biofuels; mining, deforestation; liberation,
gender justice, climate justice.

Filomina Chioma Steady is Professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley College,
specializing in gender and development studies. She was the Special Advisor on

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Women, Climate Change and Liberation in Africa 313

Women, Environment and Development to the 1992 Earth Summit held in Rio de
Janeiro by the United Nations. Her research interests include women and
development studies, environmental justice, medical anthropology; gender theory,
gender justice, Africa and the African Diaspora.

Address: Africana Studies (Gender Studies, Environmental Justice), Wellesley
College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02781. Ph.: (781) 283-2565, Fax:
(781) 283-3672, Email: [email protected]

Climate emission challenge Change of of green the is twenty house probably first gases, century. the it most is one Despite important of the Africa’s most environmental vulnerable negligible
challenge of the twenty first century. Despite Africa’s negligible
emission of green house gases, it is one of the most vulnerable

continents to climate change and climate variability and is prone to ecosystem
degradation and complex natural disasters (United Nations Environment
Programme, 2006). The gender implications of climate change are being
increasingly appreciated since women’s economic and social roles bring them into
a total relationship to the ecology in African societies. At the same time, gender-
based discrimination marginalizes them from environmental benefits, training and
decision-making. This article examines women and climate change in Africa as an
aspect of Africa’s environmental problems. It is argued that the ideologies that
drive the exploitation of the earth’s resources are linked to colonialism and its
aftermath of economic globalization which have important implications for
continuing oppression on the basis primarily of race, gender and class. Particular
attention is given to poor women in rural areas in Africa, who are the main
custodians of environmental conservation and sustainability and who are highly
threatened by environmental degradation and climate change. The paper combines
theoretical insights with empirical data and comments on their policy implications
for women in Africa. It calls for liberation, namely, an end of economic and
ecological oppression through climate justice and gender justice.

As early as June 8th 1977, when the first trees were planted in Kenya by
Wangari Maathai and a small group of women, the link between deforestation,
desertification and climate change were made in Africa. This was long before the
world caught on to the idea of the dangers of climate change and held world
conferences in Rio in 1992 and later in Kyoto and Copenhagen. Environmental
concerns became linked with issues of gender equality, peace, security, democracy,
justice and liberation. The Nobel Peace Committee in 2004 recognized the broader
social and political links with the environment as well as the gender dimensions
when it granted the Nobel Peace Prize to the late Wangari Maathai of Kenya in
2004.

The connection between women and the environment were highlighted in the
1 992 Earth Summit in Rio, particularly in Agenda 21: The Program of Action from
Rio , of which Chapter 24 is titled: “Global Action for Women towards Sustainable
and Equitable Development.” Some of the gender dimensions and the broader
social and political links with the environment were recognized by Wangari

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314 Filomina Chioma Steady

Maathai in her acceptance speech for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize:

Throughout Africa, women are the primary caretakers, holding significant
responsibility for tilling the land and feeding their families. As a result, they are
often the first to become aware of environmental damage as resources become
scarce and incapable of sustaining their families…. Using trees as a symbol of
peace is in keeping with a widespread African tradition. (From Wangari
Maathai’s Nobel Lecture, delivered in Oslo, 10 December 2004.)

Women and the Environment in Africa

As in many parts of the world, gender relations in Africa are largely structured
around dealings with the environment. This is particularly true is rural areas where
agriculture is the dominant mode of production. In 1 970 Boserup’s landmark study
emphasized the devastating role of colonial rule on women in African agriculture
and its reinforcement and introduction of new forms of inequality in the gender
division of labor in African agriculture. Women were marginalized and their labor
expropriated, a factor that led to the degradation of the environment.

Agriculture

Women in Africa provide the bulk of the labor in agriculture and are major
resource managers in rural areas of Africa. They are overwhelmingly responsible
for subsistence food production, procurement of water, fuel and animal husbandry,
involving small animals. On account of these activities, women have acquired a
wide array of indigenous knowledge about farming and local resources that has
been passed down from one generation to another. Based on the division of labor
by gender, tasks involving the clearing of land or forest and preparing the beds for
planting are done by men Women typically do the sowing of seeds, planting of tree
cuttings, watering, weeding and harvesting. As a result, women spend more time
on agricultural work and are responsible for the more long-term, routine and tedious
aspects of the work.

Colonial rule introduced cash crops which were cultivated mostly by men.
Women’s workload in subsistence agriculture increased and often also involved
providing labor for the weeding, watering and harvesting of cash crops. Increase in
women’s workload and gender-based discrimination usually marginalizes women
from participation in training programs; in the development of agricultural policies
and derived little of the benefits of new agricultural knowledge or inputs.
Recognition of these discrepancies has received growing attention in the
development literature and have played a role in some of the changes in agricultural
policies and practices towards greater gender sensitivity and equality (FAO, 1985;
Sontheimer, 1991; Jommo, 1993; Timberlake, 1985).

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Women, Climate Change and Liberation in Africa 315

Forests

Trees and forests have important ecological functions that go beyond serving
as carbon sinks to absorb the excessive carbon emissions, primarily from
industrialized societies. For people for whom forests form the basis for their
livelihood, deforestation can be devastating. Loss of tree cover increases the
burden of obtaining forest resources and water, increases soil erosion and decreases
agricultural productivity (Williams, 1993). Many people living in rural areas in
Africa depend on the forests for subsistence resources including food, firewood,
fiber timber, material for crafts, animal fodder, medicinal herbs and so forth. In
many African societies, it is women who collect forest resources for the subsistence
needs of their households. Men are usually involved with tapping trees for rubber
and palm wine and for harvesting palm kernels and coconuts that involved
climbing. Men were also responsible for cutting down of trees and tend to care for
large trees in general. Over the last three decades or so, there has been recognition
of the social diversity of forest users which include traditional forest dwellers,
farmers and pastoralists (Williams, 1992, 1993; Chavang, 1988; Lewis, 1990).

Women’s roles in community forestry has been amply documented as well as
the role of women in using and managing forest resources. As a result, many
forestry projects in Africa have sought to include women’s participation for reasons
of forestry development but also as a way of mitigating the impact of deforestation
on Climate Change (Mathai, 1 988). In Kenya, the Greenbelt Movement has planted
trees as a response to deforestation and their activities have expanded to include
other countries in Africa. A study of eight countries in Africa examined constraints
to women’s participation in forestry and strategies were developed to overcome
these constraints. Women are essential for community forestry and agriculture in
Africa. As Williams points out:

In Africa, most farmers are women. Declining agricultural yields increase
women’s workload, as they must work more to obtain enough yields to feed their
families. Where women raise small stock, decreases in woody vegetation make
it more difficult for women to feed their animals. Declining agricultural activity
directly affects household nutrition and incomes (Williams, 1993:179).

In many countries of Africa, such as Zanzibar, Sudan, Cameroon, Kenya and Mali,
deforestation is affecting household livelihoods. For an example, in Zanzibar, trees
were cut down to make room for clove tree plantations. As a result, women work
greater distances to get firewood and poor households spend up to 40% of their
income on fuel. Although women and children collect an estimated 60 to 80
percent of all domestic firewood supplies in Africa, it is now well documented that
women do not cause deforestation since they usually collect firewood from
branches and dead wood. Most deforestation in Africa results from clearing land
for agricultural, commercial or construction purposes (FAO, 1988; Williams, 1 993 ;
Khatibu & Suleiman, 1991; Lewis, 1990; Jommo, 1993).

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316 Filomina Chioma Steady

Water

There is growing evidence that there will soon be a shortage of water that will
affect all regions (Myers, 1991). The Global Consultation on Safe Water and
Sanitation noted that some 80 countries, supporting 40% of the world’s population
already suffer from serious water shortage and water scarcity is accelerating (Yoon,
1993). It is a well know fact that Climate Change affects fresh water supplies as
a result of the pollution from increasing floods; acidification from sea level rise;
increased shortage of fresh water and an increase in water-borne diseases, such as
cholera (International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report, 2012). By 2020,
between 75 and 250 million of people are projected to be exposed to increased
water stress due to climate change.

By 2020, in some countries, yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced
by up to 50%. Agricultural production, including access to food, in many African
countries is projected to be severely compromised. This would further adversely
affect food security and exacerbate malnutrition (Yoon, 1993).

Scarcity of clean fresh water is a problem for women in many areas but is
particularly acute in arid and semi-arid areas such as in the Sahel and where drought
is a constant threat, such as in parts of East and Southern Africa. According to the
International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) arid and semi-arid land areas in
Africa are increasing. By 2080, an increase of 5 to 8% of arid and semi-arid land
in Africa is projected under a range of climate scenarios (International Panel on
Climate Change Report, 2012).

Women’s role in the management of household water supplies as well as their
roles as agricultural and fisheries workers are key factors in the ecology of water
resources. They are also critical in the control of water pollution in relation to
household use and in agriculture and fisheries. Women’s economic and social roles
brings them into a total relationship to the ecology and not just to domestic water
supply. In most African societies, women play a dominant role in collecting fresh
water for household use, aided by children. For centuries, they had drawn water
from the rivers or other sources and carried it home in buckets or jogs on their
heads or backs, walking long distances, sometimes up to twenty kilometers (Yoon,
1993). WEDNET and women’s indigenous knowledge.

The Women, Environment and Development Network (WEDNET) in Africa
stated approach starts with a critique of development in Africa and emphasizes that
“far from bringing the expected widespread benefits, postcolonial development
strategies in Africa have only resulted in socio-economic crisis; a seriously
compromised resource base and environmental degradation.” (Jommo, 1 993 ; With
regard to the faulty colonial policies in Africa, see Dumont, 1966, 1980, French
agronomist who wrote several books about the dangers of environmental
degradation in Africa resulting from colonialism and its legacies.) The fact that
women’s multiple domestic roles places a double burden on them in confronting
environmental degradation is compounded by the context of poverty in which the
majority of the rural population in Africa lives.

As a result of the division of labor based on gender women are allocated tasks

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Women, Climate Change and Liberation in Africa 31 7

requiring continuous, sustained, time-consuming labor and environmental oversight
to a greater extent than men. It is no wonder that women are among the first people
to notice environmental degradation, sound the alarm, and try to mitigate or adapt
to the consequences. In addition, women have been the most vocal activists in
challenging environmental violations. At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio and the
2002 Rio plus 1 0 Conference on Sustainable Development in South Africa, women
from all countries in Africa, as members of Non Governmental Organizations such
as Women, Environment and Development Organization (WEDO,) Development
Alternatives for Women in a New Era (DAWN) and Association of African Women
for Research and Development (AAWORD) against international economic policies
such as Structural Adjustment; the dept burden and economic globalization that are
resulting in destruction of the environment; impoverishment and that threaten the
social fabric of society. They also called for access for women to fertile land, clean
water and other resources (NGO collaborative meetings and consultations with UN
officials at the Earth Summit of 1992 and Rio plus 10 of 2002).

Land

Some of the challenges of agriculture, forestry and water are linked to access
to land, a factor that has gender implications. In most patrilineal societies, which
are prevalent in Africa, men control the distribution and access to land. Women
have to work on land usually allocated to their husbands, fathers or sons. As a rule,
land is communally owned in most rural areas but access to land may be determined
by patrilineal rules of descent, a major factor in social organization. Usually men
and women work on the land together according to the gender division of
agricultural labor. With the introduction of cash crops, primarily cultivated by men,
women took on the major task of subsistence agriculture with an increase in their
workload. They may also work, without much benefit, on lands where cash crop
is produced. Where land is scarce it is not unusual for women to practice
intercropping by planting food crops in between trees. Privatizing land that was
previously owned communally owned can have an impact on water resources.
Shifting communal land ownership of water resources into private hands has
significant implications in terms of access, preservation, conservation and
accountability (Boserup, 1989; Jommo, 1993; Dixon-Mueller, 1985).

Africa’s Environmental Problems, Colonialism, Economic
Globalization, Climate Change and Liberation

The link between environmental degradation and Liberation is not as fully
recognized as it should be. Much of Africa’s environmental problems can be traced
to colonialism and the legacy of its policies that included extraction of resources for
export that devastated the land. Other environmental consequences include
deforestation, desertification, drought, shortage of fresh and clean water, shortage
of biomass for fuel, loss of soil fertility, loss of biodiversity and the impact of

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318 Filomina Chioma Steady

climate change. Colonialism had a devastating effect on African women as many
studies since Boserup’s classic study shows. Colonial agriculture subjugated
African women and appropriate their labor for exploitation (Boserup, 1975; Fall,
1999; Steady, 1981, 2002 among others).

Shiva’s critique of the patriarchal ideologies affecting colonialism credits’
Boserup’s astute observation of how women’s impoverishment increased during
colonial rule and notes the inevitability of patriarchal domination in the colonies:

Those rulers who had spent a few centuries in subjugating and crippling their own
women into deskilled, de-intellectualized appendages, disfavored the women of
the colonies on matters of access to land, technology and employment (Shiva,
1993).

According to Walter Rodney in his book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa:
“Africa is well endowed with natural resources but the situation is that Africa has

not yet come anywhere close to making the most of its natural wealth, and most of
the wealth now being produced is not being retained within Africa for the benefit
of its people…. Colonialism was not merely a system of exploitation, but one
whose essential purpose was to repatriate the profits to the so-called ‘mother
country’. From an African view-point, that amounted to consistent expatriation of
surplus produced by African labor out of African resources. It meant the
development of Europe as part of the same dialectical process in which Africa was
underdeveloped.” Rodney’s compelling explanatory thesis that colonial Africa fell
within that part of the international capitalist economy from which surplus was
drawn to feed the metropolitan sector resonate loudly with the environmental
challenges in Africa today (Rodney, 1981:20.

Economic globalization, the successor to colonialism, has been a mixed
blessing and has led to a ‘race to the bottom’ for most of the countries of the Global
South. It is the unfettered flow and accumulation of capital t the global level,
irrespective of the historical and territorial rights and constraints of nation states.
The key players are multinational corporations who have a stronghold on national
economies. They dominate economic production and distribution by controlling
capital and financial decision-making. The result is destruction of the environment.
Globalization, through Structural Adjustment Policies removes state subsidies for
the poor and increases marginalization and impoverishment in the Global South,
especially Africa (Dembele, 2002). Corporate globalization has its antecedents in
the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and colonialism. It also continues to create wealth

for the few elites of the Global North and Global South and to promote the negative
aspects of patriarchy and capitalism in producing marginalized racial groups, with
important gender implications, especially for poor rural women in Africa who have
played important roles in ensuring environmental sustainability (Steady, 1993; Fall,
1999; Dembele, 2002; Pheko, 2002).

There is overwhelming evidence that corporate globalization, through its
exercise of economic power and domination has reinforced polarization between
and within countries along socio-economic, racial and gender lines. The Global

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Women, Climate Change and Liberation in Africa 319

North/Global South divisions are among are among the most dramatic and are
manifested in policies affecting the environment, trade, immigration and refugee
policies, domestic migrant workers, refugees and asylum seekers. Ordinary women
and men, especially poor women in rural areas, pay the social and human cost of
globalization, especially those who historically and structurally have been racialized
and gendered into a subordinate position by the powerful ideologies of racism and
patriarchy, with destructive consequences for humans and the environment (See Sen
& Grown, 1986; Fall, 1999; Sethi, 1999; Center for Women and Development
Studies, 2000; Steady, 2002 among others).

The struggle for Liberation continues. Africa is faced with a number of
problems that are directly related to the unequal and exploitative nature of the
historical and current global political economy. The legacy of resistance that was
widespread during colonialism continues through challenges to corporate
globalization, structural adjustment programs and environmental devastation by
Multinational Corporations. Examples include 1) oil mining in Nigeria; 2) female
work in export processing in agro-industries; 3) deforestation and 4) International
dumping of hazardous waste.

1. Oil Mining

Oil mining companies, like Shell, operating in the Niger Delta of Nigeria have
been destroying the environment with impunity as they exploit the wealth of that
African nation (Adeola, 2009). In trying to attract foreign investments African
governments, including Nigeria, have not been enforcing the laws governing these
corporations. On the contrary, these companies are given incentives and tax
holidays without due regard to the damage to the environment and the resource base
on which people’s livelihoods depend. Oil leaching into the soil and streams as
well as oil flares, are common, and pollute and destroy marine life, the main source
of animal protein for these communities.

Nigerian women have been at the forefront of protests against oil companies
for their exploitation and destruction of the environment. These protests sometimes
result in the shut down of operations for considerable periods (Adeola, 2009).

2. Female Work in export processing in agro-industries

Female work in export processing industries has been increasing in Africa.
This is because multi-nationals move their export processing operations to Africa
from Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean where female labor has become more
expensive. Women are the majority of the labor force in agribusiness dealing with
food processing, flowers and in textile and garment industries, because their labor
is cheap and unprotected. In general, they experience long working hours, unsafe
and unsanitary working environments that are violations of conventions of the
International Labor Office and a violation of their human rights. In the flower
industries in countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia and Zambia women provide the
major labor force and use pesticides and other chemicals that result in spontaneous

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320 Filomina Chioma Steady

abortions, miscarriages, infertility and other reproductive problems.

3. Deforestation

The deforestation rate in Africa is four times the world average, due mainly to
logging activities that include commercial ventures and shipping timber to Europe
to make furniture for Europeans. Countries like the Ivory Coast, Ghana, and
Liberia have seen major losses of their forests. The case of Liberia is particularly
alarming. Two thirds of the forests of Liberia have been ceded to foreign logging
companies with no benefit to the people, despite promise of building schools,
clinics and providing employment. Although most African governments have
environmental legislation to halt deforestation, the problem continues at an
alarming rate. The efforts of the late Wangari Mathaai and the Greenbelt
Movement of Kenya to halt deforestation were often met with resistance from the
state and environmental female activists were often victims of police brutality.

4. International Dumping of Hazardous Waste

In September 2006, an oil tanker “Trafigura” based in the Netherlands secretly
and illegally dumped a considerable amount of toxic chemicals, mostly hydrogen
sulphide and components of organochlorides in various locations in the Ivory Coast,
resulting in deaths and injuries to hundreds of people, despite the Basel Convention
and the Bamako Convention against such actions. The practice of what has been
termed “Toxic colonialism” whereby countries of the Global South, especially those
in Africa are used as dumping ground is not new and sometimes occurs with the
complicity of the governments of Africa (Reed, 2009). As Gbadegesin notes: “The
dumping sites of toxic waste from Western nations can be found throughout Africa.
Some of these activities, like the Trafigura dumping are clandestine and others are
due to weak enforcement mechanisms and some are carried on in complicity with
the governments. Western companies are motivated by the low cost of disposing
of waste in African countries. The materials deposited vary from non nuclear
industrial waste from North America to uranium mining wastes from Colorado and
chemical and industrial waste (PCB) from Italy” (Gbadegesin, 2001:189).

A defense for dumping in countries like Africa was presented by Summers
when he was an economist at the World Bank. He agued that the logic of dumping
a load of toxic waste in a lowest-wage country was impeccable (Westra, 1993).
African scholars have described the dumping of nuclear waste on their continent as
“Toxic …