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Speaking for the African woman

By: Susan Anyangu

[ Posted On: 2007-08-14 ]

While Kenyan women fight to have 50 seats reserved for them in Parliament, Ms Mutheu Meierhofer-Mangeli, a Kenyan living in Switzerland, has contested twice in the far away country, writes Susan Anyangu.

As women in Kenya fight for more representation, miles away in Switzerland, another woman is fighting a similar battle, albeit on another scale.

Ms Mutheu Meierhofer-Mangeli, 53, a Kenyan living abroad has taken the battle of equal representation to Europe where she has lived for the last 26 years.

"It is very difficult for blacks especially women living in a predominately white community.

"When I first arrived in Europe, the society was very closed and blacks were considered outsiders.

"I kept thinking it was unfair to feel unwanted. After all, we say the world is a global village and I think this means we should learn to live with each other. I wanted to make a difference for the black woman."

To the surprise of many but out of conviction because she says she is a politician at heart, Mutheu, plunged into politics.

She became the first black woman to ever contest for a parliamentary seat in Switzerland, a country of predominantly whites.

Though she has been unsuccessful in her two attempts, Mutheu has made a point. She has obviously touched some hearts with her work because she has considerable support from the locals.

And she does not rule out running for office again and may just become the first black woman MP in Switzerland.

"I do not see non-white faces in parliament but because I have lived in that country for long I have to make a difference. It is time they understood black people differently especially women," she says.

Organisation seeks legal redress for black women

She says laws in some countries in Europe support a system that essentially abuses foreigners. For instance, black women living in Switzerland cannot get a visa unless they are married to a Swiss or are 'dancers.'

"Dancers abroad are equivalent to prostitutes and thus African women find themselves lured to a life of sexual slavery. The law is racist and such women end up abused and their children are discriminated against," she says.

Mutheu also says Africans living in Europe are subjected to violence from right wing extremists. Through involvement in politics and her organisation, Meeting Place and Resource Centre for Black Women, which she formed about 15 years ago, she advocates for the rights of black women irrespective of their countries of origin.

Her organisation seeks legal redress for black women are usually constrained financially. She is the director of the centre which offers support services to black women in Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and France."

The centre trains women on how to influence European policies that affect them and Africa as a continent.

"We monitor attitude and raise awareness around policies which affect black women and Africa as a continent," she says.

Centre raises funds for legal services

It also provides counselling.

"The Western world has done a perfect job of marketing their countries to lure Africans. Africans are lured to Europe and America under the guise that life abroad is a bed of roses. But when people get here they find things are not as rosy. That is where we come in and provide relevant information and tell people what to expect," she says.

The centre raises funds to seek legal services for such women and they also visit those in prisons. The centre also provides space for women to share their experiences and get support.

"The Meeting Place and Resource Centre for Black Women is a national organisation that offers a platform for carrying issues concerning black women, their families, their integration process, and their interaction with society," she says.

The centre offers a safe space for the women. It mobilises resources and empowers black women. It challenges sexist and racist stereotypes by emphasising positive images of black women.

"We offer counselling, translation, act as 'buffers' and intercultural mediation for black women and their families in crisis situations," she says.

The centre also fundraises and collaborates with the courts, social services and psychiatric institutions to assist these women.

Young girls need all the support they can get

Mutheu's organisation also acts as an information post for individuals, schools and other educational institutions in Europe. The centre is also linked with other black women's groups in the Diaspora, working and linking with them for internship, training and information exchange.

Mutheu is a firm believer in the view that educating a woman is educating a whole community.

"The potential of an African woman is exciting…when I see what happens to an educated black woman…it is scary…the potential is absolutely immense. I'm not sure why black women are not leading the world because we are brave," she says.

"When a woman is educated she explores her potential to the maximum and achieves success to very high levels."

Mutheu says Africa is not short of exceptional black women who have fought hard for the rights of women and she argues young girls in Africa do not lack role models.

"When I see what African women are capable of I get impressed. We are brave and have perfected the art of survival. I don't know why we don't rule the world…perhaps it is because we are nice…we have been trained to be submissive and to want harmony. For us to rule to the world we may actually need to stop being nice," Mutheu says with such conviction.

She says that for young girls to realise their potential as adults they only need all the support they can get.

"Think about it…if you knew what you know now when you were about 15 years, your life would be different. That information would have meant a lot to you then and would have made a huge difference to the person you turned out to be as an adult," she says.

Believes in documenting things for posterity

For this reason, Mutheu has devoted a greater part of her life to working to empower young and adult black women. She says she especially enjoys working with young girls between the ages of 15 and 20.

Mutheu also doubles as a researcher and a photographer.

She is a graduate of Pedagogy and Sociology and works across Europe and Africa. Mutheu says she developed an interest in photography because she believes in documenting things for posterity.

"I was living abroad away from my family but I wanted my daughters to learn about my Kenyan heritage. So I started documenting my grandmother's tales and soon began taking photos of her," she explains.

To date, she has hundreds of photos she took of her grandmother and she admits she was never able to capture the real character of her subject.

"I could never get the real authentic image of my grandmother and I believe this is the same way the real potential of the black woman has never been captured and documented the world over," she says.

Mutheu's advocacy for black women rights started during her stint as an executive director of Akina Mama Wa Afrika (AMwA) 'solidarity for women', an organisation based in the United Kingdom. It provides a platform for African women leaving abroad to share their experiences.

Improving capacity of black women in leadership

Despite leaving the organisation, she is still instrumental in providing support to the group.

"I met AMwA when I was very young in 1985 and was living in Switzerland. I was already working with African women living in the Diaspora and it was exciting to meet a like-minded organisation. I had already started the centre for black women in Switzerland and AMwA was instrumental in nurturing us as a group," she says.

Akina Mama Wa Afrika has been working for 20 years and has been instrumental in giving support to black women living in the UK and Europe. It is currently a leading non-governmental organisation (NGO), which works to empower women in leadership and has its headquarters in Uganda.

While at AmwA, Mutheu worked alongside others to improve the capacity of black women in leadership and development.

"We want women to own the process and make decisions. So through AMwA women were and still are being trained to take part in policy making," she says.

The mode of training used by AMwA is referred to as 'pot', which essentially means train on the personal, organisational and put emphasis on transferring the acquired skills.

"AMwA trains women in leadership positions and it is our general feeling that all women are leaders. We raise awareness of women leaders through training parliamentarians, those in NGOs and journalists," Mutheu says.

Worked in Sierra Leone with young girls and women

As part of its mandate AMwA engages in fundraising to get money to cover the training costs. They also nurture other like-minded organisations, which are generally started by those who have been through AMwA training.

It was in the same way that the centre started by Mutheu was nurtured by AMwA.

A holder of a masters degree in conflict management, Mutheu employs her research skills at the centre to document so she can lobby from an informed perspective.

Between her work at the centre and being a mother, Mutheu is also passionate about doing research in post-conflict situations. She especially concentrates on research in issues concerning young girls and women in post-conflict situations.

Mutheu's research work seeks to document the situation before conflict and after to highlight possible causes that led to the war.

She worked in Sierra Leone with young girls and women, documenting their behaviour during the post-conflict period for the world to seek solutions on how such women can be re-socialised into society.

Mutheu says the situation in Sierra Leone was humbling and is still etched in her mind.

"The work in Sierra Leone was very humbling, it was shocking to see a young girl only 13 years old with two children of her own. This is a child barely into her teens yet she is forced into a situation of motherhood. I shed tears for this girl, it was really frustrating," she recounts.

Former women combatants were distressed

While trying to understand the circumstances that led to the situation in Sierra Leone, Mutheu met women who had been forced to kill their families and now were required to live in the same society.

"I spoke to former combatants, women who had risen to the level of generals and were used to ordering people around and shooting those who did not heed their instructions. Such women were traumatised because they had been reduced to civilians post-conflict," Mutheu explains.

She says the former women combatants were distressed at the fact that they had been reduced to just being 'women' as opposed to being a soldier.

She recounts the story of an 18-year old woman who during the war had risen to the level of a general.

"This young woman had been hardened by the war and she did not understand life as a civilian. The fact that she was no 'longer a woman' meant she had been downgraded as a civilian. This young lady was distraught," Mutheu says.

Why the particular interest in girls and women in post-conflict situations? Mutheu says women already face huge challenges in life but in post-conflict situations the tragedy is worse.

"The problems they face are multi-faceted. These women have to contend with the discrimination that comes with being a woman and during war they are forced into sexual slaves and subjected to suffering and HIV/Aids," she says.

Horror of women in conflict

These women are often traumatised because they are forced back to live with their families, yet they have borne children with the enemy.

The women live in fear because their children may be killed because they belong to those who maimed people during war.

Mutheu says she has no real solutions to such situations but believes in documenting the issues. Others can step in to provide answers. Crucial though is the fact that the information should be used to avoid the circumstances that led to war.

Her work in post-conflict research has seen her transverse the globe and especially so the African continent. She was worked in Liberia, Congo and Uganda.

During her research work, she does not leave her camera behind and has photographed the subjects of her work. Her photographs from Sierra Leone were exhibited at the United Nations General Assembly visitors' lobby at the UN headquarters in New York.

The exhibition dubbed, "The impact of Armed Conflict on Girls," gave the Western world a snippet at the horror women in conflict go through. The exhibition was lauded as finally giving a true picture of war and how it affects women and girls.

Photographs brought to light plight of 'girl-mothers'

Speaking during the exhibition, Ms Carol Bellamy, the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund said finally the world could understand war is not a male thing.

"I don't think people understand how strongly women and girls are affected by war. We have a totally different image of war than what we can see in these photographs. We think of war as a male thing, and these pictures show the tragedy of war for women and girl," she said.

Mutheu's photographs brought to light the plight of what she calls 'girl-mothers.' These are young girls, barely teenagers, holding and nursing their babies. She describes them as disadvantaged in peace time, and sexually abused and enslaved in wartime.

A woman used to pioneering in many fields, she was the first black woman to qualify as a trained fire fighter in Switzerland.

She believes with such achievements Switzerland as a country will acknowledge that black women are not illegal immigrants or prostitutes.

As a parting remark she says: "Kenyan women are progressive and we should work hard not to loose the gains we made. We should aspire to be leaders and should not fear that it will make us less women. It will only make us stronger."

And credit to her skills as a parent, Mutheu and her husband have brought up excellent young women.

"One of my daughters is a doctor and the other is studying to be a lawyer. They both work with me at the resource centre and indeed I am glad they have grown up to be exceptional women," Mutheu says.

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author: Susan Anyangu

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