"When distinct economic, social, and cultural systems are involved, ... migration is co-terminus with social change" (See Tienda and Booth, 51).
The complexity of these changes can be seen as Kenya and Tanzania 'modernize' their economic and political systems, and thousands of women move to the cities and away from the rural lands they have long occupied, a contributing factor to the doubling of the urban population in both countries since 1970 (African Statistical Yearbook). Such massive shifts, coupled with the rapid economic and cultural changes at their root, have left women in a unique position.
Despite legal equality, urban women continue to face discrimination including restrictions on the opportunities to own land, receive an adequate education, obtain credit, find waged jobs, and participate in politics. While many obstacles persist, the socio-cultural realignment spawned by urbanization presents a unique opportunity to incorporate women into the formal socio- political spectrum. Unless women are treated as individuals, and not as male accessories, they will remain peripheralized as Kenya and Tanzania stabilize their social and political dynamics. The Kenya and Tanzania governments must take advantage of this opportunity and the international community must encourage them to do so.
By outlining some of the key factors that dictate gender relationships, I hope to delineate the foundations for a more sophisticated analysis of urbanization.
The remaining legal limitations on women's economic and political participation must be abolished as a first step toward achieving equal status. Although the abrogation of these restrictive measures alone does not ensure equality, their removal does set a standard of opportunity that women require to establish themselves as independent actors. With legal systems in both countries ensuring the fundamental rights all citizens, the challenge remains to empower women to the degree necessary so that they may realize the rights reserved for them.
Despite claims to the contrary from revisionist historians (see Stamp), rural pre-colonial and colonial women were rarely, if ever, able to achieve status other than through their husbands, brothers, or fathers. Urban culture is relatively new to East Africa and with this urban expansion, new social and economic opportunities for both women and men are emerging. As the 'traditional' family enforcing women's secondary position fades and women urbanize, they become separated from their rural history and culture. This allows women to reinvent themselves and their relationships with men and with the state. In this way, rapid urbanization, even with its disadvantages, may serve as a catalyst for equality. (Footnote: 1)
In colonial urbanization one finds the origins of women's Socio-economic empowerment. Although perhaps not palatable today, or ideal in any time, the prostitutes of colonial Nairobi were the first to discover the power of work in the informal sector (See The Comforts of Home by Luise White, particularly her discussion of the Malaya form of prostitution) (Footnote 2). Faced with little or no access to waged jobs, few educational opportunities, a capitalist restructuring of the agricultural system, an absolute exclusion from politics and fragmentation of the family structure (that almost eliminated women's ability to survive on a man's wage while requiring them to singularly bear the burden of child care), women sought and found cooperation and an independent identity through economic activities. Despite colonial administration policies preventing Africans from permanently settling in the cities, the Malaya prostitutes were able to purchase almost 80% of all available land in certain districts (White, 123) Such a base enabled women to establish a solidarity and self-sustaining subculture. In today's East African cities, women confront many of these same hindrances (see Meena, Bujra, Riddell, Rau, Mukurasi, and Schmidt) and can still achieve status through work in the informal sector.
Although changing, the overwhelming majority of women remain employed in agriculture or the informal sector and very few have any real political power (see Meena, p.17). Although data is scarce, it appears that women of the slums and squatter settlements continue to use the informal sector, unregulated by the state and relatively free of male interference, to support themselves and their families. Women seem to be organizing into cooperative groups, and rotating credit associations, some of which may even be participating in larger community umbrella organizations (e.g., Jua Kali in Dar es Salaam). These groups not only allow these women to survive but facilitate voluntary cooperation between ethnic groups; an achievement that the governments of Kenya and Tanzania would be surely proud to claim as an accomplishment. From such cooperation comes a new identity, one based on independence and self reliance. From this identity and unity can emerge economic, social, and political power.
Dr. Wangari Maathai, founder and director of Kenya's Greenbelt Movement, warns that financial support from major donors (e.g., Multi-Lateral Organizations, Foreign NGOs and Governments) to indigenous groups will often corrupt and destroy the positive elements that these benefactors seek to foster. If this admonition is true, how then can those with wealth truly hope to assist? The two official women's organizations in Kenya and Tanzania, have long been co-opted by state political interests (See Wipper), so governmental support of more programs is surely not an option. Although not a full remedy, I suggest that foreign observers, activists, and development policy makers must include the following within their agenda:
* Insist that the Governments of Kenya and Tanzania abandon slum razings, illegally seizing property, and forcing those without permanent residences to return to rural areas. With few other economic options open to them, such activities are detrimental to the economic prospects of women and their progeny. By ceasing this behavior, the government will stop driving a wedge between itself and the poor while passively fostering economic opportunities for poor women (see Kobiah).
* Review lending practices and zoning and property laws to enable poor women to eventually buy land. It is still common practice to require women to have a male signatory on any property deal. The land, therefore, is legally his. With little land available for settlement and almost none available for purchase, poor women cannot hope to establish themselves economically.
* Continue to encourage the expansion of formal programs for women's basic and vocational education. This will allow women and girls the opportunity to diversify economically. Such diversification is absolutely necessary if urban demographic and economic growth at all levels is to continue.
* Provide raw materials and technical and managerial knowledge to indigenous programs and organizations owned or operated by women. While not every enterprise will be successful, the capital resources required are relatively small and the infusion of technical and managerial knowledge will help blend conventional wisdom with Western expertise. Women have very little access to such education and this combination has the potential to be highly effective in creating a work-force of educated women and spawning interclass cooperation (see March and Taqqu).
If newly urbanized women establish their independence through both economic and social means, they will be able to control sectors and industries that are essential to the smooth functioning of the state. With this independence, they will have the political power to work toward more equitable conditions for all women. Conversely, if urban women continue to be discriminated against, they will not gain the power to influence state politics and will remain marginalized. Urbanization is intrinsic to the contemporary East Africa, a reality which must be addressed in current and future policies. It is in the best interest of all parties to work toward a state with an economically productive and diversified population. To do this, the needs and welfare of newly urbanized women must be seriously considered.
Footnotes:
1. While women in pre-colonial cultures may have been able to achieve higher social positions through hard work and ingenuity, historical accounts of even the most egalitarian peoples (e.g., Koponen, Wembah-Rasnid, Robertson and Berger), demonstrate that status could only really be earned through men and that (men, husbands, fathers and sons), benefited more directly from women's creativity and cooperation than did the women themselves.)
2. It should be noted that prostitution was not necessarily purely sexual. It included, along with or instead of sex, sewing, conversation, cooking, errand running and the like. Activities that White terms the 'Reproduction of Labor.' Today, many women continue to pursue these activities professionally.
Sources
* African Statistical Yearbook, 1990
* Bujra, Janet M. 1990. Taxing Development in Tanzania: Why Women Must Pay. African Review of Political Economy 47: 43 -63.
* Kobiah, Samuel Mujwikia. 1984/1985. The Origins of Squatting and Community Organization in Nairobi. African Urban Studies. 19/20:3-103.
* Koponen, Juhani. 1988. People and Production in Late Pre-Colonial Tanzania: History and Structures, Monographs of the Finnish Society for Development Studies 2. Helsinki: Finnish Society for Development Studies.
* March, Kathryn S. and Rachelle L. Taqqu. 1986. Women's Informal Associations in Developing Countries: Catalysts for Change? Boulder: Westview Press.
* Meena, Ruth. 1990. The Impact of Structural Adjustment Programs on Rural Women in Tanzania. In Structural Adjustment and African Women Farmers, Gainesville: University of Florida Press: 169-190.
* Mukurasi, Laeticia. 1991. Post Abolished. One Woman's Struggle for Employment Rights in Tanzania. Ithica: The Women's Press.
* Rau, Bill. 1993. From Feast to Famine. London: Zed Books.
* Ridell. 1992. Things Fall Apart Again: Structural Adjustment Programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Journal of Modern African Studies. 30,1:56-68.
* Robertson, Claire and Iris Berger, Eds. 1986. Women and Class in Africa. New York: African Publishing Company.
* Schmidt, Margrethe Silber. 1992. Have Women Become the Weaker Sex? Changing Life Situations in Kisii District, Kenya. Journal of Modern African Studies. 20,2: 237-253.
* Stamp, Patricia. 1989. Technology, Gender and Power in Africa. Ottawa: International Development Research Center.
* Tienda, Marta and Karen Booth. 1991. Gender, Migration and Social Change. International Sociology. 6, 1: 51-72.
* Wembah-Rasnid, J.A.R. 1975. The Ethno-History of the Matrilineal Peoples of South-East Tanzania. Vienna: Acta Ethnologica Et Linguitieca No.32.
* White, Luise. 1990. The Comforts of Home: Prostitution in Colonial Nairobi. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
* Wipper, Audrey. 1975. The Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organization: The Co-optation of Leadership. African Studies Review. 28,3: 99-118.
Taken from: The Antenna Foundation - http://www.antenna.nl/ywd/Background/landau.html