VOF Week 4: (Every Woman Has Grassroots)

I once had the privilege of interacting with an influential female politician in my Country; we were a group of like-minded feminists who wanted to hear her story. She talked to us for hours, and with every word she uttered I sympathized with her. Her journey into the world of politics in a patriarchal society blended with corruption and insecurity has been and is still hard. She has been harassed, publicly humiliated, insulted, and accused of “sleeping around with men”, yet she still is fighting to live her dream, and helping the youth and young women to achieve theirs. No one knows her story; she looks beautiful, with her red painted lips, and perfectly combed hair.

Late November 2008, a young girl who lived next to Kibera slums was going home one evening. Six men forcefully took her to a nearby forest, and gang raped repeatedly for hours till she lost consciousness; they then filled her openings with dirt. When she regained consciousness, she walked hoping to meet help; it was late in the night. She saw some houses, and knocked on the doors but people were too scared to open. She eventually got help, was rushed to the police to file the report, then taken to Nairobi women’s hospital; she was treated, and was given ARVs. She is a young girl and a good friend, and when she told me of her ordeal, I felt helpless. The police have never found the rapists, and worse, they no longer bother, despite constant reminders. It has been only five months and her story is forgotten; yet she lives with the pain.

The above are two women battling to survive despite that which they have experienced and are still experiencing. I come from a country that has so much potential; yet its growth is retarded by lack of proper systems, traditions that hold women hostage, ignorance, and loud silent screams.

This shapes my vision in life, to inform, to motivate. That is why I have written my first manuscript specifically for the disadvantaged woman and girl, encouraging them to dare to dream, challenging them to fight traditions, and all other forms of patriarchy to achieve that dream.

That is why I am also in school studying African literature and culture in an attempt to understand my community, and tell the world about it, the good and the bad; to commend and to criticize. It is important for every woman, to know her history, and learn from it. It is important for a woman to identify her theme, that which makes her whole.

I do sometimes wonder if I am just wasting my energy. What will a simple shy young girl brought up in a farm accomplish? But I believe that if I do not try I will feel worse, so I keep trying, and I draw strength from women before me, those with me, and those who are behind me. It is my responsibility to tell the world how the African woman has been and is being represented.

Being a correspondent will be a humbling opportunity yet a huge responsibility. I believe every woman regardless of her social status, or race, has her “grassroots”, that inner self, your “main body”. Where stories that are unknown to the rest of the world are hidden, yet that may just be the story that will motivate the next woman, inform the movement, mobilize, that may just be the story that needs to be told.

I want a community where the woman does not have to suffer just because she is a woman. I want a community where the girl child is not silenced just because she is a girl, a world where feminism will not longer be a movement reactive to patriarchy because it will no longer exist.

Being a world pulse correspondent, provides me with another platform to tell the story of that woman, that girl that cannot tell it out, not because she does not want, but either because she does not know she can tell it, or she does not know how to tell.