End poverty together.

My Father, the feminist

The strongest man in the world is he who stands alone
The strongest man in the world is he who stands alone
Photo: Douglas Woods/Flickr
Activista team
Volunteer at actionaid training center-Dar es salaam

A young Tanzanian activist and blogger spending much of my time advocating in social political,economic and environment issue dedicated to work in dynamic situations with diffferent people in the society who are facing hardship in life and social injustice,

 

 

 

 

Sixteen years ago when I was ten years old and young in knowledge about what does the word tradition would entails and how people were committed to it, it was a normal life seeing elders paying sacrifices by slaughtering a bull or spoil the local illicit under the big bamboo tree at night. But still I will not get to know why was that done and for whom,

When I reached eighteen I came to realize the inner concept of what was actually practiced and I could feel that in my blood. For example it was unusual finding a woman setting besides a man at the pub as she would simply termed as prostitute, and during the village council meeting women would keep their mouths closed to avoid been seen as misbehaving from men

it was unusual finding a woman setting besides a man at the pub as she would simply termed as prostitute 

 The issue of property ownership its where I could feel the discriminating  sides of traditions and women were forbidden to own land and other properties like houses, earning a lot of money than a man etc.

I think this problem might have also disturbed my parents for a long time, especially my farther, but I guess he was waiting for the time to take right measures. This is when he decided to break these stereotypes by providing the plots of land of about half an acre to each of my two sisters

Elders of the lands became angry and asked my farther to change his decision otherwise he would face two punishments which are, firstly cursed by ancestors and secondly been isolated from the rest of the community.

Despite the little formal education my father had he insisted on the decision he took and this made the leaders to do what they had promised earlier.  And thus every villager was waiting for our family to suffer but things went different as sign of success began to emerge. As my parents were getting older my two sisters took the roles of keeping family alive, with food, health and education, which I am the results of. Because of my sisters effort s I managed to reach university level

My two sisters helped not only the family but also the village by providing food assistances to those in need and the aged. At the same time they opened the center for orphans whose parents had died by HIV/AIDS.  After a few years the whole community came to realize the impacts of the decision taken by my father to change the bad existing structures and they took the same line.

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