Women Empowerment in Mozambique: a Fiction Move Or Reality

Women Empowerment in Mozambique: A Fiction Move or Reality?

Inês M. Raimundo[1]

Abstract

This article attempts to discuss women’s empowerment and its significance. The main objective was to review the status of the country in terms of gender relations by assessing the dimension of women at the education (literacy) and in power domains. Literature review and empirical data have demonstrated that the issue of women is still a department highly influenced by the patriarchy system. The government of Mozambique has attempted to follow the basic principles of Nairobi and then Beijing, namely the increase of women’s education, lowering the rates of fertility, the increase of life expectancy and its commitment on ensuring equal rights between females and males.

Introduction

It is widely considered that it is sufficient for governments to work through statements with international institutions in the “gender empowerment” discourse. The discourse of gender empowerment has become like making a cake which everybody must make, and after a couple of times the cake is ready to be eaten. However, there is a great divide between motives and action. The society is still predominately marked by a system of patriarchy and ideology with the help of the government, sets in motion the majority of Mozambicans. From Nairobi 1985 to Beijing 1995 and up to 2005, several directives have been given in order to promote women and give them a voice in the process of leadership and decision-making. Mozambique can be proud of being one of the few countries in the world, and particularly in Africa, where the issue of women have been taken in consideration since the liberation war in 1964 (WLSA 1997). It has been theFRELIMO[2]to solve the issues of inequality and exploitation of women by men.After independence in 1975, the issue became manifest since it was enclosed in the national Constitution (Hanlon 1984; WLSA 1997; UNDP 2001).

Although Mozambique, together with Rwanda, have been considered as two of the few African countries where women’s empowerment has gained particular dominance (see Afrol News 2005; Baden 1997), much still needs to be done since these advancements in spite of everything have not impactedmuch on rural communities where the majority live, and most important, contain the stigmas that accompany those women who are in power. The resistance for changes in relation to women’s leadership must start from the top and reach the bottom. Looking into the way that women have been empowered in this country, empirical evidence has shown that the empowered women have the following background: firstly,in rural areas the few who are in power have royal origins, for instance the Apwyamwene[3]overall have “blue blood”, like the “assimilados[4], with liberation war ascendancy an urbanized origin and high level of education, unlike their men counterparts. Secondly,there is a resistance for the top leadership to empower women in positions like ambassadors, for instance, because a man cannot be “ambassador’s husband” and provincial governors cannot also be assumed to be women since the husband would have to attach himself to his wife when she performs the Government task. It is unthinkable to have men following women unless he is an “n’dzava[5]”.

It took almost thirty years to increase the number of women in the power. From a single woman, who became minister in the year of 1976 to a Prime Minister in 2004, who has been in a privileged and a former Deputy Minister of Finance and Minister of Finance are positions predominantly entrusted to men. Mozambican women must be proud of thesegains. But what is empowerment in a situation where the majority are still living in anabsolute poverty with no access to schooling, credit and no power to decide in terms of how their money is managed? What does it mean to empower women in a situation where the few who have access to leadership are not listened properly? My assumption is the women’s empowerment is still in Mozambique a fiction move where the “passengers” are the privileged “assimilados”, the former liberation war veterans, the well educated and who have royal roots, whereas the pedestrians are the poorest and the majority,both in rural and in urban areas.

Turning into the Nairobi’s agenda in fact, Mozambique has done some advancement on the sexual reproductive health through family planning program, safe maternity and free consultancy during pre-natal consultations, to name some. The increase number of girls at school and for the eldest at the “alfabetização[6]” programs constitutesa further advancement on women promotion.But again there is some unanswered question: how do these programs have impacted into real changes at the household level?

The present article was based on empirical evidence from fieldwork that the author has undertook on migration, gender, choices and urbanization in Mozambique and some numerical data, which is being published by different sources, either from written information or from the internet. Illustrated data from her experience is also given in order to show the picture from the top to the bottom level. Over ten years of her lecturing at the university and some experience gained during her research on gender issues the author has learnt that the “gender department” and“empowerment” discourseis still a fiction move. Using a popular Brazilian saying “It is a soft idle chat toput the bull sleeping“.

From One Woman Minister in 1976 to Sixin 2005

The dimension of gender and women’s empowerment is reflected on Mozambique, a country where the human development index is the lowest in the world and the southern African countries. Over the last thirty years of her independence, Mozambique has been in a constant and permanent shift due to the events related to civil war and its end, a structural adjustment program, and the first elections, etc. (Hanlon 1996; 1991; 1986; 1984; Raimundo 2004; UNDP 2001). The high rates of incidence of poverty (69.4%) and human poverty (56.8%) in 2004 have made people highly dependent on foreign policies as well as the needing to be adjusted in the system of the world (Hanlon 1996; UNDP 2001). Uncertainties of information, due to the lack of empirical studies on the issue of women’s empowerment in Mozambique after Nairobi 1985, made the task very difficult, but not unfeasible. Empirical evidence from my research on gender dynamics and migration both in patrilineal and matrilineal societies have substantiated the data on women’s empowerment that I have gathered from the Instituto Nacional de Estatísticas (INE)[7]as well as from research results undertaken by the Women and Law in Southern Africa Mozambique (WLSA). Additional sources like internet have corroborated my analysis and given me a comfortable position to challenge scholars on writing a paper on “The advancement of Mozambican women after Nairobi 1985”.

This paper attempts to discuss the extent to which we are talking about women’s empowerment in Mozambique after Nairobi 1985 and Beijing 1995. I am attempting to highlight the trend of using what I would call as the abusive use off “buzz words”such as “women power” or the “empowering women”. What do we mean by women’s empowerment? In fact, what has been happening in my country is the nomination of women to ministerial posts,either to parliament or to some so-called peripheral areas. Since the first elections of 1994 there has been a trend,with some exceptions, to increase the number of women in government.For the first time a woman was appointed as deputy ministry of finance (considered one of the powerful ministers) and later the same woman as minister of finance and in 2004 as the Prime Minister.In fact this woman has had more than 10 years in a leadership post. While women are expected and encouraged to hold these responsibilities there were countervailing efforts to de-encourage them (Baden 1997; Hanlon 1984). This assertion linked to women themselves (Baden 1997) and the popular sayings around women’s empowerment. Most men at all levels are not prepared to have women empowered yet. When a certain woman is appointed to such a responsibility it is normal to hear:

“The husband of that woman is not a man because the person who is wearing trousers in that household is his wife. Or this woman must not be married. Her husband is a real n’dzava”.

In relation to those who are in the parliament is normal to hear that “women who are there, are the flowers of the parliament.They are there for decoration”.

Another second issue pertinent to thisdiscussion of women’s empowerment is the issue of who are these few empowered women, even those in so-called peripheral posts? And what is happening in the rural areas where the most vulnerable people live? Many women in rural areas are in vulnerable position, particularly to natural disaster management (INGC et al 2003; Raimundo 2004) as well as to access to schools and clinics. Lack of resources and its limited access to act provide few opportunities for them to flee from this eternal impoverishment (Hanlon 1996; WLSA 1997; UNDP 2001). In my view the empowerment of women is twofold: a) women who are empowered but who are not in a real decision-making positions; meaning that they are holding fiction positions and b) the idea of power and masculinity. In fact as Baden (1997), Hanlon (1984), WLSA (1997) pointed out, the top leadership of the government and state, the parliament and FRELIMO party (the party that has ruling the country since the independence) is male. Although FRELIMO has been trying to find routes for women’s liberation from male dominance by giving them equal rights, women themselves do not feel it is a real emancipation since the behaviour and attitudes have not yet changed.

Thirdly,the next question is in relation to Nairobi’s objectives and decisionson top of fertility and a safe maternity. As Arnaldo (2004:179) points out that the “there is a reduction in pathological infertility due to the post-independency government’s efforts in providing universal and free access to health services and vaccination campaigns that contributed to the reduction of gonorrhoea and other STDs associated with infertility”. While the free health services have contributed significantly to maternity reduction and other endemic diseases (INE and Minister of Health 2005) there is a slight decline on fertility (Arnaldo 2003; 2005). In fact the post-independence government has developed and implemented a popular health system that has tried to cover the entire country. Arnaldo in his article refers that the fertility rate has declined from 1980 (the first national census to 1997 the second after the independence), with the largest decline being observed in southern Mozambique (probably due to the concentration of the well furnished clinics or hospitals) and the smallest in northern region predominantly Muslim and coincidently with a lack of health infrastructures. Empirical studies have shown that the sense of infertility amongst the communities is “feminized”; hence women are “responsible”for not getting pregnant. Clearly this situation has increased the domestic violence amongst couples who are childless (WLSA 1997).Overall the contraceptive use is still low somewhat due to poor coverage of health posts and clinics, partly worsened by the civil war and husbands´ concerns that family planning encourages prostitution and adultery (Arnaldo 2004).

Fourthly, education became another Nairobi’s directive due to its role in the process of women emancipation and empowerment. Alongside these years of independence the government has attempted to promote education both to females and males. Quoting the late president Samora Machel uses to say “Make education the basis to empower people”. As a whole, education program is designed in order to promote everybody. However, many girls have dropped of school because of early pregnancy and marriage (see Education Statistics over the years). Until 1980´s was a policy to send off the school all pregnant girls. However, this “regulation” is no longer in use in Mozambique (thanks good God!). This obviously it is a way of promoting women education once who use to be penalized with that rule were girls.

It has been the government concern to develop a policy of expansion of the schools covering the rural areas that had previously been excluded (UNDP 2000). Also literacy campaigns for the adult population took place in residential areas and workplaces (UNDP 2000:35). Following the program of poverty and illiteracy reduction and the reduction of imbalances inherited from the colonial past (UNDP 2000) the government introduced in 1983 the National System of Education (SNE). Due to the civil war and other related factors the education was badly impacted.

In 1995 the government approved the Mozambican National Education Policy (PNE), a document which sets out the vision of the education sector, and the main intentions and priorities for developing it (UNDP 2000:45). However, the level of illiteracy remains high, particularly in the rural areas mostly devastated by the civil war. The UNDP (2000:60) says that the indicators of women limited access to education in the country are still alarming. Of the about 10.5 million of Mozambicans who did not know how to read or write in 1999, about 6.7 million were women, contrasting with 3.8 million illiterate men. The same report call attention on the fact of being once again the rural area where the majority of illiterate are women. Many reasons are well know why this situation is happening.

So far the disparities on education and the slowness decline of fertility particularly in the rural areas;Mozambique has shown some advancement that is good. The current discourse is to encourage more girls to go to school and not to drop of school as well as in campaigns to promote family planning programs. Is still a long way to move out since the issue has related with socio-cultural behaviour among the communities and the dominance of patriarchy system (Arthur and Osório 2002; CEP and UNFPA 2003).

Attention on women as a specific category is not new in the history of Mozambique. The issue dates back to 1970’s, during the liberation war (1964-1975). It was FRELIMO’s policy to pay particular attention to both men and women (Hanlon 1984; UNDP, 2001; WLSA 1997). The then guerrilla movement established the Women’s Detachment through the Organisation of Mozambican Women (OMM) founded in 1973, UNDP (2001). It made no sense for FRELIMO the foreign exploitation of women and leave the exploitation of women by Mozambican men (Hanlon 19984:157). Since independence, the socialist government has reflected on the importance of the emancipation of women under the principle of equality between men and women (Constitution of the Republic in 1975). This principle was taken up again, and consolidated, in the 1990 Constitution, particularly in Article 67, UNDP (2001).

The period up to 1980’s had seen considerable social gains for Mozambican women since the then new government of FRELIMO, through the OMM, has promoted some activities such as literacy campaign called alfabetização, tocombat polygamy and lobolo (bride price) (Baden 1997; Hanlon 1984; WLSA 1997), which targeted on women (my mother-in-law it is an example ofschooling from alfabetização). My late mother used to say that she was grateful to FRELIMO since she fled from non-education and she had a voice to express her feelings and ideas. She used to say that “none of her daughters would be pass trough lobolo” because it was harmful. From her experience lobolo was a real subjugation. According to her, a married woman did not have he right to complain about anything since she was “lobolada[8]”.

FRELIMO introduced new laws and policies opposing such practices like initiation rites, lobolo, forced marriage and polygamy, as a way of protecting the rights of women (Baden 1997; Hanlon 1984; WLSA 1997).In the year of independence many voices were against these changes. The experiences of other women and my mother, who where my neighbours in Xai-Xai city have shown that these new rules were not really popular. Some used to say:

“FRELIMO is trying to promote prostitutionsince itis allowing women to go to evening classes and is promoting a lack of respect and obedience. Allowing women in process of education it is an easiest way to promote disobedience”.

FRELIMO and OMM challenged in fact the patriarchy even the matriarchal structure in attempts to improve women’s legal rights and equal opportunities by giving them a voice and opportunities for leadership, both as citizens and within marriage (Baden 1997; Hanlon 1984). Nevertheless from FRELIMO’s efforts, we can observe that throughout thirty years of independence the same FRELIMO has been cautious to nominate women to some positions, for example, ambassadors. In my studies on migration I have found that there is a resistance among men to be a woman follower, because for them means that they are no longer wearing the trousers (Raimundo 2005). In diplomatic career the norm is the appointment of men to these positions. If a woman becomes an ambassador it means that the husband should be attached to the wife (the contrary is normal). Up to 1997 a woman’s representation at the lower levels of government was almost nil.There e was only one woman minister, for example, Graça Machel (coincidently the wife of the late president Samora Machel) who held this position between 1976 and 1987. Not a single provincial governor, ambassador, secretary of state or high level military commander was appointed for almost twenty years (Baden 1997) and only one of hundred and twenty eight districts administrators was a female, which showsa considerable resistance to women in leadership positions (Baden 1997; WLSA 1997).