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In June 2010 the British Council invited myself and Ed to Harare to do two things, first to present to the business and academic communities various talks on the general election and on effective communication. Secondly, to deliver a series of training workshops to young women interested in standing for election.
Even though this was my third trip I am still have much to learn about what is going to work with a Zimbabwean audience (which explains their wry smiles when I innocently used a photo of Tony Blair in one of my powerpoints - forgetting completely how much he is pilloried by the local Zim establishment). But despite these faux pas - their reception to us was always universally enthusiastic and informed. Their interest and knowledge of international and European politics seemed better than the average British audience. Despite everything, Zimbabweans still retain a reputation in Africa for having one of the most educated and developed nations. |
Notwithstanding this - what the British Council is doing is quite remarkable. Civil society - young women's movements, entruepreuners, business leaders, students and enlightened community leaders and councillors are all impatient to move on from what could be termed as 'post-independence strife'. The British Council is supporting these groups - enabling quiet conversations to take place, giving a nudge of support here, setting up an interesting connection there. They are of course politically 'neutral' (and I think with good reason) but they are also getting to know the political leaders of tomorrow. What is also clear is that the dividing lines between the political parties are not so simple as reports suggest.
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Our training was not to support one or other of these factions. We were there to support the vision of the young women themselves, to change the face of African politics by challenging two key assumptions behind 'big man' politics in the region; age and gender. Although there has been progress on the theory of greater participation of young people and women in politics, inequalities and institutional barriers are still very dominant. "In Zimbabwe, 'Women Can Do It' was run as a campaign to get women into public office in the 2008 elections" says Shingie Chimuriwo, from Norwegian's People Aid (NPA), the organisation helping to fund the workshop we facilitated, "from the assessment we realised that there was no deliberate effort to involve young women and this meant that they fell through the cracks".
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They certainly are the daughters of their future. What came up was not bitterness or outrage over past grievances or the hugely dominant 'land' issue. Rather they talked about economic inequality for women, reproductive health, 'hot seating' where children school out in the open under the sun's glare and have to come to school at different times in a day to share scarce resources. They had detailed and stimulating debates about the merits of community health clinics, how to balance the bread and butter issues of shelter and food with the key topics of human rights and reform. In short, they were all aspiring politicians who could see the importance of the grassroots issues - and wanted to use their (many of them advanced) degrees for some form of good.
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The founder of the Young Women African Leaders Movement (YWALM), Rutendo Mudzamiri said "This is just the start of our journey - but we are resolved to ensure that with our perseverance we will succeed in getting more young women elected into our national and local chambers. What is important to us is we foster a non-partisan and mutually supportive network so we can celebrate together every achievement of each individual". In a region at the moment dominated by the feral machismo of the world cup (cricket was more often mentioned in our circles I have to admit) it was refreshing to see these young women standing up for themselves - and an inspiration to others around the globe. They deserve recognition and support. I hope they get it.
You can read the full report of the programme here. |