Sir Fatty,
I do agree with you that I should make my self-clear in this issue. I do agree
with much of what is been said except for minor differences. Sentiments; this
is not what I was dealing with, if you get to see my point of departure. In
the first place my reasoning was that the form of struggle that our women did
apply in the fight for a better society must not be taken to be sentimental
but has existed as a very important weapon for them. That they have used songs
and story telling instead of the modern form of women organisation and demo is
an effort to trace the historical development of the struggle of Gambian
women. They are better organised now than before, but this should not mean we
don't recognised that such form of struggle did exist
Secondly I could still remember that we have had a discussion on this name
issue sometime back and I still remember my position on this issue. I am of
the opinion that Lang Binta Samateh is not significant to the status of women.
Such naming of people have been used and still been used for Identification
issues. This has been very common in the Badibus.In a family household or
within the Klan the possibility of many people having identical names is very
common and to know who is who they refer to the mother. In certain cases they
could be the daughter or son of the same man.
You have a more interesting example in the Wulli between the Singateh and the
Jamba.when a Jamba is married to a singateh, the daughter adopt the mothers
family name, that is to say Jamba and the boy Singateh.It seems (I am not
sure) that women from this area were very influential.
But the irony is that; when a singateh do marry with a woman from other
families/Klan, still follow the same Patten. This is to say; if Momodou
singateh get marry to Binta cassama and if they happen to have a daughter, the
family name of the baby girl will not be Cassama but Jamba.This makes it very
confusing for me. I am of the opinion that this has developed more to be
cultural/traditional than as an example to follow. We might find out more
about this late. But for the time, can you imagine what it will be if we have
a Ceesayding Dibba instead of Ceesayding Fatty ?
Lastly, I believed that we have a very different opinion as to what it means
when our wives maintain their family names instead of adopting that of the
husband compared to women of the Western World. I am of the opinion that
changing family names after marriage is a European traditional way of doing
things. It is an evidence of the European patriarch. That this is not practice
in our part of the world should be seen as a difference in practice and not a
difference of objectives. A Gambian woman maintaining her family name could be
as oppressed as the Western Woman who has adopted that of her husband. You can
even see that some of us find comfort in such practice and find our wives
adopting our family names instead of keeping their own,even though we are not
European.Do you call this cultural imperialism ?
For Freedom
Saiks
>===== Original Message From The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
<[log in to unmask]> =====
>Saiks,
>Your sent
iments RE: March 8 greetings is a sincere one and I commend you for
>it. However, we need to move beyond sentiments as Africans in order to move
>forward.
>The point I want put across is: What does the oppressed women of palestine
>share in common with the oppressor women of Israel? In fact, what does the
>oppressed women of the oppressed nations share in common with the oppressor
>women of the oppressor nations? What I want all of us to be cleared about is
>the fact that new imperialism,like the old one is still causing more harm to
>the women of the oppressed nations than the so called "oppressed men" of the
>oppressed nations. I am not denying that there is no oppression of women in
>our part of the world. There is. But why to day we are talking about the
>oppression of women in Africa?
>The reason is clear.Through out the history of the African struggle for
>independence from colonialism, the contribution of women have been denied by
>men. In Afircan history however, women always have a historical role and in
>most cases, more important than the role of African men. For us to do
>justice, the condition of our women as well as our peoples', must be put in
>its proper historical perspective. Otherwise, we will follow other peoples'
>agendas for our own enslavement. For the super-exploitation of Africa today
>is benefiting every child, man, woman of the oppressor nations. Our strength
>must lie in our historical experience in comparison to others. There is a
>diffrence. To understand what I am saying, please look at historical
>evolution of women in Europe and compare it with the historical evolution of
>women in Africa. You will see the difference. Otherwise read "male daughters
>female husbands," by a Ngerian sister. You will see why male children in The
>Gambia have their mother's first names as second names even before the
>father's surname,i.e. "modou Binta ceesay."
>Or why African women do not disappear in marriage like western women, for
>abandoning their family names for their husbands' surnames. The struggle of
>our women must also be part of the struggle against all forms of
>exploitation and backwardness of our continent.
>
>
>>From: saikss <[log in to unmask]>
>>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
>><[log in to unmask]>
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: March 8 Greetings
>>Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2002 12:24:48 +0100
>>
>>Marc 8 is been observed through out the world as an International
>>solidarity
>>day with women. The long battle for equality by Gambian women still
>>remains
>>a history in the making. Since Independent their contribution to the
>>political
>>life of the country have been cornered to that of "Fan Clubs" and YAYI
>>KOMPINS
>>and the semi feudal nature of the Gambian society continue to strangle them
>>in
>>the corner of motherhood, bearing children, finding food and house wives.
>>The
>>majority of Gambian women live in acute poverty whiles they remain the
>>touch
>>bearers of hope in the society.
>>But this has never led to any surrendering of their wish and desire of a
>>better society. Their love songs are full of protest and the stories they
>>tell
>>their children in the night portray the inhuman conditions they are
>>subjected
>>to live .I grew up with one of these stories; A woman who when to pay her
>>tax
>>to the king never returned back home, she was murdered for reasons beyond
>>reason. There are plenty of such stories, perhaps one day we will come to
>>recognise that these are also forms of struggle.
>>After Independence, it took us even long to arrive at Louis Njie and it
>>took
>>time to go beyond that level. The women's Bureau emerged as the talking
>>drum
>>of the establishment and today we have plenty of women gender activist who
>>dear to go further than the limits set by men domination. One would recall
>>the
>>great efforts of sisters like Satang Jobarteh during the last elections;
>>they
>>struggled to put on the political agenda very important issues that have
>>for
>>years not been recognised in the political life of our country. These are
>>sisters who have and are sacrificing a lot to make women struggle for
>>equality
>>in our society to become an uncompromising political issue in the country.
>>They are running institutions, programmes etc all in the efforts of
>>empowering
>>women. Perhaps it is time for some of us to start thinking of ways of
>>contributing to theses struggles too, perhaps the next donation
>>contribution
>>collections should go to them. Happy March 8 sisters.
>>
>>For Freedom
>>Saiks
>>
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>
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