Doo Aphane
Swaziland
I draw a lot of inspiration from the Charter of Feminists Principles for African Feminists. It can be
used for personal empowerment, for organisational strengthening purposes, and also to make
African feminism more accessible to a wider audience.
I am currently an African human rights and gender consultant living in
Mbabane, Swaziland. I work for Women for Women Development
Consultancy a company I co-own with a colleague. I have positioned myself
to serve in assignments that have added value to the lives of women and
their communities.
I call myself a feminist because as far back as I can recall I have been
questioning and fighting in overt and subtle ways my disempowerment
and that of other women both within my family, and public spaces such as
school, church, work environment and politics.
One of the key problems we face as feminists is a de-politicised agenda. The
feminist agenda is generally regarded as irrelevant because of the view that
governments are already attending to all issues around gender inequality
and equity. Feminists are also faced with serious misunderstanding and
backlash from the very women whose interests they seek to represent. More
and more women are of the view that feminism has since been overtaken by
events because of international, regional, sub-regional protocols that seek
to protect them and constitutions that have to varying degrees entrenched
gender equality. To some extent the privileges that come with education,
urban dwelling with its amenities and luxuries have also contributed to
feminism being misconstrued. In addition, the combination of issues that
contribute to women’s lived experiences: the widening gap in haves and
have-nots of society with women being most affected; HIV and AIDS, lack
of access to education and good job opportunities are seen mainly rural
women’s issues or sectorally rather than mainstream feminists issues; and
continue to put pressure on us to find alternative ways to transform women’s
lives. Finally, the lack of resources for feminist organisations to consistently
and systematically address the challenges we see around us is another key
issue we have to work our minds around.
To really address these challenges, we need to provide spaces for feminist
engagement from grassroots levels, upwards with agreed coordinating
mechanisms. We also need to mobilise funding for women’s organisations
from women themselves. Finally, we need to devise strategies that empower
women economically, politically and socially.
In my personal and professional life I have since childhood committed myself
to contributing to addressing these realities. I have questioned inequality
within the family, access to positions at Sunday school, power contestation
at university, challenging of laws that affect women who have contracted
marriage similar to mine i.e. in community of property profit and loss. See
Doo Aphane v. Registrar of Deeds, Minister of Justice and Constitutional
Affairs and Attorney General.
I draw a lot of inspiration from the Charter of Feminists Principles for African
Feminists. It can be used for personal empowerment, for organisational
strengthening purposes, and also F