JCTR recently released a major report prepared by Michael J. Kelly, S.J., placing the challenges of HIV/AIDS in a wider development context.  Reflecting on the lessons of that report from the perspective of village life in eastern Zambia, Dominic Liche gives concrete examples of the implications of gender inequalities on the lives of the people affected.

I write this article mainly in response to the JCTR report written by Michael Kelly, S.J., entitled "HIV and AIDS: A Justice Perspective." There are many important issues raised in this report, but here I want to concentrate on the issue of gender inequalities, the disparities that put women and, most of the times, children at risk of succumbing to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. 

In writing this article, I am heavily indebted to my mother, her relatives and friends.   This is so because all the issues I raise are from stories that they talk about.  Women in my home village of Lundazi can spend hours chatting with each other, telling stories (some would say “gossiping”).  I will raise ten issues which arise from true stories in the villages, stories that I heard the women chatting about.

Lundazi is about 800km east of Lusaka whose main local language is Tumbuka.  Lundazi, one of the early white settlements in the 1930s, is a big district with an extremely poor road network. There are only four main roads going to other towns like Chama and Chipata.  Roads going into villages are passable mostly by bicycles and motorcycles. 

Information flows into the villages of Lundazi are quite difficult.  Luckily about ten years ago, Chikaya Community Radio Station was established. This station disseminates a lot of information to villages, including information on HIV/AIDS and gender equality. There are also numerous NGO's, Community Based Organisations (CBO's) and Faith Based Organisations (FBO's) that work for different ends. So, you might think, Lundazi then must be well covered.  Well, I will not disagree with you but hear my stories first.

The ten issues I raise are issues that put women at most risk of HIV infection and make their progression from HIV to AIDS quicker. As Michael Kelly puts it, having power and freedom to decide to have sex; having power and freedom to be economically independent; having good nutrition; having the right to good health: all of these elements protect against transmission as well as safeguard against being infected with HIV.

POLYGAMY

In one village, there is a man who has four wives. At present he is thinking of marrying a fifth. The women in my home village, when talking about this man, find no problem with this practice.  But they pity the man on how he will manage to sustain these women in the harsh economic conditions that prevail.

Polygamy might seem a distant issue for some academicians and theorists, but I believe it is a very practical issue which lacks proper response here in Lundazi and the whole of Zambia. I have uncles and brothers who have multiple wives. I have aunties, sisters and cousins who are the second or third wives to one man. In the era of HIV/AIDS, there are many fears. In a polygamous marriage, there is constant dissatisfaction by wives who end up in dangerous competitions to win the affection of the one husband.

The available household resources are often inadequate because   most  of  these men are not educated or strong enough to fend for multiple wives and a bunch of children. These two factors, dissatisfaction and the search for basic needs, can force these wives into risky behavior of either looking for love from other men or trying to fend for themselves and children by “selling” themselves.

My position on polygamy is that it is bad and that there can never be compromises on this. Love is between two people (man and woman). Having multiple wives is lust and greed. It is not right to borrow cultural values in this sense to justify marrying a multitude of women.

FORCED MARRIAGES

My friend was 18 years old when she was in grade 10. Most of the women wondered why she was not getting married. They would say to her face "Just get married, you are only wasting time in school, your husband will take care of you, when you are older, who will marry you". This approach to girls growing up can force young girls who are not prepared to get married to marry because so many elderly women are talking that way. This also forces the young to stop going to school because the common notion is that girls don't need school, so  their  future  husbands would take care of them. This mentality is very wrong because it places godly powers on men who end up with monopolized power for money and basic needs. Men knowing that they have this power can easily abuse women because they know that the women have no choice.

Men can also be forced to marry at an early age. I have a cousin who is 21 years old. People are constantly telling him to get married because he is too old. They even tease him saying that maybe he has no feelings or that women are refusing him because he has no art for convincing girls to acquiesce to his requests. The truth is that my cousin wants to do some course so that he can find a way to fend for his future family. The women in my stories even laugh at him, "Aaah, he cannot find a wife!"

These mentalities force some young men to get married when they are not ready to take on the responsibility of a family man.  It might cripple them forever in terms of academic life because of the pressures of meeting the immediate family needs. When a man has matured, he might find that the wife he married is not what he really wanted, he might start looking for other women to complement his needs or even get rid of his wife for his mature choice.

Forced marriages are not healthy, for women or for men.  There are against basic human rights, the right to choose what a person wants. The denial of a person by another to make choices is what is referred to as slavery. I am not pushing my argument that far but forced marriages, especially early ones, in particular put women at risk in many ways, re-enforcing the idea that they are subordinate to men and dependent on them.

WIFE BEATING

In a certain family in my village, a woman was beating a man and the women were giggling and even laughing at the man. "How can the man allow his wife to beat him? He must be too weak and stupid!" As we were growing up, there was a man who would beat his wife until blood would come from her nose, mouth and ears, in broad day light. People were extremely reluctant to separate the two.  Adults, like us children, would watch until someone courageous and out of his mind would come and stop this terrible beating.

Wife beating is justified for two reasons: (i) it is a sign that the husband loves the wife; (ii) it is a way of disciplining the wife when she constantly errs. Many women accept being beaten for these reasons. They find no problem in wife beating. Young unmarried girls know that they will be beaten when they marry. To avoid being beaten, they have to display the best behavior and this best behavior here means accepting and doing all that the man wants without questioning. The problem is that a woman can never beat her husband for bad behavior but can only complain to other women.

In my view, wife beating is highly unjustified and is against basic human rights. It is unjust to beat another human being especially when they have no power to fight back. It is dominance by men and this makes women lesser human beings. Women start believing that men are superior to them by virtue of just being men. Women don't count because they are there to fulfill men's needs and desires, especially sexually.

Wife beating and the general acceptance of wife beating makes women helpless in terms of making choices that might help them protect themselves from contracting and transmitting HIV. Being beaten constantly, they might even turn to other men who might seem more kind and satisfying, putting themselves at a further risk.

ABUSIVE CULTURAL VALUES

As could be expected, there are a lot of cultural values, traditional ways, in Lundazi. Some of the values are those of love, respect, marriage, family, mutual help and community spirit.  These are all good values and they have helped us to stay together as Tumbukas for generations. They have helped us stay in harmony with peoples of other cultures like the Bembas and the Chewas. These cultural values by all means should be carried on to future generations and shared with other tribes.

Yet we must acknowledge that most of the cultural values do not help the image of women as being as human as men. Or rather, they cement the idea that a woman should submit to a man as much as she can. Some of these values which are imparted into women even at a tender age are: (i) a man is always right, a man makes decisions which a woman must accept, for after all, in a family, the man is the “King.”  The woman on her part takes in whatever comes from the man and she is supposed not to dispute. (ii) A woman is at fault when the two cannot have children in a marriage. When two people marry and years pass by without children, it is the woman who is scrutinised and even tested for fertility. Only later might the man be questioned, but in most cases, the woman is jeered at by the man's relatives and friends that she is barren.  They encourage the man to take on another wife to bear him children. The woman is like a vessel where children are made for the man.

Moreover, (iii) initiation ceremonies, as far as I know them, are only for women. When a girl reaches puberty, she undergoes an  initiation ceremony which lasts a month. During this time, she is taught how to submit to her husband and take care of the husbands' needs. Before getting married, a girl again is stringently disciplined on how to acquiesce to her husband's demands if she is to stay in the marriage.  When all this is happening, there is no initiation for the boys. There is nothing that the man learns in taking care of his family. This strengthens the idea that whilst women are taught to “take care” of the man, the man can act as he likes and there is no problem.

(iv) Respect. Respect is another treasured value among the Tumbuka people. But it is greatly abused in the man-woman relationship. In my understanding, this respect is for woman to the man and not vice-versa. A woman simply must respect the man at all costs. This respect entails that a woman should accept whatever the man tells him.

Finally, (v) Wife Inheritance. When a man dies, the wife can be inherited by the deceased brothers or cousins. Although in Zambia this is slowly becoming unpopular because of the fear of HIV/AIDS, it is still very common in Lundazi. Even semi-educated men and women participate in wife inheritance. It is a cultural value but one that is bad and perpetuates the dominance on women. Women through this practice are seen as property of a man; thus when he dies, the wife is inherited just like his jeans, radio and cell phone. It is a bad cultural value and must be questioned. In times of HIV/AIDS with many deaths being due to HIV related illness, it is highly risky to promote wife-inheritance.

What is most common is the inheritance of the man's property by his family. This leaves the wife who would have been previously inherited by another man helpless with children to take care of but no resources to do so. These resources which the wife and husband might have spent years building are lost together with the man who might have held the family together. It exposes the woman to the limited choices of selling her body for economic gains which puts her at risk of infection.

These abusive values in all support and encourage things like polygamy, wife beating, forced marriages and mistreatment of women under false pretenses.

LEADERSHIP

The idea that men only can be priests in the Roman Catholic Church has been controversial for decades until the late Pope John Paul II tried once and for all to close the issue.  But some theologians and philosophers have continued to debate the matter.  For the Tumbuka people, this might not be a problem at all. We believe in a patrilineal system. Men only can become chiefs, headmen or Kings. When a man dies, the man's relatives become responsible for the man's deceased children and property.

But the idea that only men can be leaders, no mater how much it can be justified, only means that only men can make choices for the betterment of    the community. Women are simply left out in decision making, and the choices are made mostly in the interests of men. In a marriage dispute where a man is beating his wife, and when only men are acting as judges, the decision almost always is unanimously pro-men.

Male-dominated village and civic leadership reinforces the domination of women by men. It makes it extremely difficult for women to speak up even when gender-related organizations are coming up to free women from some of the unjust cultural practices and abuses. Experience in Zambia and elsewhere has clearly shown that it is not only men who can be legitimate leaders. And it is clear that male-dominated leadership limits women's choices in protecting themselves from HIV and other life threatening situations.

I think the position of leadership in all sectors of society should be open to all regardless of their sex. In religious circles, this should be much more of an issue, especially since religion must lead primarily by example. If in the Christian religion there is monopoly of leadership by men, it would be difficult for other communities to discuss fully why women in their communities cannot become leaders.

Being leaders, women can more and more represent their needs in all sectors of culture and society with which they are not happy.

THE HOUSEWORKER

For generations all over the world, women have been known to be houseworkers.  The man works outside and the woman keeps the home running in terms of day to day chores. Most women were considered housewives. This is the case here in Lundazi, where most women are housewives, even the educated ones who have finished grade 12.  The man works and brings home the earnings; the wife cleans the house and makes sure the household is fed and so on.

But the wife also works in the fields, draws water (sometimes from distant wells or rivers). Even when the man does a hard job, in comparison the woman also does a hard job, working almost the whole day. As I write this paper, my mother is outside cleaning the plates I was using to eat lunch. Even after meals, a woman continues to work.

I want to be clear here. I don't find any problem in sharing of duties in a home, more so don’t I find any problem with having a wife who is not employed outside the home and does house chores. What I find abusing and disturbing is the belief that the man works hard and therefore whatever is in the house is his.

I also find problems with the belief that since the wife is a houseworker, she cannot do any other thing; she cannot confront her husband because she is not the one who fends for things. I find problems with the belief growing in Lundazi villages that going to school is useless for girls because they will end up as housewives anyway.

The value of education is not only in finding a job and earning a big salary; the value of education is not only in becoming a bread winner to sustain the home.  Rather, education opens up opportunities and capabilities in one's life. There are situations here where a wife is being abused by her husband but she cannot bring herself to leave him or confront him because she thinks that staying with the abusive man is her only option. With education, more options might be available for the woman.

The belief that a woman can only become a houseworker is crippling, education wise, because many start to think that no matter how much they will be educated, they will end up as housewives.  So why then invest in time at school when one can simply be prepared to be a housewife at home?

WOMEN ABUSE WOMEN

There are quite a few stories that I heard from the women in my village about women abusing other women, especially younger women and girls. Of course when they are telling these stories about how women should act, they do not realize that they are actually pushing their younger sisters into abuse.  This is how abusive ideas are promoted by elder women about staying in a marriage and accepting however the husband treats them. 

The idea of girls not going to school but waiting to be married is mostly pushed by elder women. If a younger girl decides to leave her husband because he has taken on a second wife, the elder women would simply say that she is stupid and should go back to her husband. "How can you leave your husband to a younger girl coming into your house?” When a younger woman comes back to her home from her husband because he is abusive, it is the elder women who will scold her to go back to her husband as quickly as possible.

It can therefore be said that the abuse of women by women is reinforcing ideas and ideals of male domination and subordination of women. A woman trying to stand up for her rights is greatly blamed and even mocked. "She wants to imitate town spoilt girls who wear trousers and mini skirts," the elder women will jeer at younger women who want change. These elder women settle in accepting the unjust structures. (By the way, wearing a jean trousers, “hipster” or mini-skirts here in the Lundazi villages is still a taboo!)

EDUCATION THAT NEEDS "TOWNS"

In bringing this up as an issue, I am certainly not condemning education at all. I know that there are many fruits of education which include an expansion of one's capabilities and opportunities in one's life, knowing how to take care of oneself, remaining healthy, communicating with many people including people of other cultures and languages, enjoying the fruits of rapid communication and being productive amidst globalising economic and social structures.

But so much of the education promoted in Zambia today implicitly entails being in places where these fruits can easily be harvested. Where I am writing from now is under a tree in my home village, still listening to my mother and her friends talking. They are talking about boys in the villages around here who have grade 12 certificates but yet are just loitering in the village. They laugh at them because they stay in the village.

After being educated a young men is expected to go to town where there are colleges and jobs. In the villages, it is difficult to find a job when you have a degree in philosophy, for example, or a degree in biochemistry. You need to be where books are or where industrial areas are.

Modern education does not cater for villages. Education has meant for us young men the need to migrate into towns where jobs are.  Education has meant men have to go to towns to look for jobs and better schools. These men leave their wives at home to fend for themselves. In villages I hear many stories of men who have gone into town for years, doing studies or looking for jobs, and have left their wives and often children in the villages with their parents.  These women left in the villages to fend for themselves are left with very few possibilities of finding means for a living. These women are easy prey to men who might want to have sex with them for small gifts.

Economic and social development in Zambia is very concentrated in towns. Villages and rural areas are left out as though they are not part of the country. The President and his Cabinet certainly are parked into towns.  Most of the MP's in rural areas are resident in Lusaka leaving their constituencies because they are too rural. Job creation is seen only in towns and seldom in villages.

OF MONEY AND OTHER DEMONS

Whether you like it or not, money makes our lives better. Money is part of our lives even here in villages. We know that many Zambians in rural areas are ravaged by hunger and starvation.  Last year, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the Red Cross were busy distributing food in rural areas because of hunger.

In rural areas, basic needs are largely a product of subsistence farming.  Men are the principal agents in farming. With men having many wives or gone into towns, it is difficult for women to farm on their own or find these basic needs.  Economic dependence thus is strongly hinged to a man. A woman is hopeless without a man. A woman knows this, a woman feels this. She therefore will do anything to keep her man to guarantee her future.

Losing the man often means losing the ability to find basic needs. Kelly in his "HIV/AIDS: A Justice Perspective," clearly asserts this economic dependence on a man, "'A woman's   access     to     property usually hinges on her relationship to a man. When the relationship ends, the woman stands a good chance of losing her home, land, livestock, household goods, money, vehicles, and other property. These violations have the intent and effect of perpetuating women's dependence on men and undercutting their social and economic status.”
IT'S ALL UP TO THE WOMAN

I find it interesting that when one considers a home situation where the man is said to be the breadwinner, when there is no food, the blame often is laid on the woman's inability to find food! When the man is sick, it is the woman who has to take care of him in all respects, when a child is sick, again it is the woman who has to take care. A woman seems to have all the critical jobs.

But the question is what happens when a woman herself becomes sick?  Can the man sufficiently take care of her?  In cases that I know in my village, the man is never there to care for the wife.  When there is no food at home, the man finds food somehow, somewhere that does not include his family. When there is an incidence of HIV infection in the family, it is the woman who is blamed for it.  She is the one who brought the misfortune in the family.

When a woman is infected, she is discriminated more than a man is in a similar situation.  Women often find it difficult to access treatment and care when infected. When a couple cannot have children, it is the woman who is mainly blamed. All the responsibility in many issues and matters affecting family life comes down on the women. Men are left free even when they are the ones responsible.

EQUALITY OF ALL

In these times of HIV/AIDS, the ten issues raised above concerning the disparities faced by women must be addressed – they are clear violations of human rights.  Culture or no culture, mistreatment and abuse of women is wrong. We are all human beings and need to receive an equal treatment.  Being a man should not put me on an advantaged level to women.

Michael Kelly asserts, “AIDS or no AIDS, women and men are essentially equal.” Responding to these issues cannot be left to governments, NGO's, CBO's and FBO's but it is us as individuals who can make a difference.  Despite the deep roots of culture, women feel that most of the issues raised above are wrong and change is needed.  But the helplessness that they have constantly felt in the past often makes them accept the situation.  After all, they may feel, “If you can’t fight them, join them….”

Dominic Liche
Lundazi