Leila Sheikh
The 1950’s saw the emergence of
indigenous voices on the
political platform of the then Tanganyika.
The voices were predominantly
male which were occasionally
interspersed with a few women’s voices like that of the legendary
Bibi Titi Mohamed and that of Lucy Lameck.
The struggle for Independence
was able to build up a strong
corps of indigenous leaders, who were strong, vocal and
committed to the struggle for self-governance.
The advent of Independence in
1961 brought those leaders
to the fore in governance though again, those leaders were
predominantly male, and moreover, those very same leaders were
carrying the baggage of tradition, prejudice and the legacy of
colonial structures.
The UWT was formed as a women’s
political wing in TANU, the
then ruling party, and though the UWT was able to provide a
platform for women to take part in the decision making process,
it lacked the status and the political muscle to be a viable forum
for advocacy for women’s rights.
It was not treated with respect
by the male leaders who viewed
it as a nest for intrigue and backbiting among women. It was also
not taken seriously.
Though to be fair, the UWT was
able to foster women’s political
talent.
Among the UWT’s most notable
contributions were the lobby for,
and the enactment of the Law of Marriage Act in 1971, quite a
revolutionary piece of legislation at the time!
In the wake of the multi
parties consensus in Tanzania, the newly
emergent Political Parties formed Women’s Wings which to some
extent eroded the visibility of UWT which became the Women’s
Wing of CCM rather than the Community/Union of Tanzanian
Women.
Various women have held
political office at the level of Cabinet
Ministers right down to local council in the last 40 years.
However, the male to female
ratio in political leadership has
been at best, a façade because at a glance, women MPs have not
been able to fill the quota required by the national consensus on
affirmative action.
Neither have women’s political voices been given a solid platform
in terms of political muscle, for influencing change.
This is brought by the fact
that the majority of women
politicians have to bow down to Party dictum, the Parties which
have given them political visibility and positions, to the extent
that when it comes to gender issues, they would rather stick to
the prevailing Party posture towards Gender Rights than risk
being alienated from the body politic.
Those same Gender Rights which
Political Parties eschew and
include in their Manifesto during campaigns but which get
relegated to just being a Tool in their campaign strategy.
In the words of the late John
F. Kennedy
“Politics is a jungle, a struggle between doing the right thing and
staying in office”.
Fear of rejection by their
political parties, fear that they
would not be selected in the next Primary Elections; fear that
they would be viewed as pariahs if they become more vocal on
Gender Equality and Economic Justice; has forced many a woman
politician to suppress activism in favour of staying in office.
As a result, the women
constituency has been feeling short
changed. The question among Gender Right activists is “If women
politicians are supposed to be representing our interests, then
how come they are more focused on holding on to their political
office rather than on campaigning strategically and actively for
the interests of women?”
In reality, women politicians
who get elected to become Members
of Parliament for ‘Special Seats’ do not see the women of
Tanzania as their constituents. They look up to the Political
Parties which got them in office as ‘their constituent’.
To be fair to them, some women
politicians have tried to push the
Gender Agenda onto the Political Agenda and various successes
have been documented, but this has happened because of the Civil
Societies (CSO) movement which has been acting as a lobby and
advocacy platform and which from time to time has been calling
on politicians, women politicians included, to account.
Most notable successes like law
reform have been accomplished
by forming coalitions between the CSO movement and the
government. Voices from
opposition parties have added an
impetus to such campaigns.
As a corps, women politicians
are not very strong. Neither are
they very vocal. They only become strong and vocal when the
Agenda under review is consonant with their Party Policy.
However, the particular Policy
initiated by the Party may
not be consonant with the interests of the Tanzanian women
constituency.
Gender Rights activists have
criticized women politicians
especially those elected for special seats for forgetting that
they hold office through popular mandate.
Lack of a cohesive union among
women politicians who belong to
different Political Parties has to some extent, marginalized the
interests of women constituents.
This has led to the
fragmentation of women’s political strength
and the voices that come out are discordant.
Multiparty democracy and the
proliferation of newspapers and
radio stations have served to make Tanzanian constituents
politically aware.
Human rights education and
voters’ education programmes which
have been conducted by CSOs have helped raise the level of
awareness among Tanzanian voters.
Though the so-called political
maturity styled along Western lines
has not yet been attained, more and more voices are heard from
the public through the media,
and through direct contact with
Members of Parliament and local council leaders.
This dialogue needs to be
strengthened so that public voices
would become amplified.
