Glenda Simms
IN THE October 14, 2005 edition of The Gleaner writers Melissa Charley and Nagra Plunkett catalogued a series of horrific murders of innocent Jamaican girls and children - children who were designed to live and enjoy their earthly existence until their maker called them home.
These writers told their readers about the children such as Enid Gordon who left her home in her school uniform with the intention to join her parents at her brother's bedside in the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital. Young Enid, like many other girls throughout Jamaica had been brutally raped in October 2004 by two men who live in her community.
So in a real sense this girl-child had experienced a kind of death before her final murder. No doubt she was afraid of life and was probably very distrustful of a justice system that is designed to allow rapists and murderers to return to their communities while they await a trial that might never happen. When Enid's father stumbled on her lifeless body the circle of violence that marked the life of this young woman was broken. She was now beyond the evil deed of the wicked men of the Jamaican society.
Charley and Plunkett reminded their readers that Enid was one of three children murdered in Westmoreland in a short time span. They reminded us of nine-year old Shaneka Shakes and eight-year old Shauna-Kay Ledgister whose lives were brutally snuffed out after being raped as they, in childlike innocence excitedly walked along the beaten tracks in their community.
We were also reminded of the three-month-old baby of Mountain View, who, at the most vulnerable and trusting stage of human development had to stare uncomprehendingly into the barrel of a gun as his short time on earth was ended by the bullets triggered by men who lived in his community. To top the litany of horrors The Gleaner writers forced us to try to understand the level of inhumanity to which we have sunk as a society.
They chronicled the plaintive cries for help which went up from the heart of 10-year-old Sasha-Kay Brown who was burnt to death along with three relatives in their Maxfield Avenue home when it was firebombed by men armed with high powered deadly guns.
In this case, Sasha-Kay is reported to have called out to all her neighbours and friends. She asked for help, she begged for mercy, but no one was allowed to come to her rescue. Cowering in fear and hopelessness, the mothers, grandmothers, some men and many young children were forced by armed men to "huddle in their corners" while a 10 year old girl was burnt to smithereens.
While the society wrings it "collective hands" and ponders what to do about these atrocities, Charley and Plunkett informed their readers that the Child Development Agency had decided to go "on a retreat ... to see what we can do about it". Perhaps sometimes in the near future, the solutions that emanated from this landmark retreat will be made public and hopefully we will find "the answer".
In the meantime, like all other concerned Jamaican women I have been researching actions that have worked when women and girls face such violence in patriarchal societies.
SOME SOLUTIONS
While the pundits, prophets and latter-day saints continue to pontificate and present psychological, economic and religious explanations and rationalizations for the present state of mayhem in Jamaica, the women of our country need to consider some revolutionary solutions in order to save themselves and their children.
One possible and workable solution is the creation of "woman-ruled patches". The prototype of this concept comes to us from Umoja, an all-woman village in Kenya. This revolutionary and successful experiment was described by writer Emily Wax of the Washington Post and published in the July 31, 2005 edition of the Edmonton Journal.
Under the caption, 'Where Women Rule', Ms. Wax described the vision and accomplishments of one courageous Kenyan woman Rebecca Lolosoli, matriarch of a village for women only. The village of Umoja was established 10 years ago on an unwanted field of dry grassland, 350 kilometres north of Nairobi. The founders of this village were women who were raped and subsequently abandoned by their husbands.
In Kenya, like in all other patriarchal societies, women who are victims of sexual abuse and violence are considered 'damaged goods' even by rapists. It is within this syndrome that "Rebecca Lolosoli, a charismatic and self assured woman with a crown of puffy dark hair, decided that no men would be allowed to live in their circular village of mud-and-dung huts". Of course, true to form, a group of men decided to set up their own village across from the women. This they did, not out of any gender-equality consciousness but in an effort to "monitor activities in Umoja and spy on their female counterparts".
FLOURISHING VILLAGE
Most women in Jamaica will not be surprised to learn that the male village failed miserably, while the women-only enterprise flourished and has become an important cultural centre and camping site for tourists who visit the adjacent National Reserve.
As Jamaican women, we can well imagine the men profiling, chatting, smoking, preening in macho splendour and spreading rumours about the women and their sexuality or lack thereof. Afterall, every red-blooded male is convinced that women can't do without them.
Luckily for all of us, in this segregated village in Kenya about three dozen women have succeeded in "sending their children to school for the first time, eat well, and reject male demands for their daughter's circumcision and marriage".
According to Ms. Wax, when Rebecca Lolosoli was recognized by the United Nations to "attend a recent world conference on gender empowerment in New York" the men declared that she should be killed. Of course, Rebecca, fully cognisant of the fact that men will always be threatened by women who take a stance against patriarchal values and male-centred cultures, did not blink. She continued to do what women must do - stand up for justice, equality and freedom.
CHEMICAL CASTRATION
Sebastian Lesinik the chief of the failed male village defined Rebecca's actions "un-African". He openly described her as a troublemaker. In spite of the men's protestations Emily Wax informs her readers that in Kenya "a version of feminism has grown progressively alongside extreme sexual violence, the battle against HIV/AIDS and the aftermath of many wars".
Legal reforms in Kenya has seen legislation to deal with marriage proposals, sexual harassment, female genital mutilation and a unique bill known as the "chemical castration bill", by which repeatedly convicted rapists would be castrated and sent to prison for life. Rebecca Lolosoli welcomes all positive initiatives of her government, but she also goes house-to-house telling women that they have the right to refuse to have sex with men who abuse them. She believes that "women have to demand rights, and then respect will come". She cautions that if women remain silent, the men will think that we have nothing to say. Also she tells women that they must be prepared to take risks and not pander to men or seek their approval because the male prerogative rooted in patriarchy is rigid and unyielding at the best of times.
She pointed out that gangs of men "have mounted daytime raids and chased the women into the bush and threatened to torch their homes", but Rebecca and her women remain constant in their resolve. Wax concluded her article with the assurance that "lately, the residents of the men's village have been admitting defeat...Some have moved elsewhere and others have had trouble getting married because some women in the area are taking Lolosoli's example to heart.
WOULD IT WORK IN JAMAICA?
Just as I was wondering if this African model could work in Jamaica, I came upon an article written by Byron McDaniel and carried in the September 3, 2005 edition of the Daily Gleaner. McDaniel described a group of enterprising and independent Jamaican women in Walderston, Trelawny. These women are a five-member female collective who have been working hard on a half acre plot that produces cash crops - peas, pakchoy, yams, peanuts and sorrel.
These women have been successfully feeding their families, sending their children to school and vending their surplus in the Christiana Market. While they toil to meet these ends, "the idle young men guffawed shamelessly at them". In spite of the ridicule the women pursue their dreams. They wait for no man and they are not intimidated by idlers. They know that these are the same idlers who will become the "two foot puss" ready to "raid the barn" even though they did not "plant the corn".
From all objective data, Jamaican women, like their Kenyan sisters have established women-rule patches. These are the patches of hope, of stability and of empowerment.
In Kenya, it is a village of women and their children, in Jamaica it is many households of women and their offspring.
These formations are real and ever present. The challenge is to empower them so that they can deconstruct patriarchy and escape the violence that is being perpetuated by the men. Perhaps this is the opportune moment for Jamaican women to think about a large "woman-ruled patch".
Dr. Glenda P. Simms is a Gender Expert and Consultant. You can send your emails to infocus@gleanerjm.com
