On spears and empowerment

Today Bundibugyo celebrated International Women’s Day, about two months late, but better late than never.  Uganda was launching an awareness and policy campaign to draw attention to the connection between violence against women and girls, and the disproportionate burden of HIV/AIDS borne by women and girls.  One of today’s speakers claimed that in Uganda the prevalence of HIV infection in 15-19 year old girls is nine times higher than in boys of that age group, which reflects of course the pairing of teenage girls with older men, often in exchange for school fees or other financial assistance.  Each district elects a women’s representative to parliament, and ours was the guest of honor today in the usual four hour parade of speeches, dances, songs, dramas, blazing sun, pressing bodies, unruly children, blaring low-quality sound systems, obsession with protocol, and tedium that comprise any official celebration.  Scott wanted us as a mission to be present and I agree that the Gospel speaks to the status of women in a society, so we should support this day, in spite of the cost of being absent from home (thanks to Scotticus who entertained and supervised), plus the cost of being fingered by curious children constantly, fanning away the fumes of a nearby garbage dump and the fly-clouds which accompany the crowd.  

Well, being empowered is rarely comfortable I suppose.  And the first step in addressing injustice is to name the grievance, to recognize the wrongness of infidelity, physical abuse, denial of property rights, etc. that are the normal lot of most women.  Perhaps the most interesting moment of the day came when one of the half-dozen drama/dance troupes marched out.  I recognized at least half of the dozen or so faces, women who attend our local church.  It was a bit surreal to hear the same women who lead hymns in the choir sing about condom use while waving the foil packets.  But for the next song they whipped off their outer silk-kitengi wraps to reveal traditional grass skirts worn for dancing, then picked up spears.  I have seen A LOT of traditional dancing here, but never seen a woman hold a spear.  The dance enacted women hunting for food and then fighting in a war, finally killing and disarming the enemy.  They sang boldly that as women they were capable of fighting for themselves.  I’m not sure what Jesus would have thought . . . But I suspect He would have been more in tune with their energized awareness of their value, than critical of the symbolic violence of their demonstration.  The crowd was mesmerized, it was a rare creative, unexpected moment, to see new concepts expressed in dance.