Culture, Performance and Identity. Paths of Communication in Kenya: Paths of Communication in Kenya

1. Culture, Gender Inequality and Women’s Rights in the Great Lakes

Culture, Performance and Identity 1 CHAPTER ONE Culture, Gender Inequality and Women’s Rights in the Great Lakes1 Kimani Njogu & Elizabeth Orchardson-Mazrui Introduction The Great Lakes region of Africa has numerous opportunities and challenges. It has huge mineral deposits, large forests, big rivers and a rich culture. However, it is also replete with numerous problems which include ethnic tensions and violence, military conflicts, high levels of poverty, political intolerance, economic uncertainty, urban and rural insecurity, disease and gender inequality. These problems are not insurmountable in view of the advances in science and technology as well as the availability of human and natural resources within the region. Whereas some of these difficulties could be traced to colonialism and uneven trade relations between Africa and the West, others could be attributed to the poor quality of leadership within the region as well as uncritical loyalty to ethno-linguistic cultures. It is important to recognize that there are cultural practices that inhibit or destroy human potential while others enhance it. Those that are inhibitive ought to be eradicated or transformed and those that are positive should be resurrected, celebrated and enhanced. But what do we mean by culture? Culture may be viewed as the total sum of a people’s way of life and includes norms and values of a society: their religion, politics, economics, technology, food habits, medicine, rules of marriage, the performing arts, law and so on. For Geertz (1973:44-5) culture is “a set of control mechanisms–plans, recipes, rules, instruments (what computer engineers call “programs”)– for governing of behaviour.” According to him, this view of culture “begins with the assumption that human thought is basically both social and public - that its natural habitat is the house yard, the market place, and the town square.” Geertz’s interpretation has the requisite implications of power and control 2 Paths of Communication in Kenya mechanisms embedded in culture, which allow for the exploration of gender inequality and inequity. In his discussion of culture, Edward Said (1994) identifies two meanings of culture. First, it refers to the many practices like the arts, communication, and representation, which have relative autonomy from the economic, social, and political domains. These human expressions have an aesthetic dimension embedded in art and seek to cause pleasure and entertainment. Second, culture includes a community’s reservoir of what defines them as a people, in most cases representing the best that has been known and thought. Through culture, we are able to see society in its strengths and weaknesses and to understand ourselves. Culture, viewed as such, becomes a dynamic space for engagement by various interests and forces. The danger with the uncritical reading of this notion of culture is that it may entail a valorization of one’s culture and an assumption that it is not answerable to views from the rest of the world. Consequently, the dehumanizing aspects of culture could easily be lost in this blind endorsement of one’s culture. Equally, viewed from the ‘‘‘‘outside’, a people’s culture could be rebuked in totality, without due regard to its positive attributes. Thus, it is vital to recognize certain universal values, informed by advances in human thought and knowledge, and to respect the particularities of communities. Culture is an important capability that people bring into development. It influences development through its various forms of expression; attitudes and behaviour related to work, reward and exchange; traditions of public discussion and participation; social support and association; cultural sites of heritage and memory; and influences on values and morals. In this chapter, we address the issue of gender inequalities by looking at ways in which the cultural repertoire in the Great Lakes region can contribute to women’s empowerment. Gender Inequalities Gender is a social construct, which asserts that the expectations, capabilities and responsibilities of men and women are not always biologically determined (Synder and Tadesse, 1995:14). The gender roles assigned to men and women are significantly defined structurally and culturally in ways which create, reinforce, and perpetuate relationships of male Culture, Performance and Identity 3 dominance and female subordination. Through the process of socialization within the family, in educational institutions and other social spheres, boys and girls are conditioned to behave in certain ways and to play different roles in society. They are encouraged to conform to established cultural norms by being rewarded or punished for their behaviour. At times, the places women occupy...