Below are a few cases of African stories on what the issues are, and immediately afterwards, the next best thing would be to try and respond to the question as to whether or not the Millennium Development Goals are really needed in the African context, or we also should add our voices to the purported irrelevance and inadequacy critics have accused the MDGs of inherently possessing. You be the judge:
Case 1
In a small village in remote Malawi
The 13-year-old struggles to free herself from the grip of her parents and a few other relatives. They are too strong, however, and soon she is pinned to the ground. They watch as an elderly businessman subdues and rapes her. The schoolgirl’s assailants had gagged her when she tried to shout for help and her parents threaten to kill her if she dares return home. Confused and helpless, she watches her relations bid farewell to the smiling businessman. He has just sealed a deal making the child his wife. It turns out that the “marriage” had been arranged as payment for 4,000 Kwacha (US$36) that her parents owed the man.
The two parties had agreed that the old man have sex with their daughter and even marry her if she so wished. The schoolgirl had escaped the old man’s attention before and fled back home, where she begged her parents to let her continue going to school. She was forcibly returned to the man’s home, her parents this time making sure she would stay.
What are the issues? – The girl’s rights: The right to marry and found a family (Banjul charter Art 18. CEDAW Art. 16, political covenant (Art. 23).”Protection of maternal health is central to enjoyment of family life; the protection of daughters from early marriages, states must provide protection to vulnerable women”.
Adapted from www.africanwomn.net
Case 2
A Slum in Harare, Zimbabwe
“… poverty is leading us young women into casual sex with older man for food and money for survival. I have a child whose father I don’t even know, I met the man at a bar one night at one of the nearby farms, he offered me money in exchange for unprotected sex with him. I had no other choice since I wanted money, and so I obliged. All this was happening in the dark since the place has no electricity. We slept together in some shelter that had no lighting that night, and as soon as we were done the man left. I then became pregnant with a child whose father I will certainly never know.” Extract from an interview with a young slum-dwelling woman
“Lack of proper humane living standards here has increased cases of spread of infectious illnesses because of overcrowding and lack of proper sanitation facilities. Our things are also not secure, hence lots of thefts here. There is also no access to adequate medical assistance as there is only a mobile clinic unit that comes here once a week. We are in dire need of affordable medical assistance”. Extract from interview with a community leader in the slum
What are the issues? Poverty, increasing indulgence in risk-taking behaviour, inadequate health provisions, absence of humane shelter, lack of household security.
Case 3
Current studies estimate maternal rates at 1,300 for every 100,000 live births. Maternal mortality refers to women who die in pregnancy and childbirth. One out of every 200 adolescent girls is also likely to die from complications of motherhood and unwanted pregnancies
District just outside Nairobi, Kenya
Florence Nafula, an attendant at Naivasha Hospital, some 90km west of Nairobi, reported that a 12-year old in the town recently gave birth after her sister’s husband made her pregnant. Her mother refused to sue the man because she felt that her son in-law might divorce her elder daughter and leave her with children to take care of.
What are the issues? Sexual exploitation of the girl-child, disempowerment of women to sustainably contribute to the household income (feminization of poverty).
Adapted from www.africanwoman.net
Case 4
Case of the Mabuza orphans, Swaziland
It has not been an easy year for the Mabuza children. For the first time in their lives, they had to fend for themselves. They have also had to endure insults and ridicule from neighbors, including their playmates. A few months ago, one of their huts was broken into and their possessions, which amounted to almost nothing, stolen. Most of all, they have had to witness their parents die, one after the other, an extremely tragic death.
… One of the children, Sabelo, has left home to look for a job at Big Bend, a small sugar-growing town in the country. He is 14 years old and felt he was too old for primary school. His siblings, Doctor in grade three and Ntombifuthi in grade one, are enrolled in Siphoso Primary School, which is about 3 kilometers away from their home. They walk to and from school bare-foot and in school they can easily be identified from the rest - they are without school uniform like the rest of the kids. The two children who are not of primary school going age, have since been thrown out of the local pre-school for non-payment of fees.
… they still have to struggle to get a balanced meal everyday. If no Good Samaritan passes their way soon, Doctor and his sister will have to drop out of school next year.
What are the issues? Deeply entrenched poverty cycle in child-headed households, challenges of stigma and discrimination with regards to HIV and AIDS.
Source: WCO Intervention to Support Orphaned Children in Swaziland
What then do we say?
These are just but a few of the African stories, many more could still be told, in instances even worse. Where then are we going as a continent, for how long shall violence, discrimination and disempowerment of women and the girl-child persist? For how long shall we allow the HIV and AIDS pandemic to ravish our continent and leave our children reeling in cycles of poverty, not going to school, not getting enough food and non-food assistance? What of the thousands across the continent living under inhumane conditions in slums, without access to proper water and sanitation facilities? Surely it won’t take an expert in rocket science to tell that what the MDGs seek to address are definitely the panacea for the African predicament. As a continent we definitely need this roadmap, and the earlier we embrace it the better for everyone. While the developed world has it’s own dimension of accountability to the developing world, especially on MDG 8, it goes without saying that ravaging cycles of poverty exist in the developing world. It is then critical that the governments thereof continue to be held accountable for the attainment of the Goals. Do I then hear someone the MDGs are prescribed on Africa and lack ownership within the continent? Be ye the judge. I rest my case.
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