Dear LadyGodiva, Redefining feminism.

Hullo Lady, the reason perhaps why we have kept friends for long is our agreement to disagree on issues. In defining the narrative on feminism, I am not going to re-echo origins, waves and struggle of the feminist movement. I will not say that the earlier feminists actually fought broader issues like slavely, brought in force the 19th Amendment that got women voting. Various scholars and historians alike agree that whereas there are various narratives, history and efforts; a feminist is generally one who primarily defends gender equality and women rights to adress the injustices and prejudice towards the so termed “minority”.
Thence I ask who is a feminist, whats the Ugandan Perspective of a feminist?

First its difficult to separate racism atleast according to me. Women, caucasians, blacks were subjected to scientific racism. The reasoning was that the left hemisphere of instinct was more than the right one of ration. So the idea was that women don’t think they just act.The reasoning was further based be stereotypes that the reason blacks and women excel at arts, sports is because the said activities do not need ration and thinking. So the common phrase was how can we let irrational people vote or have certain rights? That is why blacks and women took long to vote and attend the same schools with the white folks. That is patriachy and how it shaped the world. At the center of the world was man and the woman was subornidate. Even the Bible emphasizes this stereotype since it was written in a patriachy society. However the African version is different. Martriachy actually preexisted way back and Empresses ruled from Timbktu, Ethiopia and even here in Buganda and Bunyoro. Proffesor Juuko has written extensively about how Buganda Kingdom was historically matriachal. So I expect every feminist to first be a thinker, understand our anthropology as Africans and organisation of our societies. Every feminist should know that feminism has different concepts and waves. Therefore they should not to import the global concept of feminism but find an African approach an Afrocentric view and one which captures all stakeholders. First any feminist should appreciate that a woman was respected in African societies, they should appreciate how partriachy took over matriachy. Was it an opposition to matriachy, how did matriachy exist in the first place, were there existential threats? Another major problem is thinking that feminism is a womens only league thereby looking at men as enemies. Removing the a in WOMAN to make WOMYN wont take that underage girl who has been married off. It might bring pleasure to you but does it help anything? NO. Feminism should be made simple such that a drunkard in Kisoro will appreciate equality and gender issues. Instead of sitting in airconditioned offices, feminists should see how they can reduce their conscious thoughts to something that is appreciated by society. You see even men fear to be feminists because they are told , “you are part of the problem”. The earlier you dress down feminism, laws, policies will not work. Propaganda and stereotyping is the greatest downfall of feminism. And dont think stereotyping is against women only, a simple example is the term meterosexuals, the word is used to refer to someone who over grooms himself. Because the stereotype is , men are not supposed to waste time looking good. That is the tragedy of stereotyping. Do for example women dress to just look good for themselves, yes. Do they dress to attract or seduce men? Sometimes, otherwise women on Speke road dont dress up in skimpy skirts to make themselves happy, women would not be attempting to pull down their skirts if they were comfortable. The problem is that feminists try to put gender at the heart of everything whether be it defending men or women without analysing the truths. I like radical feminism for their disobedience to the standard norm . But if we are to have African radical feminists, we need to redefine feminism.