Posts Tagged ‘gender’
Sketches from the Liberia notebooks…
A farmer on the outskirts of Saniquellie, Liberia, itself on the outskirts of the town Ganta, itself near little but Guinea…
I ask, “Do you stay in town?”
“Yes, I stay in town with my wife and my children.”
“With your wife?”
“Yes.”
“And how many children?”
“I have…I am trying to figure out my children.” Long pause. “Sixteen. [...]
"She left out the ladel! We're sending her back and getting a new wife."
One of my Rwandan friends is getting married soon, and it turns out that getting married here requires a lot of stuff. The wife, my friends explained, brings a whole bunch of things collectively called ibishyingiranwa. What sort of things? Oh, you know, woman-things.
Like pots and pans and spoons and forks, “all [...]
And to your left, the rare spotted owl…
“Gender Observatory established in Rwanda”
(It’s actually not that interesting; the government is establishing a department to watch the mainstreaming of gender and the collection of statistics, something that has been part of a long established plan here, where the country takes gender promotion very seriously. But I couldn’t resist.)
From Rwanda’s female-dominated parliament to Alaska’s hockey mom…
It’s a long trip, perhaps.
Here’s an interesting piece from Salon, not for its politics, but for its insightful consideration of the way the gender dominates how Americans talk about Sarah Palin. It begs, from both sides of the aisle, careful consideration about how we are manipulated by language and narrative in an election season:
“The [...]
A step, or a leap, or maybe nothing at all, for African women
About a week ago, the Christian Science Monitor ran an article I wrote from Sierra Leone on a new law protecting women in war zones. The law–less a law than an international precedent which may, or may not, become influential–categorizes the crime of forced marriage as a crime against humanity, for the first time [...]
The personal-life liabilities of pursuing a Pulitzer Prize
About a month ago, I realized that my apprehension about talking to men here was impeding my work. The feeling, I decided, was an overcorrection. I’d dropped myself in Kigali with the same universal trust of strangers I apply everywhere I am. This leads me into dicey situations sometimes, and my mother [...]
I am a freelance journalist and multimedia producer who covers human rights, Africa and foreign affairs. [