HARMFUL SOCIAL PRACTICES

EFFORTS TO FIGHT BREAST IRONING

I received some comments about breast ironing and some people wished to know efforts being taken to tackle it. Actually the first article was introducing breast ironing and its effects but did not delve much on the steps taken to fight it. The strange thing about this practice is that it is not cultural per se, although it has existed for a long time no one can tell how it originated. It is being practice mostly in the urban areas than in villages and Cameroonian men just recently became aware of it due to the growth of recent campaigns against it.

However, in Cameroon organizations such as Réseau National des Associations de Tantines (RENATA), translated in English as - the National Network of the Association of Aunties, the Ministry of Women Empowerment and the Family, and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit, GTZ) are leading the campaign to educate mothers and daughters about the dangers involved, and the better ways to prevent teen pregnancy.

The National Network of the Association of Aunties- RENATA, is made up of members who have undergone the practice, and they are trying to stop breast ironing by drawing public attention to its dangers in radio and television spots and by disseminating leaflets.Their next mission is to make breast ironing illegal and eradicate the practice.

The UN says that 3.8 million West and Central African girls are at risk of this painful form of body mutilation.In Cameroon where the practice is most widespread, 50% of adolescent girls in cities and a quarter of all girls nationwide have their breasts 'ironed,' often by their mothers. While some reports proclaim One-quarter of all Cameroonian women are said to have been victims of this painful "breast-ironing".

Ironically, the tradition was a mystery to many in the West African nation until a recent campaign to stop the potentially dangerous practice, aimed at delaying a young girl's natural development was launched.

Nevertheless breast ironing is widespread and interestingly, the high prevalence in cities attributed to the effects of urbanization.

Flavien Ndonko, an anthropologist with GTZ's German-Cameroon HIV/AIDS health programme, noted that this painful form of mutilation could not only have negative health consequences for the girls, but was also a futile form of sex education.

"Many of the RENATA girls, who are young mothers, say they were subjected to 'ironing', and this clearly proves that it does not work ‘as pregnancy prevention’ and that it is a futile and traumatic experience imposed on them,".

Young people make up most of the 5.5 percent of the population living with HIV, and teenage pregnancy is a growing concern. One-third of the 20 to 30 percent of girls with unwanted pregnancies are between 13 and 25 years of age, with more than half of them having fallen pregnant after their first sexual encounter, according to GTZ.

Addressing the general lack of information about sex in the family ran counter to acceptable social norms, GTZ and RENATA pointed out.
"For the parents, it is very difficult to talk of sexuality due to modesty or for cultural reasons, so they prefer to get rid of the bodily signs of sexuality in this way," Ndonko commented. "However, the onset of adolescence is exactly the right time to start this discussion."
Because the topic of sex was taboo, young girls remained ignorant of how to protect themselves from HIV infection and were even more vulnerable to the virus, said Bessem Arrey Ebanga Bisong, Executive secretary of RENATA.

Nonetheless, support for the opposition to the tradition remains evenly balanced. According to a survey 39 percent of women opposed it while 41 percent expressed support and 26 percent were indifferent.

For Ndonko, the campaign is a battle to respect the physical intergrity of young girls, with broader implications for human rights. “If nothing was done today, tomorrow the very parents may even resolve to slice off the nose, the mouth or any other part of the girl which they think is making her attractive to men.”

Despite the campaigns some women still hold fast to it that their mothers did it to them as such they will do it to their own children.

Watch a video about Breast Ironing in Cameroon presented by Nina Garthwaite at - http://current.com/items/88852332/breast_ironing.htm

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY CELEBRATIONS IN CAMEROON

Today March 8th is the International Women’s Day and I guess almost every aspect now has a day to commemorate. However, Cameroonian women are not left out in the global ambience and they are always so colourfully dressed looking gay and exquisite; unfortunately some of them have a negative perception of this day.

In Cameroon there is an international women’s day cloth or material, which women use to sew different outfits some – pants/trousers, skirts long or short and tops or blouses, dresses, a traditional free wear design known as ‘Kaba’ and a traditional mode to tie a plain loin cloth from waist downwards to the ankle known as ‘wrapper’ or call it a wrap accompanied by a top known as ‘buba’. And it is an issue or a big deal if some men do not purchase this cloth for their wives, girlfriends or concubines. But those women who are employed in public or private services the office usually purchases the materials for their female staff. However, cultural groups and social groups usually have their uniforms which they dress up with as an identification of that particular group.

Before the day proper, there are various activities ranging from sports competitions, Arts and craft exhibitions, gastronomy exhibitions featuring the rich cultural meals of the different ethnic groups in Cameroon and also portraying the byproducts of some of our food crops and also as a means to demonstrating methods of conservation and preservation and an agricultural show for rural women.

Agric shows and other activities are also organised during World Rural Women’s Day – October 15, The World Food Day – October 16 and African Women’s day - July 31. Since the World Food Day is a Day after World Rural Women’s Day; they have decided to conjoin the celebration of these two days in Cameroon since the same officials are to preside - the Agriculture and Women Empower and Family Services.
There are also choral, cultural dance and drama presentations. The day proper comprises of speeches from officials and women representatives, marched pass of various cultural, official and social groups and presentation of prizes to individuals and groups who won in the various competitions.

In Cameroon as I observed most women have misconstrued the whole idea and concept of Women’s day. I have tried to get diverse views and opinions from both men and women about women’s day.

Some women would endeavour to put their houses in order and provide for her family during her absence like preparing the meal for the day; if there is no big child or house help to perform the task. But some women who are perverse are so excited about the day and claim that it is their day so they are the man of the house as such the man is to do all the house chores. They leave their homes in the morning to assembly at the celebration grounds. Each town has their own grounds where such festivities are carried out. After marched pass and the entire celebrations there is what we call in Cameroon ‘Item 11’ – reception; each women’s group assemble in their own arranged spot to eat, drink and dance.

Women who are cautious go back home on time meanwhile some even married women get themselves too drunk by consuming to much alcohol, they misbehave by talking and acting unruly and put up recalcitrant attitudes like dancing indecently. There are always stories of women who do not even spend that March 8 night at home and for some women, they never go back to their marital homes. From such attitudes and misconduct by some women during International Women’s Day celebrations most men now harbour adverse feelings. Some uphold women use the day to spite and disrespect men as a result commemorating the day have no positive impact or prospect. Some men even complain some women are insolent for when women gather in bars or beer parlours they ask the men to leave because today is the day for women.

Despite lots of sensitization some women only know that Women’s Day is a day billed for women to enjoy and feel free. I feel anguish when I see and hear how women exhibit negative tendencies, I then question if they are suppose to act by being contumacious or women are instead to demonstrate a better example. We know off course two wrongs don’t make a right.

I pray and hope more women should be educated and sensitized about the real need and essence of the International Women Day instead of them to abuse the precept, ideals and principles of an International Day for Women.

Personally, I hold no keen interest on any day for women. I belief everyday is my day and only those who are in bondage or rather have allowed themselves to be in bondage seek liberation and for me the need for advocating for women’s rights consist of a matter for everyday. Please, don’t misunderstand my point for I am also in the know that situations cause some women to undergo a lot and these needs to be address. But in my opinion if all the women should know and understand their rights and also stand up and stick to it then I guess we must have attained gender equality. Unfortunately some women are still naïve and stick to the patriarchal African society where men rule, hence they refuse to denounce or go against their man no matter the abuse or violence they face from their men. Perhaps their intention is to evince true love, submissiveness and gender humility.

HARMFUL TRADITIONAL PRACTICES

ABOUT BREAST IRONING

When I just got in to secondary school that was in the early eighties I heard some few girls talking about using objects like a wooden spatula, placed over hot flames to massage their breast to prevent them from growing big. I never took them seriously; I guess I considered it a faux pas, not until recently that the prevalence of breast ironing in Cameroon has become a lime- light issue due to the fact that it is a harmful ritual imposed on the nation’s pre-pubescent women. Local non- governmental Organisations are trying to call attention to this practice and stop it.

Breast ironing, known as a form of mutilation is another weird practiced whereby pubescent girls breasts are flatten. This involves pounding and massaging the developing breasts of young girls from about eight years with hot objects to try to make them disappear.

The objects used are wooden tools like pestles and spatulas, grinding stone, oranges, banana, coconut shells and belts. These heated objects and breast band are used to press or beat down the forming breasts.

The practice performed usually by mothers chiefly in urban areas than villages is believed to be an efficient means of delaying pregnancy; by “removing” signs of puberty, these girls are thought to no-longer appear sexually attractive to men. Hence, it helps prevent rape, early marriage and some mothers are equally worried that their daughters’ budding breast would expose them to the risk of sexual harassment.

While there is little research on the health effects of the practice, it is considered that the practice can cause tissue damage in addition to the pain of the ironing process. Other possible side effects include breast infections, malformed breast and the possible complete eradication of one or two breast. Even so, the practice can inhibit or prevent successful breast feeding.

According to a BBC report of June 23, 2006 titled – Cameroon Girls Battle ‘Breast Ironing’ by Randy Joe Sa’ah, statistic show that 26% of Cameroonian girls at puberty undergo it, as many mothers believe it protects their daughters from the sexual advances of boys and men who think children are ripe for sex once their breasts begin to grow. The most widely used instrument to flatten the breast is a wooden pestle, used for pounding tubers in the kitchen. Heated bananas and coconut shells are also used.

Many mothers have no regrets about ironing their daughter's breasts. "Breast ironing is not a new thing. Some women hold they are happy they protected their daughters. To them they could not stand the thought of boys spoiling her with sex before she completed school," one woman explained. "Unfortunately, television is encouraging all sorts of sexual immorality in our children."

Another report by CRIN – Children’s Right Information Network of July 13, 2006 captioned – Millions of Cameroonian Girls Suffer ‘breast ironing’ - “Breast ironing” – the use of hard or heated objects or other substances to try to stunt breast growth in girls – is a traditional practice in West Africa, expert say. A new survey has revealed it is shockingly widespread in Cameroon, where one in four teenagers is subjected to the traumatic process relatives, often hoping to lessen their sexual attractiveness.

Breast ironing is an age-old practice in Cameroon, as well as in many other countries in West and Central Africa, including Chad, Togo, Benin, Guinea – Conakry, just to name a few, “ said Flavien Ndonko, an Anthropologist and local representative of German Development Agency GTZ, which sponsored the survey.

“If society has been silent about it up to now is because, like other harmful practices done to women such as female genital mutilation, it was thought to be good for the girl” said Ndonko. “Even the victims themselves thought it was good for them.”

However, the practice has many side effects, including severe pain and abscesses, infections, breast cancer, and even the complete disappearance of one or both breasts.
The survey of more than 5,000 girls and women aged between 10 and 82 from throughout Cameroon, published last month, estimated that 4 million women in the central African country have suffered the process.

Another report captioned - Women in Africa Bear a Painful Tradition by Roxy Varza, Assistant Editor states that the practice, which was initially thought to improve a mother’s breast-milk, is now inflicted upon 24% of all Cameroonian women as young as the age of nine. While the practice is commonly performed by family members, 58% of the time by the mother, these young and naïve girls buy into its reasoning and often continue inflicting the practice upon their own bodies.
Aside from breast ironing being extremely painful, there are a serious number of physical and mental health complications that can ensue: the most serious include an elevated cancer risk, the inability to produce breast-milk, and psychological problems; many girls grow so fearful of their families that they flee their homes. If pounding is involved, related heart problems can also ensue. Despite the 42% of women touched by this practice who believe their breasts to have developed normally, a good 18% believe their breasts to have become prematurely “saggy” or deformed. Others suffer from infections, cysts, or lesions, which often lead to cancer as early as the age of 25.

Breast ironing affects women in all 10 of Cameroon’s provinces, crossing ethnic and religious boundaries. The practice is most prevalent in the Littoral province (53%), which houses Cameroon’s largest city of Douala; numbers are generally higher in urban areas, where sexual advances are more common. Possibly due to the differences in attire, breast ironing is less common in the nation’s north (7%), where the population is primarily Muslim. However, regardless of location, religion, or ethnicity, the risk of undergoing breast ironing doubles amongst girls who show signs of puberty before the age of nine.

Unlike other many other African nations, Cameroon enjoys general political stability, has a high-ranking educational system and one of the highest literacy rates in Africa (79% as of 2003). While teen pregnancy rates have declined since 1996, with 60% of all teens experiencing one or more pregnancies, to 20% in 2003, numbers are still high and have obviously not been reduced by the breast ironing. The rationale behind breast ironing, which is to protect young girls from sexual advances, conflicts with the reality that these girls can still become pregnant. The 5,661 women between the ages of 9 and 82, who were touched by breast ironing in 2005, sheds light upon a desperate need for sex education in a country where the topic is still very taboo.

Despite the problems with breast ironing, it has not yet been banned by authorities. While victims do have protection under law, very few cases are taken to court. If it is concluded that damage has been done to the victim, the responsible party can face up to 3 years in prison. Victims, however, are often too young and very unlikely to report their family members.

GENDER ISSUES

WOMEN AS BREADWINNERS

Most women go through thick and thin to be able to feed and provide for their household and equally see their children through their education. This might not seem strange but the line of businesses some of these women undertake to be able to meet up with their engagements is what matters and the end they wear off looking older than their husbands who where several years ahead before they were married to them.
As I observed in my county Cameroon, in as mush as most men uphold powers and authority as a man, they neglect and avoid those duties and responsibilities a man is suppose to perform as the head of the family.

This is common with those men who migrate from rural settings to township and are able to secure clerical and cleaning jobs which usually not sum up to a comfortable pay check. In effect these men when they decide to marry go back to their villages to get a wife, usually lass. The village fathers knowing he is from the city and judging from his conservative dressing which most of them put on to show off they are from the city and to portray they are financially okay, fathers readily propose and offer their young daughters.
When these women eventually join their husbands, they realize the condition of the man is not as blissful.

They are given money to purchase food and house needs at the market, the money is never enough and if they dare complain the respond from the man is “Manage, this is not the village where you have food in abundance from your farms, here we buy everything.” Situation gets worst when they start making children then the reality of taking the upper hand strokes - they are to be the breadwinner of their household.

To therefore act as breadwinners, especially those women who are determined that, their offspring should have better opportunities than they ever had these women are compelled to engage in tedious and risky businesses like going to the bush market to buy food stuff and retail at town markets. Such women are referred to in Cameroon as ‘Buyyam Sellam’ just from the mere sense that they buy and sell. These women sell foodstuff like plantains, yams, cocoyam, cassava, vegetables, fruits etc.

In Cameroon towns have particular days known as market days, usually twice or thrice a week, or some towns having more than one market have varied days within the week as such that town can have about five market days within the week. Some of the markets operate daily but on market days traders come from around and afar as such commodities and items are cheaper to acquire than in ordinary days.

The bush markets are rural markets where these women buy directly from farmers mostly women too, who till and toil under the sun and rain from dawn to dusk and at the same caring for their babies and toddlers they couldn’t leave behind. If the farm is far they spend some days in the farm house. The ‘Buyyam Sellam’ women leave their homes sometimes as early as 3am depending on which bush market they are going and their line of business from the aforementioned different kinds of foodstuff they deal in. To get to these bush markets some board trucks and others smaller vehicles.

Trucks with single cabins instead of two, three women sit in the front seats and trucks with double cabins instead of 3 women to sit at the back seats about 5 to 6 women cram in while others take their places behind the truck. Even when the truck is loaded, these women can be seen sitting on their goods no matter the distance or the condition of the road.
Those who go by smaller vehicles from my own assessment faces greater risk for, the drivers are usually overzealous as such they careless about the comfort of passengers but how much they could make. In front, the driver share his own seat with a passenger and two others share a seat bring the total to four in front. Then behind instead of 3 there are five or six passengers. That’s not all some people sit on the roof or bonnet of the car and mark you their loads are included. And they are plying on usually curvy, bumpy roads that have not been tarred and these women endure all this to make ends meet.

These women have a target day to get their goods to the market, but things turn sour when the wagon heavy laden with their goods breakdown. If the fault is such that a part need to be replaced the driver will now wait for any available vehicle heading town wards to purchase the part. As such these women will then spend two, three or four days sleeping on the road depending on their distance from town.
The women are compelled to stay and wait around the truck so that their goods would not been stolen. Each of them has special marks on their bags or bunches of plantain to be able to differentiate their goods. If there is no stream around then they stay without having any shower for those number of days. If it is plantains, vegetables or fruit, they stand the risk of working on a deficit, because the vegetables or fruits might get bad or the plantains get over ripe for sale. Some of them go through all these with a child strapped on their back. Before they leave their homes if they don’t have bigger children, then they must have prepared and kept enough food in the house for their husbands and children.

Those who are not into foodstuff business cook and sell food. Again they get up in the early hours of the morning so that by 7, 8, 9 am latest they should be at their selling point. Others who roast fish or fry puff-puff (balls), or ripe plantains (dodo) and cooked beans or pap at night by the road side start by 6 or 7pm latest till the early hours of morning depending oh how lucrative business was on that particular day. Sometimes their children stay with them to help out.

Women without selling points go about from place to place like bars, construction sites, parks carrying their basin on their heads. Such women sell scotch eggs, boiled eggs; cow skin (canda) fried with tomatoes and sometimes prepared also with liver, pancreases (fop-fop) and large intestine also tripes (towel).
Cow skin locally known as ‘canda’ is like a delicacy for those from the English part of Cameroon. Cameroon is a bilingual country and officially speaks French and English. Eight of the ten provinces speak French known as Francophones while the remaining two are known as Anglophones.

There are women who trade on this cow skin only. If they are in small towns where they don’t kill many cows, they travel to bigger towns to buy the skin. When they get back to their homes, they make large fire to burn the hair off the skin. While it is burning they are scraping. Then they will steep it in water for a couple of days. They later clean it until it obtains a yellowish brown colour before they take to the market. Some other women also roast plantain, cocoyam and corn by the roadside usually during the day.

These women undergo all this just to keep life going for their families meanwhile most of their men use their earnings to indulge in drinking sprees, womanizing and socializing. As such, the women assume responsibilities as a mother and father for children whom they have no say to decide on how many they are to give birth too.

Polygamy is also a cultural practice as a result some men marry up to six women or even more. Each woman has the responsibility to provide their offspring and at the same time have specific days to put food on their husbands table. He is less concern on how they manage and go about it after all he is the man of the house- ‘he who must be obeyed’.

By Cecile Enie

COHABITATION

THE BOOMERANG OF COHABITING IN CAMEROON

A couple not married to each other is considered to be cohabiting when they are living together emotionally and or physically intimate relationship.
If you are in an opposite-sex relationship, your rights as a partner may depend on whether you are married or living together. Generally speaking, you will have fewer rights if you are living together than if you are married. Although there is no legal definition of living together, it generally means to live together as a couple without being married.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, you can formalise aspects of your status with a partner by drawing up a legal agreement called a cohabitation contract or living together agreement. A living together agreement outlines the rights and obligations of each partner towards each other. It is not clear whether living together agreements are legally enforceable but they can be useful to remind a couple of their original intentions. In practice, instead of a living together agreement, it is possible to make a series of legally enforceable agreements on specific matters, for example, how a jointly-owned house is shared. If you want to do this, you will need legal advice.

Although rarely enforced, cohabitation is considered illegal in seven states in the United States - Florida, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia. Some couples prefer cohabitation because it does not legally commit them for an extended period, and because it is easier to establish and dissolve without the legal costs often associated with a divorce. In some jurisdictions cohabitation can be viewed legally as common-law marriage, either after the duration of a specified period, or the birth of the couple's child, or if the couple consider and behave accordingly as husband and wife. This helps to provide the surviving partner a legal basis for inheriting the deceased's belongings in the event of the death of their cohabiting partner.

Common-law marriage sometimes called de facto marriage, informal marriage or marriage by habit and repute is a form of interpersonal status which is legally recognized in some jurisdictions as a marriage even though no legally recognized marriage ceremony is performed or civil marriage contract is entered into or the marriage registered in a civil registry. A common law marriage is legally binding in some jurisdictions but has no legal consequence in others. In some jurisdictions without true common law marriages like Hungary, the term "common law marriage" is used as a synonym for non-marital relationships such as domestic partnership or reciprocal beneficiaries’ relationship.

Today, cohabitation is a common pattern among people in the Western world, especially those who desire marriage but whose financial situation temporarily precludes it, or who wish to prepare for what married life will be like before actually getting married, or because they see no benefit or value offered by marriage. More and more couples choose to have long-term relationships without marriage, and cohabit as a permanent arrangement.

Research shows that most couples who live together would like to get married someday, and within five years, slightly more than half of them do. People may live together for a number of reasons. - They are in love, and they want to spend more time together. They want to make sure they are compatible before they make a lifetime commitment to each other. They are engaged to be married, and decide to move in together before the wedding. They are perhaps saving money for a wedding, and figure they'll live together in the meantime. They are spending most nights together anyway and don't want to pay two rents. They don’t want to get married or cannot marry. They know their partner isn't a good match for a long-term relationship, but want to stick with this person for now. They would lose significant financial benefits if they were to marry. This predicament is especially common among senior citizens - who would sometimes lose a pension from a deceased spouse if they married and disabled people. It may also be because they are unable to legally marry, because for example same-sex, interracial or interreligious marriages are not legal or permitted. Other reasons include living with someone before marriage as a way for polygamist or polyamorists to avoid breaking the law, a way to avoid the higher income taxes paid by some two-income married couples in the United States.

In Cameroon there are some cases of females who have lost their lives as a result of cohabiting. On June 14, 2007 in the economic capital, Douala in the Littoral Province of Cameroon, a fourth year student of the faculty of Economic Science, University of Douala, Amandine Azebaze, age twenty- three was strangled to death in their home by her boy friend Blaise Deffo a barber by profession.

Blaise and Amandine were cohabiting; locally called in pidgin (CWS) “COME WE STAY”. After the act Blaise attempted suicide by stabbing himself. A neighbor broke in and Blaise was rushed to the hospital while Amandine’s corpse was transported to the mortuary. It is alleged that the reason for Blaise actions was because Amandine wanted to end the relationship after they have been living together for sometime. To this, her friends question if love is by force.

Apparently the students of the University of Douala especially her course mates with whom she attended lectures that morning took to the streets with banners in hand, marching from their campus to the hospital. Their aim was to notify the administration, public and the media that every human being has fundamental human rights, which includes the right to live. Therefore no body has the right to exterminate another person’s life. As such, justice should take its course.

Years back in Yaounde the capital city of Cameroon a similar incident had taken place. In this case, the man was a Tailor and was sponsoring the girl in the University of Yaounde. The girl in her final year decides she wanted to call off the relationship, to this the guy locked up and sent the house ablaze; killing them both.

In another cohabiting story, this time in Buea in the South West Province of Cameroon, Eleanor now a graduate in Public Administration and Mbella a graduate in Law had been cohabiting for seven years as students and have two daughters, three and four years respectively.

Although Eleanor lived with Mbella, her family was still in charge of her education. She had to care for her home, kids and study at the same time. Eleanor in her twenties has constantly been battered by Mbella who is about thirty years old. According to Eleanor the children are traumatized, as a result, they get frantic and start crying each time their dad starts yelling; since they know their mom would eventually be mal- handled.

In one of Mbella’s battering flings, he beat Eleanor up and she ended up admitted in hospital. Besides one of his sisters, neither him nor any of his family member showed up at the hospital. When Eleanor was discharged she went to live with her family, Mbella accosted her later giving her an ultimatum to return to his house.

She did not. He saw her again asking for forgiveness and that if she had actually forgiven him then she should accompany him to a party. She refused stating she is still recovering. Mbella insisted he needed just her company even if she would not dance. At the party a guy approached Eleanor for a dance even though she declined, Mbella was enraged and this ensues in to a fight.

Eleanor thence took the decision never to return to live with him again. A few months after Eleanor now living in another town helping in her father’s palm oil mill came around to visit her children who where now living with their paternal grandmother and aunts. Mbella came in, started scolding and asked her to leave. Amidst their exchange of words Mbella punched her neck to further defend herself, she got hold of an ovaltine bottle and crashed on his head.

Eleanor later was not proud of her action and even tried to seek a truce but this fell on deaf ears. However, Eleanor cannot get to see her kids. With her motherly love for her children she decided to visit them at school. To her total dismay the children upon seeing her fled crying. The school authorities tried to find out what was going on; since Eleanor was their mom and usually dropped and pick them from school as such they were surprised with the children’s reaction towards their mother. The children informed them that their dad told them to not get close to Eleanor because she was not their mom. Eleanor stunned and in a melancholic state went immediately to the State Counsel Office and was later referred to the Social Welfare service to seek legal redress. She was given convocation to serve Mbella.

What amazes Eleanor is that, about two weeks back when she visited the kids whom she had not seen for about three months they happily rushed to her, now just within two weeks after the last incident with Mbella the children are running away from her. She is tortured about the thought of loosing her children and what worries her more is that Mbella’s mother is not educated and his sister’s are nonchalant, as a result the children would have a set back in their education, morals and personal hygiene- especially when she sees them with unkempt hair. Sometimes she has to sneak to an opposite neighbours house not to be noticed by Mbellas’ family just to watch her children playing outside.

There have been other cases of domestic violence that has caused the death of many women - like a case of a man who battered the pregnant wife and she eventually died with her unborn twin. Actually the government of Cameroon is trying to discourage cohabiting. Most couples from a survey by the Ministry of Women Empowerment and the Family, claim they would love to legalise their relationship but this is hindered due to the cost involve.

The Ministry discovered that girls and women in this kind of relationship are not secured since they have no legal document backing them as a result; they are subjected to domestic violence, abuse of their rights and abandonment.

To ameliorate this situation, the Ministry of Women Empowerment and the Family together with the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization have now introduced Mass Marriages with no charges at the Municipal Councils. All that is expected by the couples is for them to come along with a portrait in which their heads are joint together and their rings. We are still to appreciate the effectiveness of this merger, since it is a common phenomenon in Cameroon that certain decrees are more of theory than practical.

By Cecile Enie

ABOUT BONDED LABOUR

BOUNDED LABOUR: A Weird Form of Slavery

“No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms” -Article 4 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

One of the least known form of slavery today and yet the most widely used method of enslaving people is bounded labour or debt bondage. A person becomes a bounded labourer when their labour is demanded as a means of repayment for a loan. Bonded labourers are forced to work to repay debts their employers say they owe, and they are not allowed to work for anyone else. As such, various forms of force are used to make sure they stay.
Incidentally, the person is tricked or trapped into working for very little or no pay, often for an entire week. The value of their work is invariably greater than the original sum of money borrowed. This form of slavery has existed for hundreds of years. In Southern Asia it is rooted in the caste system and continues to flourish in feudal agricultural relationships, cottage industries and factories.

A caste system is a social system where people are ranked into groups based on heredity within rigid systems of social stratification, especially those that constitute Hindu India. Some Scholars deny that true caste systems are found outside India. The caste is a closed group whose members are severely restricted in their choice of occupation and degree of social participation. Marriage outside the caste is prohibited. Social status is determined by the caste of one's birth and may only rarely be transcended. Certain religious minorities may voluntarily constitute a quasi-caste within a society, but they are less apt to be characterized by cultural distinctiveness than by their self-imposed social segregation. A specialized labor group may operate as a caste within a society otherwise free of such distinctions like the ironsmiths in parts of Africa. In general, caste functions to maintain the status quo in a society.

“ The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted fifty years ago, proclaimed that ‘ no one shall be held in slavery and servitude…’ it is difficult to believe that as this great and tragic century draws to a close, the problems of slavery and slave labour remains unresolved… All of us have a critical role to play in ensuring that the issues of enslaved labour and debt bondage are returned to the top of human rights agenda.” This statement was made in 1998 by Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Debt bondage, debt slavery, bonded labor or peonage was also used as a means of trapping indentured labourers into working on plantations in Africa, the Caribbean and South- East Asia following the abolition of the slave trade or the truck system. The term truck system refers to a form of unfree labour in which workers are paid in goods and/or services, instead of money. It should be noted that truck systems, per se, are distinguished from truck wages, a generic term for non-cash payments, which in some historical contexts have been utilised by free workers. There are extreme examples of chained labourers kept under armed guard in Pakistan. In many cases they are kept under surveillance; sometimes under lock and key.

Poverty and threats of violence force many bounded labourers to stay with their masters, since they would not otherwise be able to eat or have a place to sleep. The existence of bounded labour stems from the fact that some people are prepared to exploit the desperation of others who are poverty stricken. They are often without land or education as such, their need for cash just for daily survival forces people to sell their labour in exchange for a lump sum of money or a loan.

Consequently, entire families are kept like cattle on farms in India, Pakistan and Nepal; migrant agricultural workers are equally forced to remain on ranches in Brazil, children trafficked for profit in West Africa and the organized export of women into domestic and sexual slavery in Europe. Despite the fact that bounded labour is illegal in most countries where they are found, governments are rarely willing to enforce the law, or to ensure that those who profit from it are punished.

Article 1 of the United Nations Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institution and practices similar to slavery in 1956 declared that “each of the States Parties to this convention shall take all practicable and necessary legislative and other measures to bring about progressively and as soon as possible the complete abolition or abandonment of the following institutions and practices, where they still exist… Debt bondage, that is to say, the status or condition arising from a pledge by a debtor of his personal services or of those of a person under his control as security for a debt, if value of those services as reasonably assessed is not applied towards the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined”. While 1(a) indicated that parties to the Convention are required to adopt measures to bring about the complete abolition of debt bondage.

According to Justice PN Bhagwati, Indian Supreme Court Judge in 1982, Bonded Labourers are non-being, exiles of civilization, living a life worse than that of animals, for the animals are at least free to roam about as they like… The system, under which one person can be bounded to provide labour for another for years and years until an alleged debt is supposed to be wiped out, which never seems to happen during the lifetime of the bounded labourer, is totally incompatible with the new egalitarian socio-economic order which we have promised to build.

Going by Anti- Slavery International fact sheet - today’s fight for tomorrow’s freedom, there are some twenty million bounded labourers in the world. Bounded labour is expanding due to poverty and the global demand for sources of cheap, expendable labour. Bonded labour was also used as a method of colonial labour recruitment for plantations in Africa, the Caribbean and South East Asia. Bonded labourers are routinely threatened with and subjected to physical and sexual violence. They are kept under various forms of surveillance, in some cases by armed guards. There are very few cases where chains are actually used (although it does occur) but these constraints on the bonded labourers are every bit as real and as restricting.

Section 2 of the Slave Trade Act 1843 enacted by the British Parliament declared "persons holden in servitude as pledges for debt", that is, bonded laborers, to "be slaves or persons intended to be dealt with as slaves" for the purpose of the Slave Trade Act 1824 and the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.

Bonded labor and in particular, bonded child labour, exist in Pakistan, India and Nepal. These children known in India as Peyjolis and Kuthias, are, in effect the slaves of feudal landowners or carpet loom masters. Where the whole family is in bondage, the child must watch helplessly as his mother is assaulted by his master in the bushes, or watch his father being lashed at the plough or in the quarry.

Around the world, millions of children have never had a childhood. They are forced to work, sometimes as child laborers, sometimes as virtual slaves. This practice is illegal and just plain wrong. Child labor is a crime committed against nearly 220 million children, or one in every seven, ages 5 to 17, around the world. The majority are girls in the Asia Pacific region.
Many of the worst forms of child labor are a problem in India, Nepal and Pakistan, where RugMark operates. These include child trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, bonded child labor, child domestic work and the recruitment and use of children for armed conflict or drug trafficking.

RugMark is a global nonprofit organization working to end illegal child labor in the carpet industry and to offer educational opportunities to children in India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Since its launch in 1995 child labor in the carpet industry has been reduced by two-thirds (66%).

Demand for child labor is so high that desperate parents sell their children into bondage. According to UNICEF, 14% of children in India between the ages of 5 and 14 are engaged in child labor activities including carpet production.

While some people mistakenly think it is better when all members of a family work, child labor actually makes poverty worse. Child workers come cheaply and sometimes at no cost, and drive down wages for adult laborers. Plus children who work forfeit an education that could have helped them achieve a higher standard of living as adults. Child laborers are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, are subject to long hours of physically demanding and unrelenting work, and suffer from deprivation and poor health.

In spite of a government ban on debt bondage, hardship continues to be a reality for tens of thousands of former bonded labourers who are among the poorest and most neglected citizens of Nepal.
These people, known as Kamaiya, have been given temporary land plots by the government, but live in squalor. They often rely on the assistance from aid groups. This woman was given a goat as a source of income.








Economic growth has taken place almost exclusively in urban areas. The rural economy has been virtually stagnant, especially in the mountainous regions. Life expectancy in the capital Kathmandu is over 70 years.
By contrast, in the far western mountain communities, like this village in Mugu district, it is below 40 years. The Maoist insurgency found fertile ground in these poor communities.





A movement known as Bonded Labour Liberation Front- Bandhua Mukti Morcha (BMM) was formed in 1981 to wage a battle against the pernicious bonded labour system in India. Administrative and political will to carry out the Constitutional mandate and enforce prohibitive laws of the land failed to produce any results. Against all odds, Bandhua Mukti Morcha has achieved the release of over 1, 24,000 bonded Indians from the shackles of slavery. A large number of them have been rehabilitated. From the Carpet Industry alone, about a thousand children have been rescued and restored to their parents. Their rehabilitation has been monitored effectively. BMM has started a campaign for the provision of non-formal, full time education for these children, along with the supply of nutrition to each and also some food security to their poor families.

As a result of BMM’s efforts, the leaders of the leading political parties have expressed their concern on the issue of child labour and often made a mention of it in their election manifestos in Parliamentary elections. Bandhua Mukti Morcha has been campaigning for a national minimum wage equivalent to first-day salary of a class IV employee in Government service. Its revision is to be done on cost price index as is done for the Government employees. The State Governments may fix minimum wage according to the local conditions but not below the National Minimum Wage.

Bandhua Mukti Morcha holds that slavery persists in our age in various forms. The bonded labour system is one of them. Child labour is another kind of bonded labour both arise out of socio-economic and historical reasons. India, the largest democratic country in the world according to their estimates has 65 million bonded child labourers, and 300 million adult labourers living a life of bondage and contemporary forms of slavery. This is despite Constitutional guarantees and prohibitive laws like the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1976, the Child labour (Prohibition and Regulation Act) 1986 and International Conventions on the subject. Child labour (5 years to 14 years of age) is rampant not only in agriculture but also in industries such as those manufacturing matches, locks, carpets, stone quarries, brick kilns, tanneries and diamond cutting and polishing units. These children are denied their fundamental right to childhood, to education, to play and to dream like a normal child. They have to labour for more than 8 hours every day. Legal and human rights battles on their behalf have been successfully fought in the Supreme Court of India. Parliament too has been approached. United Nations Human Rights Commission, International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) have been sensitised. Yet, the 20 year-old struggles is only a beginning. A lot more remains to be done.

Bandhua Mukti Morcha has been making a demand for a National Commission on Bonded Labour with judicial and financial powers. But successive governments have failed to do so. Bandhua Mukti Morcha has, therefore, constituted a Citizens’ Commission on Bonded and Child Labour, with eminent persons of political, social and judicial integrity as members. They include former Judges of the Supreme Court of India, eminent artists, journalists, lawyers and social activists.

The practice of bonded labour violates the following International Human Rights Conventions whereas India is a party to all of them and such is legally bound to comply with their terms. They are:

Convention on the Suppression of Slave Trade and Slavery, 1926;
Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery Trade, 1956;
Forced Labour Convention, 1930;
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 1966;
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ECOSOC), 1966;
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), 1989.

By Cecile Enie

TREASURE EVERY LIFE

TREASURE EVERY LIFE

Perhaps, we harbor thoughts that the Human Rights message of ‘equal opportunities for all’ is a recent or should I say modern phenomenon. Going back to the books of books the Holy Bible, the issue of equality has always been and essential point profess my God Almighty.

God has compassion and love for us all no matter our statues in life but more for the needy and those who have quest for the living water as God puts it. To show his meekness and humility he was of a lowly birth called Jesus Christ.

The parables of Christ are always so interesting and inspiring like this one from Mathew 25: 35-40 translated from the New American Standard Bible (1995) – For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'

"Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?’And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'
"The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'

In another Bible story Jesus informed a Rich man He was coming to his home for dinner and the Richman prepared lavishly, then a Beggar knocked on the door, thinking that was Jesus he opened up, seeing the Beggar he asked him to leave ‘cause he is expecting an important guest. Jesus never showed up, so when he saw Jesus next he asked Jesus and Jesus replied, I did come but you chased me away. – Jesus was the beggar.
Drawing from this, how many Beggars, Destitute, Disabled/Handicaps, Orphans or Strangers in general who are in need have we shown kindness, love and affection to?

I really don’t know about you out there - Individuals, Stakeholders/ Policy Makers and Governments.
How ever, these coldness, aggressiveness, minimization, discrimination and nonchalant attitudes toward those in need still prevail in our today’s society. Most times the way humans treat their fellow human beings leaves me with the feeling of coldness, sadness and exasperation.

From my close association with Orphans, Handicaps/Disabled and Juvenile Delinquents I realized most of those put in charge to cater for the less privilege most often instead exploit and shun them whereas the greatest desire of these classes of people is to belong and be part and parcel of the contemporary society. They don’t want to be limited; they have talents, visions, prospects and needs but require just the push and avenues to explore and exhibit them.

A role Model of someone with disabilities yet made resourceful and outstanding accomplishments is Helen Adam Keller born on 27 June 1880 in Tuscumbia, a small rural town in Northwest Alabama, USA. At age nineteen months she fell sick when her illness subsided it became apparent that the illness had left her blind and deaf but this did not limit Helen’s ambitions. We still have the likes of Helen in our present day society and with technology evolving livelihood conditions for those with disabilities and less opportunity has to be favorable.

Helen has many inspiring quotes some of them are – ‘Knowledge is love and light and vision’. ‘The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision, it is a terrible thing to see and have no vision’. ‘Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet’. ‘Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved’.

Description:

Children having fun at the Kome School in Tokyo, Japan.

The school, operated by the city, is the oldest educational institution in Tokyo for disabled children.

Copyright: (UN Photo #143938C )

Cecile Enie with some of the Orphans

at the St Valintine Orphanage Buea, Cameroon

I have also come across many Disabled/Handicap persons who are ambitious, industrious and lucrative but their societies limit their prospects. There is a piece I enjoy prepared by Mr Njie Fidelis the Provincial Chief of Statistics and Communication of the South West Provincial Delegation of Social Affairs, Cameroon.
As an Albino he also faces marginalization. The caption of the piece is – ‘WHO IS A DISABLED’ - The key message is – Treasure every life and value every Disabled Person. The message goes thus-

If you fail to SEE the person but only DISABILITY
Then who is BLIND.

If you cannot HEAR your brother’s cry for justice
Then who is DEAF.

If you do not COMMUNICATE with your sister but separate her from you.
Then who is MENTALLY HANDICAPPED.

If you do not STAND up for the rights of all persons.
Then who is CRIPPLE.

Your attitude towards persons with Disabilities may be our Biggest handicapped and yours too.

Visiting the Rehabilitation Institute for the Blind in Buea, Cameroon known as Bulu Blind Center on the walls of their hall were posted some touching and mind- searching messages such as –

*Treasure every life, value every blind person
* Disability is not inability
* We join hands to bar the way to AIDS
* The best way to be happy is to make others happy
* We need acceptance in ordinary schools
* No action for the disabled without the Disabled
* Harden not to listen to our voices
* Equal opportunities should be reality

The cardboard paper titled - OUR PLEA states-

Give us greater access to education and empowerment.
Do not reject us.
We are an integral part of society.

At the Juvenile Delinquency Center in Buea, Cameroon known as Borstal Institute, the phases of observational learning constitute – Attention, Retention, Reproduction and Motivation.

The dilemma of people in need, reminds me of this Christian song –
Tempted and trials we’re oft made to wonder
Why it should be thus all the day long
While there are others living about us
Never molested though in the wrong…..

Please let’s say NO to segregation, discrimination, exploitation, slavery and corruption and seek strategies to curb and ameliorate the situation of those in need, without which the population crisis, human rights activities, the UN Millennium Goals and other movements with the guise of propagating and ensuring a better world for all will never be accomplished.

By Cecile Enie