GUARDIANS OF HISTORY

By María Suárez Toro, and RIF-Fire Communications Center
Feminist International Camp

Translation by Amandla Gigler, Executive Director at CALALA Fondo de Mujeres / Women's Fund

Lise Marie Jean, a feminist leader from SOFA in Haiti, warned us about the situation of buried historical records, during a gathering of over three dozen Latin American and Caribbean feminists, in the Dominican Republic on January 26-27. She told us that Haitian women grieve over the irreparable loss of many lives, "but also because buried under the rubble of what was EnfoFam’s office, is the historical record of the origins of feminism in our country, as this was the first [feminist] organization."
She told us about the damage to Kay Fam, another feminist organization, the national library buried in the center of the city and the documentation centers on culture, human rights and other issues.

We went to Port au Prince to honor the thousands of people, including feminist leaders, who had died, to show solidarity with the people who had survived, to bring humanitarian aid and to alleviate other needs, and to see what more could be done. And while we covered the news from our feminist gaze, we knew we had to say farewell to our historical memory in Haiti, also.

Feminists in the region had already agreed at the meeting that all of the communication networks will excavate Haitian interviews and documents that they have in their own records of the past 30 years. The Latin American and Caribbean Network of Journalists, the Feminist International Radio Endeavor and the Center for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA) are launching a call to others.

Upon reaching the city, we ask Lise Marie to take us to the ruins of EnfoFanm’s locale, to document the reality. It was a two-story house in a suburb near the city. Our gazes cloud over at the site of the old sign with the name of the organization that sways in the Caribbean breeze, hitting the shattered cement.

We find ourselves against the grain of the first guardian of history. Madame Lisie comes over from the house across the street to tell us that we cannot enter.

But she knows Lise Marie, who is accompanied by Flavia Cherry with RIF's camera. I arrived later. They filmed to tell the world. When I arrive, I'm reluctant to make my farewell. "They are there, intact, look at them!"

We must make an appeal to UNESCO and UNIFEM to come recue them. The building, although it is destroyed, still has its frame standing, although it is extremely vulnerable. Some things inside are visible. There are the files. We return the next day with Silvie from the Ecumenical Center for Human Rights. The guardian comes out like a friend, but we explain ourselves and she speaks with us. We thank her for her vigilance and go on to our next encounter with the present and the past. We see that the Executive Secretary of the organization arrived this morning. This makes us glad. Whatever can be saved should be placed in her hands; this is the legacy of the protagonist-guardians.

We go to the second locale, Kay Fanm’s office. Again we are intercepted immediately. This time is a young Canadian man - Etienne Cote-Paluck - who is protecting the locale, this one not completely destroyed, but not habitable. All of the activists were unharmed, except the organization’s director, Magali Marcelin, who, when the earthquake struck, had just stepped out of a building where she was in a meeting.

He asks us for identification and explanations. He lets us in and tell us what has happened. He breaks down in the middle of the story. "Magali was a second mother to me. I am the son of a Canadian feminist and the truth is that they raised me! "

He tells us that he already knows about the International Feminist Camp and is working to provide coverage to MSNBC in Canada, and he wants to interview us. He carries out his journalism from his position as guardian of memory.

Magali lives among us and the new generation of young people who were marked by her. I am encouraged.

The third visit is the office of the "Ministry for the Status of Women and the Rights of Women". All that remained standing was the sign that faces the street. The view is horrible. Not one stone is left to support another.

The silence embraces us, the rubble shakes us, legs falter, instincts are incite, although if the ground were to tremble there's nothing that could fall. Two floors of concrete lying on the floor like paper watered by the wind.

At the entrance there is no guardian. Myriam Merlet, one of the feminists who passed, who with others founded Enfo Fanm, had put so much political strength to that Ministry. The Minister and many staff had also died.

I pick up a page, out of all the scattered material between pieces of concrete. It is an invitation dated 10 May 2007, addressed to the Minister, for a "National Forum on Education for All". The Minister of that time was Marie Laurence Lassegue, the current Minister of Culture, one of the survivors.

My hand shakes. It seems incredible that a piece of paper can suddenly be charged with so much meaning. I don’t know if it is the first piece of history that is recovered, but I'm taking a Haitian women's organization for their museum, or perhaps I’ll look for the Minister of Culture when the time is right, to request assistance from UNESCO and UNIFEM to recover the memory.

A deep sadness mixes in me with the wind on a road toward the recovery of memory. I pay tribute to those missing from history, so that we do not lose them.

Unlearning the 'truths'

Unlearning the 'Truths'


Zimbabwe was hounoured with the presence of Professor Sylvia Rosila Tamale from Uganda. She gave a talk at the Zimbabwe Women’s esource Center Network (ZWRCN). The room was packed to capacity with a mixture of older feminist/activist and quite an impressive number of young women activists too. It was an hounour for me to be present in that room and listen to this magnificent woman speak.

Professor Tamale is the first woman dean in the Law Faculty at Makereke University, Uganda. She has done several work, some of it including ‘African Feminism: How Should We Change?" and also "Eroticism, Sensuality and "Women's Secrets Among the Baganda: A Critical Analysis" Feminist Africa, just to mention a few.

She spoke on ‘SEXUALITY.’ As she started to go deeper into the power dynamics and how women should embrace sexuality and the key and core aspects of all power and sexuality people could not help but agree.

I realised so many dynamics to Sexuality and how we have not used the power of our sexuality as women to free ourselves from the rule of Patriarchy. The professor spoke about the need for ‘transformative change’ and also how we should begin a process of unlearning and relearning as women.

She emphasised on how as women we need to unlearn all the aspects of our sexuality that has been socially and culturally constructed, all the perceptions and how they have been used to control us.

The process as she described is not an easy, it’s difficult and it has a lot of backlash as well. She emphasised the need for critical thinking and questioning what we know as the ‘truths’.

What was very interesting for me is the way she highlighted the different power dynamics, economic, race, class, gender, sex, social status and all and in the middle of them all the main core issues that’s present in all these spheres in Sexuality. More often than ever in life as women we never realise how ‘our bodies’ are the main source of power we have and yet we let patriarchy control, dominate and abuse us.

In unlearning the ‘truths’ we then realise that we have to question everything, why we as women are the ones who do all the work in the domestic arena and all this is done and there is no payment for that. She compared this to the public sphere dominated by men and how they are remunerated and use that to control the women. Why is it that when a woman is a single parent, has more than one sexual partner or has sex with other women or is a sex worker she is ‘LABELLED’ by society? Who determines these labels and according to whose yard stick are you judging or setting morals? Whose morals are these?

I was quickly reminded of how we, as a women’s movement, advocate on how we have to be ‘WOMEN CROSSING THE LINE’. Sylvia Tamale is one woman who has crossed many lines; hence she was voted the ‘worst woman’ of the year in a national paper in 2003 in Uganda. I feel , if crossing the line and challenging patriarchy makes us all ‘worst women’ then lets wear that label with pride as we strengthen the voice, visibility and collective power of women.
-Patience Mandishona-

JASS and Las Petateras at the Americas Social Forum

"Las Petateras," JASS's movement building allies in Mesoamerica, convened a press conference this morning to kick-off the activities planned during the Americas Social Forum, as well as to announce the declaration made by the Nobel Women's Initiative denouncing the violence, hostility and public smear campaign being conducted by Daniel Ortega's government in Nicaragua against outspoken feminist activists and leaders.

Emely Flores, from El Salvador, spoke about the similar acts of violence and impunity exercised against women's organizations in her country. Patricia Orozco, from the Autonomous Women's Movement in Nicaragua, which has received the brunt of government-led attacks and repression, spoke passionately about the strong anti-feminist behavior practiced by the Nicaraguan government, and how women will never give up the struggle for equality and justice, no matter how difficult the situation becomes. Marusia Lopez Cruz announced the declaration written by the Nobel women in solidarity with the feminists in Nicaragua. The statement declared, among other things, that "the Nicaraguan government is intimidating the people and organizations that fight for the defense of human rights. We encourage the Nicaraguan government to stop its repression against the Autonomous Women's Movement and other activists. In particular, we express our solidarity with Nicaraguan feminists who find themselves attacked unjustly for their continued defense of reproductive rights and basic freedoms ... Another world is possible. And that world includes women's full equality and freedom from violence. We urge all those who have come together in the name of justice and peace to stand firm that women's rights and equality is at the heart of our dreams, and actions, for a better world." (read the entire declaration)

Liduvina Mendez Garcia went on to present the actions and activities the Petateras are involved in during the week-long Social Forum, including several workshops and panels, and the 5th "Observatorio de la Transgresion Feminista" or "Women Crossing the Line," where, along with Radio Feminista, women's voices, actions, and denouncements will be captured and amplified for the world to listen. Our voices will be heard.

The opening ceremony of the III Americas Social Forum began with a rousing action by our sisters in El Salvador. Las Petateras and other members of the JASS delegation joined in as they took over the space, wearing white sheets and with white face paint, chanting "Nosotras parimos, nosotras decidimos," or "We give birth, we decide!" along with the crowd favorite "Sacan sus rosarios, de nuestras ovarios," or "Take your rosaries out of our ovaries!"

The JASS delegation to the forum includes activists from MesoAmerica and the United States.

Read more at www.justassociates.org www.petateras.org and www.radiofeminista.net

Thank you to FIRE for the images.