International Women's Day

Did anyone else know that March 8th was International Women's Day? I didn't until around February 28th. But it is, and in Bukavu that means the International Women's Day parade. This is a big deal in Bukavu. Organizations and business purchase fabric for their female employee's/members and each person has a traditional Congolese dress made. March 8th was aSunday, so the march took place on Saturday. Thousands of women in their uniform gathered together to march through the city and parade in front of the governor.

There were 5 women from FHI who marched alongside our friends from Renee's coffee shop. We all had the same fabric so it was fitting we marched together. As Liz, Renee and I (the Wazungu - white people) were dressed in pretty fancy Congolese dress, we got a lot of attention. We also got a lot of sun...bad, bad sunburns. It isn't often that I am outside in the sun for any length of time.

It was interesting being a part of this event. In the weeks leading up to the March, the men kept asking if we, the women, were throwing them a party. Boy did this get me riled up. In Congo, the women do all the work: they cook, they clean, they work the fields, they raise more babies than they should, they die needlessly in child birth, they carry impossibly heavy loads on their backs day in and day out. And the men want a party?!?!?!?

The day of the march, several NGO's had men marching alongside the women. To me this was men supporting women, standing beside them on the only day that celebrates them. However, this wasn't always the case. I witnessed many women yelling at the men marching. To them they were taking away their day. Who's right?

I think that the reason we in the west don't know about International Women's Day is because we have achieved relative equality with our men. We share our lives together, we share responsibilities. Our girl children grow up knowing that they can do anything they want and have the same opportunities as boy children. But here in Africa and across most of the world, women don't grow up knowing that. They grow up knowing that their purpose is to work in the home and the fields, to get married and to have babies. Of course that is slowly changing; many women here in Bukavu and elsewhere have jobs and are contributing to the income of their families. But it isn't enough; so we continue to have International Women's Day. But I hope that one day March 8th can just be another day of the week.