Lets Dance: From South Africa’s Toyi-Toyi to New Zealand’s Haka for Impacful Protest

Traditional Maori's performing the Haka 

Following in the footsteps of a previous blog post, this blog article will continue to examine and explore traditional modes of activism and resistance in this instance expressed through dance. Dance has served as a mode of popular resistance, protest and activism in various contexts. In this post the toyi-toyi dance well known in the South African context and the Haka dance, a traditional dance used by the Maori of New Zealand will be discussed highlighting this powerful form of protest and activism. Both forms of dance once served and continues to serve as effective conduits of protest and political resistance in South Africa and also New Zealand. This blog article will examine the cultural relevance and effectiveness of this mode of resistance in both highlighted contexts and will demonstrate the impactfulness of powerful forms of art such as dance in these specific two instances.

Description of the Toyi-Toyi and Haka

First it is important to visualize or depict how both dances are performed. Toyi-toyi is a rhythmic dance that can be best characterized by stomping and by jumping up and down in shifts of one leg at a time. It closely resembles a type of slow jogging on the spot with high-kneed foot stomping. The dance is usually accompanied with chants and confrontational songs. The Haka similarly is dance where a dancers pound their chests in unison with one another, while stomping their feet and jumping up high. It features a number of gestures that include threatening eyes and the poking out of tongues by the dancers performing the dance. 

Historical and Cultural Value of Both Dances

The historical value of the toyi-toyi to South African society find its roots ironically enough in Northern Africa with Algerian roots. Toyi-toyi is thought to be an Arabic phrase and has been associated with a military drill and training during the liberation of Algeria. The dance moved down to Tanzania and Zambia and then to Zimbabwe all the while changing its character and taking on a more nationalist and loyalist character. It eventually made its way to South Africa through South Africa’s main liberation army Umkhonto weSizwe  (Spear of the Nation), whose soldiers shared military camps with Zimbabweans and Zambians and where it was eventually adopted and learned. Its final destination led to its spread in the townships of South Africa when the soldiers of MK returned to their homes in South Africa. Its popularity was found mostly with young marginalized South Africans who could link their struggles and protests against apartheid to the liberation struggles of others. 

Toyi-Toyi being performed during anti-apartheid protests

The Toyi-toyi brought with it a new type of militarization as protests in South Africa became more hostile and confrontational. Its intimidating character resembled a war dance and it was used as an effective weapon against the then South African racist regime. Its aim was to instill fear in the heart of the enemy and even though most protesters were often unarmed. Much of the time protesters performing the dance succeeded in creating an intimidating environment as evidenced by the apartheid government escalating the use of violence based on the growing unrest in the country that the dance facilitated. The toyi toyi must therefore be seen as playing a pivotal part through protest in the overthrow of the apartheid regime in South Africa.  In current day South Africa the toyi toyi continues to be used in protests and is still used to indicate discontent but it is also seen as a celebratory ritual and joyous dance. 

If the toyi-toyi is synonymous with South Africa, then the Haka is synonymous with New Zealand. Its roots stem from the Maori an indigenous people of New Zealand. The Haka was performed by different Maori tribes as a war dance and was used to intimidate and scare opponents. It was a cry to the Gods to gain victory over the enemy and to receive courage and strength during battle. The dance while often viewed as intimidating must also be seen as preparation for battle and the challenges ahead. Over time the Haka has also taken on a celebratory nature and it has been used to celebrate weddings, births and other important occasions.  Most recently the Haka made news during the protests following George Floyd’s death where a New Zealanders performed the dance in solidarity and in unity with the Black Lives Matter movement. The strong linkages with Maori spirituality faciliatates a call to the ancestors to endow strength to the dancer in order to intimidate his enemies and stand in protest and solidarity with those most aggrieved. 

Commonalities for Impactful Protest

The commonalities between the ToyiToyi and the Haka are striking. Both dances pay homage to the history and importance of dance in protest and both are drivers of meaningful change. Both dances exude the pride and fearlessness of people confronting inequalities and pursuing their human rights and freedoms in the face of authoritarian governments and unjust laws. Through dance, society’s most marginalized can demand justice and equality in a manner that is bold and confronting yet fundamentally non-violent.  Nothing is more universal, visceral and primal and which can emphasize human emotions so eloquently than dance. What other art form can use the human body in a way that provokes and confronts social injustice so compellingly?

Posted by Ingrid Roestenburg-Morgan

Radical Rudeness: A Mode of Traditional and Cultural Resistance and Activism in Uganda

Dr. Stella Nyanzi Protesting Outside a Ugandan Court in February 2020

Africans, particularly African women have long had a history of engaging in individual activism and collective struggle against multiple forms of oppression and discriminations on the continent. These struggles find their origins and often stem out of the colonial period or during periods of severe injustice and oppression.  Resistance and activism of this type has been pivotal in establishing women’s autonomy and agency and very often finds its roots or is institutionalised in traditional African cultural systems. This blog article will attempt to highlight the linkages between between traditional practices that are grounded in activism and resistance and which have served as catalysts in the achievement of various human rights and freedoms curtailed or denied at various times in history and in certain contexts in Africa. In this blog, attention will be paid to radical rudeness as a traditional mode of resistance in Uganda. A series of subsequent blog articles will follow in the coming months that will continue to explore traditional based protests in Africa such as that of nakedness and nudity, motherhood and tough love, as well as music and dance as ways of confronting inequality and other forms of social oppression.

The Roots of Radical Rudeness 

The concept of radical rudeness is one that has recently re- emerged in the context of Uganda. It is a mode of activism that has been reignited and has in recent years been claimed and made popular by the feminist-activist, poet and academic Dr. Stella Nyanzi.  Nyanzi has become well known for regularly challenging Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni with personal attacks, curses and vividly erotic poetry in attempt to question the Ugandan government’s alleged corruption and questionable political manoeuvrings in the country. Radical rudeness as a form of activism found its roots in the early 1940’s when a group of Ugandan elitist activists in the Kingdom of Buganda attempted to challenge the status quo of power that existed between the ruling British elites and upcoming elites from Buganda. At that particular time the power that existed and was wielded by the British was often encapsulated and couched in politeness, manners, hospitality and sociability through which the British were able to secure both economic and political advantages from loyal Ugandan elites. This form of power was however, abruptly disrupted when a group of Ugandan elitist activists hailing from the Kingdom of Buganda used tactics of rudeness and a strategy of public insults to create disorderliness and disruption that worked to break the falsity of colonial ties, friendships/partnerships and mutual benefit between Ugandan elites and the ruling colonists.  Most importantly the method of radical rudeness worked to expose the true intentions of the colonial administration at that time.

Radical rudeness as a method of activism or resistance was implemented through activists employing strong and vividly powerful metaphors publicly either through the publication and dissemination of pamphlets, or through the disruption of public events that worked to destabilize the colonial administration by exposing the true intentions of the British. These insults took on various forms. As Carol Summers, in her article entitled Radical Rudeness: Ugandan Social Critiques in the 1940’s notes, metaphors of disrespect and insult were often used as tactics to champion the colonial administration. For example a metaphor  ‘Dogs of the British’ was used to refer to some Ugandan elites who were like British ‘pets.’ They were permitted into British homes, permitted to partake in all aspects of British culture and customs but in fact were considered dogs by the British because of their “half human” nature. 

Through this derogatory public insult, Ugandan elites who supported the British administration in Uganda were called out for displaying their disloyalty to their fellow countrymen by remaining loyal to their colonial masters and turning a blind eye to the suffering of their fellow countrymen. Activists suggested that these ‘dogs’ were deceived by the pretense of British civility and kindness endowed upon them by their colonial masters who in the end would inevitably face betrayal if British interests came into play. The critique further pointed to the self-deceit that Ugandan elites had been facing because of their identification with the British which insidiously was leading to the loss of control of their own freedoms, self worth and their overall economic disenfranchisement.  

This not only insulted the colonial leadership in Uganda but also attacked the “economic basis of patronage and hospitality which served as a means of ensuring continued power and control by the British administration. The impact that radical rudeness had during this particular period was destabilizing in the sense that it worked to mobilize thousands of people at meetings and gatherings creating the threat of violence and seizing the right to association and freedom of speech, which at that particular time were not recognized as rights in the country. The impact of this type of resistance and activism generated defiance and in turn destabilized the colonial administration, which at that time was considered very effective and progressive. 

Confrontational Advocacy as Weapon to Challenge Oppression and Subjugation

The activism behind radical rudeness has found new stirrings in current day Uganda and has become an effective weapon to challenge the curb on certain human rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of expression and LGBTQ rights, the latter of which have been limited or restricted under Museveni’s rule.  Feminist, activist and poet Stella Nyanzi has publicly challenged power through her many expletive and public tongue-lashings of the President and his family. Nyanzi has for instance referred to the President as a pair of buttocks and has additionally referred to his wife as a “big thighed cow with an empty brain.” She has even gone a step further and written an untitled poem about Museveni’s mother’s vagina graphically describing it in grotesque, disrespectful terms (see poem here). Her latter action however landed her in prison for metaphorically referring to the 35 year oppressive rule by Museveni, but did not however deter her resolve to publicly out her frustration as an activist who wants to see change in her country.  Through all these ongoing developments she has even taken the liberty to further to publish a collection of activist poems that probe gender rigidities, lesbian relationships and miscarriage. The book is entitled ‘No roses from my mouth’ and was published while she was still incarcerated and is a challenge to patriarchy and oppression and the ‘standards of civility of those in power.’ It is clear that the use of this type activism and resistance is destabilizing especially in more conservative societies where certain freedoms such as freedom of expression is frowned upon and suppressed, and where strong cultural taboos exist that defy openly discussing certain topics such as sex, sexuality, and homosexuality. The effectiveness of radical rudeness however in the context of Uganda and through Nyanzi’s activism can be verified on a number of levels. Firstly Nyanzi has certainly made waves both in her country and beyond with her activism gaining a level of notoriety, international renown and support. Most recently she was awarded the 2020 Oxfam Novib/PEN International award for her collection of poems for freedom of expression and in the same vein to demonstrate that the pen is mightier than the sword.  She has furthermore used her activism and advocacy to create impact on the rights of women, LGBTQ rights, and rights attached to sexual freedom. Furthermore she also has also drawn attention to the right to education and its intersections with poverty and thereby the value of education for young women and girls. 

It is clear that the nature of radical rudeness as a traditional or cultural mode of activism is a threatening form of activism to those in power. Its effectiveness as was demonstrated has been tested and found successful in the past and present day context through challenging the rules of politeness and exposing the weaknesses of authoritarian systems of power.  This type of activism can only be achieved through the strength and courage of a few who are willing to place their lives and bodies on the line by championing systems fraught with inequality and oppression. An activism of this type mobilizes awareness, creates power and causes political shifts. It is a true ode to the right to freedom of expression. 

Posted by Ingrid Roestenburg-Morgan

 

The Veil of Sexual Shame: The Impact of Sexual Violence and its Social Stigma in the Case of the Rohingya

It has commonly come to be known that sexual violence is integrally associated with shame and stigma. The logic that aggressors employ in using this tactic as a weapon of war is usually meant not only  to undermine the individual but also the collective identity of an entire community. In this way aggressors destroy social relationships and the fabric of a community that thrive on traditional religious and moral understandings of the institution of marriage and family. In a recent UN Security Council Meeting dealing with the repercussions of sexual violence in conflict situations, Acting Special Representative of the Secretary General of Sexual Violence in Conflict Adama Dieng stated that not only does sexual violence “turn victims into outcasts by fracturing families and corroding community structures but it also prevents justice from really being done.” In Dieng’s words it is the “stigma that kills and prevents victims from coming forward.  Much of the time it is this fear and cultural stigma prevents most survivors from claiming their rights and the proper legal assistance available to them.

Social stigma associated with sexual violence may in some societies be even more pronounced than in others. Research has, for example shown that in the MENA region while the rate of sexual violence is quite high the prosecution and conviction of rape is quite rare. This can be attributed to the fact that rape victims will probably face a plethora of stigma associated with the crime, part of which includes dishonour and accordingly a diminished prospect at marriage. The severity of the stigma that attaches is evident through some of the laws that are promulgated in some Islamic countries which go as far as forcing rape victims to marry their rapists in an attempt to restore family honour and dignity. In such situations it is believed that the woman who has been raped is better off being married to her rapist as a trade for her decency and honour. No doubt this is where some people err and confuse Islamic law by mistakenly equating rape with adultery or fornication. Interestingly the Quaran condemns the crime of rape classifying it as one of the violent and vilest crimes and clearly denotes it as a form of terrorism.

Considering the social stigma of sexual violence, often faced in some communities it may not be so far fetched in trying to understand the recent events surrounding Rohingya particularly the plight of Rohingya women and children who have fallen prey to and who have become victims of sexual violence in recent months. The massive displacement of this Burmese ethnic group has reached a climax as of last year where approximately half a million Rohingya have fled the country leaving those displaced living in refugee camps all across neighbouring Bangladesh .  Since 1824 the Rohingya as a Muslim minority in Myanmar have faced and continue to face a plethora of discrimination. This has been due to the fact that they have been rendered citizenless following applicable legislation regulating their status in Myanmar and are therefore seen as illegally residing in the country. As a result, many have been unable to get access to basic human rights some of which include proper access to education, religion, healthcare, and employment.  

As a further consequence, tensions emanating out of the relationship between Buddhist and Rohingya in Rakhine state has further exacerbated matters and has acted as a catalyst in the most recent humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. This has led to large-scale attacks against Rohingya including large- scale sexual attacks where women and children have been indiscriminately targeted. Increasingly evidence confirms that Myanmar’s military uses systematic mass rape and sexual violence as a form of ethnic cleansing, the impact of which is to arguably destroy this ethnic minority. Employing sexual violence as a weapon of war has evidently demonstrated that such violations are so powerful in Rohingya communities that it threatens to derail family life and family honour. From interviews conducted with Rohingya victims of sexual violence it has become apparent that many victims of rape much of the time keep the details of their sexual violations a secret fearing that their status as ‘soiled’ women will not only undermine their existing relationships with family and friends but more so, the relationships they hold with their husbands. In other words, there is a fear that once their husbands discover that they have been sexually violated they might face further rejection and dispossession. Single women also face a similar fear and stigma, namely that they will never be married or desired as a prospective partner should their ‘status’ as one who has been sexually marred, come out into the open. An explanation for this might be that the violation in question is deemed to be so shameful that erroneously part of the blame falls on the victim rather than on the sole perpetrator/s of the crime. Women in some instances may thus be seen as complicit in the act of rape and may therefore be perceived as having sex outside the boundaries of their marriage union and their religion

It is not surprising, that perpetrators of sexual violence also realize these benefits and therefore employ sexual violence methodically, as an alternative to weapons, but nevertheless still as a very effective weapon of war.  What may however come across unusual, in this particular instance could be however, the fact that Buddhists who are much of the time considered to be peace loving and non-violent have been the ones who have been pivotal in orchestrating these vicious and planned attacks. This goes to show that Western understandings of Buddhism tend to idealize and romanticize Buddhism and that Buddhism  itself like any other religion may be prone to corruption and used to promote violence and extremism if wrongly wielded. This raises a number of issues that I will address in a future post, namely  the origins of violence in Buddhism as a means to political ends; additionally, the role of women in Buddhism considering the inferior position that women hold in Buddhist culture and relatedly, the role of sex in Buddhism if one considers the use and value of women as sexual consorts in Tantric Buddhism. Finally the reasons why anti-muslim or anti- Rohingya sentiment has been spreading in Myanmar will be pondered upon to consider the deeper issues at play.

Posted by Ingrid Roestenburg Morgan

A New Chinese Discourse on Human Rights

If you think that I intend to introduce my analysis of current Chinese discussions about human rights, you are mistaken, or at least not entirely correct. Human rights are being discussed intensely in China these days and the title of those debates is: ‘A new Chinese discourse on human rights’. The motivation for initiating such a debate at this particular moment should be easy to figure out. China is attacked on its human rights record from Western governments virtually on a daily basis. Whenever top Western politicians, e.g. my own Prime Minister and King recently, prepare for an official visit to China, fellow politicians and the local media vie for expressing the expectation that, while those envoys are discussing economic relations to ensure that we do no miss out on business opportunities, they will ‘mention human rights’. Those statements themselves are interesting material for discourse analysis. China will soon be the world’s largest economy and all nations want to cash in on that. China is liberally sharing its newly acquired wealth with other nations. The One Belt One Road initiative in combination with newly founded institutions like the Asian Infrastructure Bank, are linking the world’s fast developing high speed rail network (China’s, in case you are guessing) with the infrastructure of China’s neighbouring countries. These are all win-win projects. They benefit China’s economy and the economies of the neighbours alike.

This is a good point to return to the new Chinese discourse on human rights. The so called Universal Declaration of Human Rights is rooted in Western thinking. The very word ‘universal’ already indicates that the document is a product of universalist culture. The first clauses keep referring to the rights of the ‘individual’, similarly clearly showing roots in individualist culture. As a result of China’s economic success, the one fifth of the world’s population living in China has access to sufficient nutrition, health care and education. The Chinese discourse regarding human rights so far was positioning that achievement as evidence of concern for human rights in China. This growing economic and political influence of former developing nations, led by China, is generating an increased pressure for a discussion about the conflicting rights of the individual and those of the social groups to which the individual is a member.

Many emerging economies are former colonies. They now find themselves frequently criticised by their former colonisers for ‘violating human rights’. However, the same former colonisers usually reject responsibility for causing the development gap. The new Chinese discourse on human rights addresses that issue by positioning the ‘right to development (RTD)’ as a prime human right. The commemoration of the proclamation of the RTD in 1986 was celebrated with a forum in Beijing in December 2016. An interesting detail is that only one nation opposed the proclamation of the RTD. That nation was itself a former colony and its Declaration of Independence contains a statement that ‘all men are created equal’.

Individualist – communitarian is not the only dimension for measuring national cultures, but it one that is best known by non-specialists. However, for people whose culture is on one end of that dimension, it is not so easy to grasp the way people on the other extreme makes sense of the world and their position in it. People who give priority to the rights of the group, when those rights clash with those of the individual, will have a problem with several of the clauses of the UDHR. Nations are large groups of people, and sometimes individual citizens need to cede part of their individual freedom for the benefit of their nation. The will, however, be able to share in that communal benefit, being the good citizens that they are.

The new Chinese discourse does not propose to replace the UDHR with another declaration but enrich it by adding a number of rights rooted in the cultures of the emerging economies. This also asks for a fresh approach to human rights in the developed, Western, world. A conflict between individual and group rights will be solved differently in strong individualist and strong communitarian cultures. Western nations need to stop interpreting the other approach as a violation of the UDHR, and instead see it as another way of implementing the same basic rights. Regional implementation of human rights needs to fit in the local culture and social practice.

In the coming months, I intend to contribute a number of posts to this blog, each based on another dimension of Trompenaars’ Seven Dimensions Model.

Guest Post by Peter Peverelli (Peter Peverelli is affiliated with the Cross Cultural Human Rights Centre at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

When Children Rise, Societies Thrive!

For many people childhood memories are the best part of their lives, but unfortunately this does not stand true for the millions of children across the world. Picture yourself between the ages of 7 – 8 years, struggling to survive on the street; with poor health conditions; near absence of protection; without access to education; care and compassion and now multiply that feeling with 24 million. 

Yes millions…. Pakistan inhabits 24 million school age children[1] who are denied their fundamental constitutional rights of access to education. Nearly half of school children are destined to hazardous forms of child labor, which not only deprive them from their right to adequate development and participation, but pose severe threat to their protection and survival. Children in Pakistan have to cope with a plethora of challenges; poverty, illiteracy, low learning levels in schools, poor health conditions, early forced and child marriages, dismissal conditions in juvenile prisons, trafficking, exploitation are among critical issues faced by children.

Pakistan being the fifth most populous nation in the world with 65% of total population being under 30 years made only little progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals and now agreed to Sustainable Development Goals, but the country stands 146th out of 188 countries on the UNDP’s Human Development Index[1] and 185th out of 188th countries on the United Nations Development Program’s Gender Empowerment Measure. Poverty is pervasive in Pakistan: Pakistan is at the 146th position out of 187 countries. One out of every fourth household is suffering with intense poverty, while three quarters of the household makes less than $2 a day.

It is significant that according to the Global Gender Gap Index Report in 2006, the first year in which the the report was published that Pakistan ranked at 112, and since then, its position has been steadily deteriorating every year. In 2016, Pakistan remained second last out of 142 countries. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan recorded almost 3,000 cases of violence against women and girls, including murder, sexual assaults, domestic violence and kidnappings in 2016 and 2017. Besides poverty which contributes to 48% of child labor, other issues such as corporal punishment in schools, neglect by family and society, lack of access to quality of education and lack of vocational skills has limited their options and opportunities of empowerment which results in increased child labor, and a growing number of uneducated and non-skilled children, especially adolescent girls. This is becoming serious concern as children, adolescent girls, individuals from minority groups and people with disabilities experience the additional burden of such miseries.

Ifran, 13 years old, from Shekhupura Pakistan lost his hand in a fodder chopping machine when his employer pushed him for being inattentive. During another incident a 16 year old paid the price for her brother’s ‘crimes’ after men forcefully stripped her and paraded her around the streets of Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan. The incident occurred when she was returning home after fetching water when suddenly men surrounded her, stripped her and forcefully made her walk in the local community for an hour. The girl’s screams for help fell on deaf ears as no one came to her rescue. The witnesses’ claimed that nobody came to help her because they were scared.  Without a doubt civil society as well as the state considers child labor as worst form of slavery and as a result has promulgated legislation to eliminate child labor. Yet shockingly the enactment of legislation, budgetary allocation and child right reforms are still far from reality as child labor worsens over time.

According to a recent study by a child rights focused organization in Pakistan, an estimated 1.2 million street children live in Pakistan. These children end up on the streets due to many factors including, poverty, neglect, family problems, natural disasters and displacement, violence in homes and schools, lack of adequate employment, education and social welfare systems. It is no surprise that children on the street are more vulnerable to other forms of abuse including drug-addiction, trafficking and sexual abuse than children having the care, compassion and supervision of their parents.

Homelessness, malnutrition, physical, sexual and psychological abuses are devastating results for children living on the streets. Issues such as these do not stop here, but continues to involve children in commercial sex, drug abuse,  begging, violence and terrorism.

Nine year old Razaq for instance who belonged to an internally displaced family in North Waziristan in Federal Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) said, “It is gravely disappointing to see our schools and houses demolished in blasts by terrorists and we continue to pay the price for the conflict we never created. I and many of my friends became homeless, left our childhood behind, and lost our schools and future”.

Denial of children’s rights is a threat to human development and calls for concrete actions. Commitment can be shown by ratifying the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of Child and by adopting child right related laws and policies which is the first important first step to recognizing and realizing the rights of the child but this will remain an empty promise unless it is translated into resource allocation and the enactment of legislation pertaining to child rights.

Child Rise, a nonprofit organisation focusing on the rights of children, is working with communities, government line departments and other civil society actors to influence child protection, education (formal, non-formal and vocational), healthcare, social welfare, psychosocial and legislative reforms to enable disenfranchised and vulnerable children to live healthy, educated and secure childhoods in protective environments. Child Rise is also seeking to partner with communities, adolescents and youth groups, individual philanthropists and child rights focused international organizations, who intend to give back to communities, in order to create an enabling environment for children. Child Rise stands for the rights of children because all the children around the world have one thing common, their rights. We also believe that it takes a society to raise a child and when children rise, societies thrive. For more information please visit our facebook page.

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[1] According to article 25 – A of the constitution of Pakistan it is state’s responsibility to provide free compulsory education to every child of age between 5 – 16 years.

Guest Post by Prem Sagar (Prem has an MBA in Management and 14 years of professional experience in mid to senior management level in the areas of education, economic empowerment, child protection in conflict affected areas, and youth empowerment. His expertise includes strategic management and leadership, lobbying and advocacy for policy reform, institutional strengthening, program quality advisory and implementation. In his current role he is the Founder and C.E.O. of Child Rise and NGO which influences policy reforms for the rights of the child in Pakistan)

Linking Human Rights Education with Empowerment in Development Cooperation

The word empowerment as it relates to women’s rights has become a popular catchword used by development agencies and organisations in development cooperation in recent years. Commonly defined, empowerment means women taking control of their lives through the development of their own skills, confidence and economic status. In other words ‘empowerment’ essentially means the cultivation of agency, comprising both economic and self -worth. Strategies to support the empowerment of vulnerable groups in society such as for women in particular have been said to assist the latter in realizing their own potential, capacity and worth as agents for both personal and structural change. In terms of women’s rights the term empowerment has therefore been closely linked to change particularly where cultural and gender norms are concerned with promoting self-reliance and self –confidence, encouraging women to act independently and to make their own choices. Within the framework of development co-operation it is often understood that development agencies and organisations are not in a position to empower women per se but merely to support and aid such empowerment. Empowerment bluntly understood is thus contingent on the agency and the ‘enlightenment’ of women themselves who come to the realization mainly through the conduit of human rights education that their rights are being violated.

Ethical concerns may however arise if development institutions support or promote gender equality but in the process are culturally insensitive and impose their own views and interests on the culture concerned in terms of gender relations, all the while taking it upon themselves to define those issues or aspects of culture steeped in strong gender roles that require change. In some instances a lack of recognition is given to the fact that each society has embedded and different views on gender relations and that if in fact change is to be envisaged, women themselves need to be the initiators and drivers of such change.  Recognition thus needs to be given to either the initiated or ongoing efforts of women who already continue to challenge certain harmful cultural values or practices by seeking equality on their own accord. Instead noteworthy or incremental steps undertaken by women in their own particular communities are often overlooked for fear that they do not meet the predetermined standard of what “empowerment” should represent or look like to the outside world, to development organizations themselves, and to the latter’s targeted public sector and relevant sponsors and donors.

Furthermore, cognizance must also be given to the fact that members of these targeted communities in some cases also succumb to the influence, power and money of development aid and mimic or pretend to be empowered for lack of education, money and lack of a better future. The resultant effect of this is that the actual empowerment of women in these targeted communities becomes questionable especially because it is arguably less genuine, thereby making the impact of development work in this area difficult to assess and measure. So in other words, difficulty arises in the assessment of the impact of targeted development strategies especially if ‘empowerment’ comes to be based only on external indicators such as group demonstrations, marches and picketing that aim to outwardly invoke a display of empowerment rather than an inward change or transformation. While on a more personal level and within the immediate and extended social circle or family, a women’s preconceived cultural gender role remains unchanged still preventing her from making or taking the necessary decisions and exercising the choices she deems relevant or life changing. In other words “empowerment” becomes a catchword bereft of any true power or efficacy, and which in many cases might be indicative of an outward show of power rather than a truly inward transformation of power having little or no real impact.         

The value of development agencies and organizations in the effective protection and promotion of human rights can be seen as a pivotal conduit through which the spread of human rights can take place, especially if and when they operate from the bottom up keeping the local and cultural context of the communities in which they work in always in mind. The well-known anthropologist Sally Engle Merry for instance has recognized the value of intermediaries such as development agencies, social movements and NGO’s for the development and promotion of human rights. She believes that such intermediaries may be the most suited in translating ideas from the global arena down to the local level and from the local level up to the global arena because they understand both worlds well enough to serve as intermediaries between distinct social worlds but at the same time she also recognizes that such groups are also vulnerable to manipulation and divided loyalties, such as the pressure put onto them by donors. So while these actors may in some instances be intimately connected to competing interests they nevertheless can still play a valuable part in promoting the rights of the disenfranchised and oppressed. The shift to a rights based approach to development in recent years in Merry’s view, has brought the disciplines of human rights and development closer to one another with the resultant effect that human rights education is seen as key to the empowerment of peoples and therefore hence to development.