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FOR EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON

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I saw a tweet on Thursday about how a senator said we (the Kingdom of Eswatini) should give land to South African farmers so they can farm commercially or something along those lines.

  I was stunned at the damaging weight of such a sentiment. Stunned and disappointed – we were celebrating just last week about the importance of young people being in positions of influence in the country and decision making structures, only for one of the first submissions to be made by a young person to be this.


Opportunity


What is the purpose of disenfranchising emaSwati instead of using this as an opportunity to empower and capacitate locals? How is the solution to our agricultural woes to give land to South African farmers? That’s how South Africa has a land issue to this day. Disappointing.
Especially in a country where there issue is not only about farming per sae but also reducing barriers of entry for women. There is so much to be done before inviting other people to farm our land.


Let me get into agriculture’s contribution to the economy and why it is non-negotiable to use the citizens of a place to boost the economy via agriculture. When women own land, their husbands are still perceived as household heads. As such, men have better access to public resources such as subsidised fertilisers and agricultural advisory services.


It cannot be disputed that genuinely empowering women and girls within agriculture requires interventions that go beyond the issue of land redistribution. Instead, policymakers should adopt a multifaceted approach that includes aspects beyond agriculture.
These include issues of sexual and reproductive rights, for instance, and freeing women from the heavy and time consuming drudgery of domestic work in poor, rural settings.


Then there’s the issue of the responsibilities that women bear, which interfere with their ability to focus on the business of farming.


Expectation


There are many demands on women’s time and labour outside agriculture. Women are expected to care for ill relatives, especially children and infants. Other demands in rural Eswatini are the need to collect firewood and water.


A woman cannot juggle these demands with participating fully in agricultural production, even if she is the owner of the land. Gender norms around the division of labour enable men to avoid time consuming domestic work.

Women’s relative lack of empowerment is also related to their limited mobility, which makes it harder for them to reach markets. Women are fettered by their domestic responsibilities, controlling husbands and by the potential dangers of moving around on their own, especially at night.
This means that women don’t have the actual power to control the income from products sold in agricultural markets.


Programmes


Men’s relative superiority within the household and local communities is compounded by government policies that strengthen the male household head norm. For instance, governments divert substantial public resources into subsidisation programmes that favour household heads.
Women have no access to one of the most important resources in rural Africa, which is why I don’t understand why our legislators are choosing to be blind to this fact.


For everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. I have had the honour, privilege and sheer joy to be able to occupy this space in this publication for six years now, and what a time it’s been! I remember my very first column submission was about women empowerment and my editor at the time rejected it and said it wasn’t sexy enough, he wanted something more fun. So I went back to the proverbial drawing board and wrote another column titled ‘Facebook Faux Pas’. 


Panicked


He loved it and that was my debut as a wide-eyed 24-year-old columnist. I continued to write light hearted content and really did not have a vision for the space. I would have a lot of conversations with my dad about gender based violence and women’s autonomy and protection, and we would disagree and/or concede to each other’s points and I told him this is the content I wanted to write.

  “Nunu, write what they want until you can write what you want”, this is what he said to me and I listened. 
I honoured this space so much that when I moved to Ethiopia, I continued writing. I would submit every week and it gave me room to breathe as a writer, which was exactly what I needed.

Even today as I submit my final column, I am a little panicked because what happens when I miss it? What happens when I need to write for maximum impact and I cannot. However, it remains true that there needed to be a change, I need to move on and make room for other younger brilliant writers because I know we don’t have a shortage of those in the country.
I will miss you guys and I hope you remember some, if not all of my musings. They matter.

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