Paradise Preoccupied

I am all for girl power, and here in Africa it can take some dynamic forms.

Liberia’s president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is an example of a woman taking the reins and driving forward.

Here in Seychelles it manifests in business and government, where women hold positions of power in the National Assembly and the Cabinet and run the show in many companies. (Not the 50+% represented in the population, but a better than average ratio when compared globally.)

For millions of African women, however, power is rationed out, when at all, in tiny, sweat-laden droplets and overwhelmed by the lack of.

Too many women have no power to protect their children from deprivation, starvation and disease, and hundreds of thousands have lost theirs to war, either as casualties or to soldiering.

They have no power over what is done to their bodies, aren’t allowed to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS or unwanted pregnancies, and often don’t have any voice in defending their own genitals. (For a country-by-country look at FGM in Africa, see this from Amnesty International.)

So, when women step up, we should pay attention no matter what form it takes. That’s why this report, “Kenyan women hit men with sex ban”, catches my eye this morning.

Womens activist groups in Kenya have slapped their partners with a week-long sex ban in protest over the infighting plaguing the national unity government.

The Womens Development Organization coalition said they would also pay prostitutes to join their strike.

The campaigners are asking the wives of the Kenyan president and the prime minister to join in the embargo.

I’m trying to imagine a nation of men not only gettin’ none for a week, but knowing that the none gettin’ has been orchestrated by the women folk. Do they have it in them to take whatever energy they might have expended in the sack to the table? Can they put aside base urges for the greater good? Will appreciation for the value of their women increase through unattainability?

Or will that DSB (Dreaded Semen Backup) clog the works completely and result in nothing more but a giant circle jerk that leaves a sticky blob?

Whatever …

It’s worth a shot, Ladies. And I can only hope that you’re not stuck cleaning up the mess … again.