Rural Women’s Perspectives on Marriage and Related Issues: Analysis of Personal Narratives from Kenyan Women

Abstract This paper is based on personal stories as told by Kenyan women. The stories were compiled by the author in 2001 and 2002when interviewing Kenyans on their views regarding the new constitution. The paper identifies issues raised by women during the women only sessions which focused on the women’s personal lives in the context of marriage, polygamy, motherhood and experiences of domestic violence, among others. The paper is guided by the feminist theoretical perspective which argues that if you want to know about women, you should start with women, for they know. African feminism also argues that though the struggle for women’s liberation is a struggle that all should engage in, including the state, policy makers both men and women must set the pace and lead the struggle. It is they who will define what marriage is for them, whether polygamy is a desired arrangement and say no to domestic violence. It is the women who must clear the path that they, the men, and the African communities must walk on their journey towards more women friendly societies. The paper focuses on: marriage, the place of the first wife in polygamous marriages, motherhood, widowhood and domestic violence. The author concludes that feminist research is bringing new knowledge and perspectives to the traditional African view on the institution of marriage and mapping the paths towards new societies. Key words: Marriage, Motherhood, Polygamy, Feminist Theory, African Feminism, Constitution, Patriarchy

Women’s Experiences as Sources of Public and Legitimate Knowledge: Constitution Making in Kenya

Betty Friedan in her essay, Model Making-Knowledge notes: “All human beings have a biased and limited view of the world: biased in that it begins with self and limited in that it is restrained by experience. This means that there are many ways of seeing the world….”[1] African women’s view of the world is one of those ways, a perspective that needs to be made visible and integrated in our definition of how we see the world. We need to bring this contextual knowledge to visibility. African women have created their own governance structures and generated knowledge which remains outside the mainstream knowledge, policy and Institutional development in Africa. We continue, in our region, to refer to and use theories and frameworks whose basic assumptions do not include African women’s worldviews. Theories of power, political and other, need to be interrogated from the African women’s experiences point-of-view. Looking at such novels as Margaret Ogola’s The River and The Source (Kenya), Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter (Senegal) and Lena Elieshi’s “Parched Earth’’ (Tanzania), among other novels, will help us understand what this means. The story of women’s participation in the review process in Kenya and indeed in Africa south of the Sahara will help us see how they have moved the process of naming, ordering and making sense of the world for themselves and for society. 1.1 African Women and Social Theory Social theory argues that all human beings are influenced by belief systems that we subscribe to, and that we tend to project to the world the value systems we have learnt. We select evidence from the world that reinforces our value systems because this helps us respond to what is meaningful to us.In addition, we always tend to see that which reinforces our worldview.[2]2 The Feminist theory has been concerned with how we think and how we can think differently, appreciating that our reasoning and other processes are always in a flux, always changing and responding to new challenges. In order to change our societies, women’s experiences, vision and philosophy of life needs to find its way into shaping and making sense of the world. We need to offer a more comprehensive view of the world and change the nature of knowledge brewed in our region. Okot p’ Bitek, the great African scholar, during his tenure at the University of Nairobi would often tell his students colleagues: “I have heard what you say about what others have said, but what do you say?” It is this question that I seek to answer in this essay. The voices of African women, their views, perspectives and experiences must be brought to the forefront and find their way to the centre of knowledge making and naming our world. Betty Friedan, For the record, Page 10(Dale Spender, Model Knowledge-Making) Page 2

Validating Women’s Knowledge And Experiences: A Case Study of Women’s Experiences and Food Security in Kenya

This paper aims at demonstrating that women’s experiences and knowledge about food security are critical in order to create all inclusive and more comprehensive policies not only in food security but also in other areas of importance as well. The paper is guided by a feminist theoretical framework that sees women as the starting point. It further argues that women’s knowledge and experiences have remained invisible and underutilized by policy makers and development workers. The paper is also guided by an appreciation of the fact that research methods have themselves been products of a male knowledge development process, and therefore, have enhanced exclusion and marginalization of women’s perspectives. The desire, therefore, to identify research methods that allow researchers to access women’s knowledge is a critical factor in this research which chose to use women friendly methodologies such as oral testimonies and focus group discussions that allow women to tell their story in the way they know best

Food Security Score for Kenya

Article 43, Section (1)(c) of the Bill of Rights of the Kenya Constitution (2010) states that: “Every person has the right to be free from hunger, and to have adequate food of acceptable quality. To monitor progress and targeting interventions towards realization of this goal, an easyto-use, but scientifically sound measure of food security is required.” The objective of this paper is to construct such measure that will subsequently constitute a Food Security Score (henceforth, FSS) for Kenya. This Food Security Score will enable the classification of the food security status of each county in the country. This FSS study was nested within a crosssectional baseline study conducted by the African Women’s Studies Centre (AWSC). The study had a representative sample of 4,129 households drawn from 20 randomly selected counties within six of Kenya’s Agro-ecological zones. The food security score study consulted one adult respondent in each household on the experiences, practices and behaviours of household members that have a bearing on food insecurity, including concerns such as: (a) not having enough food to feed the entire household; (b) cutting back on meal rations because of insufficient amounts of food stuffs; (c) lack of resources to buy food, and (d) going to bed hungry because of an absence of food to feed the household. Out of the 4129 households surveyed, 4060 responded to all four key questions selected to compute the FSS for Kenya. The results of the study revealed that whereas 67 percent of Kenyan households are food secure, 30 percent are food insecure, meaning that they lack access to enough food to sustain an active, healthy life for all members of their households. From the category of the food insecure group, a total of 9 percent are chronically food insecure. Based on this FSS, food security varied significantly amongst various counties and agro ecological zones. Agro-ecological zone (p-value<0.001) and county (p-value<0.001) are significantly associated with food security. Counties with higher rates of food insecurity than the nationally defined levels are mainly found in the coastal lowlands, inland lowlands and upper midlands agro-ecological zones. In line with the Constitution of Kenya (2010), efforts towards achieving food security need to focus on ensuring that all Kenyans are food secure. Although the two variables relating to the specific agro-ecological zones and counties significantly impact on food security in Kenya, these are not amenable to interventions. Hence, they can be used to target the most vulnerable regions and monitor improvements after implementing appropriate interventions to ameliorate food security. However, further research is recommended to validate the FSS regionally and internationally in order to improve its universality of interpretation

Philosophical Foundations of African Women\u27s Indigenous Knowledge for Food Security: Towards Narrative Feminist Pedagogy

This paper explores the pedagogical value of African Women’s Indigenous Knowledge or Food Security. The approach is narratological and takes into account oral testimonies and life-stories of women farmers in Homa Bay County, Kenya. The paper proposes African feminist epistemology as a viable approach in the pedagogy of food security and agricultural extension in rural Kenya. This is a paradigm shift which incorporates women farmers’ indigenous knowledge in formal agricultural education and extension programmes. The paradigm shift to African feminist epistemology is a response to a pedagogical anomaly where women’s indigenous knowledge has been relegated to the sidelines, with hegemonic agricultural practices favouring male-dominance in knowledge production. This paper explores ways of recognizing women farmer’s knowledge in food security. The paradigm shift is significant because African women are the main custodians of vital indigenous knowledge for food security. The paper recommends that appropriate Government policy should be formulated to take into account women’s indigenous knowledge for food security in rural households rather than over-dependence on externally imposed epistemological frameworks. Further, ethnographic research adopting the model of African feminist epistemology is recommended for other cultural landscapes in Kenya and beyond with regard to the role of women farmers in food security

Kenyan Autobiographical Writings and the Use of Orature: An Analysis of Writings by Benjamin Kipkorir and Wangari Maathai

Kenyan autobiography is a cultural production that embraces orature. Although the flexibility of orature gives the individual greater leeway and enhances the ‘literariness’ of the autobiographical text, its use contravenes conventions and contests boundaries of autobiographical writing as signalled by the West. Orature in an autobiographical text is mediated by the individual sense of style, by the available cultural models of identity and the oral discourses evident.  This paper analyses selected texts and how they borrow imagery from their cultural backgrounds and embed forms of oral literature such as myths, legends, oral narrative, songs and oral poetry into their writing. The present is the point of departure which organizes the autobiography. Autobiographical writers from Kenya have consistently returned to childhood, looking back at a childhood rich in orature and passed on knowledge, to find their personal as well as the historical roots, to expose the colonial past and to comment on present day issues.  This paper engages theory of autobiography, African feminism, and Autobiographics to show that the choice of particular narrative strategies like orature is influenced by the relationship between context, gender and genre. It also interrogates how the chosen authors collectively articulate the nation albeit differently. The study falls within the context of trends in autobiographical studies that privilege location and positioning of autobiographical writings over conventions