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FROM THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN:
WOMEN AND EDUCATION IN
FRANCOPHONE CENTRAL AFRICA
BY

Diane VanBelle Prcuty

A DISSERTATION

submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Teacher Education

1991

ABSTRACT
FROM THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN:

WOMEN AND EDUCATION IN
FRANCOPHONE CENTRAL AFRICA

BY
Diane VanBelle Prcuty

.This work examines the personal journey of one woman as
she seeks to better understand the status of women in a Third
World country and why girls are treated differently in the
classroom than boys. The conflict between feminist philosophy
and ethnographic objectivity is a pivotal praxis throughout
the work, demonstrating how hard it is to occupy a defensible
middle ground position. This conflict eventually forced her
to confront her own gender and cultural biases. .Although, the
context of this study has some very unique parameters:
African schools, teachers and students with a mix of
languages, there are some underlying themes that emerged and
insights gained that are globally applicable to school
personnel.

The data for this ethnographic study, was conducted for
a one-year period. Interviews with parents, teachers,
administrators, government officials and students were
conducted. Participant observations were also conducted in
two classrooms at both the primary and secondary level.

Findings demonstrate that girls experience an

Wig for Mg; that significantly influences

their socialization and gender interactions. This

apprenticeship limits the educational opportunities that are
available to them--not only in unequal access patterns and
supplies but also in the kind of teacher interactions that
take place and expectations for girls to learn and excel.
Because of strong cultural expectations that exist, girls,
afraid to fail and be unable to fulfill their natural role as
wives and mothers, disengage from the academic community,
marry and become mothers. Although resistance by girls to the
cultural expectations that "girls marry and have children"
does exist, cultural pressures both.within and outside school
are so strong, that most.girls leave school before terminating
primary level studies.

Interviews with nearly 200 parents show that parents have
differing perceptions of what school is for than educators,
policy makers or development agencies. Interviews with.well-
educated, career women discuss the dilemmas and tensions that
they face in a patrilineal and patrilocal society. They
reveal their personal struggles to get an education including
the threat of abuse. They discuss their frustration because
of the triple obligations of domestic, childcare and career

responsibilities, male patriarchy and control.

Copyright by
DIANE VANBELLE PROUTY
1991

You gave me love, support, a
wonderful childhood, and even
good genes. You were always
there for me and the kids when
I was bogged down and needed
some help. You read this,
reread this and ploughed
through it again. Mom and Dad
this is dedicated to you.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Each of my committee members contributed in their own unique way to
the successful completion of this dissertation and doctoral
program. Therefore, although this study bears my name as author,
they contributed significantly to my thinking and writing of this
piece. I especially wish to thank the people who guided me as a

dissertation committee, Lynn Paine, Arden Moon, Wanda May and Eliot
Singer.

I learned from Lynn Paine, who directed this dissertation, a great
deal about women's issues, writing and analyzing my data and
organizing my thoughts. Lynn was a continual source of
encouragement when obstacles and the miles that separated.Michigan
State University and Africa seemed insurmountable. Lynn gave
freely of her time and invested a great deal of personal interest
and effort into this study.

Arden Moon, as chairperson of my masters and doctoral studies,
provided unswerving support from beginning to end and always
encouraged me to excel beyond my own expectations.

Wanda May challenged me to rethink many of my initial assumptions
and encouraged me to delve deeper. She invested an incredible
amount of energy and thought into this work and helped me to see
patterns and issues that influenced my work.

Eliot Singer helped me to place into perspective my study and was
an indispensable help in analyzing and writing this dissertation.
Eliot was particularly helpful in understanding the anthropological
issues involved in this research.

I also wish to thank two members of my guidance committee, Ken Neff
and Peggy Reithmiller. Ken Neff helped me to better understand
Third.World issues and the educational problems there. And I will
always appreciate the special interest that Peggy Reithmiller
showed me when I began my graduate studies at Michigan State
University and needed so badly the encouragement that I would
succeed.

There were many other people who helped me as I completed this
work. I'd like to thank Jack Schwille for taking the time to
listen and guide me during his trips to Africa, Kirsten Schwille
for reading this document and giving me advice in the early stages
of my writing. Sue Holloway was a great help in thinking about
these issues, listening to me long distance as I'd read her parts
of this and ask for her suggestions. I also want to thank.Gem.Reid
for calling at just the.right.moment to commiserate on the dilemmas

vi

of dissertation doldrums and writing. My sister, Barbara Orr, not
only for her emotional support, but for all the hours that she
willingly took on four extra kids to give me time to write. I'd
also like to thank my sister—in—law, Joy Sheffield, for all the
hours that she listened to me tell her about my work and the love
and support she gave while living both near and far.

Bob and the children have been a continual source of encouragement
during the completing of this dissertation. Through it all--cold
meals and no meals, messy house and pandemonium at times--we
survived as a family and completed the journey together.

Finally, I thank the staff and students at Rusimba and Mupika and

all the other people in Rwanda and Zaire who so willingly shared of
themselves and made this study possible.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. The Pralwue.....OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0.. ...... 0.00.1-8?

Chapter 1: In the Beginning............ ............. 1
Chapter 2: The Journey Begins........... .......... ..27

Shifting focus of research--

Discovering excess baggage.. .............. .29

Gaining access.............................35
Data collection methods.........................41

Participant observations...................41

Interviews.................................43

Student Questionnaire......................45

Documents..................................46
Researcher role--

Actor, recorder, participant?..............46
Change agent and role model.....................57
Going the wrong way, detours,

and getting lost...........................60
Summary ........ ...64

Chapter 3: The Place: The Ring of Fire
in the Valley by the Mountains
of the Moon near the Land of a
Thousand Hills.............................66

Rwanda.0........OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO00.... OOOOOOOOO 71
zaireOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCOOOOOOOCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOBI

summarYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOB6
II. The Dialogue.OOOOOOOOOOOCOO0.000.0.000000000000088-235
Chapter 4: Vignettes of Two Schools:
Hupika and Rusimba.........................88
Schools in central Africa.......................90
MupikaOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO00.0.97

RuSimaOOOOOC..OOOOOOOOOIOOOOOOOOO0.00.00.00.000109
swam...OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0.00.00...0.0.0.00115

viii

Chapter 5: Two Separate Worlds:
One For Boys and One For Girls.............117

Boys with boys and girls with girls.............118
Learning their roles............................120
Boys learn and girls lose.......................127
Boys Delegate and Girls Work....................144
Summary................................. ........ 151

Chapter 6: Three Women and Their Lives:
Tensions and DilemaSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0.0.152

Harie--Tired, angry, beyond caring..............154
Celeste--Trapped in her career,

single and no options.....................168
Stella--Obey? No way!..........................183
Summary.........................................189

Chapter 7: After All, They'll Just Be Marrying......191

So, they're enrolled.

Now, why don't they come?..................193
Rural parental expectations

and attitudes..............................206
Women's work, men's work........................219
Marry her? Why, she's educated!................225
Conclusion......................................231

III. TheEpilwue...OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0000......0.000.236-277

Chapter 8: The Point of Beginning...................236

Feminism-~The white woman's movement............241
Just another strange, white woman...............257
Conflicting agendas:

Feminism and anthropology..................264
They're just words..............................269
The last bend in the road, almost home..........270
Epilogue........................................272

References...OOO0.00000000000000000000000000.0.000000278

AppendiceSOOOOCOO...0.0....OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0.0.299

ix

LIST OF FIGURES
Appendix A

Enrollment and Attendance of

Girls and Boys at Eight Primary Schools

Key to TABLES l-8......... .............. . ........ ..299
TABLE l--Ganbungo..................................300
TABLE 2--Kanzela.............. ........ . ........... .301
TABLE 3--Kuba........................ ......... .....302
TABLE 4--Gora...................... .......... ......303
TABLE 5--Hukonga Central........... ......... .......304
TABLE 6--Kananzi...................................305
TABLE 7--Hntembo.............. ..... . ............. ..305
TABLE 8--Cabazelu..... ..... .......... ........... ...306
Appendix B

Interview sheets, Questionnaires,

Teaching Staff and Student Breakdown
TABLE 9--Interview Questions

Primary School Directors.. ....... ......307
TABLE 10--Student Questionnaire....................308
TABLE ll--Interview Sheet for Parents..............311
TABLE 12--Teaching Staff At Rusimba..... ...... .....312
TABLE 13--Student Population
break down at Rusimba... ....... . ....... ......314

CHAPTER 1

In the Beginning
Lucia looked up and smiled faintly. Her
eyes that had once shone like the bright
glow of the full moon when the sky is
clear and the drums beat loud were now
dim like the last fading embers of a
dying fire on a late and somber night.
”I' m.going," she said calmly. Ezga_ng;i
(Good-bye). " And with that, she closed
her eyes and was gone.
They buried her on the hillside near her
home. The grave is unmarked, as most
graves are, and no one quite remembers
where it is (R. Prouty, 1986, p. 33).

It is said a journey begins with the first step, but I'm
not so sure. In the book. WW.
when Siebren leaves his home village of Weirom to visit his
aunt, he says that you aren't truly journeying until you have
gone past the farthest point that you already know--it is then
that your journey really begins. As Siebren walks along the
winding dirt road, he anxiously waits for that moment to come.
But around each bend, he discovers to his great
disappointment, that the road still looks familiar, that he
isn't truly a "journeying stranger" yet. For Siebren, the
journey is almost half over before it finally, truly, begins.

I went to Africa in 1978, literally dropping from the sky
into a world I had never even imagined. But my larger Siebren
journey had not yet begun...

...The six-seater Cessna broke through the clouds and I

could see the ground below me--a patchwork masterpiece in

2

greens and browns. As the plane descended, I watched palm
trees wave in the wind. I watched dug-out canoes skim across
the lake and herds of cows graze alongside the road. I
watched as women trudged along the paths that wove in and out
of the patchwork, babies tied to their backs and baskets
balanced on their heads. The scenery below absorbed me, and
its power over me gained in intensity the nearer we came to
the ground. I had a literal sensation of two worlds colliding
as the plane bounced on the grassy strip and came to a jerky
stop.

Women and children were standing along the edges of the
airstrip. Young boys, clad in shorts and T-shirts, waved
sticks in the air and jumped and chanted and shouted. The
young girls huddled together, clapped their hands and danced
in quick, short steps that barely took their feet off the
ground. The pilot spoke to my husband, Bob, in French. I
couldn't understand what they were saying and that, combined
with the strange environment, caused a wave of uneasiness to
engulf me. I pulled three-year-old Heather closer and held
two-year-old Danny tighter in my arms.

Later that evening, as I lay in my bed, I listened.to the
rhythmic sounds of drums beating in distant villages and women
singing a shrill, repetitive chant as they danced in the
moonlight through the night. As I listened to the hypnotic,
discordant music, my feelings of self-doubt overwhelmed me and

I wondered what I was going to do here on this mysterious

3
continent. How did I fit in, knowing neither the language nor
the people? How would I survive?

my own doubts were those of a woman. And the images I
remember were those of women and of girls. Images that have
been indelibly burnt into my memory. One which haunts me
still is that of a pregnant mother with a baby slung about her
waist, bent low over the ground as she carries a heavy load of
logs strapped to her back. Sweat is beaded on her brow. A
rope*woven from.elephant.grass is tied.around the load of wood
and pressed across her forehead, while her hands clasped
together behind her neck push forward in an attempt to
counterbalance the weight of the wood that pulls her back and
weighs her down. After years of carrying such loads, the flat
weave of the rope is permanently pressed on her forehead and
on her hands, like a tatoo, a symbolic mark of the beast of
burden that she has become.

The life and. hard. work. of the 'women. is a shared
experience. They hoe and they harvest with a baby ever
present on their backs. They call out to other women in
neighboring fields as they work. Or as they forge ahead in
great masses on their race to the marketplace (to be the first
to sell their goods), they trade stories, laugh together,
share one another's grief. The sun has yet to awaken as each
journey begins, and.thin pieces of cotton material are thrown
over their bare shoulders to ward off the early morning chill

and to try to protect sleeping babies carried tight against

4

their backs. Baskets of goods, precariously balanced on their
heads, sway ever so slightly as the women turn to talk to the
others in their group. Barefoot toddlers run to keep up with
mothers who confidently rush down the road with walking sticks
firmly in hand. Even the older "mamas” with their wooden
pipes and their graying hairs, carry heavy loads of produce to
the market and, as often as not, have a small child tied to
their backs. This common bond of endless toil brings the
women together to nurture one another in their shared
struggle. It is their acknowledged lot in life and they
accept it with courage because they recognize that there is no
other way, no release.

In sharp contrast, men in rural central Africa have few
job responsibilities in the village and contribute little to
the subsistence of the family. Traditional agricultural
divisions of labor that have been passed on for generations
assign the more exhausting and physically demanding work of
clearing the trees and preparing the land to the men of the
village. The women have traditionally been assigned the
lighter work of hoeing, planting, weeding, and harvesting.
Yet as more land has become cleared, and agricultural labor
has shifted away from old slash and burn techniques, job
responsibilities have remained essentially the same. Most
agricultural production is now done on small plots of land
which don't require plowing or clearing and are worked by the

same family until the natural fertility of the soil is

5
diminished. Men who are reluctant to cross the gender
boundaries and.dO‘work.traditionally undertaken by women find
themselves unable to contribute significantly to the family's
support. Instead, many men gather together, play games,
listen to the radio, and drink banana.beer, as the women labor
in the fields.

In some areas, men join in a communal agricultural effort
to plant goods for sale to entrepreneurs who transport the
produce to the larger, more populated areas. Agricultural
pursuits like these are socially acceptable: working in the
smaller family plots is not. More enterprising men enter into
business endeavors on their own, such as establishing small
dgkas, makeshift portable roadside stands that sell anything
from bread and candy to soap and flashlights. Or they may
travel to the lake regions on bikes, buy a basketload.of fresh
or salted fish, and make the return voyage to distant villages
where the fish can be sold for a higher price. In general,
the lack.of a significant industrial sector, limited business
opportunities, and the strong, cultural gender boundaries that
limit mens ' contribution mean that they, too, have become
victims of the system that enslaves the women. But, if one
thinks that the lives of the men are hard, the lives of the
women are harder.

Their hard lives begin when, as pre-adolescent girls,
they assume the dual responsibility of caring for younger

siblings and helping the family to earn a living, tending the

6
family gardens and bartering in the marketplace. It is not
uncommon for younger sisters in a family to accompany an older
brother or sister to their married home as domestic help.
They may be obliged to journey with them to areas that are
quite distant from their home villages and their term of
service may continue for many years.

Even after their own children are raised and on their
own, women continue their long hours of toil as grandmothers,
helping in the family's food gardens and the homes of their
eldest son. But, despite the major contribution that women
make to support the family, they have marginal status and
their access to power and decision making is negligible. Much
of this reflects the low status to which they are relegated in
the family due in part to traditional kinship ties in a
patrilineal culture (where lineage and inheritance are passed
from father to son) and a patrilocal society (where brides
leave their village after marriage to join their husband's
family in his natal village).

Hy introduction to the status and role of women in Africa
didn't take long. Anxious to meet the new missionary family,
an endless stream of villagers arrived at our door during the
first week to welcome us and to bring us little tokens of
their appreciation that we had honored them by coming to live
among them. Invariably, these scenes would unfold in the same
manner. The husband and wife would come separately-together.

The wife would follow the husband by a short distance carrying

7

a basket of eggs, or’a sack of potatoes, or some other'gift of
her labor. The husband.would knock at the door and she would
carry the gift forward. Then, her husband would talk with my
husband while she'd stand.behind.her husband, waiting for the
visit to be terminated. Sometimes as the wives would stand
there, they'd begin to laugh uncomfortably and raise their
hands to their mouths to stifle the sounds of their laughing.
There we were, standing across from each other, mirror images:
the African wife unable to speak French, standing behind her
husband and the American wife, also unable to speak French,
standing behind her husband. Two women, two cultures, two
solitudes.1

Almost immediately after my arrival, my life became
intertwined with the lives of the village women. As the wife
of a missionary, certain kinds of behaviors were expected of

me, both by other missionaries and local church leaders.2 One

 

. As the years passed and my skills in French
significantly improved, I came to realize that
many of those men who welcomed us were also
unable to speak French very well.
Consequently, the wife's inability to
effectively communicate in French was less the
issue than the man's control of the situation.

2. All the work that I did during the five years
while we lived in Zaire was unpaid "voluntary"
work. In fact, Bob is the only one who
received any service credit for retirement
benefits or salary for the years we spent in
Zaire. According to our church policy his is
the only presence that was officially
recognized--a policy that years later while
living in Rwanda I would unsuccessfully fight
to have changed.

8
activity was to help in a program to "improve"3 the domestic
skills of the women: teaching them to sew, to bake bread, to
provide nutritious meals for their families, and to "improve"
their child-care skills. That I needed to improve these
skills myself was incidental. I was white, and the underlying
assumption held by local men and women both, was that I had
access to knowledge that the local women lacked. Most
importantly, it was further assumed--particularly by the men--
that these skills were genetically, biologically coded in me
because of my femaleness and that these skills would be well
developed and transferable to the local women because of their
femaleness. Echoes of the local men's oft repeated replies
when I 'd suggest that maybe they might like to join these
classes are still fresh in my memory. "Oh no, Madame, that is
a mu job. See, even you do them in your home. Women all

over the world do them. Women can do these things better than

 

. It was actually very ethnocentric that I could
so easily believe that I could teach the local
women how to improve their cooking skills. I
was used to cooking out of cans and buying
most everything I needed at a modern, well
supplied grocery store. Furthermore, I had
modern conveniences in my kitchen in North
America. In Africa, we had to cook everything
"from scratch" (including grinding our own
flour from wheat kernels), cooked over fires
(I had a wood stove) without the aid of
electrical appliances (I took some electrical
appliances with me but there seldom was any
electricity) or modern conveniences. It would
be more appropriate to say that we learned
cooperatively and if anything, they taught me
far more than I ever taught them.

9
men. You were born to do them better. No, it is right that
our wives learn how to do these things."

Host of the activities that I was expected to oversee and
supervise were extensions of the work that I did in my own
home. There was the added challenge of trying to communicate
with the wives of the students‘ in their different languages--
French, Swahili, Kinande, Kinyarwanda. But, for the most
part, what I was expected to teach them wasn't.much different
from.my own daily chores. However, some of these were things
that I hadn't expected or wanted to oversee and supervise.
These were things that I found emotionally draining and
traumatic. Even to tell of them now remains hard.

Two kilometers from our mission, just around the big bend
in the road, was a self-supporting Catholic mission run by
three Italian missionaries: two priests (Giovanni and Gianni)
and Concetta-~a lay sister. New features were continually

being added-~one year a sawmill, one year a co-op, later a

 

. During this period, my family was living at a
secondary school in the northern part of the
Kivu.province of Zaire. There was also a post-
secondary ministerial school with an
enrollment of thirty students--all male. For
the most part, it was the wives of these
students and a few village women who attended
the classes that.I conducted. Although several
of the wives had moderately "good" educations
(through the primary level) none of them
furthered their studies while at the secondary
school. Financial constraints would have been
a problem but more significantly, they were
too busy working in their gardens to provide
food for the family to take time off to go to
school.

10

carpenter shop, still later' a primary school. But of
everything they did, nothing was more beneficial or more
appreciated than the building of a maternity clinic. Giovanni
and Gianni built the clinic, and Concetta ran it. At first,
only a few "mamas" came from their villages to wait for the
delivery of their babies. Eventually, however, the beds were
full and the halls echoed with the voices of expectant mothers
and female family members who'd come along to care for the
mother and forthcoming baby.

The mothers who came were the difficult cases, the ones
who never had babies easily, ones who often labored and lost.
Concetta and her trained staff helped many of these women,
saved many babies' lives. But they couldn't help all the
‘womenm For some, when it became clear'that.doctors instead of
midwives were needed, and a hospital instead of a clinic,
Giovanni or Gianni would make a hasty trip through the rain
forest to the nearest hospital an hour's drive away. It would
seem much longer than an hour to the laboring woman lying on
a thin mattress in the back of the car, however. The
combination of jolting road and tightening labor could be
almost unbearable as the old Land Rover bounced from.pot hole
to pot hole.5

 

5. I know the pain of a trip like that well. It
remains in your memory long after the ordeal
is over. When our last child, Jonny, was born,
we raced to the only hospital with a doctor
which was two hours away. But ours was a race
to ensure that there would be no problems
unlike the race against death that these women

11

Whenever the Land Rover refused to run, or when it was
gone, the night watchman would hastily ride from.the Catholic
mission to the Adventist mission on Giovanni's motorcycle to
let us know that help was needed. Day or night, rain or
shine, we'd drive to the clinic and then on to the nearest
hospital in a race for life.

The women who needed to be rushed to the hospital were
often the ones who'd waited too long. After being in labor
for days, after the village fetisher or mid-wife had given up
hope, eight village men would be chosen to carry the mother,
exhausted from labor and weak from pain, over the mountain
paths in a woven stretcher to Concetta. Sometimes an arm or
leg of the undelivered baby would be exposed and partly
delivered. All too often the baby would already be dead and
the mother barely clinging to life.

At night, when Bob raced off to the hospital, I'd watch
the headlights of the car, beacons of light in darkness, wave
up and down as the car bounced over the gutted, rocky and
muddy roads. I'd stand, looking out the window until the
lights faded from sight. Even if I went back to bed, I'd
never sleep. my thoughts would be with the mother, praying
that this time they'd make it, that this time the baby would
live, praying that next time they'd come to Concetta a little

earlier.

 

faced.

12

One night, almost at midnight, I heard the all too
familiar knock at the door. I knew the night watchman had
come. All the men at our mission, including Bob, were gone,
and I was left with the only car on the compound. This time,
I would have to make the race with death. The mother was
young, too young to be fighting for her life. Her face was
worn from fatigue, her arms cradled her swollen belly, and she
was in.pain. Yet she didn't utter a sound. I remember asking
Concetta what her problem was, and she told me, ”I'm afraid
her uterus might rupture. Get her there as fast as you can.
But be careful of the bumps..." Her words trailed off and we
both knew that the road ahead of us was long and rough and
only speed would save her.

I began the journey to the hospital, splashing through
mud holes, swerving around washouts. The young mother in the
car clutched at her stomach while the older woman accompanying
her grabbed her firmly by the shoulders and held her in the
seat, constantly repeating words of encouragement as we sped
over the road. The road seemed endless that night, and the
trip seemed to last forever, but we finally saw the lights of
the hospital in the distance as I went around the last bend in
the road. I jerked the car to a stop, jumped out, and ran
around to open the door and help the mother out. Slowly, she
made her way to the benches inside the door and hesitantly,

weakly sat down.

13

I looked about me. Outside, lying on patches of grass,
were six or seven pregnant women in varying stages of labor.
Other women, some pregnant, some not, cradled the laboring
women in their arms, rubbed their backs and stomachs, rocked
them to and fro. One woman was chanting mournfully, and her
arms were interlocked in the pregnant woman's arms giving her
something to push against. Still others had their heads bowed
low near the ear of the expectant mother, softly whispering
‘words over and over. ‘A few of the women moaned in.pain as the
labor intensified, but most didn't make a sound. Instead,
they just quietly rocked back and forth to ease the waves of
pain.

I've had four babies. I remember the pain, the long
hours of labor, the wondering if it would ever end. I also
remember a soft bed and a sterile room. I remember pain
killers, and doctors and ever-present nurses. I knew that.my
baby would be okay, that weLd make it through the night. But
these were mothers who didn't know if their babies would be
okay, women who genuinely must have wondered if tomorrow would
ever come.

I pounded on a locked door off the waiting room until a
nurse in a blood-splattered lab coat opened the door and
peeked out. I told her that the young girl needed help, that
Concetta had sent her to them. The nurse walked into the
room, turned her head, and stared intently at the young girl.

She nodded her head and said, "We'll get to her when we can."

14
Then she turned around, walked away, and went back through the
door that clicked shut behind her.

I sat down on a bench across from the young girl and kept
watch over her. She never said a word, never made a sound.
Back.held rigid and arms encircling her abdomen, she silently
waited for something to happen, for someone to come.
Occasionally, the old mama, who'd accompanied the young girl,
would break the silence and ask the young girl a question.
The girl would only nod her head in reply, never breaking her
silence, too busy enduring her pain.

By the time help came in the cold and impersonal form of
a disinterested doctor it was too late. The next day I
learned from Concetta that the baby had died, but an emergency
hysterectomy had saved the mother. Concetta ' s eyes were
misted over and her voice was full of emotion as she spoke,
and I knew she was thinking of Lucia.

Lucia had been an old mama who had come to Concetta many
times. But the last time she'd come, it was one birth too
many and she was too old, and the birth was taking too long.
They tried to get her to the hospital in time, but each
hospital they went to had no doctor, and Lucia didn't have the
strength to hold on while they searched for yet another one
farther away that might have a doctor there. Concetta held
her in her arms, whispering words of courage, hope, and
strength. And Concetta wept as Lucia died in her arms in the

back.of the ancient Land.Rover; They saved the baby, but the

15
father’didn'tuwant.him, so Concetta cared for’him, raised.him,
loved him as her own. And each time a mother or a baby died,
Concetta remembered Lucia and cried just a little bit more.

This mother wasn't like Lucia: she had survived. Yet
the tragedy wasn't over. Concetta knew all too well that a
young woman unable to bear children could easily be abandoned
by her husband. These were the hard things, the emotional
things, traumatic things that made me angry and frustrated at
the system. I was angry at everyone and everything--the nurse
who could walk away and leave her there to suffer, the place,
the traditions, the patriarchy--and especially the labor of
women.

As the years passed and I began to understand the local
languages better, I also began to get a better understanding
of what life was like for women in central Africa. My first
impressions involved the heavy work load, the endless poverty,
the segregation. These were the visible manifestations of
their low status. Other aspects of their lives, especially
symbols of social relations and social structure such as
kinship ties and the system of brideprice, were less visible
and more difficult for the outsider to understand. Still
another aspect that was hidden from our view was the fear of
physical abuse that terrorized some of the women. Kavira, my
house helper, introduced me to both issues, brideprice and

abuse.

16

Kavira was nineteen years old when she came requesting
work. Although she had a three-year-old daughter, she
continued to live in her parents' home in a village seven
kilometers from our mission compound because she was an unwed
mother. I soon found her to be an invaluable worker: she
taught me how to do so many of the tasks that I never had done
before; furthermore, she learned quickly and worked well.

It was my custom to let her off work early on Friday
afternoons so that she could arrive home in time to prepare
for Sabbath. One Friday, however, I gave her a few jobs in
addition to the normal duties, and she left considerably later
than usual. The following Sunday when she arrived at work, I
noticed that she had a dark scarf tied around her head hiding
most of her face. I asked her about this, and she mumbled
something about "doing something to (her) scalp" and left the
room to begin her tasks. Several hours later, another
missionary wife came to me and asked me if I ”knew about
Kavira”. She then explained that because Kavira had arrived
home later than usual the previous Friday afternoon, her
father thought she'd met a boy on the way home. Since he
didn't want any more ”illegitimate babies to lower her
brideprice,” he intended to teach her a lesson. When she
arrived home, he confronted her about her tardiness: then he
beat her. All the village heard her screams. They heard her

daughter's screams as well. Her family could do nothing. Her

17
neighbors would do nothing. The code of silence in the
village was too strong.

I asked Ravira what had happened, and she denied that
anything had taken place and kept turning her face so that I
couldn't see the puffiness around her eyes, the bruises, the
lacerations. But the emotional pain was greater than the
physical pain and couldn't be hidden behind a veil of silence.
She wept in my arms as she told me about her father's drunken
rage, her fear that he would beat her to death.

Bob spoke to her father. He was told that this didn't
concern us: Kavira was his daughter and his to do with as he
chose. Bob began to ask questions in the village, talked to
persons of authority in the area, and everyone said the same
thing--we didn't understand: we weren't to intervene. All
our probing made Kavira's situation at home more precarious,
and I wondered if we shouldn't offer her a place in our home.
She intimated that she would refuse any offer of help. .All I
could do was to make sure Kavira never left work late again.

Although we didn't speak of this incident again, several
months later Kavira told.me about the relationship that she'd
had that ended in the birth of Masika. It wasn't uncommon for
young girls to have a child out of marriage. Boys anxious to
prove their sexual prowess could become quite demanding. Even
in situations where girls would be reluctant to establish a
sexual relationship, "there's not a whole lot we can do--men

are in charge and they won't listen to us when we say 'no'.”

18

So, Kavira had gotten involved, and when it was all over, she
was left with the responsibility of caring for a small child.

Kavira explained how her brideprice had been influenced
by Masika's birth. In the very traditional areas of Africa,
such as central Africa, most.marriages were still arranged by
the parents. Parents of adult.males would begin to search for
eligible young women to marry their sonsfl. They'd want to
find a girl that would be an asset to their family, if they
could afford to pay the price in goats or cows. Many
characteristics are considered when negotiating the brideprice
("la_ggt"). In this particular region, being a good worker
who is willing to tend family gardens, with a strong family

history of bearing many healthy children, and.a primary-level

 

. In general, families would try to negotiate
with the family of an eligible young girl as
their son reached his late teens or early
twenties. However, if the groom's extended
family would be unable to pay for the girl's
brideprice or gm; (which in this particular
ethnic group was paid in installments at
specific points in.the negotiation process) it
was unlikely that arrangements for a marriage
would be finalized or even considered. In the
region of Zaire where we lived the average do;
consisted of 7 goats, several yards of cloth,
cooking oil and beer. The goats would be
shared with members of the girl's extended
paternal family: the cloth would be given to
her to make a wrap-around garment similar to a
sari and would often be the last new piece of
cloth she would have for years: the cooking
oil would be for her mother: and the beer
would be for her father. Because it could
take so long to accumulate the wealth to pay
for a girl's got, men tended to marry women
five to ten years younger than themselves.

19
education would all be considered assets when establishing the
brideprice.

Because so many young girls in Kavira's tribe had a child
before marriage, the girl's ability to bear children could be
considered an asset in the negotiations. Kavira told me that
her pregnancy and the subsequent birth of a healthy daughter
had caused her father to raise the number of goats that he was
asking for her. However, because a family would be reluctant
to have their son marry a girl who brought the added
responsibility of several children, more pregnancies before
marriage would considerably reduce a girl's chances of
marriage and lower her marriageable status to the equivalent
of a widow with children, a situation in that region which was
particularly grim. Despite my attempts to understand
brideprice in the cultural context in which it was practiced,
it was difficult for me to see it as anything but a way in
which monetary value was placed on women as they were bartered
and sold. From my perspective, it appeared that a woman's
worth was measured by her brideprice, and her role and
function in society were intricately caught up in this system.
From birth a girl was raised to believe that she would become
some man's wife, live with and labor for his family yet never
be a part of the family, and bear children that would belong
to that particular family clan. If she bore sons, they might

bring her some measure of status and security as she grew

20
older: if she bore girls, they would be married off and move
away. She then would be left alone and barren.

Each passing year that we spent in Africa helped me to
better understand the shared existence of all women. First
impressions had made me think that my life was a sharp
contrast to theirs. And in many ways, I lived a life of
relative ease. I was well-educated. I was cosmopolitan. I
was relatively free from domestic toil, kinship ties, and
obligations, I didn't fear physical abuse. But the longer I
lived in Africa, the harder I looked, and the more I reflected
on who I was, the more I began to question my first
impressions and assumptions. It became clearer to me that my
role and function was identical to theirs. Instead of the
sharp contrast that I saw initially, it became increasingly
obvious that all women shared this common bond, that we all
labored under the same circumstances, that we all struggled
against the limiting structure of reproduction, domestic
burden, and male definition.

I seemed light years away from Ontario where we had been
living when we accepted the job offer from our church to go to
central Africa as missionaries. Bob had been the principal of
an elementary school, and after I'd left my full-time teaching
job, I had been doing some part-time substitute teaching.
Neither of us had been particularly happy with our situation,
and we had thought that a change of scenery, literally, might
be just the thing that we needed.

21

I had been going through some difficult years. I felt I
had lost my identity, my goals, my aspirations, and I was
frightened. I'd graduated from college, gotten married, and
embarked upon a career as an elementary teacher. When we
began a family two years after marrying, I agreed with Bob
that it was best that I leave the work force and stay home
with Heather. It hadn't occurred to either Bob or me at that
point that a shared responsibility of childcare should be
undertaken. We both easily accepted the dominant ideology
that men yorkeo outside the home while nomen eteyeo at home
and took on the responsibilities there.

At first, I delighted in my new role. As Heather grew
and developed, each new accomplishment of hers became mine as
‘wells Then Danny came along, and.the process repeated itself.
But this time, it didn't.have the same impactm I noticed that
I felt increasingly discontented and frustrated with who I was
and what I was doing. I had eagerly anticipated the
opportunity to stay at home with our children so that they
would be properly nurtured and raised the way we wanted them
raised. But, after I was home full-time and the months--then
years--passed by, I felt as if I was only marking time--or,
lagging behind. I noticed that I was developing amnesia of
self and found it increasingly difficult to find/remember my
talents, my abilities, and what I had to offer. My
interaction with Bob, Heather and Danny (and then Teddy Roy

and Jonny), as delightful as it was, couldn't counteract the

22
boredom of changing and washing diapers, cooking meals,
washing dishes and clothes, cleaning the same house, day in
and day out. Even my involvement in voluntary organizations
wasn't enough to arrest my welling discontent. However,
despite the frustration with the repetitive and non-
challenging aspects of my life, it was the vulnerability I
felt that frightened.me‘mosto I no longer had an income: I no
longer received a salary for my work. Since I had no salary--
despite the fact that I knew how vital my job was--I couldn't
stop the flow of frustration, even resentment, that my work
was ‘worth nothing in the eyes of society.7 But, my
vulnerability was more keenly felt because of the emphasis and

strain it put on my relationship with Bob.

 

7. Robert E. Gould writes in his article
”Measuring Masculinity by the Size of a
Paycheck” in Alison M. Jaggar & Paula S.
Rothenberg's book Feminie;_£zemegozke that in
the American culture a person's worth is
determined by the amount that they're able to
earn not by their worth as a human being. He
writes that there is also a prevailing belief
that men should be the major moneymaker in a
family and that in many marriages there is
resistance to an income-producing wife.
Working women can create tensions in a
marriage because it can make a man feel
threatened and emasculated. Phillips and
Taylor (1980) write, "Women's work is often
deemed inferior because it is women who do it,
and. women 'workers carry' their subordinate
status into the workplace with them, where
this status come to define the value of the
work they do" (p. 79). Certainly this has
implications not only for me as the housewife
but also for me as the teacher, a "feminized"
profession.

23

At times, it seemed that Bob was my only outlet to the
"real" world. I felt dependent on him, not only for my
financial security, but for emotional well-being and
intellectual stimulation as well. Everything I did, thought,
or said became filtered through him. Not only did I view him
as my access to information and social interaction, he became
the unit by which I validated what I did and what I thought.
I eventually arrived at the point that whenever I wanted
someone to listen to me, I'd say, "Bob says..." When he'd
challenge me about this, demanding to know why I had said that
he had said something, I couldn't tell him. I didn't know
why. But I did know that for me there was little value to
what I thought or did. In my world, my role was inferior to
his, and I discounted. my own. contribution and even :my
existence because of this.8

By the time we arrived in Africa, this devaluing process
had begun to rob me of my self. I saw Diane as an extension
of Bob and now felt all the more vulnerable and defenseless in

a strange culture where I couldn't understand the language or

 

. Many books and articles have been written on
the devaluing process that a great number of
women experience when they leave the workforce
to care for their children. Lillian Breslow
Rubin's book flo;1o_ofi_£ein was written about
the time that I was at the height of my
frustration. One of the most difficult aspects
of this experience is the feeling that you are
alone. Had I known about literature such as
this, I might have avoided a great deal of
emotional anguish and spared my husband and
children a great deal of frustration and
concern.

24
the lives of the people around me. Suddenly, Bob had entered
a world where I couldn't follow. It was as if we had a
schizophrenic relationship--he had multiple lives, many of
which were unknown to me, and I only had one, yet it was
defined entirely through my relationship with him. His job as
principal provided him the opportunity to travel, see new
places, meet new people, while I remained at home, rarely
leaving the confines of our small compound. Even on the
compound, Bob was able to interact freely and develop
friendships where I struggled to develop friendships with the
French-speaking families we lived among. Everywhere I went,
I couldn't fully understand what took place, what was
happening. It was as if I stood on the fringes of life
picking up a bit here, a little there, as I attended religious
services, bartered for goods at the market, built a life for
myself. But having no status and no official role was the
most keenly felt part of my frustration. Everyone saw me
through Bob and my invisibility became complete when I lost my
name. I began lashing out at students who called me "We
Ezefee" telling them that my name was Diane and I was someone
other than hie wife, the principal's spouse. The students
would laugh at me and tell me that I should be honored to have
such a successful husband and be proud to be called "his
wife". They didn't understand, and often even I didn't
understand my anger and frustration. Ironically, I, like

them, had placed my identity in him--allowed myself to lose my

25
self in Bob. I was frustrated that I did it to myself but
when others did it to me I became all the more frustrated and
angry.

This sense of isolation--physical isolation in a land so
strange and far from my own and the emotional isolation from
my husband--eventually forced.me to look at myself and what I
had become. After living in Africa for nearly five years, my
understanding of who I was as woman began to emerge. As I
looked, I knew that somehow, some way, things would have to
change. Ironically, I knew I must start over again, find
myself, and re-establish.my own self-worth in a culture where
women and their contributions were ignored at best and
devalued in general. This was not going to be an easy process
for me, especially in the African surroundings. Everything
around me was controlled and defined in masculine terms. Even
roles that were commonly associated with the feminine domain,
such as domestic servants, were defined in masculine
terminology: a male domestic servant was a boy; a female
domestic servant was a "boyesse."

The more I looked about and was touched by the lives of
the women living around me, the more I began to realize that
the search to find my self was intangibly intertwined in other
women's lives. It became increasingly evident that what I
struggled with wasn't about me. Nor was it about them. It
was about women's rights and roles. It was about the need for

a changed perspective on relationships and responsibilities.

26
It was about the value of human life. This realization was a
great awakening for me, and it was with renewed vitality that
I faced who I was and what I had to offer.

In December, 1983, after five and.a half'years in Africa,
we returned to North America. Despite the distance that
separated me from Africa and my great awakening, I was
determined to continue in this search and find answers to
universal questions concerning the status and role of women.
I knew how difficult the questions were that I was asking and
that it would take a long time to find these answers.

In. the fall of 1984, I began. graduate studies in
education, studies that would eventually, three years later,
lead me back to Africa and closer to the truth. The initial
realization that my search involved other women continued to
grow throughout my studies and subsequent research and
dramatically influenced the course that my work, my life,
would take. Little did I know it then, but I was getting

ready to begin my Siebren journey.

CHAPTER TWO
The Journey Begins
And just how does Madame intend
to go about her study?
(Official, Ministry of
Education).

There are always decisions to make when planning a trip,
important decisions that can make the difference between
success and failure. There are passports and visas and shots,
itineraries to plan and books to consult. But these are the
easy decisions. The hard decisions have to do with baggage.

I used to find it easy to decide what baggage to take--to

choose the things that I'll need for the trip. The agony

 

comes when deciding what to leave behind, deciding what I
yonL; need for the journey--things that will only add weight
and.hinder progress. Baggage became a particularly important
aspect for me to consider when I went back to Africa to begin
this study. In spite of five years of experience in Africa
already, as it turned out, I took too much baggage with me.
Bob and I were to take part in developing an education
department at a French-speaking university in central Africa.
The university included students from throughout French-
speaking Africa. It would be our responsibility to prepare
secondary-school pedagogy teachers--not merely teaching
teachers to teach, which is challenge enough, but teaching
teachers to teach teachers. It was going to be a great

challenge and one thing was certain: we would need a lot of

27

28

supplies to start up the program. As I recall, it took
exactly 12 seventy-pound boxes. We bought boxes from a moving
company, put them together with lots of tape and packed the
supplies (mostly books and articles). But that wasn't all the
baggage we had. We'd been through a move like this before,
and I knew how long it could take for a crate to arrive by sea
with our personal belongings. So on the plane we also took
some additional baggage of household goods, clothes, food
items unavailable locally, toys and other items to see us
through the first few months. All of this took another 3_0
seventy-pound boxes, loaded to the limit.

Since I was soon to be writing my comprehensive exams
and, then, starting my dissertation, I also needed supplies
for this. The books, articles, papers, computer hardware and
software, and supplies took another 5 seventy-pound boxes. We
rented a van, loaded all the boxes, drove to the international
airport in Detroit, and delighted in the amazed and
incredulous looks of the check-in agents at the ticket counter
as we lugged go boxes into the terminal, lined them up to be
weighed, and paid our bill. We then sighed with relief as the
boxes bumped their way along the conveyor belt to be packed in
crates and loaded in the cargo hold of the plane.

All of this baggage was accounted for and the reasons for
taking it were clearly understood (at least by me). But there
was also a great deal of baggage that was accompanying me that

I wasn't aware of , not at the start of my study, anyway. This

29
baggage significantly influenced the study that I conducted,
particularly as I developed my proposal and gathered.my data.
.Unfortunately, it wasn't so easily labeled, packed, and
weighed. In fact, just discovering that I carried it with.me

became a major piece of my study.

t n ocus o esearch--Discoverin e cess ba a e

Classes that I had taken during my graduate program had
a profound effect upon me. I suddenly learned a whole world
of vocabulary that gave meaning to all the inequalities that
I had witnessed while living in Zaire: .Authors such as Anyon,
Apple, Freire, Giroux, Gramsci and so many others helped me
understand the social interactions that had taken place. Yet
despite this knowledge that I had gained, I still naively
believed that the marginal status of women in Africa could be
improved through identified changes in the educational sector.
I thought that gender-defined roles and patterns of
interaction found in society at large were being reproduced in
the classroom and that changing these patterns outside the
classroom was simply contingent upon developing and
implementing more equitable access policies and patterns of
interaction within the classroom.

Enhancing patterns of accessibility has been the central
theme of many educational studies focusing on Africa (see
Bowman & Anderson, 1980: Eshiwani, 1985: Kinyanjui, 1981:

Maliyamkono, Ishumi & Wells, 1982: Mbilinyi, 1973: and Njenga,

30

1986). These studies give much evidence to indicate that the
comparative disadvantages of girls to boys still exist.
Although the ' expansion and improvement of educational
opportunities for girls in Africa have been recurrent themes
and a central policy thrust for nearly two decades, attempts
to achieve equal access of education have not been suCcessful.

A wide range of studies (Adams & Kruppenbach, 1986:
Biraimah, 1987: Bray, Clarke and Stephens, 1986: Cutrufelli,
1983: Davié, 1980: Deble, 1980; Finn, Reis & Dolber, 1980:
Foster & Clignet, 1966: Kerner, 1986: Mukene, 1988) have shown
that there is unequal representation of girls at o1;
educational levels and that the problem is not a solely
African problem. This becomes more noticeable in the higher
grades, particularly at the post-secondary level. Mahony
(1985, p. 34) writes that, "It is now fashionable to talk of
the under achievement of girls". Sadly, the common currency
of this expression aptly represents the extent of the problem.

Yet a focus on under-representation alone has always
seemed unhelpful to me. Of more interest is the context of
under-representation, the factors that explain how women's
potential to become agents of social change has been blunted.

Boserup's (1970) key study on women in development
strongly suggests that cultural norms limiting female access
to education are tied to production issues. Pre-pubescent
girls, who share in domestic responsibilities and care of

younger siblings or extended family members, contribute

31

significantly to the subsistence of the family unit. Many
parents fear that permitting daughters to participate in
schooling could contribute to false and.unrealistic ambitions
for future employment outside the traditional domestic sphere
of household chores, family gardening, and child care.

Boserup's work, corroborated by Adams and Kruppenbach
(1986), Bay and Hafkin (1975), Giovanni and Saul (1973), and
Harrison (1979) , demonstrates how a girl's limited educational
engagement becomes a tangled web in which future options for
educational opportunities are denied on the grounds of a
girl's educational deficiencies.1 Deble (1980) writes that
unfavorable social/cultural norms about the education of
. girls, coupled with a significant lack of female role models
and the absence of relevant programs for girls, are major
factors accounting for low participation rates for girls in
school. Biraimah (1987) studied Nigerian patterns of access
and noted that differentiated instruction favored the boys and
negatively influenced girls' participation and long-term
commitment to educational studies. Kerner (1986) posited that
social/economic factors, including the work and income

potential of girls, fear of unwanted.pregnancy, inappropriate

 

. In many cases, girls are unable to
effectively compete in the classroom with
male students. The limited educational
opportunities that they have been given
means that they do become poorer
students. This, then, serves to
perpetuate the perception that girls are
less deserving of educational studies.

32
curriculum, and lack of role models were important factors in
explaining the low participation rates for girls found in most
African countries.

As I developed my proposal in the fall of 1988, these
studies reinforced my belief that changes in the classroom
should focus on developing the leadership skills of girls. I
felt that only as girls were given the opportunity to develop
their leadership potential, allowing them to become change
agents, would the status and life chances of women in their
part of Africa improve. In view of this, my initial focus was
on the classroom. I wanted to see what influence teacher-
student interactions and instructional techniques had on
educational outcomes, particularly in the development of
leadership potential. I was struck, in perusing the scarce
literature dealing with Zaire and Rwanda, that studies of
inequities in these two countries generally had centered
solely around ethnic differences. Yet the statistics showed
much greater disparity along gender lines than along ethnic
ones.

The study I proposed, then, sought to open up a
comparatively new area of African educational research. It
wouLd provide baseline data for future researchers dealing
with gender-related issues and would explore the
meaningfulness of a number of concepts in this field developed
by Western-oriented research efforts: male dominance of

school space and time, male dominance of linguistic space,

33

boy/girl orientation to curriculum, linguistic bias, role
. differentiation, teacher-generated gender expectations, etc.
The key research question that I would be asking of the
participants in the study was: given your perception of what
a leader is and what a leader does, how are students chosen
and prepared for leadership roles? Two related assertions
that I hoped to discuss were: (1) that girls did not project
leadership positions for themselves and (2) that the limited
number of adult female role models in leadership positions in
central Africa significantly influenced the girls' inability
to project themselves into leadership roles.

It was my plan to conduct a year-long, ethnographic study
of selected schools in French-speaking central Africa. I
would examine, through interviews with teachers, students,
parents, administrators, and education ministry officials,
differing viewpoints as to what constitutes acceptable roles
for women in central African society. I hoped that by doing
this, the participants' perspective, their insiders' view,
would become clear to me. This did not take place and I
remain very much the "outsider" in most ways. However, my
struggle to understand these issues from the insider's
perspective became a powerful aspect of this work.

Classroom observations would be the primary method of
data collection to illustrate differential treatment of boys
and girls, based on different understandings of what the role

of the woman in society should be. In order to determine

34
whether a staged? effect existed and whether differences in
instructional techniques and/or interactional patterns could
be detected as the students moved through the educational
system, observations and interviews would be conducted at both
the primary and secondary levels.

I began to carry out the study with this goal and
approach in mind. I began conducting interviews and
performing an analysis of preliminary data from that general
conceptual framework. Yet as this study evolved, it became
increasingly evident that observed behaviors in the classroom
represented cultural factors and belief systems. Both
students and teachers were responding to expectations that had
been defined and reinforced outside the classroom more than
inside. The ever-present influence from strong cultural
norms, which relegated to women low status and gave certain
kinds of work to men and women, were continually surfacing in
the statements being made to me, creating a tension and pull
from outside the classroom focus. ‘

In order to better understand this tension, it became

necessary for me to develop a broader picture--to look.beyond

 

. For the purposes of this dissertation,
steged refers to differences in
instruction or patterns of interaction
that might exist between the primary and
secondary level. I wanted to determine if
more or less emphasis was being given at
either the primary or secondary level to
the development of gender-defined roles
and modes of behavior, particularly in
reference to leadership capacity.

35

the classroom in order to understand the classroom.3 It was
in doing this, reaching out into a sea of culture unfamiliar
to me, even after living there for many years, that I became
painfully aware of all the excess baggage that I had carried
along: ideas about the gender roles and expectations that I
had for“women.that slowed.my journey and limited.the number of
places I could visit. This baggage made it harder to begin
understanding what could be done in order for women to achieve
higher status and improved life chances.

In order to better understand this evolution, a
discussion of the chronology of my study will be beneficial.
Of particular interest is the role that methodology played in
this study and the limitations that developed as the study

evolved.

Gaining access

During the first week of December, 1988, I contacted the
Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education for permission to
conduct research. A pleasant man with wire-rimmed glasses
looked up from his desk, a flicker of mild amusement playing

across his face.

 

. As I developed my proposal initially,
interviews with parents were a component
of the research model. This "pull beyond
the classroom" was much less a question
of goo was being included in the sample
than of my I was analyzing and
interpreting the data I received.

36
"m 18 901119 to do research?" he
asked. This was something new and
unexpected.

"She certainly is," I replied, "and she'd
like official permission to do it."

"Well," he continued. "What is Madame
doing her research about?" I gave him a
quick overview of my ideas about gender-
differentiated schooling. He seemed
genuinely interested.

"And how does Madame intend to go about
doing her research study?"

I had hoped he wouldn't ask that. I knew what I wanted
to do, and I knew even better what I didn't want to do, but I
wasn't at all sure how he would reacts "I don't.want to visit
a lot of schools," I told him. "Just one or two. I want to
know what goes on every day. I want to know how teachers
teach, how students learn, how they decide who does what. I
want to know about the processes going on inside the
classroom, and I won't learn anything if I can't stay long
enough in one place to get to know them."

This was a new approach for the Ministry official, but I
need not have feared. He thought it sounded interesting, and
he said it was something the government was interested in
learning more about. However, his amusement that this was to
be a study by a woman and basically about the education of
women was written across his face, in his broad smile, the
laughter in his eyes, the chuckle in his voice. But he
willingly signed the letter of permission that I had already

typed up. This opened the doors and I was in, now able to

37
negotiate entry into the schools I wanted to visit! In early
January, 1989, data collection began.

During the Christmas vacation, I asked Daniel to help
with data collection. A refugee from Burundi, Daniel had just
completed an undergraduate degree in education and was looking
for work. It would be a difficult time of the year to find
employment, so he agreed to work with me and postponed looking
for a teaching position until the fall. He had studied
research methods, was familiar with ethnographic research
procedures, and could speak the local languages fluently.
This arrangement was necessary because, even though I could
now understand and speak French fluently, I was still unable
to speak any of the local languages.

Preliminary interviews with local educators indicated
that the most appropriate type of secondary school at which to
observe, given the nature of the research project, would be a
teacher training school, since girls' enrollment in the other
types of schools is often very low. Furthermore, many of the
secondary schools in the prefecture (an administrative region)
in which primary observations were made are not co-
educational. Concerned that a restricted female sampling
would distort the results of the study, I chose a teacher
training school as the research site. On January 9, 1989,
four days after receiving permission to conduct the research

project, I contacted a school.

38

The school was operated by one of the many Protestant
church groups in the area. It was in the process of receiving
accreditation from the government. I had never visited the
school prior to this initial contact and knew none of the
teachers or students. However, six weeks after data
collection had begun, Phillip, a student teacher from the
university where I was employed, began practice teaching
there. Phillip ultimately became a valuable source of
information concerning student performance , teacher
expectations, and staff interactions.“

I chose a primary school that was relatively close to the
area where I lived. Since the secondary school was nearly an
hour's drive away, I wanted to choose a primary school that
was closer. Furthermore, I was familiar with the school
before this study began and hoped that my acquaintance with
the director would facilitate gaining access.

Intensive fieldwork in the schools lasted between January
and March in the primary school and from January to June in

the secondary school. Visits were made to the two schools on

 

4. I had concerns throughout my data
cOllection period about the fact that
both Phillip and Daniel were males. At
the time this study was conducted, I knew
of no women in the area who had the
necessary qualifications to assist me in
this study: the language abilities, level
of education including an understanding
of research methods, and the time to
spend hours observing in the classroom,
interviewing participants and getting to
and from research sites.

39

alternate days, Monday through Thursday for an initial three-
week period. On several occasions during the next month of
the data collection period, Daniel observed at the primary
school, thereby enabling me to follow through on a complete
week of observations at the secondary school. Otherwise,
periodic observations continued at the primary school until
March 30, with. two follow-up *visits after that. period.
Observations continued at the secondary school until June 7,
when final exams began. In the initial phase of data
collection during the first month, Daniel and I would visit
the school for the entire school day. As the data collection
continued we spent less time observing in the classroom and
focused more on interviews of students, teachers,
administrators and parents. On average, we would spend 25-30
hours a week visiting classrooms or interviewing people.

During the Easter and mid-semester break, interviews were
conducted with parents in the area. Informal observations and
interviews were conducted at eight primary schools in the
Mulaka commune. Three interviews were conducted with the

government inspector,5 as well as one interview with each of

 

. Government inspectors in this area serve
two functions. They carry out annual
evaluations of the teachers in their area
(prefectyre or sous-prefectuge which are
administrative units) to assess if they
are eligible for annual pay increases.
The government inspectors also make
inspections of schools to determine if
the prescribed government curriculum and
pedagogical procedures are being
implemented.

40
the directors of three other pedagogy schools, a nursing
school director, a university administrator, four university
professors, and a local man who had attended the first school
opened in the region. We also visited twenty primary schools
in the area and noted the sex of students present in each
grade. Eight of the directors of these primary schools were
interviewed. Three subsequent visits were made at each of the
eight schools in order to compare the number of students in
daily attendance from visit to visit. [For results of the
counts at the eight schools where the directors were
interviewed see Tables 1-8 in Appendix A. For a copy of the
questions the directors were asked see Interview Sheet 1 in
Appendix B.) The other directors weren't available and were
unable to take part in our study. Informal interviews were
also conducted with university students. Near the mid-point
of the data collection period, we began to focus on
observations in French and math classes at all six grade
levels of the secondary school. Daniel and I attended
different classes in order to increase the number of hours of
observation in these classes. During data collection over 600
hours of interviews and observations were recorded, and nearly
3000 miles were covered driving to and from the research

sites.

41

Data oollection methods6

Four principal sources and methods of data collection
were used: 1) participant observations, 2) interviews, 3) a
researcher-designed student questionnaire, and 4) an analysis
of written documentation. Each of these methods is described
in detail below. During the period that data were being
gathered, I also kept a journal in which personal reactions to
the data were recorded. This record contains information
about possible ethical dilemmas, personal frustrations with
the data collection process, ideas to pursue, and
miscellaneous encounters that affected the research.

Participant observations:7

 

. Procedures for data collection were
developed in collaboration with the
Michigan State University Committee for
Research Involving Human Subjects. These
measures were designed to protect the
anonymity of all participants involved in
the research study.

. Many of the informants participating in
the study were concerned when it was
explained that their names would not be
used in the dissertation. This was
especially true of the secondary school
students and the less qualified teachers
participating in the study. Despite
repeated attempts to demonstrate the
advantages of this and the need to
protect the participants' identity, it
was their opinion that if this was
necessary it must indicate that they‘were
either doing something that I considered
wrong--ethically or professionally--or
that information. presented in the
dissertation would be inaccurate.
Eventually, I explained that it was
university policy’ not to identify
individuals and/or institutions. They

42

Three types of observations were made: descriptive,
focused, and selective. Initial observations tended to be
descriptive: the layout of the physical plant: the curriculum
(classes. and. content); the..actors (names, personalities,
functions): the activities (extra-curricular, work study,
social interaction): and the time frames (class schedule and
weekly schedule). However, as data collection progressed,
observations became more focused and specific individuals in
selected situations were observed more closely. Eventually,
from late April until I left the site in mid-June, selective
observations were being made in the French and math classes at
Rusimbays'my pseudonym for the secondary school.

In the beginning stages of the observations, Daniel
concentrated on verbal interaction (which often occurred in
local languages) while I focused on non-verbal interaction.
I recorded most of my fieldnotes on a portable computer while
Daniel took notes by hand. The computer was not used at the

primary school since I had concerns that it would be too

 

understood.and.accepted this explanation.
Bureaucracy is bureaucracy no matter
where you live!

. For the purposes of this study pseudonyms
have been used for names of participants
and locations. The only exception to
this are the names of my family members
and Giovanni, Gianni and Concetta
mentioned in chapter 1. I felt there
was no need to use pseudonyms for
Giovanni, Gianni and.Concetta since their
names were used in.my husband's book from
which I quoted.

43
disruptive.9 On Fridays and Sundays, Daniel and I would meet
to transfer the notes from his notebook to the computer,
discuss the data that had been gathered, and outline ideas to
pursue during the next week. The data collected by Daniel
were written in French and later translated into English. For
the most part, data I collected were written in English,

except for interviews which were recorded (both by audiotape
and in notes) in French.
Interviews:

I conducted both formal and informal interviews. For the
formal interviews, I developed a guide to structure the
questions that we asked. However, if interesting data were

presented that hadn't been anticipated when I developed sample

 

. The use of a portable computer was
somewhat.disruptive.the first time it was
used in the classroom at Rusimba. None
of the students had ever seen a computer
before, and many were very intrigued as
to how it functioned. Invariably, the
first time it was used in a classroom, a
student would ask "What language does
your computer write in?" Or after
watching the words scroll off the
computer screen, they would speculate how
the computer could "e_a_t; up the words."
Generally, during the class break,
students would gather around. while a
demonstration was given showing how the
computer could retrieve information that
had disappeared off the screen or
function in many languages including
French and eoy local language. I did not
use the computer at Mupika, the primary
school because I wasn't able to sit at a
desk like at Rusimba. More importantly,
I knew that the added dimension of a
computer at Mupika would make an already
disruptive situation impossible.

44

interview sheets, I pursued the new information. For all
formal interviews, a small portable tape recorder was used to
ensure accuracy, and notes were taken as a back-up.10 I
conducted the interviews with.government officials, teachers,
and.Rusimba's vice principal and Daniel interviewed the eight
primary school directors. I also interviewed the French-
speaking parents, while Daniel interviewed the parents who
spoke only the local language (most of the rural parents). ‘We
prepared and rehearsed a sample interview before the actual
interview process began.

Interviews with the students at the primary school were
also conducted. by Daniel, while both. of us interviewed
individual students at the secondary school. We jointly
conducted several group interviews with the secondary school
students. However, many of these proved difficult and
frustrating, as the students would quickly stray from the
agenda and begin "gab sessions." Yet, however unfocused they
often were, these sessions did.provide valuable insights into
how the students were thinking. Tapes of these discussions
were transcribed as time permitted, first in either French or
the local languages, with translation eventually made into

English.

 

10. Informants were asked before the

interview if they preferred.that the tape
recorder not be used but, no one objected
to its use.

45
Student questionnaire:

Each student in the fourth-year classroom at the
secondary school was given a questionnaire consisting of
demographic questions (age, gender, school starting age,
parental level of education, number of brothers and sisters
and their level of education, citizenship, and whether their
parents lived in a rural or urban area) and two questions
concerning students' educational objectives and career
choices. A third question asked their opinion about working
wives . The questionnaire was designed so that boys were asked
to answer one question about their opinion of working wives
and girls were asked to answer a similar but different
question. LA.copy of the questionnaire and.a tally of results
are recorded on Table 13 in Appendix B.) I first developed
the questionnaires in English and then had them translated
into French. I administered the questionnaires at the end of
January. I handed them out during the morning break, and the
students filled them in before they left the room.11 Daniel
gave instructions on.how to complete the questionnaire in.the
local languages, and students were encouraged to ask for
clarification if they had difficulty understanding the
questions.12

 

11. The students' participation was entirely

voluntary but they all willingly agreed

to complete a questionnaire.
12. The necessity of working in several
languages including Kinyarwanda, Swahili,
French and English caused more than its

46
Documents:

I collected primary source documentation. These
documents included government statistics provided by the
government inspector and school statistics concerning student
enrollment, attendance, staff qualifications and staff
experience which were collected during the interviews. I also
analyzed some of the textbooks to determine how women and
girls were being represented (roles they were fulfilling,
comments they were making, types of activities they were
engaged in, etc.) in comparison to men and boys. I also
examined student work to determine the quality of work that

was being completed.

es c e o e-- ctor records a tic ’

In ethnographic research involving participant
observation, the main instrument of social investigation
becomes the researcher collecting data in natural settings and
interacting in social situations with various informants.
Janes (1961) writes that researchers in the field pass through

five separate phases in establishing their role as observer:

 

share of frustration and.problems. These
were exacerbated by Daniel's limited
English and my difficulties expressing
abstract ideas in French. Although
double blind translation techniques were
not used, efforts ‘were undertaken to
ensure that data were accurately
translated. Occasional checks on the
accuracy of the translation were made by
other individuals, including my husband,
who were fluent in the various languages.

47
newcomer, provisional acceptance,. categorical acceptance,
personal acceptance, and imminent migrant.

Gaining acceptance is a complex activity in which a
researcher may be simultaneously perceived in different ways
by differing informants--passing through the various phases at
different times. Factors that can influence a researcher's
participant-as-observer role and acceptance include the
researcher's age, sex, ethnicity, and experience.

In the initial stages of the data collection period, I
attempted to become acclimated to the two field sites. As a
white woman with less than perfect French and no knowledge of
the local languages, this presented obvious difficulties. In
general, acceptance by the teachers, directors, and government
officials was easily obtained since they perceived me as a
colleague. However, the students found it more difficult to
accept me and generally had a much more spontaneous and open
interaction with Daniel who, being younger and sharing both
the local culture and language, was accepted as a peer and
participant. As the data collection period continued, he
blended in so well that students and teachers alike "forgot"
he was present. This permitted him to gather some especially
important data.

.Although. Daniel's Ihelp ‘was invaluable, at ‘times it
presented problems. Often he had his own ideas concerning how
things should be pursued and what to look for and was

reluctant to give up the agenda that.he‘wanted.to followu The

48

most significant problem that developed concerned his own
attitudes and cultural perceptions of the role of women in
society. Even though Daniel did not always share the local
attitudes and ideas that many of the men had (for example, he
agreed that women should be free from physical abuse and that
family size should be limited), at times it was difficult for
him to accept that girls should be presented the same
educational and career opportunities as those available to
boys. Intellectually, he accepted that girls should have the
same opportunities to attend school as boys. However, he
struggled with the idea that women should not be required to
remain home and raise a family, according to the "laws of
nature". 4

His perspective and skills being different than mine
meant that there was the possibility of his subjectivity
shaping the study in ways of which I might not have been
aware. Since a great deal of the verbal interaction,
particularly with the students, was in the local language, it
was difficult to know if dialogue occurred that was important
to the study, but wasn't recorded because of his personal
bias.

Because of this concern that Daniel's personal bias might
influence the study, initially I asked local women who worked
at the university with me about things that Daniel shared with
me about the local culture. Without exception I found that

his explanation of gender interaction, roles, rights and

49
rituals closely matched what they would say about the same
things. My confidence in Daniel as a conscientious, almost
meticulous recorder of classroom.events was confirmed when.he
told me one afternoon that, "Madame, you must visit the math
classes I've been observing. There are some things happening
that I think might be important to your study." The
interaction gee significant to the study. My journal notes
also indicate that Daniel's personal interest in this study

increased remarkably shortly after talking to me about the

math class interaction.

Daniel and I would often debate issues that were relevant
to my study on the drive back and forth to Rusimba day after
day. Often he would leave after a day of observing at Rusimba
and be troubled that "...the girls really aren't being given
a fair chance". He would begin talking about what he was
observing and these discussions would lead into a "topic of
the day" (generally introduced by me) that included the
movement for equity for women, the rights that should be
granted women, the need for women in the workplace and the
consequences of working wives and mothers on the family and
society in general. These discussions constituted a learning
experience for oogh of us, helping each to see the problem
from a different cultural perspective. Eventually, I could

see how working with me on this study influenced him, as his

50

attitude about women's rights gradually underwent a
transformation.13

The interaction that developed between Daniel and me was
possibly the most significant interaction that influenced this
study; .As I developed.my proposal, I had.not anticipated.that
he would become a valuable informant. Indeed, even as I
unconsciously "collected data"--stories about his life, his
view of the world, his view of the studyy I was unaware of the
impact that it was having on me. It was only in retrospect
after I had been out of the field for some time and as I
reviewed the journal where I recorded my reactions to my study
and what was taking place during this period that I recognized
Daniel's impact on me. This was particularly evident in my
understanding of the cultural context which framed the way he
viewed all these issues.

One particularly enlightening topic that we discussed
concerned the ethnic interaction of the Hutu and Tutsi.“

Daniel helped me understand some of the ethnic unrest that

 

13. Although it is hard to effectively
determine this in retrospect, I'm sure a
more accurate assessment would be to say
that Daniel and I both changed our
perspectives and found some mutual ground
on these issues.

14. The Hutu and Tutsi are two ethnic groups
living in central Africa, particularly in
Rwanda and Burundi. A long history of
tension exists between them which has
resulted in tribal massacres among both
groups. The Hutu and Tutsi will be
discussed at length in Chapter 3.

51

took place in Burundi during 1989. He explained to me how
individuals who had Tutsi mothers and Hutu fathers would be at
high risk during ethnic tensions when the mother's brothers
would identify their sister's children of mixed ethnicity,
placing them in physical danger. It was difficult for me to
understand how this could happen, and I tried to ignore this
unpleasant information and the troubling implications that
were associated with it. But this wasn't easy to do, and as
I thought about it more, I realized.that there could.be gender
implications embedded in this behavior.

I began asking questions about this. There was a great
deal of reluctance to talk to me about this. In fact,
generally it is considered impolite to refer to ethnicity when
talking to anyone from Rwanda or Burundi. I was told by many
informants from both ethnic groups that children of Hutu
fathers and Tutsi mothers-~the reverse situation in which
Tutsi men marry Hutu women is much rarer--have a lower status
in the family than the children of parents where both the
father and mother are Tutsi. I began to question this
explanation and wondered if subconsciously it could be an
issue of gender as much as an issue of ethnicity--a daughter's
children did not have the same status and acceptance within
the family as the son's children? I‘wondered if this could be
the result of the exchange of rights when her bridewealth.was
paid? .Although.I was unable to respond to this question in my

data collection and was never able to answer the questions

52
that were raised, I became more aware of the need to look
beyond surface responses for deeper meanings to explain the
behavior that I was observing.

I never was fully accepted by the primary students.
Nearly every visit I made distracted the students and
disrupted the teachers' lessons because the students would not
remain on task. During recesses and lunch breaks, the
students would crowd around me and attempt to rub their hands
over my face, arms, and legs, and pull at my hair.15 Verbal
interaction between us was nearly impossible because of the
language barrier, but the students would ask Daniel questions
about me. Questions answered, they would stare at me for
several minutes and then, huddled in groups, hand in hand or
arms about each other, run out of the room giggling and
chattering in the local language. The students would run off,

stop and peer back, talk, giggle, and then move away. This

 

15. Throughout the years that we lived in

Africa, this kind of behavior was not
uncommon , particularly among the
children. We found that the more
isolated the region and the less familiar
with Caucasians the children were, the
more aggressive their behavior became. I
asked students and local school workers
why they would touch us like this but
they claimed they didn't know. I was
eventually told by another missionary
that the people believed that we rubbed
powder on ourselves to appear white, and
they wanted to see if our color would rub
off. Although I question that this is an
apocryphal story it is the only
explanation that I have received about
this kind of behavior.

53
experience was repeated visit after visit without exception,
not only for'me, but for'other expatriates who visited.this or'
other primary school classrooms in the area.

Polsky (1969) writes that the researcher must monitor and
exercise control over the interaction that is established
between the researcher and the research population. In
situations where the interaction violates the researcher's
ethics or becomes difficult or uncomfortable, it is advisable
to terminate observations. Initially, I made an attempt to
ignore all the touching, however embarrassing and annoying.
But there were continual doubts concerning the effect my
presence was having on students' learning outcomes at the
primary schools. Eventually, after three weeks of visits, my
concern that my presence in the classroom was too disruptive
forced me to stop visiting the classroom at the primary level.
Consequently, from this point on, Daniel collected the primary
school data on his own. Even though Daniel's notes and
comments corroborated my impressions of the primary level
classrooms, I remain reluctant to discuss at great length
schooling at the primary level. Although I feel confident
that what I saw in the first few weeks confirmed that girls
were treated differently than boys and that patterns of gender
interaction in society were being reinforced and reproduced in
the classroom at the primary level, my discussion of this
study tends to focus on schooling at the secondary level more

than the primary level.

54

My experience at the secondary level was different.
Surreptitious attempts to "touch" me at the secondary school
occurred but were far more sophisticated--"accidently"
brushing against my arm or hand. Once the physical contact
had been made, the act was not repeated a second time. The
girls were far more aggressive in making physical contact than
the boys. In fact, their overall interest in me in general
was greater throughout the data collection period. They would
often huddle about the desk where I sat in the back of the
classroom and engage in "small talk" during breaks in the day,
long into the lunch period and before and after school hours.
Initially, they asked.me personal questions about my age, the
names and ages of my children, my husband's name, and so on.
Some of the girls lost interest when these initial visits to
gather information about me had taken place, and I noticed
that their visits became progressively shorter until
eventually they stopped altogether. However, as the data
collection.period continued and.my agenda became more clearly
understood, there was a small group of girls who began asking
‘me questions about life in America and.what it was like there
for girls. I don't think it is incidental that the girls who
asked these questions were the same girls who expressed a
desire to continue their education but were frustrated at the
limited options open to them.

In this study, my role as mother and wife, not my

position as instructor and researcher, had a profound effect

55

on my acceptance in the field with the secondary school
students. They viewed the roles of wife/mother and
instructor/researcher as mutually exclusive and consistently
refused to believe that I was married and had four children.
Daniel was repeatedly asked about the "supposed" family, and
it was finally decided, at his urging, that my family should
make a short appearance at the research site. .

It was arranged that Bob would evaluate the student
teacher from our university who was teaching there while the
children and I waited by the car. The children accompanied us
because we were going to have a picnic on the beach after the
evaluation was completed. We arrived just as the morning
break began, and I noticed that all the games came to a
standstill when our children climbed out of the car. Bob and
our oldest son, Danny, joined the group that had been playing
volleyball, and.Heather, Teddy Roy, and Jenny were surrounded
by a large group of students who began to ask them questions
about living in Africa. Jenny, who is very fair-haired,
attracted a great deal of attention, and I finally called him
aside and suggested he enter the car when some of the girls
began pinching him and pulling his hair.

After this visit, the students no longer questioned the
existence of my family, but it became apparent that my
interaction with some students had become strained and more
distantt The boys' interaction ‘with. me was ‘noticeably
reduced, particularly for four boys who did not talk to me

56

again throughout the remaining duration of the data collection
period--approximately a four-week period. Although these four
boys had never come up to me to talk on their own initiative
(as many of the students did), they had always been willing to
join in discussions or answer questions that I had. However,
after the visit, they either ignored questions that I asked
them or walked away when I approached them. When an attempt
was made to determine what had affected their interaction,
they indicated to Daniel that they thought it was improper on
my part to pursue a career and education while young children
were still at home. Until verification was made that a family
existed, they effectively blocked what ‘was for them a
culturally unacceptable combination of roles. Eventually,
most of the boys began talking with me again, but they made
their position quite clear that "married women with children
should remain home".

The girls reacted in an entirely different manner; None
of them were visibly upset like the boys were and, in.general,
just acknowledged that I had multiple roles. A group of them
began visiting me again during the break. However, this time
their interest was less in me than in my daughter, Heather,
who was fourteen years old at the time. They wanted to know
where she went to school, whether she liked school, what she

wanted to become, and whether she would write to them.

57
Change agent ang role model

My perspective of what my role in this study should be
became an. increasingly' more. complex issue .as the study
evolved, particularly after the data collection had been
completed and I had left the site and was analyzing my data.
When I began.my study, I naively believed that I would become
an important role model for the girls in the school. I
thought that the multiple roles that I was able to negotiate
would encourage girls and convince them.that life chances and
future options provided by education and a career were well
worth the effort. My hidden agenda as a role model totally
blinded.me to the racial and cultural implications associated
with this. It wasn't until I reread transcriptions of the
statements that were made to me by the women teachers and
girls that I realized that my agenda wasn't eheire, that my
agenda evolved from my cultural norms and expectations and
reflected my world, not theirs. I had expected that I would
be accepted enthusiastically by the women and girls because of
what I offered" I was quite stunned when I realized that they
had resisted me and what I represented with outright hostility
at times.

It was also at this point that the tension between the
objective nature of ethnographic research and the proactive
methods of the feminist movement became visible to me and
created dilemmas concerning the study I had completed. As I

began to read feminist literature, I realized that the data I

58
had collected actually told a different story than I had set
out to share. Ironically, even though I had seen myself as a
"player and participant" in this study, I hadn't realized how
much this study would eventually revolve around my personal
intersection with the work.

The transformation process that took place in my study is
not unusual in ethnographic work. Schwartz and Schwartz
(1955) and Schwartz and Jacobs (1979) write that the
researcher role can significantly impact the progression of a
study as the researcher's perspectives and attitudes begin to
interact with those of the research community. James (1961)
and Becker (1958) raise key issues about how the investigation
process develops and transforms as researcher and research
community merge, determine agendas, and influence one
another's reaction to what is being discussed and studied.
However, the transformation that took place in my study raises
issues about the inherent conflict embedded in one's role as
observer and recorder of events in a classroom--events with
which at times the researcher may feel very uncomfortable.
Eventually, after my return to North America, I began to
question whether through my role as researcher I was in fact
giving credence to these acts and serving to legitimate what
took place because I quietly sat back in the classroom
recording it all.

My own university students had a great deal of influence

on my study. When I developed my proposal, I didn't include

59
them as part of the study. I worried that including them as
participants might create problems as the study evolved.16
Consequently, I created a partition, one I now see as false,
arguing that I should maintain distance between my
responsibilities as instructor and researcher. But it was
impossible for me to completely disassociate myself from my
role as researcher as I interacted in my other roles. To
disassociate myself from my research was particularly
difficult when I was in my classroom. One of the major
objectives of our institution is to expand educational
opportunities for girls. The students were well aware that I
had been instrumental in getting approval for policies such as
reduced tuition rates for girls, eased admission requirements,
and so forth. Consequently, my advocacy for increased
participation for girls at all levels of education was a
recurrent theme in class discussions and my personal research.
became a pivotal praxis inthe classroom. Questions of equity
of access and outcomes (for women, for different ethnic
groups, for various minority groups, for the physically
disabled and other special needs students, etc.) and the
ramifications of these were often discussed in class. It was

difficult for me to accept my students' views that the well-

 

16. I was mainly concerned that it might
create question of confidentiality, since
my research sites were well known by my
students. Furthermore, they personally
knew some of the students and teachers
who worked at one of the schools.

60
being of society is intangibly associated with women being
forced to stay at home and rear children, and that enhanced
educational opportunities and expanded career options disrupt
this. Although I did not agree with them, it was a
perspective that needed to be considered and accommodated in
my work. I was only able to see these issues that we'd so
often discuss in class from a broader perspective and to
recognize and understand my personal biases more easily, more
effectively, once I was out of the field. The self-imposed
pressure of being the change agent, the model of the woman who
can do it all, was no longer there, and I was able to really
consider what I was advocating much more easily and

critically.

o n w detours and et st

I did not continue to visit the school in the fall of
1989, but concentrated on analyzing the data. As I went
through this process, several distinct themes began to emerge
and I noted these for follow-up. Other ideas, seemingly
unconnected at first, began to fit in with the overall
patterns I began to detect. I found previously unnoticed
references in the interview transcripts to "the white woman's
emancipation movement" and to the limited number of jobs
available to women after leaving school. I read again a.very
insightful comment by one of the teachers about the

discordance between local cultural identity and the local

61
feminist "movement." On many of these themes, the men and the
boys held opinions very different from those of the women and
the girls.

As I began to interpret my data, I realized that a much
greater understanding of how local meanings interact with
gender issues was needed. I made arrangements to re-enter the
site after a six-month hiatus. In preparation for the
resumption of classroom visits and in-depth interviews, I
spent ‘time ‘visiting informally' with students and. staff.
Again, I was impressed and surprised to find them so
remarkably candid in their responses.

On December 11, two weeks before Christmas and three
weeks before I was to re-enter the research site, my son,
Danny, was seriously hurt when he fell 20 feet from a tree.
Because of the gravity of his medical condition, all research
came to an end and it was necessary to make an emergency
return to the United States.17 II have not been back since

then and questions continue to haunt me.18

 

17. Danny has recovered.nicely but remains at

high risk of respiratory infection
because of the loss of his spleen. His
condition necessitates that he remain in
North America for several years. Hence,
we were not able to remain in Africa or
return until Danny is much older.

18. Although many questions remain, the
questions that I consider most are what
happened to Marie's sister-in-law; what
happened to Josie--did she have to drop
out as I suspected then, or was she able
to continue with her studies? I wonder
about the impact that I had on the

62

Throughout the data collection period, I was beset with
self-doubt about whether what I was doing was methodologically
sound and whether the data I was collecting was valuable and
adequate for a dissertation. Unfortunately, contact with my
dissertation chairperson was difficurt at best. Telephone
contact was virtually impossible--too costly and too
unpredictable. We did exchange letters, but I did not write
as frequently as I should.have, and.this limited.the amount of
direction that I received. I now recognize that my infrequent
_ communication. with my committee members was a form of
resistance, a result of some of the personal dilemmas that I
was feeling, even then, about the study I was doing and the
data I was collecting.

When.I beganumy research, I thought that expanding roles
and securing access and opportunities for women and girls
would solve the problem of limited roles for women. I thought
that barriers existed (in school and in society) that
prevented girls from full participation. If these could be
removed, equality between the sexes could be achieved. It
wasn't until I returned to North America and began reading
feminist literature that I realized that my understanding of
subordination and emancipation was simplistic and

underdeveloped. As I reread the stories shared with me, and

 

students and their views of the feminist
movement and emancipation of women.

63

recognized the male control, ridicule and abuse embedded in
many of them, I was forced to change my perspective.19

I was initially delighted with the way the adult
respondents were opening up to me. As we talked, there was no
.hesitancy to share personal information with me--about their
families, their attitudes on women's issues, the school's
philosophy of training girls, about government reforms in.
women's issues and related areas. However, as data collection
continued, I became increasingly uneasy about the information

that was being shared, particularly by the women.20 It was

 

19 . Acker ' s (1987) discussion of the

differences between liberal, social and
radical feminism was a particularly
helpful piece that gave me a clearer
understanding of the ways in which gender
interactions are defined. However,
Daly's (1978) book Gynecology: The

Megaethics of Radical Feminism more
profoundly influenced me than any other

piece I read. It was through her
writing, that I realized that fear--fear
of abuse, fear of men, fear of the
unknown, fear of change--was probably the
most salient factor influencing why women
did what they did and became what they
became. It was then that I finally
realized how naive my first assumptions
were about changes in classrooms that
would "trickle out" and create changes in
society.

20. My concerns and frustrations about my
work came to a head in the fall of 1990
when serious political tensions developed
in the area where much of my data
collection was done. I began to question
if using specific data would put anyone
at risk. Although I couldn't be certain
of this, I felt that there were some
things that had been said to me that
might place individuals in a compromising

64
as if my role as the researcher'had.been forgotten and.we were
now intimate friends sharing the secrets of our lives. The
tape recorder or computer was always there, and I was always
recording what they were sharing, but I couldn't help but
wonder if‘they had forgotten this was happening. Because of
these thoughts, periods would arise when I struggled with the
feeling that I was somehow betraying them if I shared what I
had been told. At times I was overwhelmed with the trust and
intimacy that developed, but I didn't want any personal
commitmenté-I wanted to collect my data, write up the
dissertation, and defend. I didn't want any snags to arise,
I didn't want any unethical situations to develop, and I
certainly didn't want any questions about what I was doing and
the value of this study to surface. I felt that my ideas were
correct, that this study was needed to shed light on what was
happening in a Third World country, and I defended until the
day I left Africa the position that my interpretation of
women's rights and roles was what was needed in central

Africa.

Summagy
As this study evolved, one thing became evident--

cultural perceptions, my perceptions and the perceptions of

 

situation. I continue to be concerned
about this and have made every effort to
ensure that the material shared in this
document placed no one at risk.

65

the people that I talked to, were becoming a major theme. My
own role as researcher, woman, foreigner, mother, and advocate
of women's rights increasingly shaped my understanding of what
I was learning or what should be learned and could be
explained. Yet the questions asked and responses discussed
were shaped in important ways as well by the local community,
a community which often took a position very different from my
own.

In order to better understand this community, in the next
chapter I will give an overview of Rwanda and Zaire and

briefly describe their histories and cultures.

CHAPTER THREE
The Place:

The Ring of Fire in the valley
by the Mountains of the Moon
near the Land of a Thousand Hills

I'm sitting in the teachers' lounge at
Rusimba. The air is filled with the
acrid stench of sulfur from a volcano,
part of the ring of fire surrounding this
area, that erupted two days earlier» The
fumes burn my nostrils and irritate my
eyes. Looking out the window, I can see
the hazy, reddish glow that covers the
sky.

Even here, 15 miles away, ash fills the
air and leaves a telltale mark on
everything that grows. Marie, one of the
teachers at Rusimba, is telling me about
the last time (ten years earlier) that a
volcano went off in the region. Several
hundred people died and according to
Marie, at least, so did the last of the
elephants inhabiting the area. "It's
very ominous living in a volcanic area
you know. You can never really tell when
one might go off."

She looks tired and I ask if the fear
from the volcano, or maybe the smell, is
keeping her from sleeping well at night.
She shakes her head and sighs, "Maybe a
little...but, I mostly don't sleep well
because I must take care of babies who
cry at night." I nod my head in
agreement and she begins laughing. "Yes,
yoo_know. You.had four babies. You know
the work that children can be."
(Field notes, April, 1989)

Slashing across the equator, rugged snow-crowned slopes
that Ptolemy called the "Mountains of the Moon" rise
dramatically from the central African plateau. An area of
geological stress and turmoil--with raging volcanos,

66

6'7
earthquakes and gaseous hot springs--the uncertainties that
nature has dealt to the region seem to have carried over into
its political and economic life as well. It is a region of
exaggerated dimensions and juxtaposition--in the land, in the
animals, in the people. An area "washed by the rains of a
thousand stems. . .it is the home of the Nile--the lifeblood of
Egypt and the tears, so they say, of the continent" (R.
Prouty, 1986, p. 35). It is an area of hardship and power,
sorrow and passion. It is also home to millions of people
living in Rwanda and eastern Zaire. .And it is the place of my
story. Rich in history and culture, Rwanda and Zaire are
neighboring countries in French-speaking central Africa. In
many respects, the two countries are dramatically different.
Zaire is one of the largest countries in Africa; Rwanda is
one of the smallest. Zaire is home to over two hundred ethnic
groups, each with a separate language and distinct customs.
Rwanda, on the other hand, is home to only three ethnic
groups, the Hutu, the Tutsi, and the Twa, who share a common
language, Kinyarwanda. More importantly, however, the two
larger groups, the Hutu and Tutsi (comprising, respectively,
approximately 84% and 15% of the population) have been
intricately tied together in an uneasy, tenuous relationship
that has exploded more than once into violent, bloody

‘I

rebellion and tribal massacres. Zaire is a land rich in

 

. Some historians have noted that Colonialism
arrested the natural social evolution that
would have eliminated the ethnic differences

68
natural resources with vast supplies of diamonds, copper, and
gold, and almost unlimited hydro-electric potential. In
contrast, Rwanda sits next door, like a poor, distant cousin
struggling to survive with few resources, over-crowded, over-
populated, and overlooked.

But in many ways Rwanda and Zaire are far more alike than
they are different. They share a common bond historically,
each a colonial territory under Belgian rule, and the
psychological scars from that era can still be seen in the
lives of the people and infrastructures of both countries.
Despite cultural differences, the lifestyles of the rural
poor--the economic reality of most of the people in Rwanda and
Zaire--are almost identical as they struggle to survive with
a yearly income of less than $50 US. The daily existence of
vast numbers of people in both countries is very much the
same. In fact, there are far greater, more keenly felt
separations between the rich and poor in each country than
there are differences between the poor of the two countries.

The rural poor in.both countries are subsistence farmers
who struggle to maintain a standard of living which barely
provides for their basic needs. A small percentage of the
population--government employees, entrepreneurs and
professionals--form an elite in their societies who control

each country's capital and assets. An emerging middle class

 

and inequalities found. in. Rwanda (watson,
1991).

69

can be seen in both countries. However, their standard of
living is much closer to that of the lower classes than the
wealthy elite. The emerging middle class live in small, brick
homes which are better than the lower-class, thatch
constructions, but the homes remain functional rather than
luxurious. Indoor plumbing is uncommon in any of the homes of
the lower and middle classes, as is electricity or telephones.
Cooking is done over fires or charcoal burners, and the few
furnishings are locally constructed. Individuals in the
middle class have several changes of clothing, unlike those in
the lower classes, who may not have even one change of
clothing. Furthermore, the poorer individuals must walk
everywhere they go. The rest of the lower and middle class
share rides in taxis or possibly own a bike or a small
motorcycle.

The poor are everywhere in both countries. They live in
large urban ghettos as well as impoverished, isolated
villages. In contrast, except for a few very wealthy large
plantation owners, the elite congregate around the larger
urban centers that are more developed and offer a different
kind of lifestyle including expensive stores, restaurants,
exclusive clubs, improved medical facilities, and a circle of
friends who have similar financial circumstances. The elite
have spacious homes with indoor plumbing, electricity, modern
appliances, telephones, expensive furnishings, verandas, and

swimming pools. They own at least one car and dress in

70

expensive clothes. But the most noticeable difference between
the groups is that the lower and middle classes are much more
traditional than the elite in both countries, who tend to be
bi-cultural, having been exposed to ideas and lifestyles of
Western expatriates. Consequently, for all but a small
percentage of the populations in both Rwanda and Zaire, the
traditional structures in the two societies are still commonly
valued and practiced. Adherence to traditional structures
takes on significance when one considers not only the life
chances for men and women, girls and boy, but also the daily
patterns, obligations, and responsibilities that they are
expected to fulfill.

In order to better understand how these traditional
patterns play out in the daily lives of the Rwandan and
Zairian peoples, I will discuss some basic indicators such as
life expectancy, infant mortality, average family income,
literacy rates, etc. Although, it is impossible for the
westerner living in a developed country to understand totally
the overcrowding from exploding populations, the poverty and
sickness and the rudimentary living conditions, it is equally
difficult to imagine the hard-earned joys, the closeness, the
sense of belonging and community of the traditional village
setting or family gage. And yet, it is essential to grasp a
sense of it, to glimpse a small piece of the place, and to try
to feel what it is like to be a woman there, struggling to

fashion an existence for herself and her children.

71
In this chapter, I will provide a more in-depth look at
Zaire and Rwanda, highlighting the history, the culture, and
the life of the people that I lived among, worked with, and

finally studied. First I will discuss Rwanda, then Zaire.

M51:
"The Land of a Thousand Hills," Rwanda lies a few

degrees south of the equator. Despite its proximity to the
equator, the climate is temperate throughout the country.
Seasonal changes are not as dramatic as in most areas of
Africa. The country consists mainly of grassy uplands and
hills extending southeast from a chain of volcanoes in the
northwest. The mountainsides are draped in a patchwork of
gardens, and season after season, women and children dot the
slopes, first planting, then hoeing, and finally harvesting
their crops.

Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa.
It has 600 people per square mile with some prime agricultural
areas supporting well over 1,500 people per square mile
(Scheffer, 1986). As you drive down the roads, mile after
mile you pass an endless stream of men, women, and children.
Some are students headed to school. Others are men carrying
doors or pieces of furniture on their heads to sell in the
towns“ Still others are women, babies tied.t0‘their'backs and
baskets balanced on their heads, off to the market to sell

their vegetables. Small children, far too young to understand

72

the dangers of speeding cars, sit just beyond the highway's
edge, watching the automobiles rush past as they play in the
patch of dirt in front of their mud and thatch houses. Even
late into the night, you can still pass isolated groups of
people on the roads-~and at that hour, as often as not--
inebriated men, huddled together, staggering and stumbling
towards home or another bar.

WiUh a population of over seven million and an annual
population growth rate of 4%--one of the highest in the world
(May, 1988) , it is no wonder that one of the first impressions
that you. have as you travel about is that people are
everywhere, in endless numbers. Because over 43% of the
female population are still in childbearing years, the
government has given high priority to lowering the birth rate.
An awareness program and development plan to assist in family
planning, particularly in the rural areas, has been undertaken
and appears to be making a significant impact (Rwanda, 1987).
However, resistance to irreversible birth.control measures is
high, partially because of the high infant mortality rate (120
births out of 1000 live births)--among the highest in the
world.2 Resistance to irreversible birth control measures is
understandable when one realizes the significance of children

to aging parents who are no longer able to work their gardens

 

2. Unless cited otherwise, all statistical or
historical information comes from World Bank
(1990) or the US government (1979, 1982)
country studies for Zaire and Rwanda.

73

and provide for themselves (Clay, 1989). It is also worth
noting that public assistance is unavailable and social
security provisions are relatively insignificant.3 AIDS is
endemic in Rwanda (and through much of central Africa) as are
malaria, intestinal parasites, amoeba, and a litany of other
illnesses and diseases. Although medical services have
dramatically improved in the past decade, it is no surprise
that people in Rwanda still grow old fast and die young. The
average life expectancy is only 47 years. Ironically, despite
numerous births and years of hard labor, on the average women
in Rwanda outlive men by more than three years.

Historically, the population of what is now Rwanda was
organized into a feudal-like hierarchically-stratified, tribal
system known as Woke, dominated by the aristocratic cattle-
raising Tutsi. In the late 18003, Germany conquered the area
but allowed We to continue. Part of the German East
African territories until the first WOrld War, the area was
known as Ruanda-Urundi and was later divided into the two
countries of Rwanda and Burundi. The territories were
officially turned over to Belgian control in 1919. In 1946,
the area became a Belgian-administered United Nations trust

territory with headquarters in present-day Burundi. This

 

. Individuals who are employed have quarterly
payments made into a social security system.
However, women who work in the fields or
barter in the market and do not have salaries
or anyone unemployed do not benefit from the
social security system.

74

arrangement remained in effect until 1961, when Rwanda voted
to become a republic, and independence was granted to both
Rwanda and Burundi (Hertefelt, 1987) . A pre-independence
tribal rebellion in the late 19508 brought an end to the Tutsi
rule, deposing the Tutsi mm or king, forcing him into
exile, and leading to a presidential system. A turbulent
period full of political unrest, tribal tensions, and bloody
uprisings continued for over a decade. In the late 19608 the
hostilities eventually culminated in a massacre of thousands
of Tutsi (Marchal, 1987).

The first president, Gregoire Kayibanda, was overthrown
in a military coup in 1973. He was replaced as president of
Rwanda by Maj or General Juvénal Habyarimana. During these
years, Habyarimana attempted to put an end to tribal
hostilities and promoted equality of opportunityJ‘ He
presided over an era of relative political and economic
stability (Harroy, 1984). But in the fall of 1990, tribal
hostilities resurfaced after invasions led by Tutsi refugees
living in Uganda, and the future stability of the region is
very much in doubt. (Watson, 1991).

The most striking feature of Rwanda's social organization
is the almost total absence of villages. Nearly every family
in Rwanda lives in a self-contained compound called a Inge,

which provides for communal needs--carrying the ill to the

 

. Since the late 1960's, the government has had
basically Hutu leadership.

75
nearest doctor or herbalist, sharing work, and protection. So
significant is this idea that the dead are buried within the
family Iogo in order to attain eternal rest. More recently,
a few urban areas and medium-sized towns have developed around
administrative centers. However, traditional life styles are
still very much in evidence, particularly in the rural areas,
and the single family {ego continues to be the predominant
social unit within the country. This explains why Rwanda has

the lowest pattern of urban migration in Africa (Clay, 1990).

Further evidence of adherence to the traditional life
style in Rwanda is the persistence of the clientage system (a
modified feudal-serf relationship), regional loyalties, and
the logo, a loosely organized, extended-family kinship
interaction which covers several generations of family members
on the paternal side (Scheffer, 1986) . Fathers are the
unquestioned heads of the household and.must be obeyed in all
situations. Until recently, the Rwandan constitution stated
that although men and women are legally equal, men are "the
natural heads of’ the family". Despite ‘changes in ‘the
constitution and reforms aimed at enhancing females' status,
adherence to traditional belief systems and life styles has

meant that the status.of females, particularly in rural areas,

76

remains marginal, and male control--legally, economically, and
politically--continues virtually unchallenged (Hoben, 1989).s

Although.Rwanda is officially a French-speaking country,
the use of French is generally restricted to international
commerce, diplomatic relations, some secondary school studies
and university studies. French is perceived as a language of
the educated classes, with much of the population speaking
only Kinyarwanda. Consequently, high status knowledge of
French is a form of cultural capital that controls access to
secondary schooling and tertiary-level studies. It further
serves to stratify the work force and limits access to high-
status jobs and professions. French is known much more widely
by men than by women, and much more by the younger than the
older generation. Swahili is also spoken by approximately 10%
of the total population--mainly by the older generation and
particularly by those who received an education in the pre-

independence, Catholic mission schools. In areas of Rwanda

 

. Recent reforms have included making credit
available to women, permitting wives to open
bank accounts without the previously required
husband's signature, a three-month maternity
leave (fathers are granted a one-week
paternity leave after the birth of a child),
permission to travel without needing to carry
letters of permission from husbands, and
government subsidized birth control.
Legislation has also been enacted to protect
the rights of wives and mothers (for joint
possessions and custody of children) after the
death of a husband or' during a divorce.
However, a great many women who I interviewed
told. me that despite these laws, gaining
custody of children was still problematic.

77
that border Zaire, Uganda, and Tanzania, Swahili is used as a
linsna_fransa (Hoben, 1988).

A strong sense of national identity permeates Rwandan
society. Rwandans are painfully aware of the years of
independence and autonomy that were lost during the colonial
period and are proud of their own sovereign political agenda
during the past three decades. Despite political
uncertainties, economic ups and downs, slow development, and
limited access to advanced technology, they remain.determined
to maintain their political autonomy.

The recent reforms in education expanding the use of
Kinyarwanda as the sole language of instruction throughout
eight years of schooling, are further evidence of the sense of
national identity and cultural renewal. Unlike many countries,
where French or English vocabulary words have increasingly
replaced words from the local language (as, for instance, in
the common Zairois expression of thanks, HEW). in
Rwanda the opposite is occurring. New words continue to be
coined to replace such French words as "biologie", "anatomic",
and "chimie". There is a tendency, particularly by the
moderately well-educated, to devalue what isn't local, what
isn't from their own culture. One of the best known proverbs
in Kinyarwanda, "God may go elsewhere during the day, but at
night He always comes home to Rwanda," best demonstrates the
strong sense of pride that the Rwandans feel about their

culture, their history, and their country.

78

For the average rural woman or young girl, life is a
continual round of working, eating and sleeping. The day
begins early, often long before the sun is up, and ends late
at night. There is little frivolity, excitement or free time
for women if one's family is going to eat. Consequently,
patterns, usually tedious, repetitive patterns, are
established early in the life of girls that foreshadow what
the rest of their lives will be like. In an apprenticeship of
marriage, young girls assume responsibility for childcare,
cooking, cleaning, and gardening. (This apprenticeship of
marriage is also true of girls living in Zaire.) In the
central and southern regions, for example, as you pass :ogo
after Inge, young girls of seven or eight can be seen, small
babies tied to their backs, working together. Each with a
long pounding-stick in hand, first one brings it down and then
the other as they pound cassava, peanuts or grains in the
wooden mortar that rests between them. Or they may rest under
a tree away from the sun' s rays, as they sort through peanuts,
beans, wheat, or corn--all staples of their diets--while
skimpily-clad babies sitting at the girls' feet play in the
hard-packed dirt. Childhood is short for most girls in
central Africa, particularly for the girls of the lower-class
who work endlessly, only to fall farther behind each year
because of local devaluations of the currency. Even though
boys also have their childhood cut short like the girls, the

jobs that they are relegated--herding goats and cows-~provide

79
many moments of leisure to lie in the fields while the animals
graze, jerry-rig toys out of balsa wood and string, or play
run and chase games with other boys they find along the paths.
Girls aren't afforded such "luxuries". Rain or shine, good
health or poor, the patterns are the same. All water must be
carried often for distances of several kilometers from water
sources: women and girls haul most of the water in plastic
five-gallon jerry cans or two gallon plastic buckets. Wood to
cook with has to be gathered and brought to the rugo; women
and girls take on this responsibility, often carrying loads of
wood that weigh forty or more pounds on their backs several
kilometers to their homes. The sick need to be attended to
and young girls and women offer what services they can to the
ill. Meals are simple--there is neither the time nor the
means to prepare elaborate dishes. Beans, rice, white
potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava, grains and greens are the
staples of the diet. Occasionally, eggs, cheese, fish or
chicken will be added. During marriages, New Year's
festivities or some other special occasion a sheep, goat or
cow might be slaughtered and cooked. But this is rarely done
since these animals don't come cheaply and to buy one
represents hours of hard work. What little clothes they have
need to be cleaned, and women and girls carry them to the
nearest stream where they wash them in the water, pounding
them on rocks and then laying them out on the grass, or over

small trees and.bushes to dry in the sun, But washing clothes

80
is the sort of work that one does in spare time and there's
seldom any of this. Weaving baskets and mats are also spare-
time activities-~the kind of thing a woman might do if she
finishes her fields early and has a few moments as the beans
and 9&3: (either a stiff corn meal mush or similar kind of
mush from cassava) cook over the fire.

There appears to be little family interaction. Women are
gone to the fields for most of the day while the young girls
care for younger siblings. Young boys herd the animals while
older boys go off to school. The men who are able to find
work spend long days in fishing boats, in factories or
plantations, and spend little time with their families.
Unemployed men sit around the nearest store or bar and play
games, drink and gossip, and avoid coming home until all the
work is done. Homes appear to be gathering places where
families eat, sleep and reproduce, not places of refuge where
families come together and become a unit. In traditional
homes women, girls and young boys wait and watch while men and
»older boys eat, so even what little time a family could share
together is bifurcated between the sexes and the young and the
old.

The interactional pattern within the family is one of the
most significant differences between the classes. Upwardly
mobile families tend to let go of the interaction patterns
found among the rural poor and develop routines in which the

family sets time apart to come together and share. But time

81
is the key element here. They can spare the time to become a
family: the rural poor are too busy surviving as a family to

really become one.

Zaire

Zaire's geographic location and astounding natural
resource potential intensify its political and economic
importance to the continent. In spite of 25 years of relative
peace, Zaire has often been an unstable influence in the
region. Many observers wonder whether the days ahead will
again give meaning to Franz Fanon's famous comment: "Africa is
a revolver and Zaire is the trigger." Located in the heart of
Africa, Zaire is a vast country with widely varying terrain.
At the time of the study, it was divided politically into
eight provinces, including Kivu to the east, bordering both
Rwanda and Uganda. (This arrangement has since been changed,
and Kivu has been subdivided into the provinces of Kivu and
North Kivu).

Zaire has the most important inland water system on the
continent and. one of’ the ‘world's largest tropical rain
forests, covering nearly a third of the country. These
forests lie on the equator and are so dense that if you walk
only several feet into the forest, the sunlight is almost
completely blocked and darkness surrounds you. Life is a
constant struggle against nature in these areas, and the daily

battle is nowhere more evident than in the fight against the

82

forest and rains to keep narrow, dirt roads-~the lifeline of
the country--open. Each year since the mid-703, the total
number of kilometers open to traffic in Zaire has decreased.
However, a land of many contrasts, there are also rugged
volcanic highlands in the eastern area of Zaire and vast
grassy, savanna regions in the central plains. Except in the
highlands, where the average temperature is considerably
cooler than the rest of the country, average daytime
temperatures in Zaire approach 100 degrees. Excessive
rainfall (nearly 80 inches) in the highland and forest areas
makes the weather very humid and uncomfortable (Diallo, 1975) .

Zaire has a population of nearly 30 million people and,
as mentioned earlier, over 200 different ethnic groups with
distinct languages and customs. Because of the linguistic
variations that exist, four regional languages have been
adopted for the early years of primary schooling--Kikongo,
Lingala (basically the language of the military), Swahili, and
Tshiluba. French is Zaire's official language and, as in
Rwanda, knowledge of French is limited to the well-educated
and serves to control access to secondary-level schooling,
tertiary studies, high-status jobs, and professions. In
Zaire, as in Rwanda, French is more commonly known by the
younger generation, and.by males more than by females. It is
introduced much earlier in the formal schooling process,
however, and is much more widely spoken in Zaire than in

Rwanda.

83

Nearly 50% of the female population is of childbearing
age, and the annual population growth rate of 3% ranks Zaire
among the countries in the world with the highest rates. Non-
formal educational programs focused at family planning and
birth control awareness have been undertaken, but have had
limited success because of the lack of a well-developed
infrastructure, language variations, and limited financial
backing. Furthermore, although infant mortality is lower than
in Rwanda, at a (96:1000) ratio of deaths to live births,
resistance to irreversible birth control measures
(particularly vasectomy) remains high. Because such
contraceptive measures as oral contraceptives, condoms,
spermicides, etc. , are prohibitively expensive for the average
family, many women in both Rwanda and Zaire opt for injectable
birth control and risk side effects that include cancer and
hemorrhage.‘ With an average life expectancy of 52 years,
women may decide that it is wiser to use the shots and avoid
the high risks of multiple pregnancies during their younger

years.

 

. Local doctors practicing in the area do not
agree on the use of inj ectable contraceptives.
Many doctors that I have spoken with
(expatriate and local) are hesitant to use
them because of the high risks associated with
the hormones in the shots. However, these
doctors recognize that the shots are more
economical and offer long-term protection.
Furthermore, the shots are easier to implement
since the women don't need to follow through
on a routine requiring the ability to read,
which lessens the impact of working with a
largely illiterate community.

84

The region that is now Zaire was heavily penetrated
during the slave-trading period. Although slavery already
existed on the continent, it underwent a dramatic increase as
Portuguese traders began enslaving Africans in the 15008, and
for a 300-year period thousands were captured and shipped to
North and South America (Kermans, 1989) . After slave-trading
ended in the late 1800's, new forms of economic exploitation
emerged. King Leopold II of Belgium hired Henry Stanley to
set up outposts along the Congo (Zaire) River. Leopold became
the personal ruler and owner of a fiefdom he called the
"Congo Free State." His rule is noted for its incredibly
harsh and inhumane treatment of the local population and
exploitation of the region by his agents. In the early 19008
the cruel conditions brought a wave of protests from other
countries, in spite of their remarkably high tolerance for
this sort of behavior, and administration of the region was
removed from the personal control of the king and given to the

government of Belgium.7 During this period from 1908 until

 

. As information from reporters, church groups,
etc. about the inhumane conditions and
treatment of the local peoples filtered out,
there was an outcry from other Western
countries who placed political pressure on the
Belgian government to take over the
administration of the colony from the king.
Conditions improved somewhat after the Belgian
government administered the region, but in
general, most commentators writing on the
colonial administrations document the Belgians
with gross human rights violations.

85
its independence in 1960, the region became a Belgian colony
known as the Belgian Congo (Blaise, 1989).

The Belgians, who possessed almost no natural resources
themselves, began developing towns, roads, medical and limited
educational facilities in the Katanga (now Shaba) region,
which was rich in copper and other minerals, such as
industrial and gem-quality diamonds. Other than development
of the Shaba region, little else throughout the country was
done. Virtually no development of the infrastructure took
place, with few roads built, and only a skeletal communication
system developed (Daye, 1989). During the first part of the
century, mission groups, .notably the Catholic church,
developed a rudimentary health sector and educational system
in which the emphasis was placed at the primary level to the
virtual exclusion of any further schooling (Normans, 1989).
Most significantly, despite petitions urging some local input
and control, the Belgians refused.to permit.any local voice in
government policy proceedings (Lemaire, 1989).

After World War II, many Africans in the Belgian Congo
demanded independence from the Belgians. When Belgium refused
to grant any real form of independence to the region, protests
began which lead to violent rioting and civil disturbances.
Fearful of country-wide insurrection, Belgium hastily granted
independence to the Congo (now Zaire) in June, 1960 (Herman,

1989).

86

Little preparation was given to assist the Congolese in
local administration. Ethnic distrust, a woefully under-
educated populace, high poverty levels, and political unrest
undermined the newly formed government, and five days after
independence was granted, revolt broke out and spread across
the country. A tumultuous five-year period ensued,
characterized by assassinations of political leaders, tribal
fighting, and massacres. In 1963, UN troops were sent to end
the fighting, and with the help of mercenaries, an uneasy
truce was achieved in March, 1965. Years of war and
destruction bankrupted the new country and left tribal groups
bitter, uneasy, and suspicious of one another. Deep divisions
persist to this day, and these undermine attempts to unify the
country and exacerbate tensions between more developed,
wealthier regions and the poorer, less developed ones (Derre,

1990).

W

During the past two decades since gaining independence,
Rwanda and Zaire have been struggling to maintain political
autonomy and stability while at the same time trying to
improve poorly developed infrastructures inherited from the
Belgian colonial administration.

Despite some remarkable changes in Rwanda and Zaire
during the thirty years since independence, the lives of rural

women and girls have changed little. Early in life they

87
establish patterns of endless toil in an apprenticeship of
marriage that continues throughout their lives. These
patterns are particularly significant when considering
educational options that are available to women.

In this first section, "The Prologue," I introduced
myself and my study to the reader. I also described the
physical setting and socio-cultural factors that influenced
the study that I completed (particularly those factors that
intersect gender). In the next section, "The Dialogue," I
will discuss issues that relate to student access and
participation in the classroom. In Chapter Four, I will
introduce the reader to schools in central Africa and the two
schools, Mupika and Rusimba, where my primary observations
took place. In Chapter Five I will discuss classroom
interaction that took place at Rusimba, followed by Chapter
Six that focuses on the life history of three women teachers.
In that chapter, I will highlight factors in these women's
lives that contributed to their career choice and the problems
they faced as they negotiated their multiple roles. Finally,
in Chapter Seven, I will discuss attitudes and expectations
that influence who gets to school and who doesn't, what kind
of education is desired for both girls and boys, and what

effect advanced education has on the lives of females.

CHAPTER FOUR
Vignettes of Two Schools:
Mupika and Rusimba
Madame, what are schools like in your
country? .Are they anything like this
school? What kinds of things do they
teach. you in your country? (Marie,
student at Rusimba)

The rooster in.Mulaka is an early riser, even by rooster
standards. Yet when it begins to crow, many primary age
children are already up, getting ready to leave their homes
and begin.the long walk to school. Soon, the line of children
at the side of the road is stretched out for miles. I almost
find myself wondering, as I drive slowly past, what sort of
building I will find.that is large enough.to contain all these
children. But I already know the answer...

Double streaming takes on new meaning in this school...
two teachers with two classes in the same classroom at the
same time. One teacher to the left, one teacher to the right,
and a hundred students in between, crowding together at
makeshift benches and desks. And as I look around at the sea
of faces, I know full well that in spite of what I see, many
school-age children are not here. Only about 75% of primary-
school-age children in Rwanda attend school (World Bank,
1990).

Many children remain in their villages, herd cows or

goats, work in fields, watch younger children, cook or clean,

88

89

hustle in the marketplace. For them, the chance to go to
school and receive an education is a dream, a myth of golden
opportunity possible for some, but not for everyone, and
certainly not for them. But, even for those who go go to
school, getting imto the school building is only part of
getting educated. What happens once students are imside is
equally important when considering equality in education.

During the past two decades since gaining independence,
Rwanda and Zaire have been struggling to maintain political
autonomy and stability while at the same time trying to
improve poorly developed infrastructures inherited from the
Belgian colonial administration, Nowhere is this improvement
more noticeable and remarkable than in the development of both
a primary and secondary level educational system. Starting
with woefully inadequate physical plants, virtually no
supplies, and-a small force of poorly trained staff, what has
been achieved is certainly more impressive than what has not
been accomplished. But there still remains much to be done.
Equality issues are still very much at the forefront of
discussion in developing countries, and it appears that not
only is access to education unequally distributed, but
questions of equity'in.education.remain paramount as‘well. In
a social situation where the demand for education is high
because of the payoffs in social mobility, the everyday
aspects of a classroom, the routines, patterns, materials and

interactions of the place are all vital links to learning,

9O
'factors that influence not only who gets in but also who gets

ahead, and finally, who gets out (Secada, 1989). ~

Schools in central Africa

The poverty and conflicts of recent history in both
Rwanda and Zaire underscore not only the necessity to
establish a strong educational sector but also highlight the
constraints that educational leaders face. Although there are
some differences between schools in Rwanda and.much of Zaire,
the similarities between the school systems are more striking
than the differences. Schools in this part of Africa tend to
have poorly trained staff and extremely high student-teacher
ratios. In the Kivu province in Zaire, schools appear to be
less well-constructed than those of Rwanda in general, with
mostly sun-dried mud and wattle, and thatch or tin-roofed
structures. However, in both countries, variations in the
quality of construction can be quite dramatic. Factors that
influence this include sponsorship, clientele, grade level,
and urban or rural settings. In general, secondary schools
are better constructed and supplied than are primary schools,
and urban schools tend to be better constructed than rural
schools, although there are many exceptions.

Schooling in both countries is compulsory for children
from.the ages of seven to fifteen. Enforcement of attendance
rules is sporadic. Government statistics from.both countries

show that about 50% of the adult population are relatively

91

literate and that the.average number of years of schooling for
the adult population is less than four years of primary
school. Educational allocations have been increased in both
countries in an attempt to reduce the parental cost of public
schooling.1 IDespite a primary education that is nearly cost-
free (less than $2.00 Us annually for each child enrolled in
school), families who have less than $50 a year and seven or
eight children in school find it nearly impossible to educate
all their children. The cost of books, papers, school
uniforms, and pencils is‘ an additional expense and is
considerably more than the enrollment fees. Consequently,
even those children who can go to school often don't have
books or adequate supplies.

Although there are some differences in the curricula of
the two countries, both have a program centered on early
specialization at the secondary level. In Rwanda, a general
comprehensive curriculum is provided at the primary level.
Primary education is divided into two cycles: the first or
what the government calls "literary" cycle of six years,
followed by a two-year cycle with a general curriculum. In
Zaire, there is a six-year primary program. The first two

years after primary schooling consists of a oyole

 

. Of the two countries, Rwanda has been more
aggressive in improving the educational sector
(R. Prouty, 1987; Hoben, 1988 and 1989). For
instance, the latest figures available
indicate that 15.2% of expenditures in Zaire
compared with 22.2% for Rwanda go to education
(World Bank, 1990).

92
o'o;;Lemtetion2 or orientation cycle in which the same national
curriculum is followed in all schools throughout the country.
In Rwanda, access to secondary level studies is controlled by
state-administered exit examinations.3 In Zaire, access to
secondary schooling is generally school-specific, though

entrance exams are given to primary school applicants with

certificates.

 

. Technically, the orientation cycle no longer
exists. In the early 19808 the Zaire
government phased out the two-staged cycle
which consisted of a two-year orientation
cycle plus a four-year cycle of specialized
curriculum. The two-staged cycle was replaced
with a six-year long cycle. However,
interviews with government inspectors indicate
that in reality, nothing changed but the name
of the cycle. The two-year general curriculum
orientation cycle which is followed by the
specialized four-year cycle still remains.

. Government statistics for Rwanda indicate that
only 25% of students advance as far as the
fourth grade (82% of girls and 81% of boys who
are school-age are enrolled), fewer than 2%
reach secondary school (with a 100:35 boy to
girl ratio of enrollment) and approximately
10% of the secondary school graduates go on to
study at the university level. Only 15% of
tertiary enrollments are women. It is further
estimated that a large percentage of school
leavers or those students who do not continue
to secondary-level schooling are girls. 1990
statistics estimate that 76% of primary age
children in Zaire are enrolled in schools with
a 64% female enrollment rate at the primary
level. Attendance at the secondary level
drops off with 22% of the school-aged children
enrolled (15% of these are girls). Fewer than
2% of the post-secondary age population are
enrolled in tertiary studies. I was unable to
find any percentages for female enrollments at
this level (Biraimah, 1987: Boserup, 1970: and
World Bank, 1990).

93

Several factors influence selection of secondary-level
program of studies: 1) proximity to schools, 2) math and
science scores, and 3) whether or not the school has boarding
facilities.“ Sections (or subject matter specializations)
that students can choose from, subject to ‘wider local
variation, include math/physics, biology/chemistry, teacher
training, business, social work, literature, technical,
nursing, veterinary, administrative law, and agriculture. .As
in most parts of Africa, enrollment of girls tend to be
significantly higher in teacher training and nursing sections,
while their participation in math/physics, biology/chemistry
and administrative law sections, are dramatically lower.
(Abrahia, Beyene, Dubale, Fuller, Holloway & King, 1991:
Eshiwani, 1988: Hughes & Mwiria, 1989: and Stamp, 1989 all
have found that girls have limited participation in the
sciences, math, and technology (in countries throughout
Africa.)

There are two distinct differences between the
educational systems of the two countries. One is the language
of instruction and the second concerns the secondary-level
exit examination. Instruction in French begins at a much
lower level in Zaire. Generally, French is the language of

8.1.1. instruction by the fourth year of Zairian primary school.

 

. In order to attend secondary level schools in
Rwanda and Zaire, many students, particularly
those in rural areas, must board in
dormitories or live in the towns with
relatives.

94

Until that point, the option exists to give instruction in the
local language of the region. In Rwanda, however, all
instruction at the primary level is given in Kinyarwanda, with
the exception of second-language French classes offered
several hours a week. .A transitional period during the first
semester of secondary school, in‘which teachers are permitted
to use Kinyarwanda to clarify when students don't understand
concepts in French, supposedly facilitates the shift from
Kinyarwanda to French. However, many of the teachers continue
to use Kinyarwanda to facilitate coverage of the material and
to enhance student comprehension long past the transitional
first semester. Because of the earlier start in French,
students in Zaire have a much higher level of fluency and are
able to complete all their secondary-level studies in French
without any need to supplement instruction in a regional or
local language.5

In. Rwanda, there are three. types of schools: 1)
government schools, 2) government-accredited but privately

operated and sponsored schools: and 3) unaccredited private

 

. Although most students from Rwanda were very
fluent in French and able to communicate in it
effectively at the university level (where all
studies are completed in French), there were
still noticeable differences between the
fluency and correctness of the Rwandan and
Zairian students at this level. A number of
the teachers that I spoke with-"several who
were native French speakers from Europe--
indicated that this was most evident in the
students' written work.

95
schools.6 Although students enrolled in all three types of
schools complete the same basic curriculum, government-
accredited and recognized schools (types 1 and 2) have the
advantage that school-designed and -administered exams and
daily work averages are included into a student's final grade
to determine whether or not the average is high enough to
receive the secondary-level diploma. However, in unaccredited
private schools (type 3) students complete the same curriculum
as students enrolled in type 1 and 2 schools, but receipt of
a secondary school diploma is wholly contingent upon
successful completion of the state exams. No school-
administered tests or daily work are considered for the
secondary level diploma. Despite strong averages in school
courses, students who fail the state administered exam will
not receive the diploma. Because of this, acceptance into

government-accredited schools is valued.7

 

. All three schools offer the same type of
curriculum depending upong the section. The
main differences are: 1) where the money
comes for operating costs, physical plant
construction, and teacher salaries: and.2) how
state exam results are factored into a
student's receipt of a secondary-level
diploma.

. When I began observations at Rusimba, it did
not have government accreditation. However,
it was in the process of completing the
necessary government evaluations to upgrade
its status. Before data collection was
completed, the director had received
notification from the Ministry of Education
that the school had satisfactorily completed
all requirements and government accreditation
had been granted.

96

In Zaire under an arrangement established in 1977, all
teacher and administrator salaries are paid by the government,
but the responsibility for administration, upkeep and
construction is generally held by the organizations that
sponsor the school. The government does assume sole
responsibility for some schools, although a large percentage
of the schools are sponsored through religious organizations.
Despite differences in sponsorship, the curriculum and
requirement for receiving a diploma are identical at both
private and government schools. Unlike the situation in
Rwanda, all graduating students in Zaire, whether enrolled in
private or government schools, must sit for the state exams.
Receipt of a secondary-level diploma is contingent upon a
passing grade on.the government-administered exit examination
(R. Prouty, 1987).

Charges for students at the secondary level in Rwanda
vary considerably depending upon the type and accreditation of
the school. Government schools are relatively cost-free but
are extremely difficult to get into. Private schooling is
more accessible but very expensive, costing as much as the
equivalent of several hundred US dollars a year. When access
to accredited schools is limited, parental preference is to
send sons to accredited schools where a diploma is more
certain and to pay the significantly higher fees for private
schooling for daughters where a secondary school diploma is

less certain. Although enrollment figures at all three types

97

of schools in Rwanda were unavailable, statistics that I
obtained for the region under study showed that the percentage
of girls enrolled was higher in the non-government schools.
However, the overall participation of girls, including
participation rates in both private and government schools,
remained significantly lower than that for boys (100:35 boy to
girl ratio of attendance).

In Zaire, student enrollment at any given school is
significantly influenced by a school's pass-rate history.
Schools with a record of high pass rates are more competitive
and attract more and better students. Other factors such as
boarding facilities and an urban location are also important
considerations, particularly for girls whose families may be
reluctant to permit a daughter to leave home to attend
secondary school. Higher enrollments of girls can be found in
both Rwanda and Zaire at church-administered schools where
parents believe social interaction.between the boys and girls

is more closely monitored than in the government schools.

Mupika

Nine kilometers from the paved highway on a rough and
poorly constructed dirt road that weaves its way around the
base of the dormant volcano, Karisimbi, lies the commune of
Mulaka. It is an out-of-the-way and almost forgotten
agricultural community in one of the more isolated sections of

the country and as I drive down the road, small barefoot

98

children run up to the car, waving wildly, shouting "Mugungo,
moeomgmfl8 as I drive past. Set back 100 feet on a hill that
gently slepes up from the road is a complex of mud buildings
with tin roofs that appear to have a definite slant to them.
They look as if they could lose their fight with gravity at
any moment and topple to the ground. The buildings are
surrounded by hundreds of children, hundreds of noisy
children, children chasing one another, children chasing cows
or goats, children dancing and talking and laughing. I don't
need to ask.where I am. I already know. This is Mupika, one
of the larger primary schools in Mulaka. Indeed, there are
hundreds of children.here. School records at Mupika indicate
that there are nearly 650 children to be exact--some who walk
over 8 kilometers one way, six days a week to come to school.
However, the school enrollment records are hard to verify and
the exact number attending daily varies considerably. Daily
attendance records are not kept, and although monthly reports
are sent to the government reporting the percentage of
students in attendance during the month, one can only guess
how many children are here from day to day.

The school complex has three buildings arranged to form
a large U-shape and four outhouses in the field behind the

classrooms. In a center area between the three classroom

 

8. Technically, this word in Swahili means
"european" but it has come to mean
(euphemistically in some cases) "white

person."

99

buildings near the lower end of the field, a make-shift soccer
field has been constructed on the uneven ground that lies
between the classroom buildings. The area that's left over
becomes the playground for the children who don't play soccer.
Both.the soccer field and playing area.have sharp outcroppings
of lava rocks, constant reminders of the powerful volcanos
looming in the distance, encircling the region. In the hard-
packed dirt, little tufts of grass try to force their way
through but are quickly eaten by herds of cows or goats that
graze around the school buildings. During the rainy season,
rivulets of water running down the 11111 from the fields of
wheat growing in back of the school flow through the play
area, searching for gullies left behind from previous rainy
seasons. In the lower areas, the water forms an immense mud
hole, a constant source of entertainment for the younger
children who play together in separate clusters of boys and
girls. The muck reaches their ankles in places and the
students cautiously' bend low, reach down, and bring ‘up
fistfuls of mud that ooze out between their fingers and drip
down their arms. No one seems to notice, and by the end of
the day, the mud carried in on their feet has started to dry
and will be swept away the following morning before school
starts.

At Mupika, like many of the schools I visit, the long-
horned cows and. pygmy' goats roaming' around the schools

outnumber the teachers, and animal feces can be seen

100

everywhere around the school yard. Chickens strut between the
buildings and peck.away in the hard packed dirt searching for
bugs. They squawk loudly, furiously flap their wings in.mock
flight, and run in circle patterns whenever they are
disturbed. In the far corner of the play area, a lone pig
roots for food. One end of a rope is bound around the pig's
rear leg and the other is tied to a stake. The pig grunts
loudly, tugs at the stake and pulls the rope taut in the
search for morsels of food to gulp down. For me, with mental
images and memories of red-bricked schools, neatly kept lawns,
playgrounds with swings and slides, the scene before me seems
surrealistic--dilapidated buildings, animals, mudholes, hordes
of children. Features about the scene make me know it is a
school, and yet I can't help but wonder if this is really a
school.

I notice that outside, the boys dominate the playing
space. Girls congregate in clusters around the sides of the
classroom buildings and play jumping games or dance as they
talk or sing together. Boys take control of most of the
playing area and maintain control of access to this area.
Boys don't congregate in small clusters, possibly because of
the size of the space they control. Instead, they chase one
another around the area, often wave sticks in the air as they
play different chasing games and push and tumble activities
and soccer with a grass ball tied up with string. It is not

uncommon for typical playing patterns to stop when the teacher

101
organizes recess activities, which include lining up and

marching in-step and competitive race games (generally girls

against boys).

Some of the girls are playing bammde--
they form a circle and jump and clap in
unison. They also sing as they play but
it's not always the same song. It
appears to be similar to hop-scotch but
more complicated.
Several groups of boys with sticks keep
running towards the girls playing here--
the boys wave the sticks in the air and
threaten to slap the legs of the girls.
Twice two groups of girls have broken up
their circle and run off. One girl
appears to be angry. She's shaking her
fist and shouting at the boys. However,
most of the girls run off and return
laughing.

* * i *
The boys monopolize the space on the
playground. The girls congregate around
the buildings. It seems that when girls
venture into the free space, they do so
hesitantly. Four times now during
recess, I've watched several little girls
walk cautiously towards the inner space,
look around and then run across the space
until they near the far side where they
look behind them and slow down.

When girls venture into the boys' area, they are either
chased off in a threatening manner with the sticks, or if
invited, join in.the chasing games with the.boys. It appeared
that gender hierarchies in the playing area have been
established, although this was difficult to pursue because of
the language difficulties. Work by Davies (1989), Lever
(1976, 1978), and Thorne (1986) have shown that playing

patterns and hierarchies develop in the gender interactions in

102

school playgrounds.9 Thorne (1986) found that there were
defined playground borders for girls and boys, with boys
controlling the larger part of the playing space. These
borders were affirmed by chasing games between boys and girls.
She also found invasions in which both boys and girls would
attempt to disrupt the play activities of the various groups
by crossing the borders that had been established between the
girls' and boys' play areas. She writes that "(borders) help
maintain separate, gender-linked subcultures, which, . . .may
result in different milieux for learning" (p. 181).

If distinct gender-defined sub-cultures are a key
characteristic of the playing area, over-crowding would be the
key characteristic of the classroom. The fifth-grade
classroom that I observed in had two classrooms meeting in one
room with well over 110 students in attendance. The assistant
director told me that since the grade seven teacher was
attending a :eoyclage (an in-service training program) and
would be absent for several weeks, it was arranged for one of
the grade five teachers to substitute in the grade seven room
and for both grade five classrooms to meet in the same room

until the seventh grade teacher returned.10

 

. Although these studies have been conducted in
developed countries, my data indicates that
the playing patterns are similar.

10. The two classrooms met together for the

duration of the 10 weeks that observations
were made in this classroom.

103

Recyclage is an important part of upgrading the teaching
staff at most primary schools. Mupika, like most of the
primary schools that I visited, had a teaching staff with
limited educations. All the teachers had a secondary-level
normal school degree--the.D6 (a six-year diploma) all that the
government requires to teach at the primary level)--and the
director held no degree from university but had attended for
a short period. There were no staff meetings at Mupika,
teachers were assigned what to do and had little voice or
autonomy about teaching load, classroom assignment, etc.
Consequently, the highly centralized system of tight control
trickled down from the government into the prefectures,
individual schools and finally it filtered into the classrooms
where similar patterns of control and conformity could be
observed in the teacher-student interactions.

I walk through the door into the fifth year classroom.
The room is a sea of faces--children are everywhere. There's
no place to sit, and I squeeze a folding chair partially in
front of the open door. I try to make an exact student count
but it's impossible. The students tend to sit at the same
place all day long, but there are many exceptions. There are
no assigned seats; indeed, there are no individual seats.
Ten-foot planks precariously resting on top of six stacked
bricks or balanced on a large piece of lava serve as benches.
Each plank seats twenty or more students. Several of the

planks have wide cracks running nearly their whole length.

104

The plank arrangement is quite unstable, and several times a
day the planks tip over and students topple to the floor
amidst a series of suppressed giggles and comments. There are
a few groups of students sitting at desks with attached
benches” However, at three of thezdesks, the side supports on
the benches are no longer attached, and several times during
the day these, too, fall apart. If the students weren't
packed in so tightly into the classroom, both bench supports
and students would have toppled to the floor.

The front two rows of students sitting on planks are
mostly girls and the last two rows, nearer the back.wall, are
mostly boys who sit at desks. In the middle six rows, boys
and girls are seated together on planks. Since the school is
built on a hill, the floor of the classroom consists of three
levels with different rows arranged on each level. The middle
level is twice the width of the first and.third levels and six
rows of benches are placed in this section. The teachers
teach to the students seated in the last two rows of the
classroom where mostly boys sit. They direct their gaze to
this area, and it is from this section of the classroom that
most of the interaction between them and students takes place
(questions asked of students, student-generated questions,
teacher reinforcement, etc.) My attempts to determine if this
occurs because the teachers are making sure the students
farthest away can hear are unsuccessful. I wonder if the

teachers' preference for this particular section is because

105
it's closer to eye level and easier to maintain eye contact
with this group. Both teachers are shorter than me, and I
notice that when I stand up I have to look up to be at eye
level with the students in the back section.

As I glance around the room, I can see that there is one
small blackboard and that a few geometric shapes cut out of
white paper have been stuck to the white-washed walls opposite
me. There are no windows in the room, so the door is
generally left open, except during the rainy season when
torrents of rain blow into the room. During periods of heavy
rain, instruction halts as the rain pounds and thunders down
on the tin roof, drowning out even the loudest sounds in the
classroom. The room I'm in is no exception: none of the
classrooms at Mupika have windows. Instead, the classrooms
have two fiberglass skylights, and on sunny days two bright
streams of light shine through the sunburned fiberglass: on
cloudy days the sunlight filters through and casts ghostly
shadows in the room: on rainy days the light is obscured and
water drips in around the edges and a telltale puddle of water
collects on the floor of the classroom. Two small ventilation
holes are placed near the ceiling on the side walls. However,
they don't provide an adequate amount of fresh air, and the
air in the classroom is stale. Not only is it stale, but a
lethal combination of odors--mold, urine, unwashed bodies,
strongly spiced food, and perfume--blasts you as you walk

through the door.

106
I observe that boys are called on twice as often as

girls. One-on-one interaction with students is nearly
impossible because of the crowded conditions, and individual
praise and positive reinforcement are nearly non-existent.
The lessons proceed at a fast pace as students are called
upon, one after another, to go up to the board and complete
problems. A non-stop shuffling of books, people, and paper as
students laboriously make their way up to the front--climbing
over planks and people--takes place throughout the day. While
this continual stream of students moving back and forth to and
from the board occurs, other students sitting at the benches
are shouting out answers to questions they are being asked.
At times, I felt that I was in an electrically charged
atmosphere in which students spewed out the answers like
automatons. Clearly, the more aggressive and verbal students
received the limited teacher attention that was available.
With few exceptions, these were the boys who dominated the
time and attention of the teachers, while the girls were more
timid, reticent to take turns, and less willing to take risks
in the classroom. Fieldnotes taken during the first two weeks
of observation underscore the interaction patterns that
occurred.

The teacher nearest the desk has called

on 10 student8--4 to go to the board and

6 to answer questions-~5 of the 6 were

boys in the back section, and 3 of the 4

that went to the board were girls sitting

in the front row.

No girls have offered an answer while
boys repeatedly shout out answers to

107
questions. . .a group of girls near me have
been raising their hands to answer
questions. They wait until the teacher
calls on them to answer but a boy
generally calls out the answer before
they get called on. The other teacher
has called up 15 students to look in

their notebooks--10 were boys, 5 were
girls.

Less than a third of the students have books, and some
have no paper notebooks and write on cardboard slates with
chalk. (As the number of books available is limited, students
are encouraged to pay the required $1.25 yearly school charge,
the mimoryol, as soon as possible to ensure getting the
necessary books.) Because of the limited number of books
available, the teachers commonly teach using a method called
the yésom' . They'll cover the material for the day in a short
lecture and then spend the remainder of the period writing the
pages from the book (or their lecture notes) out on the board.
As the board becomes covered up with the writing, a student
erases the part that the others have already copied into their
notebooks.

At Mupika, two of the taller girls sitting near the front
of the room were assigned the task of wiping the board.
Cleaning the board was a common practice at all the schools I
observed, although each school appeared to have different
systems of assigning the task. The only other daily work
routine that I observed at Mupika was sweeping the classroom
floors before school. A group of girls who lived near the

school shared the responsibility for doing this job. At no

108

time during the period that observations were made at Mupika
were boys observed cleaning the boards or sweeping the floors.
Girls cleaned and tidied.the rooms, assuming responsibilities
similar’to those jobs women.did outside of the school setting.

There is a 2:1 ratio of boys to girls. When I ask about
this, the teacher explains that there is a much higher
percentage of absenteeism with the girls. However, although
there are usually more boys present from day to day, their
attendance is more sporadic. I ask the reason for this. I'm
told that boys prefer to earn money by herding cows, whereas
the.girls'who.are enrolled.and are consistently sent.to school
generally come from homes where the parents are more concerned
about educating their children and are more zealous in
following through on attendance. However, in general there
are high absenteeism rates for both boys and girls. I'm told
by local doctors that nearly 70% of the student population
suffer from chronic bronchitis which often necessitates
absences from school. I don't doubt that these estimates are
correct, since a constant chorus of coughs, sniffles, and
sneezes accompanies the teacher's lessons. I ask the two
teachers in. the room ‘where. I am observing about their
attendance-keeping system, but I sense that they are uneasy
answering my question, so I change the topic and instead ask
them about their books. I decide to ask the local official at

the commune down the road about attendance records.

109

When I walk into the commune building, I don't need to
introduce myself. They've all heard about the "white lady"
who has been visiting the schools in their area. The man in
charge is very friendly, very accommodating and welcomes me
into his office. I thank him for permitting me the
opportunity to observe in the schools in his region. He is
almost apologetic that they are "so poor and uninviting" and
reassures me that "priority is being given to improving the
schools here. We don't have much money and there are many
things that have to be bought."

I agree that money is always a problem. Then I ask him
about the attendance records and student enrollment in
schools. He leans back in his chair, first.turn8 his gaze out
the window, and then, suddenly, leans forward and places his
elbows on.his desk.and folds his hands together as he looks at
me intently. The smile that greeted me as I walked into his
office is no longer'therem Instead, he shakes.his head slowly
and quietly, cautiously replies:

Ah, Madame, that is a difficult question
you've asked me. We have tried time and
again to get all the children in this
commune enrolled in school but it is very
difficult, very difficult.
Unfortunately, this commune reports the
lowest percentage of primary school
enrollment of any commune in the
prefecture.
us a

Rusimba, the secondary school is situated two kilometers

from the center of a small border town. It has been in

110
operation for fifteen years but has only recently begun to
offer the cycle long, the last two years of the full teacher
training cycle. The fifth year was first offered in 1986-87
and the sixth year in 1987-88. The physical plant, completed
in four stages, includes three adobe and tin-roofed classrooms
and teachers' lounge (the original class buildings), a block
of six classrooms, and another block of administrative offices
and teachers' planning lounge, girls' dormitory, a laboratory,
cafeteria, and student dispensary. All classrooms, except for
the fifth and sixth years, have windows only on the wall
opposite the classroom door. The other two rooms have windows
looking out from both side walls of the classroom. On the
land surrounding the school buildings there is housing for
some of the staff and.cther'mission workers, a primary school,
a wood and metal working shop, the main church, a hennery,
gardens, and.an open grassy area used for grazing a small herd
of livestock, including a few goats, cows and sheep. The
school employs three female teachers in a staff of fifteen
teachers (Table 14, Appendix B) under the direction of a
European missionary. With the exception of one teacher who
only held a D6 (the secondary-level diploma) from Rusimba, all
the teachers at Rusimba had at least the gmegmoee, the first
level university degree. Like Mupika, school administration
was quite authoritarian and allowed little staff interaction
or input into the school policies, program, scheduling, etc.

While I observed there were no staff meetings and teachers

111
indicated that this was quite typical. Most of the teachers
told me that they preferred this approach and didn't want the
added burden of teacher's meeting, planning committees and
"added work that we don't get paid for."

. During the period when the study was conducted,
enrollment was 302 students, of whom 161 were girls. Many of
the students were members of the Protestant church that
administers the school. However, church affiliation is not a
requirement for admission, and many different churches and
religions were represented, including Islam, Catholic, some
traditional animists, and various Protestant churches.

There are 26 girls and 16 boys in the fourth year
classroom I'm visiting. They range in age from 18 to 27 years
of age with an average age of nearly 20 years old. With few
exceptions, all students have the necessary textbooks for all
of their classes. The books, provided by the school for a
small rental charge, are withheld until the rental fee has
been paid.11

Classes are held Monday through Saturday from 7:30 to
12:00 and 1:00 until 5:00 with the exception of Wednesday and
Saturday which are half-day sessions. However, dormitory

students are expected to attend Wednesday and Saturday

 

11. Needy students who are unable to pay can apply

for assistance from a worthy student fund
donated by church sponsors in Europe.
Selection for assistance, I was told, is based
on financial need, academic performance, and
church affiliation.

x

112

afternoon religious services. Although day students are not
required to attend the services, their attendance is strongly
encouraged. With the exception of two religion classes each
week, a Toesday afternoon assembly, and two hours of work
study, the government-developed, teacher training curriculum
is followed. This includes: art, pedagogy, geography,
history, physical education, French, language (Kinyarwanda),
math, biology, chemistry, music, methods of arithmetic, and
English. Several class periods a week are also included for
classroom.observations at the primary school (leeom_p;o§lgge)
and in a pedagogy laboratory. With the exception of two
second year classrooms, there is one classroom for each year
(or grade) at Rusimba. Students remain in the same classroom
for the duration of the day and teachers make the rounds of
the various classrooms teaching their courses.

Students stream into the school compound shortly before
the opening ceremonies begin each morning. They congregate in
small groups, talking until the "bell" rings and they are
expected to line up in fourteen rows. There are two rows for
each room--one for girls and one for boys. The flag is
raised, the students sing the national anthem and the class
"chef" then takes attendance in each room. The only exception
to this routine is on Fridays or special occasions when the

students conduct a short emlmoelom,lza.8pecial national song

12. In Zaire this can become quite an "energetic"

experience as the students dance, jump and
sing. Frequently, one gets the impression

113
and dance routine after the flag is raised and the national
anthem. is sung.13 After' the flag raising’ routine, the
directress usually makes any special announcements followed by
a closing prayer by either the vice principal or one of the
students. The students then break their formations and head
into their classrooms ready to begin another day.

The classroom atmosphere at Rusimba is a total contrast
to Mupika. My first memory as I enter the classroom at
Rusimba is the orderliness of the classroom. Each student is
seated on a four-legged stool at a wooden desk. The desks,
which are neatly organized into rows, are the type with the
lids that open and almost each desk is padlocked. Nearly all
students have books and limited. but adequate supplies.
Although the walls are bare, sunshine pours in the windows
that line one wall, and a gentle breeze blows through the open
windows. Absent are the over-powering smells that made Mupika

a test of endurance, the cacophony of sniffles, sneezes and

 

that the students are resisting more than they
are being patriotic. In Rwanda, things tend
to remain calmer and one senses that the
students genuinely respect the ceremony that
is being performed.
13. In the spring of each year, secondary-level
schools in each.prefecture gather together and
have a grand-scale emulation in which the
various schools in each prefecture gather in
the prefecture seats and compete to place
first in the emlmation dance and theatrics
presentations. This festival lasts much of
the day with visits from dignitaries, soccer
matches and guest performers such as the
national dance team for volleyball team.

114
coughs and the general sense of bedlam resulting from the
overcrowding. Also unlike Mupika, generally there is little
talking among the students as they work quietly at their own
desks.

Patterns of interaction vary dramatically from one
teacher to the next, but basic modes of presentation are
remarkably similar.14 The gésumé tradition is very strong
and teachers seldom stray away from.the tried and true method
inherited from the colonial legacy. Teachers generally
lecture, or occasionally conduct discussions, for'most of the
period with the remaining ten to fifteen minutes left to write
out the me’sume’ of the lesson on the blackboard while the
students copy it in their books. Consequently, classrooms are
generally teacher-centered with a one-way transmission of
textbook or :ésomé material from teachers to students.
Teaching and learning tends to focus on lower order thinking
skills and rote memorization. There are some noticeable
exceptions to this and some teachers at the school, such as
Jacques (the math teacher) or Celeste (the pedagogy teacher)
try to get the students into higher order thinking skills.

Each classroom at the secondary school has a "chef" (boy)
and "chefette" (girl) selected. by student 'vote. 'Their
responsibilities include taking class attendance, opening the

classroom before school starts, looking it up at the close of

 

1". Patterns of interaction at Rusimba will be
discussed at length in Chapter Five.

115
the day, supervising the work assignments for that classroom,
and taking messages to the office. The "chef" is normally
responsible with the "chefette" assuming responsibility only
during the absence of the "chef." Consequently, the "chefette"
serves more as an assistant than.as a‘co-leaderu The students
are also expected to erase the blackboards as needed, both
during and after the lectures. According to the assistant
principal, the responsibility systematically passes row by row
through the classroom until each student has assumed the
responsibility once. At this point it returns to the student
who cleaned the board the first time. This process is
repeated in each classroom until the end of the school year.
(Both the blackboard responsibilities and the QDQILQDQEQLEQ

organization will be discussed at more length in Chapter
Five.)

fiBEEEEY

Classrooms in central Africa tend to be poorly equipped
and over-crowded. Teachers and students work and learn in
poorly constructed buildings that often lack the basic
necessities such as blackboards, water supplies, bathrooms,
and didactic materials.

Girls have unequal access to schools. This begins at the
primary level and continues through the secondary-level until
university where girls make up less than 15% of the student

enrollment. Girls who do continue to the secondary level tend

116

to be enrolled in care-taking type programs such as nursing or
teaching. Interaction patterns favor boys in the classroom
and often girls learn through a secondary-mode instruction.
Boys are called on more than twice as often as girls and have
fewer absences. Not only do boys dominate time in the
classrooms they dominate space as well. Playground borders
designate significantly more space to the boys who zealously
guard girls from crossing their borders and entering their
games unless invited.

At the primary level girls are taught to be passive
students. They learn that boys are there to ask and answer
questions, control the space, control the supplies, and.cccupy
the teachers' time. Primary schools become a Light; of m for
most boys leading them to secondary-level educations which
they desire because of their privileged sex. However, for

girls schools become a rite of message (and too often a short

 

one at that) leading to marriage and motherhood, roles which
they deserve because of their sex.

In Chapter Five we will take a closer look at the
interaction patterns that take place at the secondary-level
classroom at Rusimba. Although, privilege in the classroom
begins at the primary level, it is at the secondary-level
where the differentiation becomes most pronounced most damning

to the girls.

CHAPTER FIVE
Two Separate Worlds:
One for Boys and One for Girls

In our culture, particularly in my
parent's generation, it's almost as if
there are two separate worlds for men and
women. That's just the way it is.
(Ferdinand, February, 1989)

Several weeks of observations at Mupika (and other
primary classrooms) were enough to see that boys dominated
space and time in classrooms. Male privilege in school was
established at the primary level and my visits to Rusimba
confirmed that this privilege continued throughout their
secondary studies. However, the interaction that I observed
at Rusimba helped me to better understand the pressure that
girls were under to leave school and begin fulfilling the role
of wife and mother with all the obligations and
responsibilities implicit in those two words.

As many studies have shown, it is easier for girls to
disengage from their academic roles, terminate their studies,
and assume their "true" roles .as reproducers and producers
than it is to remain in school and constantly resist
(Brewster, 1980: Payne, 1980: McRobbie & Garber, 1975: Willis,
1977). Payne (1980) describes how this process takes place
and how it reinforces cultural perceptions of what the role of
women is.

Girls are socialized into the expectation
that their primary role will be one of
wife and mother and once this expectation

is accepted and internalized, the

117

118

continuation of the existing sexual
division of labor is ensured. The
results are observable. Girls expect to
be wives and.mothers, they make decisions
about their lives in the light of this
expectation and they become wives and
mothers thereby providing the evidence
that the primary role of girls is to
become wives and mothers. (p. 32)

In this chapter, I will describe how the interactions
that I observed during the five months that I ‘visited
classrooms at Rusimba confirmed these societal pressures. The
stories that I share are only a small representation of the
stories that I collected. In the hundreds of hours that I
observed. in classrooms ‘there, I saw’ excellent 'teaching,
compassion and concern about student learning, and a genuine
desire to give each and.cvery student there.an equal chance to
excel. But.I also saw'how'difficult it was for individuals to
disassociate from their cultural ideology, an ideology that
ordained that some should lead and some should follow, some

should labor and some should delegate, and that some should

win and some should lose.

Bo 8 w o d s w 8

It's recreation period and the students swarm out of
their classrooms. Almost immediately, a group of about twenty
boys begins a game similar to volleyball (but everyone plays
in a circle) in one corner of the grassy area between the
classroom buildings, while another group of boys begins a

soccer game in the other corner. Students mingle all around

119

the edges of the classroom buildings. Most of the boys are
jostling, pulling, and hitting one another good-naturedly.
Some of the other boys cluster and talk, listen to their
radios, and dance to the music. The girls line up on the
cement sidewalk in front of each classroom--a few join the
volleyball game, others watch the soccer game in progress.
Most of the girls, however, cluster in groups of five to ten
(usually from their own rooms), and laugh, sing (none of the
girls have radios) and dance. A few groups of girls join the
boys and dance--boys with boys and girls with girls--never
together.

It's the total absence of any boy/girl partnering that is

 

so striking in the interaction that's taking place. I can't
detect even one couple in all the talking, dancing, and
playing together that occurs. This seems all the more
remarkable considering the age of these students (mid-teens to
early twenties). Even the mixed interaction that I do see
appears to be on unequal terms. The girls who play volleyball
play less aggressively than the boys and tend to play in an
outer part of the circle where the ball is less likely to
arrive. Whether by choice or decree, the girls are peripheral
to the game.

I notice that even in the dancing, where the groups are
gender-segregated, the boys are able to dominate, control.
The girls dance in small, tight circles barely lifting their
feet off the ground. They sway their hips in hypnotic, almost

120
sensuous motions, gracefully wave their arms around their
heads, clap their hands, and snap their fingers in beat to the
music. But the boys spread out across the space almost
encircling the girls dancing in their midst, and in fast,
powerful movements combine gymnastics and dance. They leap
across the lawn, jerk, and turn in movements that scream out
their agility and strength. I'd seen this dance before, a
variation of the marriage dance performed at traditional
marriages, yet I'm still mesmerized by the force of the dance.
The power of the scene before me is all the more impressive
knowing that the hidden message of freedom and confinement,
control and subordination that's taking place in this dance on
the outside of the classroom represents all too well the

interaction that takes place inside the classroom.

a i t es

Inside the classroom, the interaction and control of the
classroom is similar to Mupika. Boys are more aggressive as
students, asking more questions, raising their hands more
frequently/ and generally talking about the need for an
education more often than the girls. Attendance records for
the fourth year classroom, where most of my observations were
made, show that the boys are tardy and absent less than the
girls. The boys express more of an interest in their studies
and talk about the necessity to do well so that they can go to

university, get a good job, and earn a good salary. Even the

121

girls who frequently speak about continuing their education at
the university level do not participate as actively in the
classroom as boys, with the exception of Josie, a sullen,
somewhat bitter girl, who is noticeably competitive and
pursues her studies with a relentless determination. (She
will be discussed at more length in the last chapter.) Josie
is an exceptionally capable student, clearly the best or
second best student in this classroom. This impression was
confirmed when I checked the academic records. Josie
consistently scored among the top 5% of all students in the
school. Most of the girls, however, assume a passive role,
waiting for help, or waiting to be singled out to respond,
rather than asking for help or offering an answer to the work
being discussed. Selected fieldnotes underscore the passive
engagement of the girls.

All of the boys are in their seats and

ready to start work. About a third of

the girls are standing around talking.

Henri and.Thomas have their'books out and

are going over yesterday's work. They

had difficulties with the work yesterday

and they're checking with another

student, Joel, about the work in their

notebooks. 2/14/89--Biology

Today only two girls ask questions about

the work. Five boys raise their hands

and ask for clarification about doing the

problem. Three girls don't have their

homework done: all of the boys completed

theirs. 2/22/89--Math

Céleste offers the students an

opportunity to get involved in a special

activity. Three boys offer to help and
only one girl. 3/22/89--Pedagogy

122
The girls' patterns of engagement remain
the same. Today, more boys ask questions
than girls (nearly twice as often), they
offer answers more and don't wait to be
called on. 4/18/89--Pedagogy
The observation that the girls are passive learners has
been noted in.many studies. Edwards and Whiting (1976) found
that girls are taught to acquiesce to the boys in schools a
learned behavior that profoundly influences their engagement
in the classroom. Fleming's 1972 study found that, in
general, girls have a fear of success}, receive lower marks,
are trained. to have less incentive. to achieve and are
socialized to be more passive and less competitive in their
learning.
The girls' classroom engagement at Rusimba seems more
profoundly influenced by teacher gender than by any other
factor. Even though there are ten more girls than boys in the

fourth-year classroom, the instructors who were men call on

boys nearly twice as often. The exception is a history

 

. Fleming's (1972) assumption that it is "fear
of success" can be challenged as a patriarchal
perspective that blames the victim. In my
study, it could be argued that "fear of
failure" was the more powerful force
generating the girls' behavior in the
classroom. They had been raised all their
lives to believe that their main role was to
become wives and mothers. Anything that
risked success in. this area, particularly
success in school, would.be seen as failing to
fulfill their most important role. Fleming's
study does provide evidence, however, that
there is a learned behavior that encourages
girls to become passive in the classroom.

123

teacher, Henri, who is the father’of five.daughters and.has no

30118 e

I ask Henri's views on girls' interaction in the
classroom. He assures me that his expectations are the same

for the girls, even though he's often disappointed with their

performance.

But girls are only acting out what
they've been taught to do. Girls are
passive, accepting, and.constantly'pushed
into responsibilities outside the
classroom, In essence, they're taught to
be poor students.

Before I had children I felt like most
everyone does that girls were less
capable than boys. At the very least I
thought. that. educational opportunities
should.be given to the boys in the family
rather than to the girls. Once all the
boys in a family were educated, then you
could worry about educating the girls.

But I don't have sons. I don't think
that way anymore. Girls are as good as
boys. They have as much potential. But
I'm afraid my way of thinking is not the
norm. Very few people think like I do.
And.I probably wouldn't think.this way if
I hadn't been forced to realize what
girls have to offer by watching five
daughters day after day.

Thus, the influential factor for Henri's difference is
his personal biography and.having daughters rather than sons.
But personal biography doesn't totally erase the expectation
that boys should be more active, aggressive, and self-directed
as students. The three women teachers at Rusimba, Marie,
Celeste and Stella, who share a life history and experiences

similar to so many of the girls in the school, also favor boys

124
over girls in their interactions and.positive reinforcements,
although at a less pronounced level than in most of the men's
classes.

One day during the morning tea break, the three women
teachers, Celeste, Marie, and Stella, sit together. I join
them and we begin to discuss the subject of teacher
expectations for student engagement. Marie, the English
teacher, explains that boys are better students.

They work.harder. The girls don't really
want to be here. Why should I waste my
time with them? I have better things to
do than try to teach someone who doesn't
really want to be in school. If they
don't want to work hard they should just
leave and go to the fields or get married
because that's where they'll end up.

Celeste sips her tea and shakes her head in agreement and
Stella interjects, "Yes, that's true, I totally agree." I ask
Marie how she can tell who really wants to learn and be in

school.

I know by who sits up in their chairs
attentively, who completes homework
assignments, who participates more
actively in classroom discussions, how
involved they get in classroom
activities.

Marie's attitude about girls' limited engagement and
passive interaction is evident as she teaches. Marie's
teaching style is very consistent, visit after visit. She
rarely moves around the classroom. Instead, she generally
stands near the far right corner of the room by the desk.

Four or five times during the period, she walks to the board,

125

writes vocabulary words in English, and has the students read
orally from their books. Like many of the teachers at
Rusimba, Marie rarely calls a girl by name.2 Marie generally
uses momsieu; when she calls on boys and just looks at a girl
when.she wants them to answer’a question, ‘However, she seldom
asks girls a direct question. Even in classrooms where girls
outnumber boys, Marie calls on.boys more often than girls and
in some classes, nearly three times as often. Even Marie's
interaction with students who are.disengaged demonstrates her
biases about the expectations for schooling and girls.

During one visit, I record ten occasions when Marie
discovers students off task. If it's a girl who is off task
or several girls talking together, she tells them to "get
busy," walks over to them, nudges their elbows, and taps them
on the head. If the girls follow through and "get on task,"
Marie moves on: if the girls don't, Marie continues to stand
there for a short time, observing, monitoring, but not pushing
them to start working.

On one occasion, Marie waits for four minutes, and the
girls still aren't doing the work on the board, Marie shakes
her head, mumbles, "You girls are such poor students. Why are
you here?" and walks away; Her’reaction.is different with.the
boys who are off task. When boys were off task I observed

that Marie moves towards them and taps them. If this

 

2. Only five of the fifteen teachers at Rusimba
called students by their names. The five were
Celeste, Stella, Faustin, Henri and Jean.

126
manoeuver isn't successful and the boy remains off-task, she
warns him. that. he'll lose 'points for that day's work.
Generally, this technique is successful. However, if the boys
still aren't engaged, Marie reinforces how important it is for
him to get a good education and how vital good English is to
that education. Marie's gender differentiated interaction and

response with off-task students was consistent visit after

visit.

Marie gives the students an assignment to
do in the book. Two of the five girls in
the room look out the window and whisper
to each other; Marie walks over and taps
one girl on the head. She says, "Do your
work." They work for a minute but start
whispering again. Marie stands there,
she's watching them, doesn't say
anything. ‘Waits. The girls keep talking
together. Marie walks away, "You girls
shouldn't be here to waste my time if you
don't want to work."

***

Joel is doing work for his math class.
Marie discovers him working in the wrong
notebook. She shakes her finger and
tells him to take out his English
notebook or "I'll deduct points from your
grade." Joel starts to take it out but
as Marie walks away, he starts working on
the math againm Marie notices again.that
he's not doing English, "You want to get
to college? Do your English--you need it
to pass the exam."

***

Marie has had to talk to Iamec several
times during English class for not doing
his work. She's come to his desk three
times, each time she's tapped the desk
with her pen, told him that "You need to
learn English to go to school--do your
work so I don't lower your grade."

127
I ask.Marie why she presses boys to engage but basically
ignores the girls who are off-task. She shrugs her shoulders
and waves her hands in.a gesture of indifference and replies:
"I don't have time to wait for girls."3 Ironically, that's
exactly what she did. When girls were off task, she would
just stand by their desk and wait.

Bo s lea n and s lose

Gender-differentiated interaction patterns are most
pronounced in the mathematics classes. Girls are called upon
more often than boys by the teacher, Jacques, to do board
work. The verbal interaction that takes place when doing
board work reinforces the marginal status girls have in his
class. The girls called to the board tend to be the poorer
students. If the girl called to the board can not complete
the work, comments are often made by the teacher and boys
alike concerning the girl's ability to complete the task. "18
this too hard?" "Do you need someone to help you?" or "Do I
need to tell you what to do now?" Commonly, the teacher calls
upon another girl of comparable low ability to assist the girl
at the blackboard. Often the teacher then calls upon one of
the more capable boys to complete the problem.

Although Jacques' biased interaction is the most extreme,

the interaction patterns that are developed show that teachers

 

. The significance of "time" and the perception
that one "waits" for girls, will be discussed
in more detail in Chapter 6.

128
do not expect girls to perform well in class. Vignettes from
field notes underscore the marginality and negative experience
of the girls during math instruction:
The teacher, Jacques, continues to
address the boys by monsieur and the

girls by nothing or by saying 9.1.1.91 [go-
imperative voice] in a loud, guttural

voice. Jacques is going around the
classroom looking at the student
workbooks. He tells four boys that

they're doing excellent work and shows
two boys where they've made a mistake in
their work. So far he hasn't commented
on the work of any girl, even though he's
gone by Josie (one of the better math
students--possibly the second best
student in the class). He helps one girl
with a problem. Two girls are talking in
the corner--I think he notices them but
‘ doesn't say anything to them.

Jacques' interaction in this classroom relegated girls to
an inferior status. Like Marie, he addressed them in an
inferior, less respectful way and reinforced that their work
was less important in the way he allocated more time and
effort to boys and their work than to girls and their work.

Jacques just told Sophie that her
workbook is very legible. As he walks
off he comments that ".. .if the work
looks as good in your head as in your
book, that'll be good." The whole class
laughs, and Sophie puts her head down on
her desk for a few minutes. Sophie stops
taking any notes and disengages, looks
out the window and doodles in her
workbook. The class period finishes--
Sophie's interaction in class halted
after the teacher made the comment to
her.

References are frequently made about the appearance of

the girls' work, placing emphasis on the form, what it looks

129

like, instead of the substance, the girls' ability to
correctly do the work. Girls are seldom praised for their
intellectual contribution to class discussions or individual
work in their notebooks. Boys are often praised for their
Icontribution, even in cases where their work is incorrect.
Jacques gives the students a problem to

do. He's asks them to raise their hands

when they've completed it so that he can

come by and check their work. Josie
raises.her hand--she's the second student

done in the room. Everyone else around

her is still working at the problem, The

teacher comes by and checks her’work, He

says it's OK, but asks her if she didn't

cheat off the boy who sits next to her--

the boy is still working at the problem.

A minute later he raises his hand to get

his paper evaluated. His response is
incorrect.

Jacques' challenge that Josie may have cheated off the
less capable boy sitting near her is a further indication of
the status that girls have in his classroom. Actually,
Jacques' question is really more of a "statement of fact" than
a question. Despite Josie's superior abilities in math,
Jacques' cultural expectations that women are dependent on
men, even when men aren't as good or contributing as much as
women, prompted him to suggest, to reinforce, that it really
yoe the boy next to her that had enabled Josie to get the
correct answer.

Four months into the data collection period, several
girls in the fourth year classroom started straightening their

hair. Each day for a week, comments are made during the math

130
class about this "beauty technique." The following vignette
is an excerpt from the dialogue that took place one afternoon.

Jacques notices a girl who has changed
her hairstyle. He says to her, "Don't
come into this classroom again with your
hair burned like that."

Later he notices that several of the
other girls have also changed their hair
styles. "You try to make yourselves look
beautiful, but you don't know how to do
it." He keeps coming’ back. to this
business of the girls' hairdos. He asks
the boys if they think that the girls
straightening their hair makes them look
nicer, and the boys respond collectively
"NO!"

One girl sitting near'me angrily’whispers
to a seat mate, "A teacher doesn't have
the right to look.at us like that." Near
the end of the period, Jacques calls on
one of the girls with a straightened
hairdo to go to the board to do a
problem. He says, "Go to the board. You
have the time to fix up your hair. Now
you have time to do schoolwork."

In this interaction in Jacques' classroom, the theme of
form over substance surfaces again. This time it is the
girls' appearance, their personal form, that triggers Jacques'
response that they would be unable to come up with a product
that had any substance. Jacques' ridicule and the ganging up
of the boys evidenced on this and many other occasions helped
me to better understand why the girls would so easily accept
the subordinate role that they had in his classroom. Any
resistance that I observed, such as the angry response of the
girl sitting near me, was short-lived and tended to be

whispered behind Jacques' back or after he'd left the room.

131
The possibility that Qey might be the next one he would focus
on or the fear that-his abuse might only get worse muted the
girls' voices and effectively defused any reaction they might
have had.

During an interview with Jacques, I mention that one girl
has indicated that she hopes to study math at the university
level. Jacques expresses great surprise and tells me that
"there isn't.a girl in any of the classes whO‘would.be capable
enough to pursue a degree in math." I mention that Josie
appears quite capable. He replies that ". . .she isn't any good
in math. It is well known that boys are better in math than
girls. M has been shown scientifically through hemispheric
research." I ask Jacques if he supports equal education for
both girls and boys--does he hope to educate his daughters as
well as his sons? Jacques replies: "Most girls benefit from
primary schooling, but the value of secondary education is
questionable for the majority of girls since they will jgot; be
meyzylmg [my emphasis]."

During subsequent interviews, Jacques reiterates how
strong his feelings are about girls being allowed to get "a
certain level of education" and describes what he does to
"give girls as well as boys the same chance in (his) classroom
such as giving them the same opportunities to work at the
board, and answer and ask questions." However, even though he

believes that girls deserve an equal chance for an education

132
he also tells me that limited resources necessitate choosing
between educating sons and daughters.

Logistically, it just isn't possible to
educate everyone in a poor country; With
so few resources to put into education
and so many children that need to be
educated, one has to choose which ones
would benefit from an education.
Clearly, there are no easy ways to choose
which children will most benefit from an
education. So, we do it the most logical
way--we educate those who meed it most--
those who are expected to support the
family and run.the government. But, yes,
girls do need to be educated and have
equal chances with boys.

I pursue the question of need--aren't girls in the
greatest need of an education, since for generations they have
been denied an education, which limits to a large extent the
kinds of roles they can fill? Jacques replies that there are
different types of education, and women have been given the
kind that they need most.

I don't want my wife to work outside the
home. Her job is to care for the
children, prepare the meals, take care of
the house. I doubt my daughter will
follow my wife--8he says she wants more--
but I think all of society benefits from
women staying at home...But, yes, girls
do deserve to get some schooling.

I ask.Jacques if his classroom is one in.which girls are
given the same opportunity to learn. Does he think girls are
equally encouraged to learn, given the same information to
learn, are the expectations for them to do as well and learn

as well the same as they are for the boys in his classroom?

"Yes, I think so. I think that I treat everyone the same."

133

Jacques, like so many of the teachers I observe, golke
about the desire and need to treat all students equally in the
classroom when he is outslde the classroom, but once he is
ioeide the classroom, he is incapable--for whatever reason--of
putting it into practice. He thinks that his classroom is an
equitable place in which girls are encouraged to participate
as freely as boys. Sadly, the reality is quite different.

Smitherman (1981) describes push-pull tensions existing
in African-American culture. The push from. the white
community for linguistic conformity, for example, confronts
the pull from the black community for cultural identity
through distinct linguistic expression. A similar push-pull
tension exists in the schools I observe, where the push for
gender equity‘ confronts the cultural pull by which certain
roles are assigned to women. Jacques is caught in these
tensions, which effectively limit his positive interaction
with girls and reinforce, for both the girls and boys that he
teaches, that girls have less status in his classroom and are
less able to perform well in his course. Furthermore, he is
caught up in an endless struggle to defend the gender status
quo, despite his stated commitment to equality in the

classroom. Studies by Payne, Hustler, and Cuff (1984) and

 

4. The push for reform comes mainly from
government policies mandating equal access for
girls. It should be noted that monies from
development agencies such as World Bank and
UNESCO are powerful incentives for the
government to implement policies that promote
equitable enrollment patterns.

134
Riddell (1989) have demonstrated how teachers get caught up in
defending the gender status quo despite inequities that this
presents for the girls in their classrooms and.which serve to
further reinforce gender stereotypes. In her study on
clerical workers and their training, Valli (1986) found that
classroom teachers, even women teachers who identified
themselves as feminists, taught their students one thing even
when they meant another. Valli found that many of the women
teachers sent double messages to their women students when
they would encourage them, for example, to develop a
professional appearance by looking through glomom; magazines
that would show them how to dress without being m [my
emphasis] provocative. Jacques was caught up in the bind of
a double message mentality. He thought that his classroom was
a place- where all students were treated in the same manner and
given the same encouragement to excel: he would tell people
that his classroom was a place where all students were treated
in the same manner and given the same encouragement to excel,
but despite what he thought or what he said, it wasn't. This
double message mentality made it more likely that a self-
fulfilling prophecy would take place. When girls do not
perform well in his class, it reinforces his belief that they
are less able to do well because he thinks it was a place
where girls were given the same opportunity to learn and do
well. This perpetuates negative stereotypes for him as well

as for the students.

135

Although the gender-differentiated patterns of
interactions that took place in Jacques' class were the most
extreme, the patterns of gender interaction in French were, in
many respects, the most enlightening. I observed during the
first visit I made in a French class at Rusimba that students
there did not like French. My probing at other schools and
interviews with French teachers, directors and students at
these schools about French classes in their schools, verified
that, in general, students didn't like French and that the
behavior I observed at Rusimba wasn't an isolated phenomena.

Comments such as these were frequently expressed by the
students at Rusimba when referring to their dislike of French:
"We shouldn't have to learn another language like this."
"Just because we're a small country shouldn't mean we have to
learn another language--Japan is small and all they need to
learn is their own language." "If the rest of the world.wants
to communicate with us, let them learn our language." "Our
language is part of who we are. It's our culture, our
tradition." Students talked at length about their cultural
perspectives and traditional heritage, argued that western
ideas are not wanted, not needed, and would destroy who they
were and the culture that they valued. "This is just another
example of how our authentic heritage is being usurped. We
don't need. French, we don't. need. Western ideas. ‘Your
countries are full of problems, destroyed. Why do we want to

become like them?" Because of this dislike, student behavior

136

during French class was quite disruptive and out of control.
Often I observed organized resistance by the students. There
was an added dimension in the student behavior and resistance,
however, that I found particularly significant in my study--
that is, the role of the girls in this resistance. The boys
gelkeo about their dislike more than the girls: the girls
tended to go; out their dislike more than boys.

There are three French teachers at Rusimba: Jean, Pierre
and Henri. All three are men. The fourth-year French
teacher, Pierre, is one of the newest teachers at the school
and the most inexperienced of the French teachers (five years
of teaching experience). Student behavior tends to be more
disruptive in his class than in any of the French classes.
However, student behavior with the other French teachers is
similar, although not as pronounced. Each day during French
lessons, a struggle for classroom.oontrol takes place between
students and teacher, often consuming a quarter of
instructional time. Although the-boys generally lead in the
disruptive behavior at the beginning of the class period, the
girls perpetuate the resistance long after the boys have
become engaged in class work.

Student resistance includes repeated deliberate
mispronunciation of words during oral recitations: mumbling
the words while holding their hands over their mouths: sliding
their desks and chairs across the cement: asking for oral

directions to be repeated four or five times in succession:

137
waiting until oral reading has begun and then indicating that
there is an insufficient number of books: and negotiation of
homework assignments and examination dates. Following are two
vignettes which demonstrates how the students, particularly
the girls, use resistance to control the classroom environment
and alienate themselves from the high-status knowledge which

French represents.

Pierre comes into the classroom. The
students continue talking among
themselves even.though he's clearly ready
to start class. He waits several seconds
and then raises his voice and tells them
that they have to get their books out and
turn to page 80. One boy who has been
talking to a group of‘boys near the front
saunters back to his desk. He jiggles
his pencil on the desks of the other
students as he walks back--they all
laugh. Pierre watches him as he slowly
walks back. Pierre is displeased--he's
frowning and.he glares at the students.

A.girl near the front raises her hand and
asks the teacher what page they're
supposed to turn to. He repeats it again
in a much louder voice and tells them to
do it quickly. On the right near the
back several students start moving their
desks, scraping the legs across the
cement floor. A girl near the front says
she can't hear because everyone is so
noisy. A group around her laughs. The
teacher glares at them and tells them to
open their books.

Monique, near'me, says she doesn't.have a
book and Pierre says she should share
with the student near her. "You already
know that. You should.have moved by now.
We're ready to start class." Even though
there's a student in the row ahead with
an empty desk near her and she has a
book--Monique moves her desk across the
row to another student farther away from
her. First she drags her desk along the

138

cement and then she drags her stool.
Pierre gets angry and tells Monique that
if she doesn't hurry, she'll have to
leave class. Someone near the front
shouts out something--I can't tell what
it is--but everyone laughs and turns
around and looks at Monique. She sits
down mumbling something and turns to the
student beside her, Sophie, and angrily
pulls the book.over so it rests partially
on her desk.

A girl has raised her hand. Pierre calls
on her, and she tells him her French
workbook was left in her dorm room and
she'd like to go back and get it. Pierre
says no. Students have been talking and
moving desks around. Very few have
actually opened their books. (Six
minutes have passed and Pierre hasn't
started class yet.) He tells them if they
don't hurry up and get busy they'll have
a test tomorrow. One boy turns around
and glares at a group of girls talking
and tells them to shut up. They keep on
talking.

Pierre walks away from the desk to the
center of the room and asks the girl in
the left hand corner of the classroom to
begin reading at the top of the page.
Slowly, students are opening their'books.
Most of the boys are now following along.
The main.pockets of resistance seem to be
about five girls in the class--they keep
clearing their throats and grating their
desks across the cement. One of them
says she can't hear--Pierre ignores her.
She laughs.

Several weeks later in another French class this time
taught by Jean, this interaction took place:

The students are doing oral recitations
from the book. Jean repeats the same
word more than five times in a row--each
reader mispronounces it. First one desk
will move and then another. It's like a
round in music--it never stops. The
students cough now--Jean.looks around.the
class and asks them to be quiet. A desk

139
moves. Jean asks Antoinette to start
reading--she asks him where to start--8he
isn't following; Jean tells her where to
start, but she can't find the place, so
another student leans over and points to
the spot. ‘

Jean, a very soft-spoken, quiet, patient man is generally
liked by the students. I find it surprising that the
students' behavior in the other content-area classes that Jean
teaches is dramatically different. Student resistance is
almost totally absent. Students engage in work quickly and
keep themselves on task. I ask him about the difference in
the students' conduct during French class, and he tells me
that the disruptive behavior is very frustrating and that even
though French.is his area of study and.he feels less qualified
to teach the other classes, it is very difficult to stimulate
student interest in French.

This is particularly true when the
students are working in the book. If we
just discuss things--and I try to teach
French through that context--things go a
lot better. But I can't teach everything
they need to know in this way.

Therefore, the pressure to cover’the government-outlined
curriculum and to do well on the government exams influences
Jean to limit the use of a successful instructional technique
and instead follow the text. However, I did not feel that
this pressure that limited Jean's use of innovative and more
effective teaching techniques was the force behind the
resistance that I observed--particularly the girls'

resistance.

140

I'm.not sure what can be done about this.
A great deal of class time is lost in
this way. I've spoken to my classes
about it on occasion but it's made no
difference. This is a very sensitive
issue. At first I thought it was just
cultural identity with the French and
all...but it's very interesting what you
say about the girls...maybe it's
something quite different.

Stories in the books tend to cast women and girls in
very traditional roles--working in the gardens, doing all the
housework, caring for the children. This is not unusual.
Studies by Frazier and Sadker (1973), Lobban (1976), Maccia,
Coleman, Estep, and Shiel (1975), Nilsen (1975), Showalter
(1971), and Spender (1980) have documented the ways in which
gender roles are reinforced through.textbooks and.tradebooks.
Furthermore, studies have shown that textbooks in developing
countries are particularly restrictive in the messages that
are transmitted about women (Anderson & Herencia, 1983:
Karugu, 1987: Obura, 1986: Owino, 1987: Stromquist, 1989: and
Tembo, 1984). Silva (1979) asserted that textbooks represent
women as caretakers doing domestic-type work ‘which was
perceived to demand little education, while men portrayed in
textbooks were professionals involved in work that required an
education. Women were also portrayed as weak and men as
strong: women were passive and men were active.

Because the girls perpetuated the classroom resistance
long after the boys had engaged, I ask Jean if he thinks that
the texts themselves and the patriarchal (paternalistic)

attitude represented in many of the stories might be

141
contributing to the girls' behavior. Did he think the girls
resented the traditional roles for women that were represented
in the texts?

I discuss one of the stories that's in the fourth-year
French book. It's a dialogue between a father and son about
the drought in Ethiopia and what should.be.done about.itm The
mother and sister are listening. At one point in the
dialogue, the mother asks a question and the son says, "You
don't understand these things, Mother. I will explain them to
you."

Jean's first reaction to my question is one of disbelief
that I find the text patriarchal.

Women gonle understand these things.
Besides, when two :men are discussing
something like that, women are not
allowed to enter in--that's a custom.that
we have here. However, I can't see why
these girls should be upset over that.
They're going to school.

I consider pursuing this idea by talking to the girls
about their reaction to the French texts, but I am afraid that
my probing will be perceived as subversive and I will lose my
access to this field site. But even though I don't talk to
the girls about their reaction to this particular story and
others like it that reinforce negative stereotypes about
women, I continue to believe that the material presented in
the texts contributes to the girls' resistant behavior.

However, I interview four of the girls whose resistance

is most noticeable to ferret out the reason for their behavior

142

in this particular class. Antoinette tells me that she
dislikes the way, Pierre, her French teacher treats girls.
"He's not fair with girls." I ask for specific examples of
the way girls are mistreated, but she is unable to cite any
and continues to insist that he isn't fair. "You can tell by
the way he teaches--I'm not sure, but I don't think he likes
the girls." Even though Antoinette is unable to give examples
of Pierre's gender-differentiated instruction and.patterns of
interaction, my observations confirm ‘what she suspects.
Pierre calls boys by name or "Monsieur": girls are pointed.to
or looked at when.he wants them to respond. He calls on boys
more frequently and responds to them more quickly when they
ask for help. Furthermore, boys are commonly called on to
correct or verify French mistakes the girls make. And
finally, the limited praise that is given is more frequently
given to boys than to girls.

However, a more complex interaction may be taking place
in Pierre's classroom (and the other French classes) than
discontent.over'a'teacher's.gender-differentiated interaction
pattern. Similar behavior in the two other French teachers'
Classes, teachers who had less pronounced gender-
differentiated interaction, forces me to consider other
reasons why the girls resist longer than the boys.

Three of the girls mention that they dislike French. I
ask if they think their behavior would alienate them from

knowledge needed to pursue a higher education, and the girls

143

indicate that they wouldn't need French to get married. Yet
this statement contradicts earlier statements by two of these
girls that they hope to pursue university studies. I refer to
their previous conversation with me about continuing their
education. One girl replies, "It's true I want to go to
university. I know I probably won't. Everyone in my family
expects me to marry when I finish secondary school." Another
one of the girls tells me:

I get angry with the whole situation.

Why do I need to know French? Will I

need it for what I will do? Probably

not. If I don't go to university, and I

probably won't, I'll get a job teaching

at primary school somewhere and I won't

need this [points to French.book lying on

desk].

French class, representing something which isn't
traditional and from their own culture, appears to serve as a
proxy through which the girls can act out their hostility
about male dominance and the limited options available to
them. This explains the remarkable consistency of their
behavior from one day to the next, as well as the intense
negative feelings that are expressed. It is probable that
they themselves don't realize fully what it is that they are
protesting, but this only renders their resistant behavior all
the more poignant. Since their resistant behavior in French
class will not be perceived as counter-hegemonic, there will

be less risk for the girls in playing out their frustration in

this way. Consequently, their silence concerning their own

144
cultural restrictions is maintained as they vent their anger,
literally in a different voice.

Another force that intersects the classroom seemingly
confirms that the girls are willing to resist something that's
not from their culture. Continuing their resistant behavior
with culturally defined roles and expectations is much harder
to do, entails more risk. This second force that I observed,
their role as nurturer and caretaker, a role that they have
been in apprenticeship for for years to learn, is powerfully
played out in the classroom at Rusimba and helps to explain
why they accept their subordinate status in the classroom..

0 e r s 0

Each classroom at Rusimba has a "chef" and a "chefette".
Students are nominated by their peers and voted into these
offices. The chef's responsibilities include latching
classroomwwindows and securing doors at the end of the day and
opening the classroom before school opens in the morning. The
chef is responsible for keeping the daily attendance record
and completing the forms at the end of the month. S/he
allocates the weekly work assignments (cleaning the outdoor
bathrooms, sweeping the classroom, picking up garbage,
stacking wood, doing yard work, and assisting in the kitchen)
and writes out the work assignments on the blackboard. Other
jobs, tacitly understood to fall under the chef's (or

chefette's) jurisdiction, include taking messages to the

145

offices, lining up the desks into rows and columns, etc. In
the fourth year, a further responsibility is to ring the
"bell," a tire rim hung by wire on an upside-down U-shaped
frame, at the close of each class period. Even though the
jobs have little authority associated with them and in many
respects represent trivial responsibilities, the students who
are selected to hold these posts take the responsibilities
very seriously and are quite proud that they have been voted
into this office by their classmates.

I ask the students how the "chef/chefette"
responsibilities are divided and discover that the chefette
assumes responsibility only when the chef is absent from
school. In other words, the chefette (or girl) takes over the
responsibilities only if the boy isn't there. The one
exception to this is ringing the "bell" at the close of each
class period. In the absence of the chef, Lamec, a boy who
sat in the corner nearest the window, rings the hell. I ask
why this is, and a boy tells me that, "it's because it has to
be someone who has a watch." (The chefette wears a watch and
sits near the door. Lamec sits in a desk along the window
well away from the door and has no watch.)

Work assignments at Rusimba are clearly allocated on the
basis of what is culturally perceived as gender-appropriate
work. Girls are assigned work that involves cleaning and
tidying, such as sweeping out the room, picking up garbage in

the room, cleaning the outside lavatories. Boys are given

146

jobs that include taking out and burning garbage (there seldom
is very much), helping stack and cut firewood, etc. My data
shows that all cleaning tasks, inside and out, are assigned.to
the girls. Boys are rarely assigned any of these jobs and are
never given any that involve cleaning or assisting in the
kitchen. Gissi (1980) writes that when men are present in the
home, they assume responsibility for that arena and delegate
domestic work to women and younger children, supervising the
women and girls as they work. At Rusimba it was no different:
the rule applies. Students learn.that.boys can.avoid.work.and
the slack will be picked up by the girls. Furthermore,
students learn that men delegate jobs to women and that women
assume the responsibility of taking charge or delegating work
only when men are absent.

I ask the students about work assignments and how the
work is delegated. Their answers indicate that both the boys
and girls are satisfied with the work assignments. Dialogue
about significantly changed roles is as uncomfortable for the
girls as it is for the boys. Each time I make a comment about
the boys doing anything that is commonly viewed as "girls
work" (or vice versa), the boys shove each other, laugh, and
talk in Swahili saying that "she [the researcher] thinks we
could.eyeep_the floors..." or mockingly, "let's go clean the
choo (outhouse)!" Generally, the girls cluster together and
glance at me nervously and eventually laugh off suggestions

that the boys could try to do some of the jobs that are always

147

assigned to the girls. "It wouldn't work. They'd never do
some of these things." "It wouldn't be right for them [the
boys] to do these things." "It really isn't that.bad." "It's
easier for us because we've been taught how to do it." "We're

used to it and they're not."

It wasn't only the work assigned by the "chef" or
"chefette" that boys were able to avoid doing. At Rusimba
there was a school routine that each student assumes
responsibility for erasing the blackboard for a day and then
passes on the task to the student seated behind him or her the
following day. However, in actual practice, there is a tacit
arrangement in which the boys can pass the responsibility to
the person seated behind them if they choose not to erase the
board. I attempt to find out how’ this works but an
unsuccessful. It appears that if a boy chooses not to do it,
he avoids the task until his avoidance technique is clearly
evident, and the following individual--more significantly--the
nearest girl, assumes the responsibility. At no occasion
during the time I observe did a girl use this sort of
avoidance technique. The girls assume the jobs, and there is
no indication of displeasure or annoyance at having to assume
the responsibility for one of the boys.

Gilligan5 (1982) found in her work that the ethic of

 

5. To a certain extent, studies that discuss a
woman's caretaking role such as Gilligan's
(1982) work, are culture bound. However,
despite differences in the way this
caretaking/nurturing role is :manifested. in

148

caring was a significant force in women's interactions. She
writes that women "proclaim [their] worth on the basis of the
ability to care for and protect others" (p. 79) . Chodorow
(1989) and Lewis (1990b) have also found that women are
comfortable with and feel secure with the care-taking role and
responsibilities associated. with it. MacKinnon (1983),
Rowbotham (1989, Walkerdine (1985), and Wblpe (1978) write
that women resist changes in their role as care-taker because
it is a known quantity and one which makes women feel secure.
Even when they are angry with the responsibilities and
restriction that comes with care-taking, to change and face
the unknown is too threatening so women comply.

The ethic of caring and acceptance of responsibility so
common in women is clearly evident in the girls' responses to
my suggestion that boys accept responsibility for some of the
work that the girls do. It was also evident in the ways that
the girls so easily assume the responsibilities when boys
opted out from their work obligations such as cleaning the
blackboard. It is interesting to note that for a girl to
cross the gender line and do "boy's work" brings forth no
litany of protests from the boys or the girls. It is not

uncommon for women to cut, carry, and stack firewood. In

 

various cultures, there still remains the
expectation that it will be women and young
girls who predominantly care for children and
assume domestic responsibilities. From.a very
young age then, young girls are taught
(mentally, emotionally’ and spiritually) to
fulfill this role.

149

fact, there are very few labor-intensive jobs that are
perceived as being jobs exclusively for men. And with the
exception of supervisory roles, very few jobs assigned to men
are seen as gender specific. The girls' conformity and
acceptance of work assignments seems to indicate that. they are
comfortable with the care-taking (and chore girl) role they
are assigned in the classroom (roles which they are also
assigned to at home). Despite their frustration and
resistance during French class with the reproduction of
socially construed and limited roles, to challenge this in
everyday life becomes difficult to contemplate. They are
caught in the double bind of needing to speak about their
anger while at the same time feeling pressured to remain
silent and conform in order to secure some measure of security
and survival in the classroom. Furthermore, the "comfortable
fit" of these tasks helps to explain how the cultural ideology
of the woman's role in society is so easily maintained--a
reaction in which people become what society expects them to
become. No one in central Africa expects women to take charge
or to refuse the work that's placed in their domain because
the forces of silence, conformity and fear of the unknown are
too strong.

The care-taking role that girls were assigned at Rusimba
were a continuation of their "apprenticeship for marriage"
that had begun years earlier in their parents' homes. The

expectation that women, African women, will never do anything

150
but marry, bear children, plant gardens, and maybe teach or
nurse (also care-taking professions) was poignantly expressed
in this discussion with the students that took place one
afternoon after school. A second troubling belief that only
white'women can.resist, gain.agency in their lives and.improve
the options they have was also expressed.

Daniel and I are discussing politics and political
figures around the world. At one point in our conversation,
I ask the students if they think that there could be a woman
president in their country in the next twenty years. Almost
unanimously, all the students answer "No." Later, one of the
girls, Elizabeth, asks to talk to me about this some more.

"Madame, when you asked us about a woman president and we
told you it would be impossible because women can't be
officers in the military, well, that's not the real reason.
The real reason is that no ome_[my emphasis] wants a woman as
president.

"Why?"

"Because it just wouldn't work Madame. Besides, there's
neye; been a woman president--anywhere--ever."

"What about Margaret Thatcher?"

"Well, yes...but she's not a president. Besides, she's
white. That would never happen here-~women don't do those
kinds of things."

"What do African women do?"

151
"Not much I guess...work gardens mostly, but, got
goeem'e oount [my emphasis]. If she's lucky, she'll become a

nurse or maybe a teacher.

Summagy

Gender boundaries that limit women to certain kinds of
work are salient factors that influence how the girls view
future options available to them. These boundaries are keenly
felt and influence the everyday living of both.men and women.
Living with the pressures of "woman as reproducer and woman as
caretaker" day after day becomes almost impossible to resist
and most girls leave school, marry, have babies and face a
lifetime of planting, hoeing, and harvesting. - There are
avenues of escape from this, however. If girls can manage to
survive in the classroom and receive a secondary-level
education, it is a way for them to gain agency in their lives.
This agency allows them to find jobs, primarily as teachers or
nurses--also care-taking types of roles, which can provide
them more autonomy and better options in their lives.

In the next Chapter, I will discuss the lives of the
three women teachers, Marie, Celeste and Stella, who worked at
Rusimba. They are three women who gained the agency in their
lives that education provided. However, their stories are
very different and demonstrate that education alone will not

make the difference.

CHAPTER SIX
Three Women and Their Lives:
Tensions and Dilemmas

It wasn't easy being a female and trying
to get an education. I had to work very
hard, especially after the babies came.
When I think about it now, I wonder if it
was worth the struggle. I had to work
from sunrise until late at night when I
was in college. I was always tired then.
I emill work from sunrise until late at
night. I'm.§Eill always tired. So, tell
me, what has changed? (Marie, English
teacher, February, 1989)

In Chapter 5 we saw how girls were given differential
access to schooling. Despite statistics by both development
agencies and the government that showed equal participation of
boys and girls, girls were less represented in schools than
boys. Reduced participation for girls started in the primary
grades and became exacerbated as they moved through the
system, But access issues don't tell the whole story. In.the
classroom girls were shown different teacher interaction and
received less teacher attention. Teachers had lowered
expectations for girls to do well in school which reflected
their assumption that most of the girls would only be wives
and mothers--roles that they believed needed little education.
The belief that girls would take on these roles not only
limited the kind of education girls received but also
influenced the kinds of things they were asked to do in

school. Girls became chore girls and caretakers in the

152

153

classrooms, completing tasks very similar to the kinds that
they did in their parent's home and would eventually do in
their husband's homes. The inequities and work obligations
that existed in schools were the reality of the classroom.
Yet, what the girls found there only foreshadowed the
inequities and work obligations that they would face as adult
women in the homes of their husbands or as single women
struggling to survive in a social system that has no place for
unmarried women. Grumet (1988) writes that school is a
passage where "patriarchal identifications... (are)
...mediated and reconceived" (p. 33), a time and place where
a woman's consciousness is redefined and forces intersect her
life shaping who woman is in private, who she is in public.

As my study evolved, these forces that intersect the
lives of women-~forces that started when girls were young,
were reinforced in schools, and continued in adult life--
became increasingly more evident. I began to focus on the
stories of women and girls, to note their life histories. Of
the stories shared with me, none were more revealing, more
poignant, than those of the three women teachers at Rusimba,
three women struggling to meet the demands of work
responsibilities and home obligations.

Weiler (1988) writes that cultural norms and expectations
impact the lives of women teachers and create tensions to
which they must respond in their attempts to "transform the

reality they have inherited" (p. 73). Friere (1981, 1986,

154

1987) discovered in his work with the rural poor of Brazil
that only as people critically confronted their life history
in terms of the dominant societal forces around them would
they be capable of actually transforming their realities and
grow. He writes that this confrontation is the praxis of
liberation, a dialectical process called gomeoieneleooo or
enlightened pedagogy. Identifying the forces that intersect
one's life and understanding how these influence the choices
that are :made are key’ parts of developing' agency over
structures and situations. I

In this chapter, I will examine the lives of the three
women teachers at Rusimba--Marie, Celeste and Stella. I will
highlight the forces that are acting upon their life histories
and discuss their efforts to gain agency in their lives.

-- i an e d

Marie was the English teacher at Rusimba. I was
fascinated by her when we first met. Perhaps it was the fact
that she spoke English.beautifullyu Or’maybe it was that.both
Marie and I were mothers of four small children. I'm not
sure, but all I know was that I felt an immediate connection
with her the first time we talked. She had a complexion of
milky chocolate skin that perfectly contrasted her broad,
brilliantly white smile. Her features were delicate and

looked as if they had been chiseled by a master artisan. I

155
suppose most people would say she was beautiful. I don't
know--I couldn't get beyond her eyes.

Eyes capture my attention. They fascinate me. I think
they're the mirrors of the soul. So, I've spent a lot time in
my life watching people's eyes. But I don't think I've seen
eyes before that could hold me captive in their power like
Marie's did. Dark brown and somber, for me her eyes were
pools that portrayed a sad tale full of fatigue, anger, and
bitterness. It didn't take me long to discover that I had
read her eyes well.

Of all the people that I talked with during the time I
spent in the field, none were more drawn to my study than
Marie. I'd often spend the lunch break sitting in the
teachers' lounge with the other staff members who taught at
Rusimba. Day after day, Marie would join me at the table
where I'd sit and tell me that she'd want to "practice (her)
English with (me) and talk about women's rights." At first
our talks were general and we'd discuss government reforms--or
the meeo for government reforms. Eventually, however, Marie
began sharing more intimate details of her own life that
helped explain some of the frustration that was so evident in
the stories she shared. "I can tell you my stories because
these are the kinds of things that women.talk.about," she told
me one afternoon. "You've had four babies, I've had four
babies. We have a lot in common. Neither of us sleeps at

night, right?"

156

Marie was amused that I, a white women, had four babies
and often referred to the fact that we "have so much in
common." But the stories that Marie shared with me weren't
things that we had in common. They were stories about things
I found very difficult to understand, things I found very
troubling to listen to. I began to realize that Marie neegeg
to share these stories with me. Her pretense of practicing
English was the guise she used to share stories with me that
troubled her too, things too sensitive to share with anyone
within the local circle: things that she knew I wouldn't
understand. And because I wouldn't understand, I became a
safe confidante to entrust with stories of the victimization
and abuse of women. And because I was a woman, I became
someone who enabled her to break her silence on these
troubling subjects.

Marie had grown up in a small, out-of-the-way village.
Neither of her parents were well educated: in fact, her mother
had received no primary schooling at all. But things were
different for Marie. Government reforms opening up education
to women shortly after independence had given her the chance
to further her education.

At first it was a fight to go to school.
My father was very angry, he said that
schools weren't good places for girls to
be. But he was afraid that people would
think he didn't support the new
government so he was afraid to forbid me
to go to school. So, all talk of making
me stop, even his threats to beat me if I
continued to go to school, came to an

157

end. He couldn't refuse but I think he
really wanted to.

It was'when.she was in secondary school that.arrangements
were made for her marriage, and while at university the
marriage took place. Marie and her husband began university
studies, but for Marie the dual obligations of wife and
student made her task much harder. It became even harder when

the babies began to arrive.

I'm the only female who graduated from my
secondary school who went on to
university. It wasn't easy. The
teachers made it hard on (the women). I
worked hard and made it through, but I
learned that no one is going to make it
easy for you. I did it all on.my own. I
had to work much harder than the other
students because of the babies. Even my
husband wasn't much help--he'd tell me
that he couldn't do womem'e mgr-so I
was left to do it all by myself. Before
I finished university, I had three
babies.

When.Marie and her husband.(a math teacher at a Catholic
school nearly 20 miles away) moved to the area, he was the one
who decided that he should commute back and forth to work so
that she could continue taking care of the children, the
domestic responsibilities, and most importantly, the family
garden.

I get up early in the morning to get a
taxi. Then I work all day, I get home

 

. In Marie's class at university there were only
four girls who graduated with her in a class
of forty. She didn't tell me how many girls
started in her classes the first year of
university but I had the impression that it
was a very small number.

158

tired in the evening, and then I have to
clean and cook. I don't have time to do
much to prepare for school or grade

papers. I'm always working and I'm
always tired--work, work, work--that's my
life.

Some of the men here complain about the
work that they have and say they can't
keep up with it all. I laugh at them and
tell them that they don't know what work
is. They have all the time to prepare
their lessons but do I? No, I get up
early to work at home and stay up late at
night to do work at home. Tell me, when
can I prepare for school?

I hear you talk about women going to
school and prepare for a career. Why
should we? Don't we do enough work
already? I remember talks that the men
in my class at the university used to
have. One time they discussed.whether or
not women really made good teachers. I
can't remember what they decided but I
can remember thinking then that women
usually don't have the time to be good at
anything--they're too busy working doing
everything to become really good at
anything. Little did I know then how
true that would be.

You could see the fatigue that plagued Marie's life. You
could see it in her eyes, in her walk, in the way she talked,
in the way she taught. Marie gee too busy working to be a
good teacheru And.because she wasn't good it made it a little
bit easier for everyone to believe that women.ye;eml§ as good
as men, that women eoulgn't be as good as men.

One day, however, Marie was particularly tired, and I
asked her about it.

I guess it's the added burden of my
husband's youngest brother's family that

is making me so tired. The baby was just
circumcised. yesterday and. he is very

159

fussy. And his mother was very upset
last night, so I didn't sleep much.

Marie has talked to me before about her husband's sister-
in-law. Young, uneducated, widowed with two small children,
by local custom she must live with her husband's family since
they are the ones who provided the money to pay for her
brideprice. "Last night we told her that once the baby is
weaned she must return to the home of her parents." I ask
about the children. Marie explains that they must remain with
her and her husband. "What can she do for them? Her family
is very poor, they may not even want her to come back home.
If she's lucky she'll remarry, if she's not, well..." Marie
stops, shakes her head and then sighs.

You don't understand, I can see. But you
don't know how it is for women here. We
have no rights, we don't even know what
that word means. Rights for women--for
whlte women, not for African women. So,
she'll lose everything--her children,
everything that she owns. It'll be
divided between the members of her
husband's family.

Although I knew that most of the countries in central
Africa generally believed that fathers were the primary
guardian of children, this information shocked me. I had
always assumed that the widowed mother would continue to_be
the primary caregiver to her children and live with one of her
husband's family members. I ask Marie what will become of the
young widow--what will she do, how can she fight for the
rights of her children? The fatigue that constantly weighs

Marie down becomes overpowering, suffocating. She slowly sits

160
down in the chair near me and cradles her head in her hands.
Local people can't understand young men
dying. To them it seems unnatural. He
died in a car accident--but in her small
village everyone will think that she put
a fetish on him. Witches...that'8 what
they say...when.a young husband dies, the
wives become witches. Would yog marry a
witch? No1 So, what will happen? She
can either beg for a living or maybe
become a prostitute. Who knows? Who
really cares?
"Don't you?" I ask.
Marie studies me for a minute and then answers. "I have
my own problems." She slowly walks to the door, opens it and
turns towards me.

Women's rights, emancipation, that's you;
world not mine. We have no rights. We
have to listen to our husbands or suffer
for it, Men have their’ways of making us
do what they want here, ways that you
don't know and even if you did, you
wouldn't understand.

I was shocked by Marie's story of the young widow's
plight. I began talking with other women about this hoping
that they would reassure me that this was an exceptional
situation, that the isolation of her village maybe, or that .
the limited education of the dead husband's parents accounted
for the loss of all her rights. Women were yezy reluctant to
speak openly about their rights to their children, but
eventually they began to tell me that despite laws to protect
them, their rights in a divorce or after a husband's death
would be very hard to protect. Several women, well-educated

women who had good jobs, told me that they were tolerating

161
abusive marriages only because they had no other options if
they wanted to keep their children.

Marie's story of the young widow profoundly affected.me.
Of all the stories I heard, it was probably the one that I
found the most difficult to understand. I tried to imagine
what it must feel like, what I might do if I were in a similar
situation but I was completely overwhelmed by the pathos of
her story. I think that all young mothers at one time or
another face the nightmare of losing their husband. These
fears can surface during real or imagined crisis, but whatever
the cause it forces one to consider how they'd provide for
themselves, take care of their children, manage alone without
their husband. I have faced those moments myself, real
moments when I was afraid that I might not have Bob there to
help raise the children.. These were frightening times for'me
but I never considered that I might be left alone, forced to
give up the children that I'd labored so hard for. But my
situation wasn't like theirs. I didn't have a "price" on my
head and Bob or his family didn't "buy" me.

In a traditional society with brideprice payments and
marriage contracts, the power invested in men over women was
very strong, controlling, and keenly felt. A woman's status
in the home, as wife or daughter, was negligible. Daughters
weren't viewed as permanent family members since they would
marry and.move away. Once married and brideprice paid, wives

joined their husband's family clan which maintained tight

162
control over their lives and relegated marginal status to
them.

In most of Africa, one form or another of marriage
transaction occurs (Gough, 1971: Keesing, 1976). Goodenough
(1970) holds that a marriage transaction "established a
continuing claim to the right of sexual access to a woman"
(pp. 12-13). Others, including Delphy (1977), Goody (1973),
and Rubin (1975) suggest that bridewealth is tied to
production issues and are associated with hoe agriculture
where women do the bulk of labor in the fields. Still other
anthropologists (Comaroff, 1980: Gray, 1969: and Mitchell,
1963) write that brideprice addresses lineage. This theory
maintains that the rights that are transferred in marriage
contracts are for the bride's unborn children. Marriages
become primarily economic relationships (or political
liaisons) between groups as opposed to sexual relationships
between men and women. Consequently, men are placed in power
over women and a woman's reproductive role becomes a commodity
that ' is marketable, bargained for, and sold by her male
relatives to the highest bidder.

Evans-Pritchard (1951) , Gluckman (1954) , and Reyna (1985)
suggest that bridewealth payments serve as primitive insurance
policies and work to stabilize marriages. They reason that in
lineage societies, the higher the price the man's family must
pay in exchange for the woman's economic output and fertility,

the more complete is the transfer of rights over her from her

163

natal family to her husband and his family. If a large sum is
paid, there are economic factors for both families to insure
that the bride's position is secure and respected in her
husband's family. If the marriage is dissolved or the bride
becomes ill, her family must return some of the brideprice
that has been paid. Therefore, efforts will be made to guard
that she is well taken care of and satisfied with the
relationship and her position in the family. Because of the
financial investment made in her, efforts will be made by the
man's family to insure that she receives proper’medical care,
heerork.load isn't prohibitive, and that she isn't physically
abused. Not all studies support the Evans-Pritchard
hypothesis and Gluckman theory. Goodenough (1970) and Leach
(1971) posit that the ENans-Pritchard hypothesis overlooks
that brideprice primarily serves to establish relationships
between families and do not focus on individuals within the
families. Furthermore, brideprice contracts usually continue
long after the.death of one or both of the spouses. It should
also be noted that there is growing concern that.the incidence
of abuse of women and mutilation (or female circumcision) is
currently increasing in Africa which challenges the hypothesis
that brideprice acts as an insurance policy protecting women
from abuse (Heise, 1989).

Many of the married women I talked with shared Marie's
view that men controlled their lives and were able to maintain

this power because of the exchange of rights. From their

164

perspective, however, if brideprice was an insurance policy,
it was an insurance policy that protected male patriarchy--not
women. Marie's story also raised serious concerns about the
abuse that threatened women--abuse that I didn't know and
couldn't understand. Each time an opportunity presented
itself, I asked people about ways that "men controlled women."
Many of the women and girls that I talked to referred to the
consequences and disciplinary measures that could be imposed
on them by men. However, most were quite reluctant to talk
about what these ‘might be. Perhaps their silence and
reticence on this subject speaks more powerfully, more
poignantly, than had they spoke of these things. Although a
study by Lewis (1990b) addresses domestic abuse in developed
countries, she found a similar resistance by women to break
their silence on abuse. Gilligan's (1982) work.which compare
the ways in 'which. men and. women respond to situations
discusses how some men use violence to control and manipulate
women and resolve problems. Marie's admission that men there
have ways of making women do things or suffer for it implies
that men's ways of responding are different than women's and
men's ways are violent. Shortly before I left.Africa I found
out about one way that men "used."

Because none of the women I talked with had shared any
stories about female circumcision, I assumed that this.area of
Africa didn't practice it. One afternoon I was visiting with

an English doctor who had lived in Africa for over ten years,

165

five of them in this area. I mentioned that female
circumcision must not be commonly practiced there since no one
had mentioned it to me. Amazed, the doctor replied:

Do you zeally think that it's not

practiced here? Let me tell you, I get

out to a great many rural clinics and I

see many women who have been

circumcised.2 Of course they don't talk

about it. Once the.white man hears about

these things, they make them stop.

Female circumcision is too important a

part of their culture to share it with a

white person.

Female circumcision is intricately tied up with pollution
theories and taboos in which women are unclean during
menstruation and need to be isolated (Douglas, 1966: Stephens,
1961: and Young & Bacdayan, 1965) and the power over creation
and life (Sanday, 1981: Schebesta, 1963: and Turnbull, 1961).
The flow of blood is strongly symbolic of'both life and death,
power and creation. Because of this, tribal societies often
develop rituals which demand the flow of blood in female
circumcision. Female circumcision is also associated with
male power over female orgasm, faithfulness and pleasure
seeking. Although it's "not a man who holds the knife and
violates the woman, the control that.men.have.over'which.women
are marriageable and which women are not is the force that
perpetuates the practice. In a traditional society where the

sole option for girls is to marry and become mothers, a role

that a girl has been placed in "apprenticeship" and trained

 

2. A discussion of the three types of female

circumcision follows.

166

for for years, if circumcision is a criteria for marriage,
parents will comply. The power that men wield here is hard to
understand. Recently, a university professor from Kenya
currently working in .America told me, "You will never
understand the mentality that keeps this practice going.
Women believe that men will not marry them--and many men
won't--unless they are circumcised. It's a very important
part of the culture. So, it's done."

There are three basic types of female circumcision
practiced in Africa: sunna, excision or clitoridectomy, and
infibulation. Sunna is the mildest form in.which the prepuce
or foreskin of the clitoris is removed. Excision is a more
radical form in which the entire clitoris and part of the
labia minora are surgically removed. Infibulation is the most
severe form. In this procedure, all of the clitoris, labia
minora and majora are removed. Both sides of the vulva are
then sewn together, except for a slither of wood that is
placed in the incision. Alternatively, the vulva are scraped
raw and the girl's legs are tightly bound, and she must remain
motionless until the wound heals. If the girl survives the
procedure, the healing time can take weeks during which
excrement builds up and soils the bandage. After. this
surgical procedure, the vagina is completely closed except for

a microscopic opening allowing for the passage of urine and

167
menstrual blood.3 But the horrors only continue. Before
marriage, a woman must again be cut and an artificial penis
must be introduced in the wound in order to keep the sides
from closing together (Daly, 1978).

Heise (1989) writes that a wide range of medical
complications arise out of these procedures which are carried
out without anesthesia, often with primitive and unsterile
cutting implements.

Long-term effects include chronic urinary
track infections, pelvic infections that
can lead to infertility, painful
intercourse, and vicious scars that can
cause tearing of tissue and hemorrhage
during childbirth. In fact, women who
are infibulated.must be cut open on their
wedding' night. to make intercourse
possible, and.more cuts are necessary for
delivery of a child. Babies born to
infibulated women frequently die or
suffer oxygen deprivation due to the
prolonged and obstructed labor (p. 7).

Even in the domain of biological reproduction and through
female circumcision, men can subordinate and control women.
Imagining the horrors of what being circumcised must have been
like, I understood why Marie and the other women maintained
their silence on this subject, a silence that Roberts (1976)

claims is born of subjugation.

 

3. Although this would appear to be biologically
impossible, all the sources that I read gave
similar descriptions of the process of
infibulation. It could be that individuals
who have done research on this have been
unable to physically examine women who are
infibulated and incorrectly describe what has
been done.

168

As I reflected on all of this control and violation of
women represented in kinship patterns, brideprice and female
circumcision, I couldn't help but wonder how getting an
education would intersect with all of this. Marie's story
spoke of abuse, at least the fear of abuse. It spoke of
endless work and fatigue. And it also spoke of the
victimization of women. Even though Marie's question about
the value of her education, "What has changed?", was a
rhetorical one, my response to her would have to be "from your

perspective, very little indeed."

e8 e-- e n her ca 8 n le a ons

"I can't think of anything I'd rather do than teach. As
long as I can remember, I wanted to become a teacher. Of
course, there weren't too many options for women. . .but it ie
what I always wanted to do."

Celeste, the pedagogy teacher at Rusimba, was a little
whirlwind of thunder and lightning in the classroom. Her
energy and enthusiasm seemed to charge the atmosphere and
engage the students who would hang on to her every word and
action. Petite, slender, generally soft-spoken, Celeste's
interest in life and joy from the day-to-day interactions and
occurrences radiated from the sparkle in her eyes and quick
smile and laugh. Celeste was constantly on the move, quickly
walking up and down the aisles, stopping before a student's
desk, pointing to the student and then asking a question. Her

169
lessons were quickly paced, encouraged lots of student input,
and she frequently used humor in.ber instruction, a technique
I rarely observed in other teachers' classrooms during my

observations.

"I spend a lot of time preparing for my classes. I try
to make them interesting, I want to model good teaching."
Celeste gee a model of good teaching and everyone knew it. .At
Rusimba she was one of the most well-liked and respected
teachers by both students and staff.

I began teaching fifteen years ago in
Zaire-~at the secondary school where I'd
completed my studies. The sisters were
so pleased that I'd come back. They had
been so supportive when I was in school
there, I was glad to be able to return
and work for them.

Celeste had grown up in a large, urban area in eastern
Zaire. During our conversations, she shared with me that her
ability to learn quickly and do well in school was obvious

from an early age.

I loved going to school. I loved
learning; At first, my parents were very
supportive, but as I neared the end of my
primary studies, my father told.me that I
couldn't go to school anymore. I began
sneaking out early in the morning and
would get to school before my father was
awake. When I'd come home at night, he
would threaten to beat me--but I would
continue to go to school. I had to
disobey’my parents to continue in school.
Eventually, things became so bad that I
had to leave home. But the nuns,
encouraged me to continue and helped me
financially. My parents were very angry
and ordered me to stop, but I had no
intention of becoming like all the other
girls around me. A girl must be very

170

strong, very aggressive, if she wants to
get an education. I don't think it's
worth the effort to most women.

But even at the risk of physical abuse, getting an
education was worth the effort to Celeste. With the help of
the Catholic sisters, she continued with her studies, first
finishing with top grades at the secondary level, and then
obtaining a graduate and finally acquiring an MA in psycho-
peda at the national university.

My parents were go proud of me when I
finished. My brothers had all left
school by that time--I was the only one
who had received a secondary-level
diploma and was earning a salary. I'm
the only one who can really help them
now. For'my parents, it's wonderful that
I'm educated. All the refusals to help,
threats, beatings--they've forgotten all
about that now; .All that's remembered is
that I'm the one who helps them.

During one of our conversations, Celeste shared with me
what it had been like going to school as a young girl.

I didn't realize how hard it was to do
well in school if you were a girl until I
was out of school for awhile. It was
when I was a teacher that I recognized
how hard everyone made it. Girls were
absent more often. Girls had to come
home after school and then.help watch the
other children or’ prepare the 'meals.
Boys didn't have these kinds of respon-
sibilities placed upon them. When you
consider just the time commitments that
are placed on young girls, you begin to
realize how much this interferes with
learning.

When it becomes harder to finance the
school bills, parents automatically cut
the support to their daughters. Most
girls give up--they stay home and accept
that that's their life. They take over

171

many of the home responsibilities, watch
their younger brothers and sisters, work
in the gardens.

Celeste's portrayal of the difficulties that girls face
while trying to obtain an education is well documented in
literature on.the education of girls in Africa» In.his expose
on crises facing the Third. World, and in. reference to

educational opportunities for girls in Africa, Harrison ( 1984)
succinctly states that:

Although Eve took the first bite of the
apple of knowledge, it was Adam. who
appropriated the greater' part of the
fruit. Education is the path to higher
pay, productivity and skills but it is a
path strewn with many more obstacles for
women than for men (p. 442).

Robertson and Berger (1986) have shown that increased
educational opportunities ironicalLy do not always benefit
women in Africa. In many cases, it works to their
disadvantage in competing with.men for limited salaried jobs.
They write:

Their presence in. primary schools in
ever-growing numbers is economically
dysfunctional in that it encourages their
removal from the labor force as children
and adults and promotes their dependence
on men. Rather than leading the way to
equality and greater opportunity, then,
education for most women in Africa
functions as an instrument of oppression
to reinforce subordinate roles (p. 92).

Studies of the labor market, like Smock's (1977, 1982)
studies in Africa, demonstrate how education can oppress women.
She has shown that there is a U-curve between female labor-

force participation and education level. Two groups of women

172

are employable--lower class women who have either no education
or a poor education. The second group, significantly smaller,
consists of very well-educated, upper-class women who often
have high status, influential friends and political pull. The
large numbers of women with primary or minimal secondary level
schooling have high unemployment rates and are disadvantaged
in competing for the few jobs available. Unfortunately they
are left with a paucity of options. Eliou (1973) poignantly
comments, "The road which leads (girls) to school is in fact
only a detour which leads them back to the home" (p. 39) .
Jones (1982), Robertson (1984), and Tardits (1963) have noted
that since schooling for girls in Africa is perceived as
threatening men's options, the solution is to keep a girl's
education lower in quality and quantity. Consequently, unlike
Celeste who struggled against overwhelming odds, most women
make a "rational choice" to remain illiterate and keep earning
some income in order to stay afloat, to gain a measure of
dignity, self-respect, and resiliency. Robertson and Berger
(1986) write:

The African women's primary education or

lack of it will continue to make them an

underclass unless they themselves act to

break the pattern. But most women are too

desperately busy assuring the survival of

themselves and their families to spend

time on self-improvement and self-

confidence that would facilitate their

involvement in either activity (p. 112).

The sources of a woman's educational handicaps lie mainly

in the home. The expectation is there for them to assume the

173

responsibilities of adult work at a much earlier age than boys
(and continue with this work as an adult, long after their
counterparts, adult men, have "retired"). Fellow (1983) has
shown that girls are brought up with an explicit understanding
of what it means 'to be a woman.

They know what behaviors are associated

with femaleness. They are delegated

responsibility at an early age for the

care of younger siblings, for marketing,

cooking, cleaning--in other words, the

domestic tasks that define the female

role. There is a female stereotype to

which men and women alike pay heed and

which helps create female group boundaries

(Po 4) -

Societal expectations about gender boundaries and roles

for women in Africa are well-documented. Ardener (1975) ,
Ifeka-Moller (1971) , LaFontaine (1978) and VanAllen (1972) are
just a few of the many researchers who have studied this.“
Research indicates that in a cultural context in which the
extended nuclear family or local village remains the primary
social unit, crossing gender barriers and ignoring gender
boundaries means risking social ostracism, rejection, and
possibly worse. Societal expectations of what girls or boys

should do become strong conforming agents. Gertz (1973)

 

. Although there are geographical variations in
the cultural expectations that exist concerning
women (such as women in west Africa are less
financially dependent on men because of their
market and business activities and investments,
women in South Africa have more mobility to
travel, etc.) in general, women throughout
Africa all struggle with the subordinate status
they have been relegated.

174
suggests that "symbolic templates" serve as guides for the
organization of sex-role expectations. These sex-role plans
explain how men and women should interact and are interwoven
into the tapestry of all aspects of daily living.

The "symbolic templates" within the ethnic group where
Celeste grew up ordained that girls should receive minimal
education, remain in the home, get married, and have children.
Furthermore, a culturally held belief that extended into nearly
all facets of life was that men are superior to women. Men are
thought to be physically stronger, intellectually superior,
more able to make major decisions, and therefore the natural
leader and decision makers (Firestone, 1970: Millett, 1971).
This biology-as-destiny viewpoint (Leibowitz, 1978) is accepted
as natural, just as the "superior" characteristics of men.are
accepted as natural and one not to be challenged, particularly
by women who aspire to enter into the male arena. During one
conversation, Celeste spoke of the "superior" viewpoint that
they were taught in school.

They teach us that (men are superior) in
college, you know. We're taught to have
different expectations for girls and boys.
But of course, because you believe that,
you teach them differently. By the time
they get to my classes at the secondary
level, the boys out-perform the girls. I
don't have time to remedy the situation--I
deal with the students at the level
they're at, at the abilities that they
have when they get to me. Not much else
can be done by this point. I hadn't
really thought about it much before, but

there is a cycle that's taking place, and
the girls become trapped.

175

Celeste's response is very similar to Marie's in Chapter
5 when she told me that she didn't "have time to wait for
girls." Grumet (1988) writes that forces in schools contribute
to the subordination of women and the role that they have in
society. In classrooms at Rusimba, two of these forces were
time and work. Women, and in this case women teachers, were
too busy working to take the time to break the cycle of
subordination, the cycle of preparing girls less for learning,
of giving them less in school. Even when a woman understood
the cycle and how it worked, as Celeste came to see the cycle
and realize how it worked, she was too busy in the patriarchal
system (teaching the patriarchal system) to do anything about
it. ‘

All three of the well-educated women who taught at the
secondary school were very much aware of the shared experience
that they had in their schooling, an experience that placed
more value on a boy's education than on a girl's, and which
taught and encouraged boys to interact more freely in the
school environment. I frequently observed interactions at the
primary level in which girls were taught in a "secondary mode"
by following the interactions and instruction that were
directed toward the boys (i.e. listening to directions and the
clarification given to boys, watching from a distance as
examples were written in a boy's notebook, etc.). Marie and
Celeste knew about "secondary mode" learning, they knew that

boys dominated the school environment, and they knew that girls

176

assumed a more passive role. However, despite this recognition
that girls entered secondary classrooms with a learned behavior
which made them less well-equipped to compete against the boys,
teachers, even women teachers like Marie and Celeste, §L111
demanded that girls perform in the classroom in the same manner
and in the same amount as the boys. So, when the girls were
unable to meet these expectations, and few girls were able to
compete against the boys and.meet the teacher's expectations,
they failed and reinforced the stereotype that men were
superior to women, that girls were less able to learn, and, as
Marie's father had told her, schools were not good places for
girls. Consequently, the girls' lack of success at the
secondary level served to validate the cultural ideology that
girls were less deserving of an education than boys.
Furthermore, the three women teachers at Rusimba frequently
referred to their struggles in their secondary level or
university classes as a lone quest for an education, when all
the other women had given up the fight. Therefore, the well-
educated, successful women that I interviewed perceived
themselves as aberrant women, exceptions to the rule. Thus,
they continued to maintain the same gender roles and
expectations for most women as the rest of society and
willingly accepted that schools were places where boys
performed but girls just waited and wasted time.

Our discussions about this learned behavior and

subordination cycle troubled Celeste. "I don't like the role

177
I have in this all. It's troubling to be involved in something
like this." During one of my first interviews with her in mid-
February, she asked me if I was recording the interactions that
were taking place and noting whether it was a boy or girl who
she had called upon or who was participating. "I'd like to
know once and for all if the boys are out-performing the
girls." I told her I was recording that information and had
noted that my data seemed to indicate that boys asked and
responded to more questions. I did mention, however, that ohe
generally called on boys more frequently and stopped before a
boy's desk and pointed at boys more commonly than girls. When
I told her this, she threw back her head, chuckled, and said,
"Well, what do. you know? My peda instructors would be proud
of me!" She then became very serious and told me:
This bothers me, but I'm not sure what to
do. You know, I have to cover the
material for the state exams. All the
students are counting on me to get them
through it and help them pass [pauses].
This is a pedagogy school, I'm the main
teacher in this school, if I don't get
them through it, I would have failed them
all. The girls ju_st goL't; follow through
like the boys...Hmmmm, I'll have to work
on this.
Celeste did make an effort to change. After sessions when
I would tally interaction patterns, levels of questioning,
etc. , she would come to the desk where I'd sit at the back of

the room and ask me, "How did I do today?" However, she

frequently became frustrated over the lack of preparation and

178
passive engagement of the girls. After one session that she
termed "very trying," she told me:

I guess they just don't understand what
this is all about. School for many of
them means nothing. Elizabeth is meve;
prepared. She's absent as often as she's
here. I asked her where she was
yesterday. . .the market. . .at the market
buying bananas, that's what she told me.
They have a test next Tuesday and she
doesn't care. I think there are five
girls in this class who really want to be
here...by sixth year maybe we'll be down
to those who really want to learn and be
here.

Celeste's comment raised some interesting questions about
the "survival of the fittest" process which sorted out students
unable to compete. That more girls were sorted out didn't
surprise her. She accepted it as natural that more girls would
leave and more boys would stay. Celeste questions that the
girls understood what it was "all about." However, possibly
it was Celeste who didn't understand what it was all about--
after all, she is the one who challenged the system and
continued to pursue an education long after all the other girls
had figured it out and given up. ‘When.I asked her what school
was "all about" for her, she began to answer, then stopped,
considered my question for a short while and then replied,

I'm not sure. I'm not really sure when I
think about it in the broader context--for
females in general. When I think about it
for me personally, it means I'm able to be
independent, to be on my own. But, in a
larger context, well, then I just don't

know.

This idea about.being independent, that's
a real interesting concept. I have to be

179

independent pecause of my education.
After I received. my secondary school
diploma my chances to marry were greatly
reduced. When I went off to university,
it became even more difficult for me to
marry. I thought I might still be able to
marry when I began, but I really didn't
think about it too much when I started.
But most of the boys who took classes with
me made comments about it. They'd say
things like, "You'd better get married now
while someone is still willing to take
you" or "If you don't find a husband
before you leave here no one will take
you--they'll all know you won't make a
good wife after all this school." After
a while I began to realize that I wesm'g
going to get married. Then I reolly
realized the choice I had made. I knew
I'd be alone.

On more than one occasion, Celeste shared with me her
concern that she was single, living in a world where single
women weren't socially accepted. Furthermore, Celeste
indicated that in general most men reacted negatively towards
her because of her high level of education. When I asked

Celeste what she would do if she had the opportunity to marry,
she replied:

I love teaching. I'm a good teacher--I
know that. But if I had the choice, I'd
get married. Single women aren't socially
accepted. Everyone you know thinks a
woman should marry and have children.
That's a heavy burden to live with all the
time. If I don't marry, who do I have to
take care of me when I get older? I have
no sons. I worry that I might become
destitute when I'm too old to work
anymore. There's no question. I'd choose
to marry. I'd give up teaching today if
I could get married. But I don't think
any man will marry me now. I'm too well
educated. [Celeste laughs, waits a
moment, continues 'talking.] Who could
afford my brideprice?

180

As much as Celeste loved her teaching, a job she had
aspired to from her youth, the personal satisfaction and
enjoyment her work brought to her couldn't counterbalance the
emptiness that she felt over being single. Even more
frustrating was that Celeste felt that her career advancement
was being negatively influenced because of her femaleness.

Several times I 've considered applying for
an administrative position. Each time
I've applied I've been refused because
they're worried I might need time off for
a pregnancy. The first time it shocked me
and I replied--indignantly--"But, I'm not
married." The interviewer who was male
indicated that that; made no difference.
The expectation is there that I'd marry
given the opportunity.

Celeste's concerns about being destitute as she grows
older and becomes-unable to work and support herself are strong
deterrents against advanced education and pursuing a career
instead of marrying. In fact, this factor was as significant
to her as the social stigma of being single. Furthermore,
Celeste's femaleness created a dual dilemma. The option of a
profession and career was problematic because of her sex. But
having made the decision to remain single, the 99.813.111.112}: that
she might follow through with her biological potentia1--having
babies "legitimately" or not--became a constant handicap which
limited her options in the workplace. Expectations that
Celeste would eagerly throw herself into marriage and
motherhood, given the opportunity if some man wanted her, were

influenced by societal expectations that women ". . .hold their
identity in. . .the man by whose name she will be known, by whose

181
status she will be defined, the man who will rescue her from
emptiness and loneliness by filling the inner space (Gilligan,
1982, p. 12)." Celeste's dilemma was not unique. Only a few
of the women.that I talked to*were able to consider getting an
education and pursuing a career without seeing this as an
exchange at the expense of marriage and children. Even those
who considered marriage and a career did so reluctantly because
of the difficulty of juggling the heavy demands of home
responsibilities and.work obligations. And the problems that
working women face don't stop in the home. Celeste's aborted
career advancement is not atypical. Many women face
discrimination on the job. One of the questions that I always
asked school directors when I'd interview them was, "Given two
equally qualified applicants, a man and a woman, which one
would you hire?" Without exception, the response was "The man

because I won't have to fear giving extended time off for

maternity leave."5

 

. These attitudes and feelings that Celeste
exhibited weren't unusual. Nor were the job
frustrations that she experienced as a woman.
Okin (1989) writes that a woman's biological
potential limits her employability and career
advancement in the workplace. Connell (1987),
Maroney (1986), Newland (1980), Rose (1986) and
Yeatman (1986) all write about the struggles
that working women face juggling the
obligations of home and career. Backhouse and
Cohen (1978), Date-Bah (1986), Farley (1978),
Riddell (1989) and Whitbread (1980) all discuss
the difficulty that women face in getting
hired. They also write that women face more
discrimination in the workplace particularly in
aborted career advancement. Although most of
these studies have looked at these issues in

182

Numerous studies have demonstrated the ways in which women
are.discriminated against on the job and in the career ladder.
Gutto (1971) , Mwiria (1987) , and Ruigu (1985) write that family
demands serve as barriers for the advancement of women in the
workplace. Other studies focusing on job opportunities and
career advancement for women in Third World countries,
including Hughes (1986) , Hughes and Mwiria (1989) , Ruigu
(1985), and Smock (1977), write: that family’ obligations
contribute to a woman's hesitancy to take risks on the job
including job changes, pursuing advanced training, and
relocating. Consequently, the domestic obligations and
responsibilities that hold a women down in the home hold her
back on the job as well. It was true for'Marie'who was unable
to successfully meet her commitments at work because of the
work at home. And it was true for Celeste whose potential to
take on the role of wife and.mother became a "phantom family"
that plagued her in the workplace. Clarricoates (1980) writes
that its true for most women teachers who must constantly
struggle with tensions between home and school.

Celeste ' s and Marie's stories reflected the worldview that
there are few choices for women: women marry, women have
children. Celeste's regret at having to choose a career at the

expense of marriage and children is poignantly reflected in her

 

developing countries the findings demonstrate
that Celeste's struggle wasn't a Third World
struggle but that this is an issue that women
worldwide must face.

183

statement that she'd marry given the choice. Marie's
frustration at the burden, work and constant fatigue resulting
from her decision to engage in the multiple roles of wife,
mother, and professional is yet another manifestation of how
women have limited choices and.must weave a solution to their
dilemma on their own. Both Celeste and Marie knew that.
ultimately, their survival was dependent on "being able to find
a.man to marry" (Griffin, 1981, p. 211) and that.breaking away
from the traditional role of women as wife and mother left them
vulnerable to economic and social consequences (Radford-Hill,
1986) . But with marriage comes ". . .socially caused and
distinctly asymmetric vulnerability...[which] makes wives far
more likely than husbands to be exploited both within the
marital relationship and in the world of work outside the home"
(Okin, 1989, p. 138). For Celeste and Marie, like many women
world-wide, marriage is a no-win situation. They're damned if
they do, and damned if they don't.

Celeste: dynamic teacher, role model to girls at Rusimba,
a successful career woman who could encourage girls to
persevere and challenge the system. When I spoke to her about
this she told me her advice to girls would be: "Forget going

to university. Get married."

S§elle--Obey? No wey;
Tall, svelte, and sophisticated, Stella was the epitome

of an upwardly mobile young professional. She always wore

184

stylish outfits, pieces of good quality jewelry and expensive
perfume. Stella had a degree in secretarial science and taught
typing (mostly on cardboard mock-ups) at the school and was the
personal secretary to the director at Rusimba. Since Stella's
husband, James, was the assistant principal at Rusimba, I was
fortunate to be able to observe'uhem as they interacted in.the
workplace as well as at home.

Theirs was an unusual marriage in many ways. James was
a Burundi refugee who had.met his wife, a Zairian, while they
both were studying at a university in Zaire. .James and Stella
shared neither tribal backgrounds nor citizenship. More
importantly, however, by most standards, their'marriage would
be considered a very liberated one. They had mutually agreed
that it would be easier if they didn't live anywhere near
either set of parents, an arrangement that Dinan (1977) has
shown to lessen the impact of kinship obligations and which
allows a wife to develop more autonomy in a marriage.
Furthermore, they decided.that they would limit the number of
children that they had to two, that both their children, a girl
and a boy, would receive equal financial and emotional support
to pursue educational studies leading to a career, and that
marriage arrangements would not be made for either of their
children.

During one conversation the three of us discussed their
marriage and.the factors that lead.to its success. Stella told

me that the distance that separated her from his family made

185

her feel much more secure in her rights, particularly if she

were widowed.

Not living near our families has made it
mogo easier on both of us but not living
near his parents has made it easier
particularly for me. My education has
benefitted us both a great deal. We are
able to afford a much better lifestyle
than we would have if I were unable to get
a good job. And certainly, I feel more
secure since I have an education. I think
that I'm less vulnerable because of it.
For instance, if anything were to happen
to James, I would.be able to fight for'my
rights--I would. have some status and
credibility in the courts. There are laws
to protect women now, I know that, lawyers
know that, government people know that.
But my husband's parents are peasants and
they don't understand that. If James were
to die, they are the ones that I have to
deal with. It would not be easy to fight

for my right8--my children--in that kind
of situation.

James agreed with Stella.

There's one important factor'here (to the
success of the marriage)--neither of us
lives in the region where we grew up. We
both live long distances from our families
and there's less pressure on us to follow
traditional rules when the extended family
isn't here to enforce certain kinds of
behavior.

However, he indicated that he still struggled with the
prevailing view that men should take control of a marriage and
make wives do what husbands wanted them to do. He shared with
me that:

At times it would be easier if she would

just do everything I eelo to do...but we
have learned to compromise.

186
I asked Stella which factor, the distance from her
husband's family or her education, offered the greatest
security if anything were to happen to James. She replied:

I don't think that education alone would
protect me. Certainly, because of the
distance I live away from them, I would
have some time before they'd come. But,
eventually I would have to face the
situation. Maybe the fact that I'm
educated.makes the biggest difference. I
wouldn't be afraid to confront them for
the children.

In a society that relegated few rights to women and
expected few women to resist, Stella's determination to keep
her children and prevent her husband's family from taking her
children away from her would mean she'd have to stand up to the
system and gain agency in her life. Stella saw her education
as a means of doing this, a way to fight the system and win.
She'd already won one fight because of her education--the
struggle for autonomy in her marriage with James. She shared
this story with me one afternoon:

When we were first married...ah...it was
tegrible! He kept telling me what to do,
what not to do, and when to do it! I was
very much afraid to confront him at first,
I even considered running away. But then,
what would I have if I did that? So, we
talked. I told him that I didn't like his
rules, and we were going to have to change
things.

I remembered the struggle that I had when
I wanted to go to school. My parents took
it to the family council and.they decided
that it was "best" if I didn't go. I was
about 13 at the time and I can remember
being so angry that they had said, "No."
So, I ran away and.went to school anyway.
I was gone for maybe two months when my

187

father came to where I was staying and

told me that he wanted me to come home. He

told me that if I promised to obey and do

all my work at home, I could go to school.

I promised him. I think that he thought,
I would be too tired to do it all--and I

was tired--but I kept going to school.

When things became difficult between James
and me, I remembered this. I told myself,
you've worked too hard to give up now. If
you run away, you'll just have to come
back and promise to obey and do all the
work. (Stella laughs and then continues.)
So, instead I shouted at him, and argued
with him. Oh-h-h was he surprised! But
it worked!

But even though Stella didn't have to promise to obey
James, she found herself still having to do all the work.

We can afford a domestic now so I don't do
the work in the house anymore. He does
help occasionally with the children--but,
talk of equality and liberation aside--I
am still the one who assumes the bulk of
the responsibility for the home. James
walks away from it, but I dwell there.

Stella's response gives priority to her continued
relationship with James. She confronts James to change the
rules and negotiates to resolve the dilemma in their marriage.
Gilligan (1982) found in her work that women typically give
priority to relationships and negotiate compromise in the
dilemmas that they face in personal interactions. However,
Stella is only successful at negotiating a partial resolution
to her problem with James since she accepts total
responsibility for home obligations while James avoids it. His
response, not unlike many of the men that I spoke with, was

that his wife was free to seek help for these domestic

188

obligations. Equality for women for him meant that Stella had
the option to hire someone to help her--work often considered
degrading and which serves to exploit lower class women
(Connell, 1987: and Cook, 1989) .5 Ironically, Stella's dilemma
of an over-worked working wife employing some other woman to
assume these responsibilities enabled James to further remove
himself from any responsibility and obligation at home.
Consequently, even though James was under less corporate or
extended family pressure to conform to gender roles and
boundaries, his liberal attitude didn't'cross over to equality
in the domestic sphere and shared responsibilities for
childcare. He could not see that equality in division of
family obligations meant changes in the patterns of interaction
that men have within the family and domestic sphere. So, in
this sense, Stella's story is similar to Marie's. At home,
Stella was on her own.

But Stella's story doesn't stop there. It is a remarkably
different story than those of Marie and Celeste. Her story is
one of hope and promise. Her story tells us that women who are
willing to risk, women who are willing to fight the system,
women who are willing to challenge the patriarchy can change
things for themselves and their children. Her story also tells
us that an education can make a difference for a woman. It

tells us that when the impact of kinship obligations and

 

6. A discussion of the implications of domestic
help will be discussed at more length in
Chapter 7.

189
patrilocality can be lessened, women are freer to develop and
negotiate compromise in their marriages, in their reproduction

and in their children's options.

51.1mm

Marie, Celeste, Stella--three women in a shared struggle
to survive, to get ahead in a world that placed many obstacles
in their way. Three women who saw education as a way to break
out of the cycle that trapped women. Three women who responded
in different ways to the opportunity that education offered and
who ended up with remarkably different stories.

Marie--traditional wife and mother--burdened down and
burned out from the overwork of career and home. Marie's
education provided little release from the subordination that
most women faced. Indeed, it worsened her struggle and just
made the bondage more unbearable. Unable to earn a salary that
might make a real difference in her lifestyle, Marie was forced
to trudge on alone and became increasingly bitter from the
fatigue, control and repetitiveness in her life.

Celeste--single, independent, a woman with a career--it's
a career she's good at and a career she enjoys. But it's also
a career that has come at great price--marriage and children.
Living in a traditional society where girls are raised to
believe that all women must marry in order to achieve long term
economic security, the social isolation and fear about her

future that she faces daily weighs Celeste down. Even though

190

Celeste is unencumbered with the burdens of domestic
obligations that Marie daily faces, the fact that she pool; be
married and have children prevents her from achieving the
professional advancement and reward that she'd like. For
Celeste, her education is the double-edged sword in her life.
It provided her with the qualifications to enter a career which
gave her some autonomy. However, it also cut off the option
to marry which forced her to be on her own. And ultimately,
even her education couldn't change things enough to provide her
the same career opportunities as a man. In this respect, it
failed her.

In some respects, Marie and Stella have similar stories.
They both are wives, mothers and professionals. They both
struggle with the dual burden of work at home and work in the
career. They both have husbands who too easily accept the
cultural ideology about "women's work and men's work." But
Stella's story is one of agency in her own life and one of
negotiation for change in her relationships, reproduction and
rights. Finally, Stella's story tells us that a woman who is
educated can confront the system and effect change for herself.
But more than Stella's story brings hope that things will be
remarkably better for her, the promise of her story is that
because of the negotiation that has taken place between her and
James in their own marriage, a better future exists for their

children particularly for their daughter.

CHAPTER SEVEN
After All, They'll Just Be Marrying

Madame, you say that girls should have
the same educational opportunities as
boys. Why? It costs a lot of money to
educate children and we can't educate
them all--it's impossible. Girls don't
need a lot of education, after all,
they'll just. be marrying (Justin,
university student, March, 1989).

Down the road from where we lived was an old pyrethrum
plantation which was purchased in the mid-forties by a genteel
American woman who hails from Martha's Vineyard in
Massachusetts. This lady, .I'll call her Lilly, is really
quite a remarkable woman. After she bought the place, Lilly
began raising flowers which she sold throughout central Africa
and Europe. She got the place on solid ground financially,
weathered out the turbulent period during independence and
became an early advocate for the plight of the rural poor.

Everyone in the area knows Lilly and considers her a
force to be reckoned with. Personal acquaintances include
most of the ambassadors to the country and the President
himself. It's Lilly's interaction with the rural poor,
though, that is most remarkable. She nurses sick children,
sends food to hungry families, provides school fees for
exceptional students too poor to pay their own way. Every
year during a New Year's feast, she covers her lawn with
donated clothes and villagers from.miles around come to share
in the bounty. Lilly also provides for weekly entertainment.

Weather permitting, each Sunday, surrounded by the fragrance

191

192

and beauty of hundreds of flowers, the best of the local
dancers make their way to Lilly's garden to put on a show.
Men and young boys, with the traditional bells around their
ankles, and wrap-around cloth about their waist, stomp, and
jump while women and young girls, many with blossoms woven
into their hair, dance in tight circles and sway their hips
hypnotically as they clap and wave their hands gracefully
above their heads. Throughout the dances, Lilly, sitting in
a corner in her rattan chair, describes the various movements,
explaining that what you are watching are variations on the
marriage dance. The faster the man dances, the higher he
jumps, are all indications of how virile he is. The men
encircle the women, a symbolic representation of the closing
in of the circle that married women have, of the powerful
control that men have in women's lives. It's an exciting
performance, one that demonstrates agility and athletic
prowess for both. the. men and. women. It's a. powerful
performance to watch. And as you consider the implications of
the dance, it's a powerful performance to think about too.

This dance is performed at almost all marriages,
certainly at the more traditional ones. Marriage feasts can
last for days as family and friends eat and dance and carry
out numerous rituals at specific points in the rite of
passage. Although I know very little about the rituals of a
marriage ceremony, I have been told that one of the most

important is the dance, the same dance that is performed each

193

Sunday in Lilly's garden, a dance that represents the
authority and control a husband assumes over his wife. When
you consider marriage from the perspective of the ritual
marriage dance, it takes on a whole new meaning.

When you consider marriage from the perspective of my
. study, it takes on new meaning as well. As my study evolved,
it became increasingly evident that factors dealing with
marriage--the ways in which girls were inculcated with the
"marriage mentality", the system of brideprice and manner in
which women became a commodity, the promise/threat of
education and risk of educating a girl out of the marriage
market-~all of these became crucial aspects to consider. In
this chapter, the ways in which cultural expectations about
gender, gender boundaries and future options for girls and
boys get played out and intersect with educational opportunity
will be discussed. I will look at how this influences
parental compliance with government policies for compulsory
school attendance, division of labor within the domestic

sphere and finally, brideprice and marriageability.

So the 'r en olled. Now wh do 't come?

One of the first things that I noticed when I began
observing at Mupika was that boys appeared to outnumber girls
in attendance. Because World Bank and government school
enrollment figures indicated near equal enrollment of girls

and boys, I made spot checks at other schools in the area. I

194

found that, in general, boys outnumbered girls in daily
attendance at the primary level. I spoke with the local
government and school officials to verify enrollment figures.
The records that I saw showed that there was a relatively
equal distribution of boys and girls. When I questioned the
inspector about the unequal representation that I had oosefleg
at the schools, he told me that despite government policies
which could impose harsh prison sentences on parents if their
children were not enrolled in school, many parents failed to
enroll and send their children--particularly their young
daughters.

Another government official indicated that the region
where I was conducting the study was less developed than.many
others in the country. It was his opinion that this general
underdevelopment was most evident regarding parental support
of schooling. He mentioned that there were concerns by
government officials that parents were not being diligent in
sending their children to school and that this was
particularly true for daughters. "Parents are reluctant to
follow through because daughters help out a great deal in the
gardens and in the care of other children. They want them to
stay home and help with the work that must be done."

In view of this, I made periodic counts at eight primary
schools in the area to determine the ratio of boy/girl
participation in the schools (Appendix A). I visited each

school four times during a three-month.period and counted the

195
number of students present in each classroom. Interviews were
also conducted with the directors or a representative of those
schools that participated in the survey (Appendix B) to
determine to what extent absenteeism or truancy was
influencing the disparity between my attendance counts and
official enrollment records.

These counts showed that there were generally more boys
in attendance than girls. (In some cases, the number of boys
at school was nearly double the number of girls, but this was
unusual.) The. data. gathered indicated. a relatively’ even
distribution of boy/girl attendance in the first three years
of primary schooling. Slightly higher percentages of boys
were present during the fourth and fifth years. By the sixth
year, more boys were attending schools than girls, although at
a few schools, the number of boys and girls remained
relatively equal. Boys attendance patterns continued to be
greater until the last year of primary schooling.

All the directors felt that absenteeism and truancy were
severe problems that dramatically influenced who was getting
educated. There was a general agreement that absenteeism was
more pronounced for girls. When asked what kinds of reasons
were provided by the parents for their daughters' absences,
the directors gave reasons such as "the need to watch other
children (not necessarily siblings)," "work in the family's
gardens," "do housework," "because of sickness." The

directors stated. that absences for’ girls increased

196
significantly as the girls got older, and absences because of
"sickness" were the most frequently cited excuse after grade
five. With few exceptions, the directors shared the opinion
that absenteeism and truancy became increasingly evident as
the school year continued.and as the students advanced through
the grades. One director commented:

In grades 6, 7 and 8, parents say their
daughters have to stay home because of
their menstrual cycles. Many also say
that their daughters must stay home
because they have no clothes. Girls are
absent.a great deal--much.more than.boys.

Another director stated:

The absences of girls are more common
because they have so much work to do in
the homes. .Also, parents frequently keep
them out during their menstrual cycle.

Yet another said:

Parents say that girls are physically
weaker than boys and the long walks to
school are too hard on them. Parents say
that girls will arrive at school too
late.

Interestingly, two directors commented that:

Parents often punish boys who aren't
obeying at home by keeping them out of
school. But our teachers are trying to
educate the parents and have been talking
to them about keeping their sons out.

 

1. Note that the director didn't indicate that
his teachers have been talking to parents
about keeping daughters out. This may have
been an oversight or it could be that only
absences where parents were punishing sons and
keeping them out of school were addressed and
not when parents kept daughters out to help
with domestic responsibilities.

197
Even though boys like to»be vagabonds and
not come to school, parents say ghey keep
boys out to punish them for disobeying.

Parental compliance in attendance patterns send several
messages to their children, One is that a son's attendance in
school matters. In fact, it matters so much that it is used
as a punishment mt to be sent to school. However, for
daughters the message is quite different. The message that
they're given is that being in school doesn't matter. To the
contrary, parents elect to pull their daughters out when their
help is needed at home. Many excuses are given with themes
reminiscent of pollution theories (keeping them out when they
have their'menstrual cycle) and the feebleness (and futility)
of educating girls (too sick, too far for a girl to walk, too
weak, girls will arrive too late.)

Diminished parental support for their education tells
girls that meeting domestic obligations is their primary
responsibility and that getting an education isn't necessary
to complete these tasks. Furthermore, it shows that the
opportunity cost for girls is too high to send them to school.
Men are more valuable yith an education that they'll need to
work outslge of the home but women are more valuable yithogt
an education to work imeige of the home. Given the kinship
patterns that are found in this part of Africa and the
division of labor that exists, parents make a Lotionol,
logloel choice to provide less support for their daughter's

education than for their sons. Given the cultural context,

198
for the average father to do otherwise would be fiscally
irresponsible. Also, given the marriageability situation for
most young girls, for a parent to do otherwise would be
negligent. A parent's principle concern is to educate a
daughter to the optimal brideprice without wasting money on
her education or detracting from her immediate use at home.
Given the division of labor and work responsibilities that
exist in the home, most girls would be foolhardy to insist on
an education and risk increased obligations outside the home
in addition to her workload inside the home. And if a girl
were to desire advanced schooling, from the corporate family
point of view, it is a real sacrifice, a risky decision, to
invest in her education further. This could decrease her
brideprice, increase opportunity cost without her help with
the workload at home, and risk social isolation if she were
not to marry and have children. Consequently, a father like
our math teacher Jacques would be more than typical when he
says that he would be quite reluctant to educate his daughter
beyond the primary school level because "she'll just be
marrying." It also helps us to better understand how a
father, such as Celeste's father who beat her to keep her from
attending school, isn't a mean, malicious parent. From his
perspective, beating Celeste to keep her from going to school
is the best thing he can do for her, the only thing he can do,
to prevent her from jeopardizing her brideprice with too much

education and risk marriage, her means of personal fulfillment

199
and.main source of security; So, everyone in society comes to
believe as Marie's father believed that schools are not good
places for girls.

Findings in studies by Kinyanjui (1981, 1987) , Kirui
(1982), Ram (1980), and Stromquist (1989) are similar
concerning parental support of education. Girls received less
financial and emotional support for their schooling and were
absent more frequently. Generally, absences were caused by
heavy work responsibilities that were placed upon them which
their male counterparts were not given. Consequently, even
when girls were able to attend, they were less likely to do as
well because they had less time out of school to devote to
their studies.

But even when parents complied with attendance
regulations, there are other ways in.which they can influence
their children's learning. Having adequate supplies,
particularly textbooks, is one of the ways a parent can affect
a student's learning. Although it was difficult to assess who
had books at the primary level and who didn't, interviews that
I conducted with parents helped me to better understand how
parents decided which children in the family would be provided
with textbooks and which children wouldnht. Conversations
with three parents are typical of the comments that were made
to me about textbook purchases.-

I don't earn much money. I can't afford
to pay for school books for all my

children. I buy for the oldest child
first. When I have books for him, then I

200
think about the others. . .I have eight
children--five boys and three girls.
(Rural father)

****

I can only pay for some school fees and
books. I buy books for my sons. My sons
will take care of me when I am old and
can't work any longer. I invest in them
for myself. That's the way it is here.
(Rural father)

****

I buy (textbooks) when I can. If I can
only buy some, I will probably buy them
for Jean-Marie because he is my son. He
will take care of me when I can no longer
work my gardens. Anna (her daughter)
won't have time to worry about me. Her
responsibility will be to take care of
her husband and children.

(Rural mother)

Again, parental expectations that an education for a son
is important and necessary but not so for a daughter is
evident in the responses of these parents. Without exception,
the less educated parents in the rural areas gave preference
to their sons, particularly their oldest son, when.purchasing
supplies for school. Many of the parents who lived in the
urban areas indicated that they would make every effort to
equally distribute the supplies they were able to purchase,
but even among them, there was noticeable reluctance to
indicate that they would not give priority to their sons'
educations. The fact that parents in the urban setting were
better educated and perhaps more significantly that. the

mothers were better educated than either rural parent-seemed

201
to have a strong positive impact on the parental support that
was shown to daughters going to school.

Nearly all the girls in the fourth year room at Rusimba
had parents who were more highly educated than the parents of
the boys. This supports studies by Birdsall ( 1985) , Cochrane,
Mehra and Osheha (1985) , Hughes (1986) , and Stromquist (1989)
which show that both higher income levels and parental
educational level increases a parent's desire for their
daughter's education. The girls' responses on the
questionnaire also seemed to indicate that more of their
siblings were in school and had achieved a higher level of
education than the siblings of the boys.

In an attempt to better understand why this might be, I
asked the girls at Rusimba why their parents were sending them
to school. Their responses to my question could be
categorized in three main groups: to enhance their daughters'
brideprice and desirability as wives. Meleis, El-Sanabary and
Beeson (1979), Seetharamu s. Ushadevi (1979), and Stromquist
(1989), found that parents commonly sent their daughters to
school up to the level where they would capitalize on
educational investment in brideprice payments.

Marie: My 991, (brideprice) is being

paid now and my family feels
that my education will raise

Anna: Ithave more education than my

sisters and my got, is higher.
But, I have to leave school at

the end of this year so that it
(brideprice) won't go too high.

202

Other girls at Rusimba told me that they were at school
to meet well-educated suitors. Studies by Ahmad (1974) , Kirui
(1982), and Singhal (1984) found similar educational benefits
for women particularly in societies where girls were educated
in co-educational systems. I also found that the girls who
were from rural areas where the unmarried boys in their home
villages were less educated indicated this factor more
frequently than the girls from urban regions. Statements by
Sylvie and Monique typify comments made to me about being sent
to school to meet educated boys:

Sylvie: My parents want me to have an

educated husband. So, I'm in
school to meet him.

Monique: I'm in school to meet the right
kind of husband. I want an
educated husband who can afford
a domestic. I don't want to
work in the gardens. My family
agrees with me.

Finally, some of the girls at Rusimba also mentioned that
they were in school to remove them from the young boys of the
village. Although this contradicts some studies, such as -
Boserup (1970), Moore (1988) and Stromquist (1989) that
suggest that parents go mo; send daughters to school because
of the fear of sexual assault, immorality or promiscuity, the
unique situation at Rusimba probably accounted for the
parents' confidence that their daughters were in fact safer in
the mission school than in their home village. Comments by

Helen and Denise, are representative of comments made about

control of social interaction.

203

Helen: I come from a village where

many girls got pregnant. My
family thought it would be
better for me to be here in
school where the missionaries
keep track of the girls.

Denise: My father says it's better for

me to be in school than doing
"other" things--my sister got
pregnant so I guess he's afraid
of that.

For all but two of the girls who indicated that their
parents wanted them ‘to get an education and. go on to
university studies, schools were primarily serving purposes
other than as an institution of learning. Reasons that the
girls at Rusimba gave me for why their parents sent them to
school show that parents saw schools as waiting places for
future wives or places in which the value of a future wife
could be enhanced (only to a point however--too much education
could mean no marriage). Schools were also places of refuge
to keep girls from getting pregnant, which might possibly
prevent marriage or at least lower brideprice. And finally,
schools were scouting grounds where desirable husbands could
be discovered for daughters. Consequently, if the daughters
represented their parents correctly, for all but a very few
girls at Rusimba, parents saw a secondary school education as
intricately caught up with marriage options in one way or
another. Therefore, most of the girls at Rusimba were really

there in the role of fgto;e_y1fe not SLEQEEE- And certainly,
by the fourth year, the pressure was being placed on the girls

204
that school had served its function and that the time was
right to get on with life and marry.

Interviews with the girls indicated that a significant
number of them felt a societal/familial pressure to marry
after terminating secondary school studies.

Denise: This is the last year that I will be

in school. My family is arranging
my m so that I will get married

soon.
Ruth: My father doesn't want me to
continue in school any

longer. . .he wants me to get
married. My marriage is being
arranged now.

Only two of the girls in the class indicated that they
would pursue university studies despite.parental pressures to
terminate their studies. One of the girls, Désirée, later
returned to the desk where I was writing my notes and told me

that even though she wanted to go to university, she probably

wouldn't.

It's really hard to not do something that
everyone keeps telling you.you should do,
like get married and have children.
Besides, it's very difficult to pursue a
career if you're female. If I want to
succeed, I really don't think I can get
married.

Shortly after I began my study at Rusimba, I had this

conversation with Elizabeth and Anne:

"Elizabeth, you told.me yesterday that you'd probably be
leaving school soon. Why?"

My family wants me to get married. My
father says my grades aren't that good
and that it's probably best that I get
married fairly soon.

205

"So, what's soon?"
If I do well on my exams I'll be able to
come back.next year. If not, well, maybe
this summer.

"Do you want to get married?"

Well, I guess I don't mind...it's not
bad.

(Anne joins conversation.)
We all have to marry. My family wants me to
get married soon so I don't know how much
longer I'll be going to school. I'd like to
go until I get my diploma.

Cultural expectations for these girls were to marry and
reproduce. These were the only roles that either the girls or
their parents anticipated they would fill. The limited number
of women in the work force who were well-educated and pursuing
a career, potential role models for girls at Rusimba, appeared
to be one of the reasons that there was little incentive for
the girls to continue their educations. (Hughes & Mwinia,
1989: Stromquist, 1989: University of Nairobi, 1983: and
Vaudrin, 1983 discuss the negative impact that the limited
number of women as role models has on educational
opportunities for women.) It may have been a salient factor
influencing limited parental support for advanced education of
their daughters as well. One of the girls in the fourth-year
classroom, Monique, told.me, "When you look around, you don't
really see a whole lot to convince you to go to school." When

I asked her to elaborate on her comment, she told me:

I don't see women doing very'much, Women
become nurses, secretaries, or teachers.

206
I don't want to be a nurse or secretary,
so that leaves a teacher. Now, look at
this school. There's the directress--of
course, she's white--and Celeste. They
aren't married. Céleste is a good
teacher and all, but she's not married.
Stella and Marie are married but they
have to do all their teaching work ego
work at home, too. If I'm going to have
to do all the work at home, besides
outside--if I have a career--well, I
might as well not work at a career. The

best thing 1 can do is marry a rich
husband.2

Monique's statement, not unlike many others that I heard,
demonstrates that a limited number of female role models (and
most in caretaking roles such as teacher, nurse or secretary)
wasn't the only factor explaining her reluctance to pursue an
education and career. She was fully cognizant of the tension
between home and career obligations and quite reluctant to add
additional responsibilities. If a choice were inevitable, she
saw only one option--marriage came first. The girls at
Rusimba continually wove the assumption that they yoglo marry
and that they should marry and that they meg; marry through

all their conversations with me.

Ru a1 arental e ectat o s a d a tud 8

After talking with the girls at Rusimba about what they
perceived their parent's reasons to be for sending them to
school, I wanted to compare what peyem§e_would say when asked

why they sent their sons and daughters to school. Nearly 200

 

. Including the female directress from Europe,
there were only four women working at Rusimba.

207
interviews with predominantly rural parents were conducted.
As I interpreted the data I found that there were four basic
themes that parents talked about.

The first theme was that girls were in less need of an
education because of the "passive/private" role that they
would play in society as mothers and wives. One rural mother
said: "You send daughters to school to learn the secrets of
reading, but you send sons to school to learn the secrets of
the world." Consistently, rural parents, both fathers and
mothers, indicated that daughters were sent to school to learn
how to better care for their family and take care of their
homes but that sons were given an education to serve society.
The belief that a woman's world was limited to the domestic
sphere, nurturing children, caring for a family, and.that this
required less of an education‘was expressed by nearly ell the
rural parents that were interviewed.

A woman's h ea role was intangibly and
intricately interwoven with the ooilozeoyimg role and the
domestic responsibilities that that entailed. This finding is
not surprising. Kinyanjui (1987) noted in his work in Kenya
that "girls' educational and occupational aspirations tend to
be shaped by the educational system to conform to the existing
definition of the role of women in the society" (p. 32). In
her work in developed countries, Thorne (1987) writes that
"women have no lives apart from children, that mother and

child exist in an isolated dyad" (p. 97) and that a woman's

208

autonomy is caught up in her role as reproducer and child
bearer, a role relegated to her by nature. Most rural parents
believed just that. 1133113 relegated women to what they
perceived as a lesser role than men, one that required little
or no education. Thus, parental expectations for girls to
perform outside that domain were virtually non-existent.
(Collier, 1974: Lamphere, 1974: Lembert, 1985: Moore, 1988:
Okin, 1989: Ortner, 1974: Ram, 1982: Riddell, 1989:
Rosaldo, 1974: Stromquist, 1989: and Yoeman, 1985, discuss
how parental expectations for a daughter's educational
opportunity is negatively influenced because of her role as
reproducer.)

However, there were several rural parents with
dramatically differing views. Two fathers indicated that
girls needed an education. equal to boys in order to
"emancipate women" and "to help their sex." (Like so many
things even emancipation was not a shared responsibility!)
Others mentioned that "girls have the same right to develop
their intelligence as boys." Almost 30% of the rural parents
indicated that girls my; receive an education equal to boys
but gave dramatically different reasons for why boys should go
to school and why girls should go to school. Another 60% of
the parents indicated that a girl's education should be
limited to primary schooling since they would only be working
in the home and gardens. Comments such as these were

frequently given by parents concerning the education of their

209

children: "I send my daughters to school to learn to read and
write. I send my sons to school to enter a career." "My
daughters received a primary education because they need to
read and write so that they can guide their house. I have
sent my sons to school--to university, first for their
personal growth and so that they can participate in the
development of the country." Another parent told Daniel,
"Daughters only need to read and write: but sons need to
become leaders. " Most parents recognized that daughters needed
to be educated so that they could "guide their children" and
"develop a good home" but indicated that this required a
minimal amount of education. (Okin, 1989, found a similar
attitude in developed countries in her work.) Ten percent of
the parents indicated that their daughters had the right to an
education equal to their sons "so that they can marry an
educated husband who will provide well for them." (This
father's response corroborates what several of the girls at
Rusimba offered as reasons why their parents had sent them to
school.) None of the rural parents that were surveyed.
indicated that a girl should receive an education to pursue a
career or lead in society whereas this was the second most
frequently mentioned reason for boys after "so that he can get
a job to help his parents."

A second theme was that educational investment in
daughters should be limited because they don't remain with
their natal families and provide little future profit for the

210
corporate family. One mother commented, "After a girl
marries, she doesn't count anymore." A father told Daniel,

"Women are the goooe [my emphasis] of some other man, so why
would I educate her?" Still another father said:

My daughter is at the same level as my

sons, but I can't continue to afford to

send them all. Since my daughter will be

marrying and leaving my home, I have

chosen to continue with the education of

my sons. My daughter can‘work at home in

the gardens.

A third reason given why parents were hesitant to permit
their daughters to continue their educations was the risk of
pregnancy after puberty. Concern that a daughter's
interaction needed parental supervision accounted for
reluctance to send adolescent daughters to school. Also, as
mentioned earlier in this chapter, a girl's menstrual cycle
was one of the. major’ reasons parents gave for keeping
daughters home from school. One mother succinctly told
Daniel, "Girls are more immoral than boys." A.father told
him, "I sent my oldest daughter to school, and she got
pregnant. I learned my lesson with her." The belief that
girls were less moral, less able to control their sexual
relationships, and consequently, more in need of supervision
was mentioned by a significant number of rural parents.
Sadly, woman as the evil seducer and destroyer of society and
morality is not an uncommon theme in developed or developing

societies and is repeatedly used to justify limited

educational opportunity for females (Daly, 1978: and Okin,

211
1989). Boserup (1970), Brokensha (1973), Ponsi (1988), Porter
(1988) and Smock (1977) all write that parents in developing
countries fear that an education will make their daughters
discontent, imoral, and at a greater risk of getting pregnant
outside of marriage because of compromises in their cultural
heritage and religious integrity.

At the very least, parents were concerned that it would
be the girls, their daughters, who would be left with the
responsibility (and stigma) of a pregnancy. A tragic story
that Jean-Baptiste, one of the teachers at Rusimba, shared
with me underscores why parents do not want their daughters to
continue school after puberty.

There's risk involved sending daughters
to school. When I have children, I'd be
hesitant to send my daughters to school.
It's not easy to get a daughter through.
They drop out along the way or they get
pregnant.

When I finished my fourth-year here at
Rusimba, there were nineteen girls in my
class. Ten of them began fifth.year. In
sixth year there were two. One left the
program--it was too hard for her. The
other one got pregnant--it was sad
because she ‘was zeelly, smart,
particularly in.math. She used to help a
lot of the boys in that subject.

But, she had to leave. The school has
the rule that any girls who are pregnant
can't stay in the school.

What about boys--the fathers--can they stay? Or does the
school expel them as well if they find out who they are?
If the school knows who the father is,
and.he's a student here, they'll kick.him

out, too. But you know, few of the girls
ever tell. The boy convinces them that

212
they'll "take care of them" if they just
don't tell. So, the girls don't.
They're given empty promises--the boys

don't come through and.the girls are left

taking care of the baby. Or they get
abortions.

What about the father in this case? was he a student

here?

She insisted that he wasn't, but I think
he was.

So, what's that girl doing now who left school because
she had a baby?

She's dead--she died in labor5 It's sad
because she was reelly smart.

A parent's reluctance to send a daughter to school,
particularly at the secondary-level when it became necessary
to board, raises some interesting questions about ways in
which daughters are valued and how parental concern for
daughters and support for their educational investment is
played out. From a parent's perspective, it would appear that

it is a better investment in their daughter's future to 11ml;

 

. Most schools would not permanently expel a
girl because of pregnancy. Normally, a girl
is asked to leave until she's given birth to
the baby and found a suitable person to care
for the child. Generally, there would be
little interest in the identity of the father,
at least by the school authorities. Although
this arrangement is less discriminatory
against girls, nonetheless, it's still the
girl who "pays the price." The situation was
different at Rusimba because it was a
conservative Protestant school with, some
might challenge, Puritanical views that

inadvertently perpetuated the victimization of
women.

213
her education since schooling can hinder her marriage options
in two ways: 1) the risk of unwanted pregnancies resulting
from the largely unsupervised interaction that takes place
between girls and boys and 2) the risk of over-education that
reduces eligibility and raises brideprice exorbitantly.
However, when one considers brideprice issues, the question
must be asked if this concern is for the QAQQELQILE future
options or the oompooate family's future financial investment?
A fourth theme mentioned was how an education influenced

brideprice. One father told me that "with a limited primary
education a girl's brideprice is about $15.00, but through a
fourth year secondary-level education, it can reach as much as
$700.00."4 However, a significant number of parents
indicated that too high an education would not be good and
would decrease the possibility that a family would be willing
to pay the brideprice. One father told me:

You don't want your daughters to have

much more than a secondary level

education, .About the fourth year is high

enough, Much more and they won't be able

to get married, and then what would they

be able to do?

Although I was unable to ferret out what was so magical

about the fourth year, I suspect that the age of most of the

 

4. This father's comment, combined with
statements by the girls at Rusimba about
parental pressures to leave school and get
married help explain the dramatic decline in
the girls' enrollment after the fourth year.
It would appear that this is the point in a
girl's education where the financial
investment drops off.

214

girls in the fourth year--most were nearly twenty--was the key
factor. Men commonly married when they are between 28 and 30
years of age. Since they often married girls five to ten
years younger than themselves, the girls at Rusimba in the
fourth year would be just the right age to begin the marriage
negotiations. Statements by the girls would seem to
corroborate this theory.

That rural parents were less supportive of higher
education for daughters is not surprising. Rural parents were
generally poorly educated with most of the parents having less
than three years of primary schooling themselves. Many had
never attended school and were struggling on limited incomes
to educate large numbers of children. (The average number of
children in the sample of rural families was eight, with a
range of living children from one to twelve.) The need to
choose which child would benefit from educational investments
has been a practice in developing countries for generations.
Parents choose the children who they think will provide the
best pay-off for the parents and the siblings (Bowman 8
Anderson, 1980: Kinyanjui, 1981: Mbilinyi, 1973: Mwiria, 1985:
and Stromquist, 1989) . Because women often leave professions
to care for children and/or have limited career options (such
as in Celeste's case), it is felt that to invest in their
education will result in only a limited payoff for the family.

Even when the necessity to choose between children

because of limited financial support does not exist, education

215

of girls appears to be problematic. One father, who had only
one child--a daughter--when asked "Why did you send your
daughter to school?" replied, "I gldn't send my daughter to
school. The school was too far away." Ironically, he lived
less than two miles from the local primary school where his
daughter would have attended. Possibly, one father provided
the most germane reason for parental support in the education
of girls. He succinctly replied.that he sent his daughters to
school "because it's the law."

In contrast to rural parents, urban.parents demonstrated
a stronger interest in support of higher education for their
daughters. In general, parents living in towns had a higher
level of education (many had studied up to the second or third
year of secondary school) and.had some outside income or form
of subsistence other than family gardens. Many of the parents
had made the choice to move from the rural areas in order to
be nearer to the secondary schools where their children could
attend school more cheaply because there would be no boarding
fees. The comments of one father and mother, Isaac and Rahab,
both secondary-level trained nurses at a small dispensary, are
representative of the kind of things that urban parents told
me. They were the parents of three daughters and two sons and
were explaining to me their hope to educate all their children
to the same, relatively high level of education. Isaac told

me that "We are planning on educating all our children the

216

same. Our daughters deserve as much as our sons--besides, it

takes two

incomes to survive in our economy."

When I asked them.what they would do if they didn't.have

enough money to provide educational support for

Rahab, continued:

It's not a question of choice. We moo;

. educate them all the same. We'd borrow

money from family and the older ones
would help educate the younger ones.

them all

Obed and Eugenie are another couple who indicated that

they were determined to educate all their children to the

university level.

Obed was a secondary school director and

his wife Eugenie worked in an insurance office as a typist.

Eugenie told me:

What

I finished school one year short of a D6.
I guess that's not bad really. But, I
wish I were better educated. I want my
daughters to have a better education than
I had. They will have so many
opportunities that I missed out on. I
was lucky though that I was able to marry
an educated man so it worked out OK.

Obed then said:

Yes, that's true. But when ‘we got
married it didn't matter so much that the
‘wives were well-educated. But now, if we
want our daughters to get ahead, they
must be well educated.

does "getting ahead" for your daughters mean?

Eugenie: Having the option to choose a
career and study something that _they
want.

Obed: I agree with my wife. Having a
decent standard of living. Meeting the
right kind of husband.

217
Would you expect your daughter to marry then?
[Obed chuckles and then answers.]

Of course, but I have that expectation
for both my daughters and my sons.

And what if she chose not to marry? Or marry but not
have children?

It would be her choice of course, but I
would encourage her to give serious
thought to not marrying.

How about you Eugenie? What do you think?

I think most women with an education and
career would chose to marry--that's just
the way it is here. 1 would certainly
encourage her to marry.

The expectations for daughters to marry were equally
prevalent for both urban and rural parents. However, the key
difference in their expectations was that urban parents could
project their daughters into roles other than wife or'mother.
However, unless dramatic changes occurred in the sharing of
childcare obligations and domestic responsibilities, these
daughters might become the next generation of Stellas and
Maries, burned-out and fatigued from holding down the dual
obligations of home and work and possibly bitter at the
prospect of doing so.

A more surprising finding was that, in general, fathers
desired a higher level of education for their daughters than
they did for their wives. This was particularly true of the
better educated.men that I spoke with. Leonard, a university

professor, told me that, "My daughters will be better educated

218

than my wife was--maybe they'll all be able to finish

university." He paused for a moment and then continued:
I would never have married Eunice if she
had been university educated, I guess
that sounds strange, but that's how I
feel. All the same, I certainly hope
that my daughters will be university
graduates. At the very least, they moo;
have a secondary level education.

Obed made a comment very similar to Leonard's.

Eugenie didn't attend university and it

was best, but I certainly hope that my

daughters will all get a university
degree.

Studies by Beckett and O'Connell (1976) , Biraimah (1987) ,
Desta (1979), Henries (1974), Korson (1970) and Sanguinetty
(1983) have demonstrated the role that fathers (and other male
authority figures) play as significant gatekeepers in the
education of girls. However, there appears to be little
literature that addresses how men compare the value of
education for their wives and daughters. I can only speculate
about their reasons for desiring higher educations for their
daughters than for their wives. Stromquist (1989) writes that
upwardly-mobile parents desire a higher education for all
their children than they themselves had. (Studies by Bowman
& Anderson, 1980: Hughes, 1986: and Njenga, 1986 discuss the
correlation between parents' level of education, occupation
and income level with expectations for a daughter's level of
education. Their findings show that the more highly parents
are educated, professional parents and parents with a higher

level of income are all more supportive of education for

219

daughters.) A personal communique from Rita Gallin (May,
1991), at Michigan State University's Women in International
Development Center, suggested that the reason for this might
stem from the family alliances that could be created from a
daughter's marriage into an influential and wealthy family.
Perhaps, James (the assistant principal) summed it up best.

Things are changing. We now know that a

good education for all children benefits

the whole family. Even daughters--

married or not--contribute to the well-

being of the family.

However, when I consider the comment by the rural father
who implied that daughters were "goods", possibly the best
explanation is that educated men are "astute" enough to
realize that their "goods" can be educated and sold to the

highest bidder and become somebody else's "problem". But a

wife needs to "obey" and should be a bargain.

Womens' wo k mens' wo

The dual (or triple) obligations that career women
struggled with became a frequent theme in.my discussions with
the students. Early in the data collection period, I asked
all the students in the fourth-year classroom what their
attitudes were about working wives. When first asked the
question, "How do you feel about your wife working?" and then,
"Would you be willing to help your wife in the home duties if
she worked outside the home?," several of the boys indicated

that it would be fine with them for their wives to work. None

220
of the boys were strongly in favor of their own wives working,
although.most of the boys recognized that in order to support
the type of lifestyle that they wanted, it would necessitate
both the husband and wife holding full-time salaried work.

However, it was eVident by ell the boys that a wife's
career should not interfere with responsibilities in the home,
particularly domestic duties that were culturally perceived as
being woman's work.5 .A comment by Josef, one of the married
students in the fourth-year classroom, succinctly describes
how most of the boys felt about wives and careers (and the
obligation and time commitment of domestic duties). "My wife
doesn't work, but if she had.to, as long as my meals are ready
when I want them and I don't have to take care of the
children, I won't complain."

As our discussion of women and careers continued, the
boys became more emotionally involved in the discussion--
talking in a loud, boisterous manner, interrupting one
another, shaking their hands and fists to emphasize their
points. When the discussion eased off and the students began
to walk away, the boys clustered in small groups and.continued
their discussion about the "problems of working wives." When
a few of the girls walked out the door, three of the boys
called after them in Swahili, and the girls stopped, turned

 

. The boys' resistance to wives working outside
the home particularly after there were
children was dramatically brought home to me
when they reacted so strongly to me after my
family's visit to Rusimba.

221
around, shouted a comment to the boys, then walked out the
door, huddled together laughing. I was later told that the
boys had made a comment to those girls about "thinking [they
could] be working wives" and the girls had indicated that
"they'd show them."

The attitudes of the teachers who were men were very
similar to those of the boys. During the interview sessions
with the staff members, I asked a similar question about
working wives. Only three of the ten male staff members
indicated that they would not mind if their wives worked
outside the home if domestic help were available. However,
because of financial constraints from their limited incomes as
school teachers, many of the wives of the teaching staff were
forced to find work outside the home. Without exception, none
of the staff members, men or women, that I spoke with
considered.working in the family gardens, a job that entailed
hours of work outside the home and which contributes vitally
to the subsistence of the family, as anything but working at
"domestic duties." When I spoke to the men about the need to
assist "working" wives with the domestic duties, the men.were
adamant that it was culturally impossible for them to do that.
The shared ideology of acceptable macho behavior was clearly
evident. They felt that certain kinds of responsibilities
with the children such as "carrying the children as we walk
down the street," "helping the children get ready to go to

school" would be marginally acceptable male assistance. But

222
many other kinds of assistance, such as "sweeping the yard
around the house" or "helping to prepare the meals," "bathing
the children," "feeding the children," or "helping in the
garden plot" would be unacceptable. One of the men, Andre,

told me:

I would help my wife with these tasks
inside the house as long as none of my
neighbors saw me doing them [long pause,
uneasy laugh], but if anyone was there
who might see me do such things--I would
be forced to act differently.

The youngest male teacher in the school, Jean-Baptiste,

told me that:

Younger'men are more liberated than older
men. 1 know that women are equal to men
and can do things as well as men. I want
to marry a well-educated.girl who can get
a job...but quite frankly, I don't want
to do all those women things like cook,
clean, care for children. Why should I?
My wife can hire someone to do those jobs
if she works--that's what being equal is
all about. She is free to hire someone
to do the work.

Jean-Baptiste' 8 response mirrors James, Stella' s husband,
(Chapter Six) and raises questions about gender justice in
shared responsibilities of childcare and domestic obligations.
His response also reflects the common perception that men
assume authority in the marriage. Being liberated meant that
Jean-Baptiste would elm his wife to hire a domestic.
Furthermore, his question, "Why should I?" powerfully suggests
that he is in control of the situation, he is not expected to
assume any responsibility here, and clearly he mill IE1; assume

any responsibility here. Ironically, his comment if _s_he w_o:)5e

223
also suggests that the difference between being a liberated
man and an unliberated one rests in the recognition that some
women (well educated women with careers) go be productive and
gen work--at least outside of the house.

In general, men's response to overworked working wives
was "hire a domestic." There appeared to be no realization
that there should be a shared responsibility for domestic
obligations and childcare. Nor did there appear to be any
realization that hiring a domestic just shifted the problem of
being an overworked working woman over to another woman. In
fact, the hired domestic would probably be in a much worse
situation since her limited salary--much lower than a
teacher's salary, which is low enough--would not cover the
additional expense of a domestic for herself to assist in her
own daily domestic obligations. This situation which is
commonly found in central Africa is one which intersects
gender, oles_s, and ele since many of the domestics are young
girls of primary school age. Often these young girls are
family members who have been orphaned or who are "dispensable"
in their own parent's home and would be provided room and
board for their services.

Moore (1988) writes about a similar situation in South
Africa and suggests that young girls working in homes like
this are the epitome of the invisible woman. Other
researchers who have studied domestic patterns in Africa,

including Cock (1980) , Gaitskell, Kimbie, Maconachie and

224
Unterhalter (1983), Hansen (1986) and Jelin (1977), indicate
that hiring of domestics is a way in which women further
subordinate other women.

As I looked for patterns in the kind of work that men
would assist women with, I found that men would not do
anything that involved getting dirty. (Maybe this ties in
with pollution theories--on1y women who are elreegy omeleem
should do unclean work?) The men's resistance to assist their
wives was most noticeable in regards to working in the family
garden plots. I was told that working in gardens was a woman's
job, and men were not permitted to do this kind of work. One
of the teachers, Faustin, told me:

If the garden plots we're talking about
are those that provide food for the
family, I would.be quite hesitant to take
an active role in assisting in the work.
However, if the plots are being used for
growing food to sell at the marketplace,
I'd be more willing to work in them--
except hoe--that is a woman's job.

Even men who were unemployed and spent hours sitting in
front of their huts playing cards or other games while they

listened to the radio and their wives worked in the gardens

from.sunrise until sunset indicated.that they couldn't do that

 

6. At the time Faustin told me this I didn't
question his response. However, as I thought
about this more, very few of the women who
barter at the market garden themselves. They
are small scale businesswomen who spend long
days in the ‘marketplace and evenings
negotiating for the produce that other women
may have in excess. Consequently, it would
appear that Faustin's response was just a way
of getting around the question!

225
kind of work even if they were willing to. Perhaps, the
comment made by one amused university student during an
interview best represents a man's perspective when it comes to
working. "Why, I can't do that. That's what I'll get a.wife

for."

? s e's e t d'

As the data collection period continued, it became
evident that a great number of the men (students at Rusimba,
at the university and married men on staff at various schools)
had strong feelings about marrying women with a similar or
higher level of education than themselves. My first
indication of the boys' reluctance to marry well-educated
women was when I administered the questionnaire to the girls
and boys in the fourth-year classroom. Even though I did not
ask the students about their reaction to well-educated women
and marriage, the boys began talking about marrying "educated
.career women" as they left the room, after completing the
questionnaire. Their subsequent interaction and dialogue,
after leaving the room, underscore the strong emotional
reaction that they had against marrying educated women:

Lamec: I guess I won't be marrying any
of ;h_es_e_ girls if they think
that they'll be going to
university!

Joel: [Shoves Lamec towards the
classroom wall] You don't want

an educated wife? M tell
yoe what to do!

226
[The group of 6 boys laugh]
Lamec: Never!
Henri: (He's married.) That's
why you have to marry
them early like I did--
before they get any
ideas.

When I discussed this question about working wives on the
questionnaire with the boys later, they told me things like,
"educated women don't want to work in the fields:" "they
think they can do what they want and they won't listen to
their husbands anymore:" "they will want to go to bars:” 7
"they get strange ideas about being egoel after getting an
education:" "I don't want an educated wife e_t ell. . .educated
women cause problems." And finally, one asked me, "You're
educated--do yoe do what your husband tells you to do? I
don't think so...I don't want a wife like ;he;!"

Again, themes about delegation and authority that Jean-
Baptiste raised, surfaced in the boys' reaction to my question
about working wives. However, their response raises the issue
of how an educated woman is perceived as a problem. An
educated women will be less likely to obey, challenge her
husband's authority (and society's norms), work less in the
fields, resist her subordinate status. I represented

everything to these boys that they did not want in a wife.

Consequently, their rejection of me near'the end of my stay in

 

. Several informants told me that married women
can't go to bars, althoug singe women can.

227
their classroom wasn't only a message to me of how distasteful
what I was doing was to them, it was also a warning to the
girls in that room not to become like me.8
Conversations with older men revealed equally strong

sentiments about marrying a well-educated woman, particularly

 

. Many of the men and boys that I talked with
were quite anxious to convince me that my
perspective on women was wrong. Aware of my
missionary status and religious orientation,
they would quote the Bible in support of their
beliefs, assuming I would be unable to refute
what they considered the ultimate source for
female subordination. Unfortunately, the
Bible has often been used to advocate the
subordination of women. Csapo (1981), Daly
(1978) , Okin (1989) and Robertson and Berger
(1986) have all discussed how Christianity and
the Bible have been used in this way. In
response, I would point out that Jesus was an
advocate of women's rights. There are many
incidents in the New Testament when Jesus
challenged the prevailing views about women.
In John 8 when the town leaders were ready to
stone Mary because of her adultery, Jesus
confronted her male accusers and sent them
away challenging the double standard and the
victimization of women. Jesus challenged
social norms again in the story shared in Luke
10 when Mary joined the disciples as Jesus
taught his disciples. When Martha complained
that Mary wasn't helping her prepare his meal
in the kitchen, Jesus told Martha that "Mary
hath chosen the better part." In Mark 10 he
challenged the divorce laws of the day that
victimized women: in John 4 he spoke to the
Samarian woman at the well and challenged
racism and social class as well as the
victimization of women. Time after time Jesus
challenged the views that women had less
worth, had been delegated to certain roles and
were subordinate to men. His success is
evident in the role that women played in the
early Christian church. Unfortunately, social
norms and mores are powerful forces and the
change wrought by his teachings was short-
lived. ’

228
if she were better educated than themselves, sentiments that
echoed. what the lboys at Rusimba had said. "They are
demanding." "They don't want to work in the fields anymore."

"They donFt want as many children." "They try to tell the

hesoemes what to do." "They don't want to stay home anymore."
"They won't take orders." "No man would ever consider

marrying a wife more highly educated than himself: it
wouldn't work. Even a wife with the same level of education,
well, I just don't think it would.work. Problems, that's all
there'd be is problems."

Even very well-educated men were reluctant to marry a
well-educated, equally educated, or better educated woman. If
anything, the more educated a man was, the stronger were his
convictions about the level of education his wife should have.
As one university educated man replied:

When my family pays the brideprice to get
me a wife, they expect one who will obey.
If her education will prevent that--it's
better to marry a less educated woman who
will obey without thinking, than one who
will think about obeying.

Another student told me that:

All this talk about higher education for
girls makes me feel very uneasy. I'm not
at all comfortable with discussion about
changing roles, increased education, and
career options for women.

The reluctance to marry well-educated women and men's

anxiety evidenced as we'd discuss this question and other

issues concerning women's rights and changing roles for women,

229

is not unusual.9 Steedman (1985) writes that increased
education creates a promise/threat situation for women.
Higher education promises certain kinds of life changes,
particularly in career options, but threatens to create
tensions and problems in their everyday lives, particularly in
heterosexual relationships. Her work found that many men
suggested that a woman's education represented negative images
of power for them in the form of success and independence.
Rockhill (1987) made similar assertions that education becomes
a threat/desire dichotomy for women. Women wanted the
possibilities that education would provide but were frightened
by the problems that it created for' men and familial
relationships when men were unable to accommodate the changes
resulting from increased education. Moore (1988) and
Robertson and Berger (1986) both write that parents in
developing countries fear that increased educations will cause
their daughters to become too independent. Both Marie and
Celeste daily confronted the promise/threat dichotomy.
Certain options were open to them because of their advanced
educations but each of them faced a distinct albeit different
type of dilemma because of it as well.

Several men spoke out in favor of marrying a well-

educated woman. One was Leonard, a university professor.

 

. Although, many of the citations used in this
chapter come from studies done in developed
countries, the similarities in findings would
seem to indicate that these responses are
quite universal.

230
Leonard.had.married shortly after finishing his undergraduate
work and had given in to paternal expectations and married a
less educated girl from his village. Although Leonard
indicated that he was very content with his marriage and

relationship with his wife, he expressed regret that her

education was so limited.

Even though. my ‘wife is well-educated
compared to many women (she had continued
through.two years of secondary school), I
regret that she isn't. more educated.
When we first got married it didn't
bother me much, but I now realize how
much she's suffered from her lack of
education, She lacks self-confidence and
there's so much that she won't try. Life
is so expensive now that we both have to
work but the only work she can get is
menial. . .working in the school's gardens.
I have encouraged her to go back to
school and she has started taking a few
classes but it's very hard.

I'm now considering going back to school
to get a PhD. We'd have to leave Africa
to do that. That thought frightens her
terribly and she begs me not to go...So,
here we are, both of us trapped by her
limited education. It's too bad more of
the unmarried men you talk to aren't
receptive of what you have to say. They
have no idea how much listening to you
now might help them in the future.

Despite Leonard's understanding of his wife's restricted
life chances because of her limited education, his point of
reference appears to remain focused on how it has impacted oi;
future. Even his concern about my message and the reception
it had received, is projected towards a male audience--how it
might help men in their futures. His concern does not seem to

be directed towards an audience of women and how important it

231
is that ;eey listen to what I was saying. Even for men who
appear to have a more liberal attitude about higher education
for ‘women, there remains an underlying assumption that
increased education is essential for women because of the way

it impacts and influences the lives of men.

us 0

As young girls growing up in a traditional society, they
are daily taught--at home, at school, in church--in nearly
every social context that exists that their primary function
is to become wives and mothers. Long before they begin school
they have assumed a major portion of the domestic
responsibilities that accompany these two roles. They clean
homes, they cook food, they care for younger siblings, they
work in gardens. This apprenticeship for marriage becomes an
opportunity cost limiting their access to school and lowering
their success in school. Their future roles as wives and
mothers also limits the kinds of schooling that they receive
and how much schooling they can get. Gender interaction
patterns in school respond to these cultural expectations.
Girls receive limited and different kinds of attention from
teachers, have fewer learning materials, and assume a care-
taking role in the classroom. As girls become older, less
support is given for their education until finally (generally
long before they finish.primary school), they are permanently

pulled out and arrangements are begun to marry them off.

232
Given the social context there in which girls go to school,
its quite remarkable that as many of them take schooling as
seriously as they do.

Findings from my study show that two closely linked
factors contribute to limited educational attainment for
women. The first factor is kinship patterns and brideprice.
In a patrilineal-patrilocal system, a daughter's value to her
family rests in her role as a marriage commodity. Parents
primarily base decisions on how much to educate a daughter on
the principle that she must be educated enough to maximize her
brideprice without pricing her out of the market. The second
factor that contributes to a girl's education centers on
division of labor patterns that exist in central Africa. It
is believed that women have the limited role in society of
caring for children, tending the home and working the gardens.
These activities are perceived as passive and private
activities which require less education than the active and
public kinds of responsibilities that men assume and which are
perceived to have a greater need of an education.

Although this cultural expectation exists, there are
girls who resist and struggle--against social isolation and
even emotional and physical abuse--to achieve an education.
However, this is achieved at a price. Many well-educated
women sacrifice marriage and children at the expense of a
career. Others who do marry become burdened down and burned-

out from the dual obligations of career demands and home

233
responsibilities. Negotiation with men for shared
responsibilities in domestic obligations rarely exists and
even if they do, the usual response is to hire outside help to
assist with the work load--a response that raises concerns
about social class, gender, and age.

Another important finding of this study is that parents
generally do not.see schools (at least at the secondary level)
as places of acquiring academic and disciplinary knowledge for
girls. Instead, schools are waiting places, places of refuge,
scouting out places and brideprice enhancement places--all
functions that revolve around a girl's marriageability. Once
these functions are served, a girl's education is terminated
and she is be strongly encouraged to assume the role that
she's been under apprenticeship for for years.

This finding raises important questions about the
possible dysfunction between what educators--local and
Western, developmental agencies and governmental officials--
perceive the function of schools to be and what parents
perceive the function of schools to be. Governmental reform
policies focused on enhancing student outcomes based on
academics may‘ well be counterproductive and ineffective
because of a parental lack of response to these issues.
Further study needs to be given to this issue with.particular
emphasis placed on ways that women's educational options can
be improved which may mo; come from the educational sector.

One such possibility that I have considered is that improving

234
the roads would do more for women's education than anything in
the classroom. Improved roads would cut down on travel time
that married women would need to visit their families and
could result in increased interaction and contributions
between a married daughter and her natal family. This would
moderate the impact of patrilocality by changing a girl's
relationship to her natal family after'marriage and lessening
the significance of brideprice.

While conducting the literature review for this study, I
noticed that a plethora of research has been conducted which
attempted to assess the value of a woman's education in.Third
World countries. Studies existed that correlated decreased
infant mortality rates and mother's level of education, family
nutrition and.mother's level of education, height of children
and mother's level of education, improved agricultural
production and women's level of education (Behrman & Wolfe,
1987: Benavot, 1989: Cleland & Rodriguez, 1988: Cochrane,
1979, 1983: Lockwood & Collier, 1988: Schultz, 1989: and
Timur, 1977 among my others). Nearly every study imaginable
demonstrating how educating women was beneficial existed. I
found it ironic that of all these studies that have been done
demonstrating the value of education, I found none that
correlated anything with the value of a memle education. As
researchers we need to ask ourselves if these studies--ones
that focus so exclusively on the need to justify educational

costs for women--respond to Third World biases or our own?

235

Research studies such as these reinforce that there needs
to be justification given for monies spent on the education of
'women, Furthermore, they’ tend. to correlate. educational
studies with.outcomes that focus on the.domestic and.childcare
responsibilities that women have, further reinforcing that
these are the natural, most important benefits from educating
women. It is incidental that studies have been done to
provide data that demonstrate the inequalities that exist for
girls in school in hopes of improving conditions for them: or
to show the benefits that are gained from educating girls.
Even when rationale are given to the local populations for
studies that they take part in, it is unlikely that they think
about these things in the same way that the researcher does.
Unfortunately, all to often, I'm afraid that within the local
community definitions and explanations are developed that
respond to their own world-view--creating a tension between
what is being done and what is perceived is being done.

The tension between what I thought I was doing and what
my informants thought I was doing, became an important part of
this study, one that I didn't fully recognize until I had left
the field and returned to the West. In Chapter'8 I reflect on
some of these tensions and record.my personal responses about

this unforeseen consequence of the study I was doing.

CHAPTER EIGHT
The Point of Beginning1
Most of the girls in the rural areas will
end up like their mothers having child
after child, hoeing in the fields from
sunrise until sunset, dying young.
James, Vice Principal

I have taken four journeys that have significantly
influenced my life. The first journey was when I was a
sophomore in college and I studied in England for one year.
It was the first time I'd left North America and I became
painfully aware of just how ethnocentric I was.

The second journey was when I first went to Africa in
1978. Although my stay in England heightened my cultural
awareness, I was totally unprepared for the realities of
living in a Third World country. Everything--the poverty,

illness, primitive living conditions, and overcrowding--

overwhelmed me. ‘ Furthermore, I had suddenly become a minority

 

. During the month of May, 1991, my parents came
to live with me so that they could take over
the domestic obligations that I had as a
"single mother" of four children while my
husband was on a month-long business trip to
Africa. My mother not only gave me emotional
support but continually proofread my material.
During one session, I mentioned to her that
after all the data collection, analysis and
writing, I felt as if I had come back to the
beginning again. She thought that 'was very
interesting and told me that a surveyor's
term, 13 goin; of Beginning, was used to
verify accuracy in a survey. If the surveyor
didn't arrive back at the point where the
survey was first begun, it indicated that
somewhere a mistake had been made. She then
suggested that the term might be appropriate
as the title for the last chapter.

236

237
living in a culture I didn't understand among people who
expected so much from me.

The third journey was my trip to Malawi, Zambia and
Zimbabwe in the fall of 1989. I had just completed my data
collection for my study and had an overwhelming desire to take
a vacation. I now suspect that I needed to get away from the
confinement and pain that had been shared with me. However,
at the time, I didn't realize this.

When I spoke with my husband, he regretfully told me that
since he'd been left responsible for the university, he could
not leave. I felt trapped. For the past three years my
message had been that women needed to be independent and lead
lives of their own. I had encouraged women not to allow men
to hold them back. I had preached (to the point of vapidity
for some I'm sure) that if there was something that they
really wanted to do, they should go for it! Everyone at the
university knew that I wanted to make the trip. They also
knew that my husband was unable to go away. And I knew that
they were waiting to see what I would do. So, I decided to
take the four children and go without Bob.

My decision to go on my own received mixed reactions.
Nearly everyone doubted I would actually follow through with
my decision. The children were dubious about going without
their father. And Bob was concerned that this time I might be
just a bit too adventuresome and suggested I reconsider.

Fortunately, I ole listen to Bob and reconsidered. I decided

238
that it would be best if I took only the two oldest children
and left the younger two with their father.

When I left, dry season was almost over. Layers of dust
covered everything. The bushes, trees, even the houses and
people walking alongside the road seemed to be slowly
dying from a lack of rain.

I couldn't help but notice how much the terrain seemed to
reflect.my mood, I was frustrated that I was caught in.my own
web. Most importantly, for all my talk, I was angry that I
was afraid to make the trip. Afraid that we might be detained
by soldiers, that there might be car problems, that there
might be border difficulties, that we might be robbed by
bandits. Afraid to go without Bob. Afraid I couldn't do it
on my own.

It was the time of slash and burn when we traveled.
Fires blazed in the distance, smoke.billowing up and covering
the horizon, .At one.point in Zambia near the end.of the trip,
I had to drive through a tunnel of flame. Menacing fingers of
fire reached out to engulf the car. Smoke filled the air
making it difficult to breathe and nearly impossible to see.
' The heat was oppressive. I was afraid to drive too fast or
too slow: afraid that I might meet a car that would force me
to drive closer to the raging inferno on my side of the road.
But when the fires died and the haze lifted, the plains opened
up, confinement disappeared and the parched earth was ready

for the life-giving rains.

239

When I returned the rains had come. Everything was
green, vibrant, alive. It seemed like a new world. And I was
a new person. The journey was my odyssey. It had been a
catharsis for me, a journey of self-discovery that I could do
it on my own. I'd been detained by soldiers, but I managed.
I'd. had car' problems, but. I managed. I'd. had. border
difficulties, but I managed. And I'd been robbed by bandits,
but I managed.

Each phase of the trip created new challenges. In
Burundi, the car was winched onto a ferry with all our
belongings. When we were unable to board later that night,
several other stranded tourists joined me, Heather and Danny
on a two mile hike past a hippo-infested beach to the nearest
phone and a taxi. (Prior to our departure from the
university, Bob had made me promise not to drive down that
same section of road after dark since it was so dangerous.)
For over half a mile a group of drunken men shouted
Obscenities at us and threatened to rob us of our "goods."
Once on board, during the three-day trip down Lake Tanganyika,
we were harassed by drunken male passengers and crew members
until we finally resorted to locking ourselves in our
bunkrooms. (I convinced the crew and officers that I was 60
years old and since age is generally greatly respected there,
it served to gain me a bit of respite from their
"attentions".) Sanitary conditions were deplorable: food was

questionable: mosquitoes were omnipresent: the heat was

240

unbearable. But the scenery was incredible and we'd watch
fascinated from our screened window as dugout canoes, full of
goods to barter and passengers to load on (or off), would skim
across the sparkling blue waters as the ferry made its way
along Tanzania. At night, men carrying blazing torches would
stand in the stern of the dugouts and the women on shore and
in the dugouts, would sing in unison as the men paddled to the
rhythm of their music. When we landed in Zambia, there was no

gangway to walk on and I had to jump off the boat, twenty feet
above crocodile-infested water onto a pier two feet from the
boat's side. At one point of the trip near the southern part
of Zaire that juts down into Zambia, I was stopped by machine-
. gun-totting soldiers and ordered to count out all of our money
in front of them. Heather spotted large pieces of artillery
placed high up on cliffs that bordered each side of the road.
I looked out on the sea of faces around me. Not one was a
woman's and none seemed friendly. Wherever I went, I was
continually asked where my husband was and questioned why 1
was traveling alone. (Obviously, the children didn't count.)
Memories of traveling alone in Zaire and being required by law
to carry a letter of permission from Bob haunted .me and I
wondered if I were breaking the law there, traveling without
my husband's letter allowing me to journey without him. In
Malawi, where the government requires women to wear dresses
which must cover the knees, mobs crowded around us as we

donned swimsuits to snorkel in Lake Malawi. Only in Zimbabwe,

241

where there are larger numbers of whites, was our presence
taken for granted. However, the animals took over where the
people stopped. As I drove around Wange game reserve,
hopelessly lost off the main track, a huge elephant crossed my
path, flapped ears and bellowed menacingly until I backed up
several feet to let it pass by. I noted with amusement that,
just like all the other confrontations we'd had on our trip,
it was a male who'd crossed our path!

My third journey is intricately interwoven with my fourth
journey, also a journey of self-discovery. In many respects,
my fourth journey has been the most difficult one that I have
made. I lost baggage along the way. Many times I got lost,
wondered where I was going and questioned if I knew the way.
But, as all journeys come to an end, so does my fourth
journey, my Seibren journey, come to a close. In this last
chapter I will discuss my Seibren journey, highlighting
important aspects of it. I will share what I've learned about
my understanding of women and how this study has influenced my
thinking. Ironically, like a surveyor, I have come back to
The Point of Beginning as I consider the impact of this study

on me, on my informants and on others.

Femin s -- he e Woman's ovement
It has become established dogma of the women's rights
movement that gender justice and an expanded role definition

for 'women. are concepts equally ‘valid for developed. and

242

developing countries. Calman (1987) , in her paper, (which
serves as the basis of definition for my use of genoer
jos;ioe), "Are Women's Rights 'Human Rights'?", questions if
gender justice exists. She writes that the general principles
of equality include economic, political, educational, and
female reproductive rights. She further states that it
includes the right to be free from the threat of emotional or
physical abuse and freedom from unequal domestic obligation.1

In 1984, following a presentation at Michigan State
University, Gloria Steinem was asked whether the attempt to
extend the movement for women's rights to Third World
countries was not a form of cultural colonialism. She
responded that even within Third World countries, spontaneous
movements for women's rights had emerged and that women's
organizations were simply responding in support of home-grown
efforts which had essentially the same goals. However, my
research would suggest that this view of home-grown goals
having a global application may be naive. Consequently, the
time may have come to re-examine the relationship between
women, the women's movement, and cultural identity in Third
World countries.

I had a strong sense of identification with the women in

my study and was strongly motivated to help them change their

 

1. Although she also includes the right to

' career and equal pay for equal work, in
response to the cultural resistance that
observed, for the purposes of this study,
classified these under "role expansion".

HHD“

243

situation. I believed that as women we had a shared
oppression, and I felt that what was right for me must be
right for them as well. Furthermore, I saw myself as the
voice representing the rights of those women in my study.
Ironically, because of this agenda of speaking for the women
instead of wfin them, I effectively muted their voices and
made them the "other" in my research.2

It wasn't a reciprocal relationship, and many of the
women and girls had a great deal of trouble identifying with
what I represented. My life of relative ease was in stark
contrast to theirs. Where I had a husband who was the major
source of financial support for me, most of the women who
spoke to me had the dual obligation of domestic
responsibilities and serving as the primary source of
financial support for their families. This tension in
relationship that I experienced existed between the local
women as well: between lower class women and upper class

elite women .

 

. Ardener (1975) was among the first to write
about muted groups and identified it as a male
bias in a male model of research. Others,
including Moore (1988) , Reiter (1975) , Rosaldo
(1978) and Snyder (1979) have substantiated
this, writing that women have become the
"other" in research models which creates
frustrated communication between researcher
and research community. Moore (1988, p. 3)
writes, "Women cannot use the male-dominated
structures of language to say what they want
to say, to give an account of their view of
the world. Their utterances are oblique,
muffled, muted."

244

The tension between women is particularly significant
when one considers the feminist.movement currently developing
in central Africa. women activists calling for reform are
either'white, expatriate women, or elite, well-educated.women
who can identify with the cultural context and feminist agenda
of the ‘Western nations which, to a large extent, have
developed an "isomorphic" perspective on the needs of women.
Delmar (1986), Miss (1986) and Moore (1988) write about the
dangers of "isomorphic" concepts in which feminists (and
developmental agencies responding to the feminists' agenda)
naively assume that women globally have a shared oppression
and similar needs. The struggle that Third World women face
is not recognized in the white, middle-class agenda which
narrowly confines itself to gender discrimination, so the
movement is rejected as is the term remlnlen in many Third
World countries (Johnson-Edim, 1991).:3 Mohanty (1991) writes
that "western feminist discourse and political practice is
neither singular nor homogeneous in its goals, interests, or
analyses (but) it is possible to trace a coherence 0f.§£fi§£§§
resulting from the implicit assumption of 'the West' as the

primary referent in theory and praxis" (p. 52).

 

3. Hood (1984), Hooks (1931), Joseph (1981),
Joseph and Lewis (1981), Moraga and Anzaldua
(1981), Okeyo (1981) and Savane (1982) have
discussed.these isomorphic'tendencies and have
variously labeled them as a bourgeois,
singularly antisexist, white, middle class
struggle of the developed world.

245

To a large degree, the reform and feminist movement in
central Africa is "isomorphic" in its orientation. The model
operates from.the top down, creating a disparate relationship
between this political agenda and traditional values and
lifestyles. Class issues are a Ikey concern since the
assumption is made that reform relevant for the elite will
ultimately have a positive impact for middle and lower class
women, an effect that I refer to as "trickle-down gender
equity."

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Lower- and middle-
class women, particularly those in the rural regions, consider
many of these reforms a Western imposition and they question
the validity of these changes in their own lives. You will
recall James and Stella, both teachers at Rusimba. During one
conversation with them, Stella shared with me some of her
thoughts on the local feminist movement.

I like the idea that they're trying to
improve the life of the rural women
particularly in the area of domestic
abuse. But it's unfortunate that the
women who need this the most are the ones
who have trouble identifying' with it
because they don't understand what it's
all about.

The whole concept is so foreign to them.
I think the government is trying very
hard to make changes--and to a certain
extent they have been very successful.
But these kinds of changes take so long.
I hope that as more women become involved
in the movement, a role model that rural
women can identify 'with. will emerge.
Well-educated women who have a career,

are just as "different" to rural women as
you are.

 

246

James adds:

I think a very serious stratification is
developing' here. Rural families who
follow'the traditional lifestyle are very
resistant to change. For instance, they
may comply to a certain extent with
reforms that say they must educate their
daughters. But in the end it won't
happen. They'll find ways to avoid it.
And most of the girls in the rural areas
will end up just like their* mothers
having baby after baby, hoeing in the
fields from sunrise until sunset, and
dying young.

Nearly all of the women I talked with had concerns about
the feminist movement and how changes associated with it would
influence their lives, One phrase 'that repeatedly' was
mentioned was that it was a "white woman's" movement and
unrealistic in their culture. Of all the women that I spoke
with, none were more vocal than the girls at Rusimba. They
argued that the current economic situation offered little hope
of employment and indicated their frustration that current
reforms designed after "a model for white women" failed to
meet their needs or cultural expectations. None was more
adamant than Josie.

Josie was a student in the fourth year at Rusimba who
demanded attention, commanded respect. This was due in part
because she was strikingly tall, slender, sinuous. She was
also unusual in several respects. In a world.where girls are
passive students, Josie was assertive, noticeably competitive,
and an outstanding student. She was also a leader in the

classroom and appeared to direct much of the resistance

247

against French that I observed. Interestingly, she seemed
aloof and condescending towards me unlike, the other girls in
the classroom. From the moment I entered the classroom, Josie
intrigued me because she was so atypical. Even from the
beginning I knew that she would have an interesting story to
tell. I tried to get to know'her'better, ‘With few exceptions
Josie resisted my overtures, ignored me, walked away. In some
respects, Josie managed to control parts of my research (just
like she controlled some things in the classroom) through.the
way she manipulated my access to her, filtering a bit of
information to me now and then through Daniel.

One afternoon during a particularly lively discussion
with many of the other students in the room about the
possibility of a woman president in their country, I observed
that Josie was sitting in her corner carefully listening to
the interaction taking place. After everyone had left and I
was gathering up my things to go, Josie decided it was time to
"talk." I could see the fire in her eyes, the anger in her
walk, the defiance in her stand, and prepared myself for what
she might say.

You tell us to get an education and enter
a career. But they're just words. What
do you know? ‘You're a white woman and it
was easy for you. Do you know how hard
it is just to get here? You don't
understand our struggles. These are just

words to you but to us they are a fight
against family and traditions. Yon jus;
submandmritst—Liselldmtmy
emphasis]. And what you say, they're
just a white woman's words.

248

Josie finished and stood silent before me for several
seconds then walked out the door. Her words stung me.
Agonizingly I went over the words that she had flung at me
word by word, phrase by phrase. Her message was clear, for
me, for anyone. And, as it turned out, her message pointed
out three things that I had failed to recognize before.

One thing was Josie's resentment over the white woman's
agenda in the feminist movement which I represented. Because
of this, she resisted just like so many of the other women
resisted. They resisted because they had very little choice.
If they had dreams of pursuing their educations and entering
a career, a contradiction existed, a push-pull (Smitherman,
1981) sort of dilemma. They didn't want the roles of their
mothers--over-worked, bearing child after child, prematurely
aging or the endless stream of work that women like Marie with
careers eng_domestic responsibilities faced. But neither did
they see any avenue in which to avoid this role since the
feminist activists that they saw were the white expatriate
women and elite women who modeled lives of relative ease, full
of material possessions, high status, and exposure to‘Western
ideas and lifestyles. Consequently, they daily faced the
paradox of accepting the traditional role which would limit
their futures but achieve social acceptance and a certain,
limited form of security in the form of marriage and kinship

obligations. Or they could pursue an education and career and

249
risk the opportunity to marry, have children and obtain social
acceptance.

Resistance to change in traditional roles is not
uncommon. Forray and.Hegedfis (1989) found similar resistance
in.Romani females in an attempt to preserve ethnicity. Kusha
(1987) writes that during the White Revolution Regime, Iranian
women were caught in the dilemma of fighting for women's
rights that at times were in total opposition to their fight
for cultural identity, causing them to forego change in the
one in order to preserve the other, Williams (1986) explains
that in Central America traditional viewpoints concerning
woman's status and roles are defended by women as well as men
and resistance to change in these areas is very strong.
VerEecke (1989, 3) writes that Fulbe women in Nigeria
"struggle to retain their distinctiveness" and resist changes
that other West African women have adopted. Trask (1984)
poignantly shares her struggle as a Hawaiian feminist:

For a woman like myself, educated but
indigenous, there is really no question
of choosing to fight. In the language of
Third World analysis, I am a colonized
woman of color. If I wish to survive
while preserving something of my
integrity and that of my people, I have
no choice but to fight, and I have no
other vehicle than the cultural
solidarity of my people (p. 15).

Just as Trask fought back, so did Josie when it appeared
that the feminist movement challenged her belief system and
required a substantial shift in cultural identity (Strathern,

1987 and Rosaldo, 1980).

250

Throughout my study, this resistance to change in woman's
role because of cultural identity was a great paradox for me.
Historical accounts of the colonial period have documented the
ways in which colonial administrators and mission groups
introduced Western gender-stereotypes and dramatically
worsened women's status in Africa. These changes were far-
reaching and affected all facets of life (Phillips, 1989).
They affected the division of labor and production (Boserup,
1970: Bossen, 1975: Sacks, 1975: and Seymour, 1975). They
introduced cash crops for men and new domestic obligations for
women (Pellow, 1986: Quinn, 1977: Sanday, 1981). They
developed laws to deny women land rights and inheritance
(Obbo, 1980 and Tadesse, 1984). They limited ‘women's
educational opportunity and technological knowledge (Bryceson
8 Mbilinyi, 1979: Dennis, 1984: and Feldman, 1981). And they
eliminated women's access to power (Moore, 1988: Mullings,
1976 and Robertson, 1976). Bay and Hafkin (1976) write that
"...the process of deterioration of status that beset women
under colonialism has continued...into post-colonial Africa"
(p. 17).

It wasn't until I had left the site and returned to the
West that I realized.that.my hidden agenda served.to reinforce
the resistance to the feminist agenda. Resistance because of
the agenda's racial implications. Resistance because of the

agenda's Western origins and assumptions. ‘Resistance because

251
of the agenda's class implications. Resistance because of the
hopelessness of it all.

I should have been more observant of the signs along the
way, warning me how incongruous my agenda was in this cultural
context. One sign came after I had finished a final
evaluation of one of our pedagogy students, Jerome, a student
I had known since our first stay in Africa many years before.
I had offered him a ride home in the car. After we arrived at
his home, we sat in the car for quite some time as he regaled
me with snatches of his childhood and shared with me his hopes
for the future.

I am the first person in my family to
graduate from secondary school and attend
college--it has been very hard and all my
family have sacrificed so much. It is
very hard but they know that if I can get
my degree I will be able to help educate
the others in my family.

My family comes from a very isolated
region. I’ll never forget the first time
I left my father's home. My father,
younger brother, and I walked for several
days to get to the secondary boarding
school that I would be attending. All
three of us were barefoot--I was 15 years
old and had never worn a pair of shoes.
When we got to the school we saw these
gray-colored, hard, straight paths.

My father was afraid and told me that I
mustn’t walk on them--they must be some
kind of fetish that someone had put out--
maybe the white teachers at the school.
So we walked in single file on the grass
alongside the hard paths. [He stops
talking, looks down at his shoes and
chuckles] . Concrete sidewalks, that's
what they were. I had so much to learn.
My father is still concerned about my

252

walking on them so I tell him that I
still walk on the grass alongside them.

The sun had long since gone as we sat there, and we both
knew that one of our last visits was quickly drawing to a
close. I started to turn the car back on when Jerome quietly
asked, "Madame, can I speak:with.you? ‘You have asked.me about
my future, now may I talk to you about yours?"

I know that you think that your talk
about changing roles for women is right,
but I can’t help thinking it won’t work
here. I think of my mother and consider
your ideas. Our lives are so structured
here--there are certain.things that women
can do and cannot do and that men can and
cannot do. If we begin to change this,
well, I’m afraid our society will fall
apart. . . [Jerome pauses and hesitantly,
almost apologetically continues] . . . like
yours has.

I want to marry an educated girl. I
don’t mind her working at least before
our children arrive. But once we have a
child, I would want her to stay home with
them. Maybe you misunderstand the value
that children play in our society. They
are our future, who we are. Just as I am
my family's future, so will my children
become my future taking care of me as I
become old and cannot care for myself.

I ask Jerome if it isn't possible for men and women to
share in the responsibility of nurturing children. In fact,
wouldn't he see this as a better arrangement, giving both.men
and women an opportunity to impact the future?

No, I don't think so. Women were made to
have and care for children. Not men.
These roles mustn't be changed. If I
were to tell my mother to do something
else, she would be unhappy and would
wonder why I don't want her to care for
me. No, our way is best as it is.

253

I guess for you these changes are OK but
within our society this is not only best,
it's the only thing that will work
because we all have faith in the
traditional belief systems. If we begin
to question some of the system, we will
begin to question it all and then who
will we be?

I ask Jerome if this belief system is about male power
and authority and control. He considers my question for a
moment and then replies.

Yes, but it's much more involved than
that and hard to explain to someone from
outside the culture. Even if I can
explain it to you, you would never
understand.

Jerome's message was no less impassioned than Josie's.
But Jerome openly addressed the fear. Fear of losing one's
cultural ways and.worldview, everything that one knows, feels
and is. But, also, it was about men's fear of losing power.

Another sign I should have noticed was a "mama" I met on
one of the visits that.I made.to an isolated school miles from
the main road. A question that she asked.me should have made
me aware of how absurd my agenda, as role model, was in their
eyes. But I was so determined to accomplish what I thought
needed to be done, I failed to see her message.

For over half an hour I'd been competing with the long-
horned cows for ground as I tried to navigate the car through
mudholes and around giant lava rock outcroppings. Daniel and
I were visiting local primary schools in the area and we had

one left to visit. The sky was an ominous gray, and I knew

that the afternoon torrents were on their way and would soon

254
make a nearly impassable road all the more impossible. We
arrived at the school, and I parked where I could see the
children but they'd be unable to see me. I'd been through
this before. If I parked where they could see me, they'd run
away from.the school in order to surround.my car in an attempt
to touch me, talk "at" me. If they disobeyed their teachers
and refused to return to school, the teacher would come with
a switch and slap at their bare legs. Chaos would break out
as the students would scream and run away, avoiding the
stinging switch. It's a role I'm uncomfortable with and try
to avoid, so I'd.bide while Daniel would.go into the school to
count the students in attendance and interview the director.“

The school has been built in two blocks
made of sun-dried brick. There are no
windows on any of the walls that I can
see, just one or two small ventilation
openings near the top of the walls. Only
one of the buildings has a roof: the
other has joists but no covering. I look
out the 'window and 'watch the black,
threatening clouds roll in and I wonder
what the classrooms in the building
without the roofs will do.

As I write, a lady with a baby tied to
her back and who has been working in the
field nearby walks up to the car and
peers inside. Her top is badly torn,
exposing large parts of her upper torso
to the chill. She chews on a piece of
grass and I notice that her nails are

 

. This behavior objectified me--l became the
object of their study and I didn't like how it
felt to be an object or oddity. My own
feelings of uneasiness with this kind of
behavior, should have cued me in to the
complexity, the incongruity and
incompatibility, of what I was doing there.

255

broken and chipped, and.dirt from working
in her garden is caked around her
fingernails. The cloth wrapped around
her waist is frayed and dirty. Her feet
are bare and covered with mud.

Every now and then the baby on her back
begins to whimper, and the mother begins
to gently rock back and forth while she
reaches her hand around to pat the baby
on its bottom. Flies are everywhere.
They land on the baby's face, on her

face, on the car. She seems oblivious to
them.

Her gaze hasn't faltered, and I turn to
look at her more closely. She looks
away, and brings her hand up over her
face and begins to laugh nervously. She
wasn't expecting to be noticed.

Daniel comes back to the car and climbs
inside. She says something to him in the
local language, and he answers back.

"She wants to know who you are and why a
white woman would come out so far from
the road. I told her you are a teacher,
and.that you are trying to find out about’
this school." I ask him to ask her if
she went to school. He does. She laughs
in reply.

She looks pregnant--it's hard to tell. I
have Daniel ask how many children she
has. She thinks for a moment and then
says, "Just as many as I can plant a
garden for." This time it's our turn to
laugh because we know that however many
children she has that would be her reply.
I ask Daniel to ask if she's happy with
all the work she has to do.- She smiles
broadly, and I notice that several of her
teeth are gone. "I have a house, for the
moment.my children aren't sick, a husband
who leaves me alone, gardens to work in.
What more could I want?" [I recall the
local saying: "May you sleep where you
feel the bedbugs bite". In other words,
be happy that you're alive and alert to
life in all its facets, good or bad.]

256

I start the car, and she says something
to Daniel again. I ask him what she
said, and he tells me, "She just oenl;
understand why you came out here so far
away from the main road just to see this
school. She wonders what's so important
about ;nle one."

I'd often thought that rural women were street level
philosophers. This one, with one small question, had forever
removed any doubt. Here we were, two women, from two
cultures, mirror images in so many respects, yet one was hard
at work struggling to eke out an existence for her family
while the other was driving around the countryside alongside
the cattle to count noses, seeing herself as the role model to
the women in that area, the person who could help them address
the problem of women's subordinate role in life.

Even though the storm thundered in and poured out its
vengeance all about us, my fears that we might become mired in
muck miles from the paved road were forgotten as I pondered
her question. I chuckled all the way back to the road (and
still do today when I recall this incident). I often wonder
if that mama I met on the road still wonders what's special
about Qe; school. Maybe she's even shared with her community
what she observed and "learned" that day.

Yet, as amusing as it may appear, the irony and tragedy
of this short interaction between two women from two different

worlds can't be dismissed, especially by me. Just what wae I

doing there?

257

Just another strangeI white women

If I stepped outside the front door of my house, the
panorama that surrounded me was breathtaking. We found that
travelers to the area were fascinated by the region in which
we lived because of its beauty and juxtaposition of modern
with traditional. They would be particularly interested in
our proximity to the gorillas and Karisoke, the research site
that Dian Fossey had founded high up on a saddle between two 1
of the. larger 'volcanos, Karisimbi and.‘Visoke, near' our
compound.

Although I have always been impressed.with the work.that
Dian did, I found it difficult to understand her. I wasn't
alone in this. Dian grew more and more withdrawn and bitter
in the last years of her life, antagonistic to those whose
cooperation she most needed in her work. Except for a small
circle of friends, Dian's work was increasingly devalued and
even rejected by some (personal communique, Alan Goodall,
April, 1989). She was intensely disliked by many of the
peOple who lived in that area, iNearly all of the local people
believed that she was a "strange, white woman" who felt more
at ease with animals than with her own kind. At the very
least, I believe.that Dian.had.tunne1 vision and failed.to see
the larger picture before her. I often wondered.how a person
could become so short-sighted and eclipse the work that needed
to be done by behavior like she often exhibited.

258

As I reflected on that mama's question more, I was
literally shocked to realize that from the local perspective,
1 was probably just another strange, white woman who had come
on the scene.5 As I considered my personal experience, I
began to better understand why Dian acted as she did. After
all, I had gone "crazy" in the market one afternoon.

When we returned to Africa in 1987, I was determined to
effect change in the church policy that married women employed
by the church in Third World countries were on a different pay
schedule than men working alongside them doing very similar
work. I felt it was a policy that reinforced a cultural bias
about a woman's contribution and I argued that whatever a
woman's marital status, there should be equal pay for equal
work. I also wanted to effect change that would give a) woman
employees job security, b) unemployed6 wives service credit

and retirement benefits for years served as missionaries

 

. I do not mean to be presumptuous here and
imply that I accomplished anything so
impressive as what Dian Fossey had
accomplished. My point is that from the local
perspective, my agenda and behavior was no
more understandable than the other Dian's was.

. "Unemployed" was a misnomer in many respects.
Not only did it ignore the incredible demands
of running a household under less than ideal
circumstances but it also didn't acknowledge
that it was the wives who held no salaried
positions at mission compounds who assumed.the
bulk of the work entertaining official
visitors, a job that could become quite
exhausting and physically demanding.

259

overseas and c) all women representation at all levels of the
administrative hierarchy.7

Initially, I talked a great deal about my concerns to
anyone who would listen but particularly to two groups: my
women colleagues and church administrators who were in a
position to effect change. When it was obvious that this
wasn't enough, I began to write letters. I then spearheaded
a group of three other women who assisted me in sending out a
questionnaire (in both French and English) to over three
hundred women working in our division (a church administrative
area) concerning these policies that discriminated against
women. I also organized a petition requesting that these
policies be re-evaluated. When it became apparent that change

was not forthcoming, I resigned.8 My lack of success in

 

7. Of all the things that I struggled to
accomplish.I*was only able to effect change in
one area. The university agreed that a woman
needed to be on the administrative council and
placed.the campus M.D. on the committee. ‘Much
later I learned that the church's development
agency, Adventist Developmental Relief Agency
(ADRA), was forced to place several women on
their administrative committee at the division
level in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, if they wanted
to continue receiving development funds from
the 0.8. and other Western countries.

. .Although Bob gave me a great deal of emotional
support in.my efforts to change these policies
he felt that his role as an administrator
limited.how'personally involved.he could be in
my various campaigns. When I finally chose to
resign from my post as an assistant professor
at the university and indicated that I would
be forced to find employment elsewhere within
six months if the situation could not be
resolved, it was a great shock to the church

260

negotiating any change was well known and it was particularly
difficult for me when I'd discuss educational equity for women
with my students and they'd retort, "But Madame, why should we
invest in a girl's education? Why, look at yon, a white
woman, with all your education even you can't get a salary
equal to a man!" I had tried all the system's ways of
addressing problems to no avail. The system didn't work for
me because I wasn't part of the system. I was a woman and
women had no official voice, no official channel of operation.
All that was left for me was to utilize ways and means that
.would be difficult to understand, ones that would appear even
irrational and crazy. This was the only way as a woman I
could draw attention to my cause. My frustration over my
personal struggle for equity in the workplace, the data I was
collecting, everything about the subordination of women, came
to a head one afternoon at the marketplace.

I consider moneychangers to be a particularly
untrustworthy class of people. I made it a habit to avoid
them and generally encouraged visitors to the area to beware
of the moneychangers' sleight of hand.when exchanging monies.

It was difficult to ignore them totally, however.' They hung

 

administrators that my husband agreed to leave
in support of my resignation. This was
particularly troubling for them since it was
assumed that Bob would take over as rector of
the university at about the same time my six-
month period would elapse.

261
around the marketplace in droves and you had to pass through
them whenever you went to buy fruit and vegetables.

One morning before I headed off to Rusimba, Bob asked me
to do him a little favor. He needed to get some money
exchanged for a student's bill and wanted me to stop by "since
[I] was going right past the market anyway" and could exchange
the money. I told him that I wasn't used to changing money
and preferred not to do this. He ignored my pleas and with
parting words of ". . .make sure you get 120 to 1", waved me out
the door.

At the market later that afternoon, I reluctantly began
to negotiate for a "120 to 1" trade. Most of the
moneychangers lost interest when I refused to lower my rate
and only two men continued to discuss the transaction with me.
Finally, worn down by my insistence that "I knew the rate",
they agreed and handed me the local currency to count. After
I handed them the bills, 20 new twenty-dollar bills, they told
me that I couldn't get that rate for twenties, only for
hundreds. I'd kept my eye on the money in their hands all the
time and agreed to trade back the money. However, when I
counted, 80 dollars was missing. When I asked them about
this, they told me that I was trying to cheat them and stalked
off in anger to a nearby store. Just as they did this, rain
came pouring down and the marketplace cleared as people ran
for cover. I considered my options. I vividly recall

thinking that I wasn't going to let these two men take my

262
money. I was fed up with the male system. But more than
anything, I wanted to show them, Daniel, and any men who'd
hear of my being shortchanged that women could take care of
themselves: they didn't have to be victims.

Quickly, I swung the car around, pulled up to the store
where they were standing, ran out of the car and grabbed one
of the men by the lapels of his jacket. I began shaking him
demanding in French that he give me back my money. Everyone
standing there stopped talking and watched, eyes wide with
wonder, as I shook the taller man and grabbed his cohort's
coattail as he scooted off to escape my vengeance. I screamed
at them to "get in my car--we're going to the police." Meekly
they obeyed and climbed in.9 I climbed in the car'behind.them
and headed down the road towards the police station. I had a
dilemma. I couldn't go to the police. Even though there was
a tacit arrangement that this moneychanging could take place,
technically it was illegal. I had to decide what to do. I
wanted.my money back. I was determined to get my money back.
So, I decided to drive back to the university and get it back
up there somehow.

When I passed the police station, my passengers in the
backseat, still subdued from.being accosted, asked.me where I
was going. When I told them, Daniel (who was also wide-eyed

in amazement) later told me that they began whispering

 

. Our car had no back seat doors, so, once in
they were captive!

263

together in the local language, "We can't go ;nere, it's all
white people up there. What will they do to us?" The taller
man began shouting at me and when that didn't work, began
hitting me on my arm, on the back of my head, on my back.
Driving the car with one hand, I swung my other arm back at
him, hitting him in his face and on his chest. At one point
when he grabbed my fist and began to wrench my arm back I
shouted at.him in English, "Let go of me N93! Touch me again
and you'll be sorry." He complied but we continued to swing
at each other as Daniel and the other man sat bolt upright in
their seats, amazement mixed with terror.

When I was nearly halfway back to the university, the
money was flung at.me. "Here, here's $80, now let us go." My
reply surprised even me. "No, not until you admit that yon
stole the money." Finally, the men admitted to their crime.
I stopped and.they angrily climbed.out, shouting that I needed
to pay for their taxi ride to get back to town.

I drove a short distance away, stopped the car and rested
my head across my arms on the steering wheel. Daniel, who
hadn't said.much until now, turned towards me, shook his head
in amazement, and commented, as respectfully as he could under
the circumstances, "Madame, you were crazy to do that. They
could have had knives." He paused, kept shaking his head for
a moment, and then slowly, whispered, "No one is going to

believe ;nie one!"

264

I was warned by friends not to visit the market for
several weeks because these men might try to damage the car.
Three weeks later, when I fearfully stopped at the market to
buy food, it was my turn to be amazed. As I stepped out of
the car, everyone stopped bartering and just looked at me.
Suddenly, a mama near me starting dancing and shouting,
intermittently clapping and pointing to the two men I had
accosted, "Voleurs. voleurs" (thieves, thieves) she shouted as
others joined in the chant. For months after that incident,
people at the university, at Rusimba and throughout the market
would point at me, laugh and talk about what had happened. At
the time, I was actually quite pleased to think that maybe I
had struck a blow to the belief system that relegated women to
such low status, showing everyone, and women in particular,
that you don't have to be victimized. However, now I'm not so
sure and I wonder how much harder I made it for someone like
Josie to find anything in what I said or did.to identify with,

to relate to.

Conf ct endas: m s a nth o 0

As the months passed and I continued to ponder Josie's
statement, I noticed another message--one small line--embedded
in her statement. One line that represented all her anger and
frustration that I could sit there and objectively write down

all that I observed in the classroom: that I could reduce to

265
mere words all her struggles and fight for an education. "You
just sit here and write this all down."

In recent years, a great deal of literature has addressed
the question of objectivity in scientific research,
particularly ethnography and anthropology (Clifford and
Marcus, 1986: Gonzalez, 1984: Lather, 1991: Moore, 1988: and
Tiffany, 1985, among others). Clifford (1986) writes that the
ethnographer, although central to the research process, is
expected to firmly implement "...the impersonal standards of
observation and 'objective' distance" (p. 13). To do
otherwise is taken as a sign of weakness (at least in style),
bringing into question the researcher's credibility.

Moore (1988) writes that the major thrust of anthropology
is to record the differences among cultures. In order to do
this, the researcher is expected to create a certain emotional
distance from the field. This is necessary because of the
cultural bias imported by the Western anthropologists.10

Gonzalez (1984) shares how objective fieldwork methods
create an ethical dilemma for her.
I have always been uncomfortable doing my
fieldwork with the idea that one's
informants, who become one' s
acquaintances and friends, are the
objects of study. Anthropology, as a
science, reduces the human actors to the
data of ceremonies, kinship structures,

exchange modes, and so on. Friends and
fictive family are transformed into

 

10. It should be noted that the assumption that
all anthropologists are Westerners is in
itself a bias.

266

ethnographic data...As feminists and as
anthropologists, we must question and re-
think a methodology framed in scientific
terms that objectifies humans and reduces
fieldwork to a judgement of who has the
most courage or stamina to go to the most
dangerous or distant place (p. 15).

Since Malinowski, a delicate mix of objectivity and
subjectivity has been introduced, and researchers like Mead,
Firth, and Leiris introduced their own voice and reactions to
stories that were shared and things that they observed, More
recently, however, feminist anthropologists have questioned
basic assumptions about fieldwork, methodology and recording.
Concerns about male bias in anthropology have created a new
perspective in the discipline. Collier and Rosaldo (1981),
MacCormack (1980) , MacCormack and Strathern (1980) , Ortner and
Whitehead (1981), and Leacock (1981) all write that a
redefined perspective of participant/observer interaction is
needed as well as a more intimate researcher's voice in
writing and reporting about the field experience.

Lather (1990, 1991) writes that fieldwork should offer a
more collaborative approach between observer and participant
creating participant ownership in the research study through
dialectical, interactive research approaches, and reciprocal
reflexivity and critique: by bringing back the "I" in using a
stronger, more reflective, and personal researcher'voice‘when
reporting research findings: and rediscovering subjectivity

and creating research forms that are "less alienated to lived

experience." (p. 158) Tiffany (1985) has a similar

267

perspective and writes that the purpose of ". . .feminist
anthropology is to reformulate the 'Science of Man' by asking
different questions and by constructing new frameworks that
contribute to an integrated understanding of human
experiences" (p. 20). Marcus and Fischer (1986) write that
researchers need to develop experimental writing, conceptual
risk-taking and a more interactive observer/participant stance
when writing realistically about culture. Consequently, for
Lather and others like her, feminist inquiry involves a
reflexive stance. It demands self-evaluation and a changed
perspective in researcher/informant relations. It involves a
redefinition of the process of fieldwork, construction, and
interpretation. And finally, it necessitates a new
understanding of intracultural variations.

Unfortunately, in my own work, I failed to convey this.
Josie saw me as the unattached, unemotional researcher sitting
in the back of the room writing about her life without
collaborating with her about it. From.her perspective, I was
personally removed from the struggle and pain that she daily
faced. She saw me as someone who could easily maintain
objectivity as I observed and recorded all that was going on

around me. From her perspective I recorded her life but
wasn't a part of her life.

But this could not have been farther from the truth. To
a certain extent, I was "objectified" by the research I was

doing, anesthetized to the pain around me, something I allowed

268

to happen to ease the emotional trauma. But only to'a degree.
In fact, it was a constant battle for'me to resist the urge to
take action and respond to what was taking place around me.
I had to lose my self and become an actor playing the role of
"non-judgmental researcher" in order to continue with my work.

This dimension became necessary because of my concern
that if I were to respond and take action, I might lose access
to my fieldsite at the secondary level. During informal
conversations with.the teachers, particularly the three women
teachers, I was able to share my own views and reactions to
things that intersected my life as a woman and things that I
observed at Rusimba. However, once in the classroom when I
was observing I felt constrained to mask how I felt and to
mute my own voice.11 Ironically, despite my grandiose agenda
of "role model personified" I, too, was being subordinated.by
the male patriarchy around me.

The more I reflected on this new dimension of my study,
I came to realize that inadvertently, in.my role as the muted
researcher, I had validated for Josie and the others in that
classroom the subordination that I observed and was told
about. The mere act of silently recording it without response
placed a certain value upon it. Unknowingly I had reinforced

that this behavior of subordination was not only right but

 

11. It was only as my committee members urged me

to reevaluate the voice that I used to write
this work, that I became aware of how much I
had responded to the patriarchal system as I
collected my data.

269
necessary as well. I also better understood how myths like
the ones that I daily observed in this classroom were "retold"
and given credence and eventually became reality just because

people watched them, people like Marie, Celeste, Josie,

Jacques, and me.

The ' e ust words

The third idea embedded in Josie's statement was her
frustration that all I could offer her were empty promises.
Shortly after my first visit to Rusimba, it was evident that
Josie wanted to get an education, pursue a career. On one
occasion she spoke to Daniel and shared with him.her hopes to
go to university and become a mathematician or possibly a
doctor. She also indicated that already there was family
pressure to leave school and get married. Financial support
was diminishing, and she feared that it would end before she
had finished her secondary studies. But she was hopeful that
she would be able to convince her family to let her stay in
school and continue on.to'universityu Just.before we left the
classroom in.June, Josie's already intensive study habits and
interactional patterns became even.more intense. When Daniel
commented on this to her, she replied, "I must work hard--I
always have to be the best. Girls don't get second chances."

When I entered the classroom to begin my observations,
Josie was already caught up in her fight to get an education.

She had already begun the struggle as a feminist to gain

270
rights that weren't easily granted. My words--words about
women being equal to men, words about women becoming leaders,
words about women taking charge of their own.1ives, words that
women didn't have to be victims--were always promises just out
of reach, just out of her grasp. And to someone like Josie,
a veteran in the struggle and a true role model to her peers,
my words lacked truth and any real substance. However, I now
realize that to a certain extent, Josie nee to reject all
these words that I shared with her, with anyone who would
listen, because I was a dangerous woman. I was a dangerous
woman.because I asked questions that challenged all that they
believed in and my ideas represented an imperialistic import
of the most challenging kind. Josie's struggle focused on her
right to continue with her education and enter a career. But
my words focused on her right to challenge the patriarchy in
the system and the ideas of my words confronted her fear, as
it did Jerome's fear and Marie's fear and everyone else's fear

who really listened to what I had to say.

Th as en e oa mos o e

I began this study in an attempt to find myself and
recognize who I was as woman. In many respects I have come
around full circle to where I was when I began. Although I
have learned a great deal about Africa, colonialism and

feminism, I still have many unanswered questions. However, I

271
have emerged from this study stronger, more confident,
committed.

As I've shared my work, I have discovered that men react
strongly to the results of my study. Initially, when I began
my data collection, I found that many men were amused by my
research. This was particularly true of African men who found
it astonishing that I would.make the effort to do this study.
Interestingly, nearly all African men that I have spoken with
have told me that "in my country, women are treated equally,
and you won't find any subordination." One man whom I spoke
with while in the field indicated that "it [was] a pity that
I had done this particular study, If [I] had.wanted.to do one
of value, [I] should have done a similar one on men." Now
that I'm finished, I find it interesting that the amusement
has turned to denial. I have had long and intensive
conversations with some of them as they try to convince me
that women are meant to be wives and mothers and that to do
otherwise is selfish, undermines society, harms children, and
endangers their future.

The most interesting male interaction resulting from this
study, has been my own interaction with Bob. He has been very
supportive and contributed a great many hours in.proofreading
and editing and suggesting avenues to pursue. We have spent
hours talking about my study, the implications that it has,
and what needs to be done. However, at times we have

disagreed about what the role of a woman should be and what

272
the expectations should be for women. But despite these
momentary lapses in our now enlightened (!) perspective on a
husband's and wife's rights and obligations in a marriage, Bob
understands me better and has taken an active interest in
women's development issues in his own work. He is also
determined that our teen-age daughter, Heather, a member of
the next wave of feminists, not face the same frustrations
that I did. I can only hope that as time passes, things will
improve for women and that Heather's world is better than

mine.

am:

I have now come to realize that my journey has not truly
come to a close but that I have only begun. I repeatedly ask
myself, "What does all this mean? What have I learned? What
does my work offer educators, policy makers, development
agencies, feminists, Jerome, Josie, the mama along the road?"

School is more than pupils on benches and teachers at
blackboards. I found that learning about schooling has little
to do with counting noses. I believe that one outcome of this
study conclusively demonstrates that an emphasis on initial
enrollment rates will do little to enhance the education which
girls receive. My findings show that a) these rates as
published are not particularly reliable and b) it's what
happens after the students arrive at school that makes the

difference. One can make the obvious argument that unless

273

girls arrive at school in the first place, little can be done
to ultimately improve the circumstances in which they live.
I believe that this is approaching the problem backwards.
Unless the education which girls receive in the classroom
provides equal access to learning, there is little point in
worrying about how to provide equal access to that classroom.
Indeed, education as currently constituted may ‘well be
contributing to an erosion of equity.

By placing limits on the range of experiences available
to girls, schools also place limits on the range of
experiences available to boys. Girls are disproportionally
victimized, but all of society suffers.

Most current attempts to change the gem reflect an
unfortunate poverty of thought. By putting the focus on
numbers, we have given ourselves a false frame of reference.
Not false because the numbers are false, although they often
are, but false because we have diverted attention from the
more consequential issue--that of how to bring about
meaningful, qualitative, culturally' relevant, sustainable
change.

The social fabric outside of school has a significant
impact on.what takes place inside school. In central Africa,
poverty, diseases, and illiteracy are only a few of the
factors that educators must deal with. Possibly of more
importance, when considering the education of girls there, are

cultural norms such as patrilocality and patrilineal kinship

274
structures and the exchange of rights that takes place with
brideprice. But central Africa is not entirely different from
Western society in the makeup of its social and cultural
fabric. AIDS, teen-age pregnancy, and abuse in the home are
fast becoming universal common denominators in the world or
schooling.

Policymakers, development agencies and educators must
ensure that policies being implemented or research being
conducted are clearly understood by the communities they will
affect. My study demonstrated that parents did not see
schools in the same way that policy makers or development
agencies saw schools. Consequently, parental support was
lacking for policies that did not fulfill the parents'
purposes for sending daughters to school. Priority needs to
be given to find out how rural populations in particular react
to educational policy. Ways also need to be found to
"package" new ideas so that they appeal to traditional values
and lifestyles. My study also raises questions about the type
of research project that will provide the kind of information
needed to address parental resistance in educating daughters.

I was disturbed by the finding that most of the women I
spoke with and virtually all the girls in the school at
Rusimba, see . the movement toward greater participation of
girls in schooling and in society as largely external and
foreign to the frames of reference which define their lives.

As my own thinking evolved, I felt myself torn in the conflict

275
between feminist thinking and ethnographic idealism. It was
increasingly difficult for me to find and occupy some sort of
defensible middle ground position. I found to my discomfort
that those with whom my ideas coincided the most were often
themselves the most out of step with their own society.

As feminists,” it is important to reassess what our
agenda is. Is there a global perspective to the issues that
Western feminists pursue or are they also culturally bound and
incompatible with the needs of Third World women? This means
that we must confront the inherent racial and class issues as
well.

I believe that my work, my journey, provides a link
between the career woman, who can more easily identify with
aspects of the feminist agenda, and the traditional wife and
mother who has often felt alienated from what the movement

represents. Ultimately, this means that as feminists we

 

13. I am reluctant to use this term so generically

since there is such a wide range of objectives
and points of reference that the various
feminists--social, liberal, radical, marxist,
psychoanalytic, existentialist, postmodern--
use to identify themselves. I quote Rosemarie
Tong's (1989) response to the dilemma of
finding some umbrella that encompasses all the
various "species in the same genus" (p. 1)

and use this as my definition of a feminist.
She writes that the groups are joined together
" . . .both to lament the ways in which women
have been oppressed, repressed, and suppressed
and to celebrate the ways in which so many
women have 'beaten the system, ' taken charge
of their own destinies, and encouraged each
other to live, love, laugh, and be happy ee

semen" p- 1-2) -

276
cannot forget the children. I was repeatedly challenged that
my perspective was a selfish one, one that if implemented,
would destroy society because of the dysfunctionality it would
create in the family, with particularly egregious consequences
for young children.

In this respect, Jerome and Josie have a valid argument.
They question our ability as Westerners to understand the core
values, the key concepts that perpetuate their society. Their
perception of the family as a key element in the perpetuation
of a healthy society challenges our present situation.

For this reason, to Jerome and Josie I first reply that
we can learn from each other how to make this a better world
for women, for children, for men. I share with Josie the
belief that with an education come obligations. More demands
are placed upon the lives of educated women in the home, in
the workplace, in the community, demands to which they must
respond. To Jerome I respond that men are also the losers as
they maintain a restrictive image of the male role that limits
their interaction both in the home and in society.

Finally, to the mama alongside the road who questioned
why I was there, I reply that I was searching for someone like
her who could help me understand that although my message was
right, I was wrong.

* * * *
As I write this closing paragraph I can hear the voices

of my four children echoing in the upstairs as they run about.

277
There are dishes in the sink that need to be done and a pile
of laundry is waiting by the washer. Bob left an hour ago on
a plane headed to Washington, D.C. and his job. For nearly
three months we have been a weekend family as he jets back and
forth to and from his new job there. As I look about me, I am
reminded of Stella who struggled to find her identity and
survival techniques in her marriage to James. I realize that
despite my level of education and modern technology, when Bob,
like James, walks away from the obligations of home as he
heads for his new job, I'm left behind to assume all the work
and hold things together. So, like Stella, I dwell there too.

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APPENDICES

 

APPENDIX A

Enrollment and Attendance of Boys and Girls
at Eight Primary Schools

KEY TO TABLES 1-8

Place: Name of school

Actual Enrollment: Number of children enrolled on government
forms indicating number of boys and girls enteiied.

Sex of teacher: Gender of teacher(s) in each classroom at
school. Classrooms are listed by grade level.

Date of visits: Date that each visit was made by Daniel
to the school with a record of number of boys and

girls in eetnei ettendenee on the day of visit.

299

300

TABLE 1

Enrollment and Attendance of Girls and Boys
at Ganbungo Primary School

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Place: Ganbungo
GRADE ACTUAL SEX OF DATES OF VISITS
ENROLL TEACHER
KENT 3/7 3/8 4/18 5/10
8 G B G B G B G B G
1A 35 40 F 29 35 3O 32 3O 31 31 38
18 42 35 F 40 29 33 27 36 30 28 32
2A 27 27 F 16 23 19 20 24 23 20 25
2B 21 20 F 12 15 19 18 17 15 13 17
3A 36 26 F 34 22 29 21 28 18 34 23
3B 35 26 F 33 22 3O 19 31 18 32 24
4A 40 35 M 38 30 36 28 34 29 34 32
4B 38 45 M 33 35 35 33 34 38 31 43
5A 40 38 M 36 34 35 31 37 31 32 35
58 43 33 H 41 26 39 26 36 26 37 27
6A 30 25 M 27 17 28 19 25 17 22 16
6B 31 25 F 30 16 27 15 22 13 29 8
40 30 H 37 22 37 20 36 18 35 2O
43 35 M 41 26 _39 24 38 25 34 27?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

301
TABLE 2

Enrollment and Attendance of Girls and Boys
at Kanzela Primary School

Place: Kanze1a_

 

 

DATES or VISITS
2/24 3/17

 

 

 

B G B G
71 36 68 37
69 65 75 61
22 16 20 18
18 16 17 16
25 37 25 21
29 15 27 17
30 17 29 18
33 29 31 22
27 32 29 26
24 18 25 17
20 22 17 22
27 11 24 10
24 14 20 16
27 22 27 23
26 24 27 2O

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

x :3 i! “U I: 3 :2 'u on NI M '1 'fl

302
TABLE 3

Enrollment and Attendance of Girls and Boys
at Kuba Primary School

Place: Kuba

 

DATES 0p VISITS
2/24 3/24

 

 

 

B c B s
37 24 39 21
34 26 32 22
32 34 35 3o
30 35 29 27
4o 33 39 31
34 33 37 30
24 33 26 25
28 21 3o 24
19 21 21 17
22 11 23 12
_2o 11 23 10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

303

TABLE 4

Enrollment and Attendance of Girls and Boys
at Gora Primary School

Place: Gora

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GRADE ACTUAL SEX OF DATES OF VISITS
E3331. TEACHER 2/17 3/17 3/31 4/14
B G B G B G B G B G
1A 35 40 H 32 38 31 36 27 38 28 38
18 35 40 M 30 34 30 33 29 32 28 28
1C 35 35 F 25 35 25 34 24 32 26 29
2A 25 23 F 22 20 19 18 21 19 20 15
2B 25 25 F 18 20 16 19 16 20 16 14
3A 30 30 P 21 30 22 29 22 28 20 25
3B 30 30 F 26 25 24 25 26 23 26 22
4A 30 30 F 29 27 29 25 28 22 27 23
4B 30 30 F 27 26 27 24 27 25 24 20
5A 30 25 H 26 15 25 14 24 12 26 12
SB 30 25 F 25 20 26 19 25 17 23 17
6A 20 20 M 13 19 17 17 15 11 13 16
6B 20 20 H 19 20 16 20 18 15 19 15
40 35 H 33 27 37 25 36 25 34 21
40 i M 3;. 35 31 35 32 28 33 26

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

304

TABLE 5

Enrollment and Attendance of Girls and Boys
at Mukonga Central Primary School

Place: Mukonga Central

 

DATES OF VISITS

 

2/24 3/17

 

B G B G

 

5
z

47 38 45 42

 

26 25 26 24

 

26 22 23 17

 

25 18 23 19

 

38 31 36 3O

 

35 35 33 3O

 

22 25 24 23

 

23 22 24 19

 

21 25 22 19

 

25 20 24 20

 

26 17 25 17

 

22 15 21 14

 

22 11 23 10

 

 

 

 

I :3 ii a: El 3 '# an M! W i! I! I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

43 19 41 19

 

 

305
TABLE 6
Enrollment and Attendance of Girls and Boys
at Kananzi Primary School

Place: Kananzi

DATES or VISITS
3/31 4/21

 

 

 

B G B G
19 13 18 14
17 10 17' 9
2O 13 20 12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TABLE 7

Enrollment and Attendance of Girls and Boys
at Mutembo Primary School

Place: Mutembo

 

 

 

 

.»GRADE ACTUAL SEx op DATES op VISITS
ENROLL- TEACHER

KENT 3/10 3/31 4/21 5/10

8 G B G B G s G B (s

 

1A 45 45
1B 45 45
1C 55 45

42 40 43 39 40 38 39 40
40 39 41 42 41 38 43 37
53 41 54 4O 50 39
24 26 24 25

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[e vs an m tn
0'
N
:5
N

. 39 13_31 13

 

306

TABLE 8

Enrollment and Attendance of Girls and Boys
at Cabazelu Primary School

Place: Cabazelu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DATES OF VISITS
3/24 4/13
B G B G
1A 40 40 M 38 38 38 35 37 39 36 34
18 45 45 M/H 42 32 41 30 43 33 41 33
1C 40 40 F 25 39 26 38 27 36 26
2A 30 25 F 24 20 24 19 23 20 25
2B 35 30 M 27 22 26 19 27 21 26
2C 30 25 F 26 20 23 19 24 20 25
2D 35 30 M 26 16 27 15 25 15 27
3A 30 30 F 25 17 22 16 23 17 24
3B 30 30 F 24 16 25 14 23 15 22
3C 35 30 F 32 22 32 20 31 19 33
4A 30 30 F 24 21 24 20 24 19 23
4B 30 30 F 24 24 25 2O 23 18 23
I 4C 30 30 M 19 28 i 27 25 26 26

APPENDIX B

Interview Sheets, Questionnaire,
Teaching Staff and Student Breakdown

10.

11.

12.

307

TABLE 9

Interview questions primary school directors

How many students do you have in your schools? Girls?
Boys?

In your opinion, why do parents send their children to
school?

If they don't send their children to school, give the
reasons that they tell you why they don't send them.

How much of a problem is truancy and absenteeism in your
school at the beginning of the year? (Give percentage if
possible.)

Does truancy and absenteeism increase as the school year
progresses?

What are the reasons that parents give for the absences
of their sons?

What are the reasons that parents give for the absences
of their daughters?

In your opinion, is the problem of absenteeism and
truancy greater for girls or boys? Why?

What measures do you think can be implemented to lower
the problem of absenteeism or truancy?

Have you been a director of a school in another region?
Where? Were you a director or teacher?

In.your’opinion, are the level of absences and truancy in
this particular school higher than normal?

How many years have you worked at this school?

308
TABLE 10
Student Questionnaire
What is your age.

mean age for boys: 20.5
mean age for girls: 20.9

 

 

What is your sex? Boys - 13 Girls - 24
At what age did you begin school?
bo s: a e: girls: age: 1
5 2 5 0
6 3 6 5
7 5 7 16
8 1 8 1
9 2 9 0
12 1
NA 1
Are you an intern or extern?
boy : intern extern girls:
extern
1 12 14

What is your country of origin?
Information not available

Where do your parents live? in the village
in the country

boys: countgy-city girls: conntry-city
11 2 16 8

 

What is the level of education for :
a) your father?
b) your mother?

 

 

boys: mean level for father - 4.6 years
mean level for mother - 2.8 years

girls: mean level for father - 7.8 years
mean level for mother 4.4 years

How many brothers do you have?
How many sisters do you have?

10.

11.

12.

309
TABLE 10 (cont.)

Among your brothers, how many have finished:
a) primary school?
b) secondary school?
c) university?

 

 

for boys:
66.2% of brothers are educated

for girls:
85.25% of brothers are educated

Among your sisters, how many have finished:
a) primary school?
b) secondary school?
c) university?

 

for boys:
38.7% of sisters are educated

for girls:
59.2% of sisters are educated

a) Given you have no financial problems, do you
plan on continuing your studies at the
university level?

boys: 13 indicated that they plan to go to
university

girls: 15 indicated that they plan to go to
university

b) What faculty do you want to pursue?

boys : 1 math ; 2 letters ; 2 pedagogy ; 2
psychology: 1 history: 1 medicine: 3
unsure

girls: 2 geography; 1 language: 10 pedagogy: 1
math; 1 business; 1 unsure

After you finish your studies, what type of
profession do you want to enter? (For example :
businessperson, doctor, teacher, nurse, etc.)

13.

14.

310
TABLE 10 (cont.)

bo s: 3 unsure: 2 writer: 1 government
official: 4 university professor: 1
doctor: 2 other

girls: 10 teacher: 3 secretary: 2 nurse: 1
accountant

For the girls to answer:
After your marriage, do you anticipate continuing
work in your career?
100% of the girls indicated that they plan to
pursue a career after marrying

For the boys to answer:
a) After your marriage, would you encourage
your wife to pursue a career?

8 said yes (for financial necessity): 5 said no

b) If you would, would you be willing to help
your wife with certain responsibilities that
are traditionally viewed to be women's work.
Things like: bathing the children, doing the
cooking, cleaning the house, etc.?

2 said yes: 8 said no: 3 were unsure

311

 

 

TABLE 11
Interview Sheet for Parents - 170 administered

Place: Date:

1. Circle: Sex - male female 2.

3. What is your highest level of education?

4. What is your spouse's highest level of education?

5. Number of children: boys girls

6. Give the level of education attained by each child in
your family:

7. Make a list of the reasons why you sent your children to
school. (Or why you didn't send them.)

8. Give the reasons why you sent your daughters to school.

9. In your opinion, why is it important for a boy to have a
primary level education? Secondary level education? (Give
reasons.)

10. In your opinion, why is it important for a girl to have
a primary level eduation? Secondary level education?
(Give reasons.)

11. How many gardens do you own?

12. How many cows do you own?

13. Circle the correct response. Who are the members of the

family that own the following objects?
watches radio/cassettes

father
mother
daughters
sons

10.

312

TABLE 12

TEACHING STAFF AT RUSIMBA

Eunice: Nationality--Norwegian Education--MA in History,
Theology and Psycho-Pedagogy Position--directress of
school Work Bxperience--35 years experience in Zaire,
Rwanda and Burundi

James: Nationality--Burundian Education--MA Psychology
Position--principal and psychology teacher Work
Experience-at this school as an administrator since 1984:
five years at another in the area teaching

Jacgee : National ity--Zairois Education--BA Math
Position--Math and physics teacher Work Experience--at
this school since 1981, 8 years at another in the area

Henri: Nationality--Rwandan. Education--MA. History
Position--History, religion and geography teacher Work
Experience--at this school since 1984 and another school
in the area for 9 years

Lamec: Nationality--Zairois Education--MA Chemistry
Position--Science teacher' ‘Work Experience--at this
school since 1985 and in two other schools in Rwanda and
Zaire since 1964

Jean: Nationality--Zairois Education--BA French
Position--French, music and physical education teacher
Work Experience--at this school since 1985 and in another
school in the area since 1977

Stanley: Nationality--Rwandan Education--BA Philosophy
Position--local language, civil education, history
teacher Work Experience--at this school since 1986 and
another school in the area since 1982

Faustin: Nationality--Rwandan Education--BA Psychol-
Pedagogy Position--Methodology teacher Work Experience--
this school since 1987

Marie: Nationality--Rwandan. ‘Education--BA English
Position--English, health and geography teacher Work
Experience--at this school since 1986 and at another
school since 1976

Celeste: Nationality--Zairois Education--MA Psycho-Peda
Position--Pedagogy, music and art Work Experience--at
this school since 1986 and at another since 1979

11.

12.

13.

14.

313
TABLE 12 (cont.)

Jean-Baptiste: Nationality--Rwandan Education: D6
(secondary diploma) Position--Work-study program,
biology, physical education and theology Work
Experience--graduated from Rusimba the year before

Andre: Nationality--Rwandan Education-~MA Social
Sciences Position--Local languages, physical education,
math Work Experience--at this school since 1985 and at
two other schools since 1979

Stella: Nationality--Zairois Education--BA Business
Position--Economics, religion, secretary to directress
Work Experience--at this school since 1985

Pierre: Nationality--Rwandan Education--MA French
Position--French teacher Work Experience--at this school
since 1987 at another school in area since 1983

314

TABLE 13

Student population break down at Rusimba
based on school government records*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GRADE BOYS GIRLS TOTALS
1 39 5 44
2 25 46 71
3 24 26 50
4 16 26 42
5 22 14 36
6 15 5 20

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although observations were not made for extensive
periods in all the classrooms, my records indicate
that these were relatively accurate counts. It
should be noted that absenteeism was high (not as
high as at Mupika however) but careful daily
records were kept and the school administrators
attempted to address the issue of excessive
absenteeism or truancy.