An Iranian Dinner

 On 19th November, 2014, my Ph.d student from Iran, Atoosa invited us for dinner and laid beautiful preparations  of Irani dishes.It was a riot of colours and a beautiful spread. We discovered that there was a commonality in some things for they also dry a lot of fruits and vegetables like mint, spinach and other greens and use them through out the year.This is also done in the hills from which we hail and during winters when there is snow and cold people make vegetables of these dried things.Atoosa's mother had sent her so many things from  Iran and she showed them all to us and we had a taste of all the fruits, cheese and dried fruits.A lovely evening and thanks Atoosa and Mohisin.

Visiting the crafts Market at Bugunda Road

 

Ended the day with the Dean of Gender studies Consolata. Also visited the loval market in the evening.

African Arts, Crafts and Souvenirsiare  very well know. Most of the items  that we  find on display and for sale are created by hand. There are handmade drums, of various sizes, weapons such as spears, (some can be taken apart to put into a suitcase), carved items, items using bark cloth, banana leaves shaped into Christmas crèches to Greetings Cards – items made of gourds, African musical instruments, paintings batiks, one could go on – explore for yourself and enjoy. Exposure Africa is the craft market next to Daisy’s Arcade in Kampala on Buganda Road its the city’s biggest, with over 30 stalls and with almost every items found here is shipped from Kenya but not many Ugandan sellers would want you to know about that. You will find different prices for the same or similar items and the best thing is to bargain.

 

In the Gender Studies School of Merkerere University

 The rest of the day was in meetings,interacting, sharing and networking.I took a photo with the male faculty of Women and Gender studies.In their school they have 18 women and 5 male faculty.

In the History Department of Merkere University, kampala

 After my lecture in the School of Women and Gender Studies I went to the History Department and met their Head whom they call Chair, Dr.Katono Nzarwa.Here they have this Dept.in the School of Social Science and it is called rhe Department of History,Archeology and Organizational Studies.We discussed a lot about our Courses , students and they are very worried that their President is against teaching History to students.I also had a long chat with the only women faculty in the History Dept.Dr.Pamela Khanakwa and she was a young scholar and very enthusistic about history.We hit off very well and had a lot to talk about for she is also interested in women's History but feels she can never teach this for there is nothing like Women's History here and she was very much aware of the fact that their history teaching is very male centric and has nothing on women.

Adressing a class on gender in kampala, Merkerere University

On 7th Novemeber, 2014, morning,  I went into a class and addressed the students.This was an undergraduate class and I was surprised at the number of boys in a class on gender.Here they have to take up two papers on Gender and there are many boys at  the post graduate level too. I discussed about the Women's issues in india and there was alot of interest among the studetns who had never visited India. They were very fasciated with Bollywood films and wanted me to answer some questions related to the films too in the discussions and I did this very happily.

Meeting the High Commissioner of India

 I was invited by the High Commissioner of India Dr.Ramesh Chandra and I felt very much at home.May be it was the Indian flag , the photo of Mr.Naresh Modi and Mr.Parnab Mukerjee on the wall and a large number of Coffee table books on India, Ravi Verma Paintings, Rajasthan Tajmahal on the table.It was a very fruitful meeting and we discussed two major Projects.He has asked me to organise a Conference on any theme related to gender and his commission will support this.We have the freedom of topic and venue but he wants to include all east African states.So with Ruth we are going to get in touch with Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Rawanda and many other directors whom I met here and bring in few Indian scholars too and target the second half of 2015.

Dinner at Dr. Florence's residence

 In the evening Dr.Florece faculty member of the School of women and gender studies at Markerere invited me and Linda Lucas who was with the Gender studies programme in University of south Florida to dinner at her place.We interacted with her 10 year old  son and I was pleased to see his social science text book and it gave me an idea about Uganda history and geography.We had a lovely dinner of noodles, beans and a green chutney like thing made with groundnus and a maize pudding kind of thing.

Resentment against the president Yoweri Musenveni

 While i attend the Conference in Uganda and interact with a large number of scholars, I can see a lot of resentment among the scholars here. However, they feel they are helpless but now Prof.Consolata Kabonesa who is the Dean of the School of Women and Gender studies( This is a school not just a Dept) here at Markerere tells me they are preparing a paper on gender and why it is important and will soon submit to the President.The reason for the resentment is that the President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni who is in power since 1986 and was involved in the revolt against Idi Amin has been saying there is no point in students stuudying subjects like History, gender studies,peace and Conflict studies and Religious studies which cannot provide jobs and these departments should be closed down.He is targetting these four Depts.He wants students to go in for technical and science education.Unfortunately these depts have the largest number of students.Reminded me of AP.Chief minister Chandra Babu Naidu who closed the  History Depts in AP. thinking they do not serve any purpose and there was a long agitation and he had to withdraw.

Years of guerrilla warfare followed and some parts of the country experienced extremeviolence particularly the so-called LuweroTriangle north of the capital Kampala that suffered a lot, mainly at the hands of the UNLA ( 6Uganda National Liberation Army) . Somehave characterised this violence as genocide. 200,000-300 000 people are estimated to have been killed during the civil wars between 1981 and 1986. Then the strife within the government army led to a coup in 1985 that overthrew obote‟s Government, who immediately entered into Peace talks with Mr. Museveni of the NRA  ( National Resistance Army) but these talks never yielded a permanent solution as NRM never wholly accepted to enter into power sharing with the military junta of Tito and Basilio Okello. The war then continued until January 1986 when Kampala fell into the hands of the NRM (  National Resistance Movements).  Mr. Museveni was soon sworn in as the new president of Uganda who warned Ugandan that “this is not a mere change of guards, but a fundamental change” and promised to reconstruct a new Uganda along a Ten Point Progrmme among which democracy, rule of law and economic sustainability were prominently highlighted.Mr. Museveni has been the undisputed ruler of Uganda since 1986, with the positions ofPresident, chairman of the NRM, the minister of defence and commander of the army. Ina country where more changes of regime have been a result of military coups thanelections, the importance of the latter two positions cannot be underestimated.

Group Discussions in Kampala

 It is amazing to see how women across the globe seem to work in a similar fashion.This is my first experienceof sitting with so many Gender studies person through out  Africa.The second day on 6th Novemebr, 2014, we all divided ourselves into three groups and I was in the group that discussed leadership and challenges to women.I almost felt that I was sitting in a women's Studies conference in some part of India .There was so much exchange of ideas, experience sharing and in the end the group put the ideas together and by the evening session we made a presentation.The second group was on institution building and the third was on collaborative partnerships.Women do things very democratically and in a similar fashion. I got to know the women's issues in Africa from a close quarter.I thoroughly enjoyed the day.I learnt some thing new today.They call the younger generation as Cheeta generation and when I asked what it means they said oh they are so fast, picking up new technology, restless,impatient, angry and they are like the cheetas.Even their synonyms and idioms come from the jungle and they are so close to nature.

Beautiful dinner

 On 5th Novemebr, 2014, we had a lovely dinner iand we all had such a beautiful evening and  shared so many things about our culture and our common love for women's issues. The beauty of the evening was that it made me realise that our issues were almost similar and the passion to find solutions equally great and comparable.

Interactions with Directors of Women's Studies in Africa

 It was a real pleasure to get to know the Directors of the Gender Studies programme in Zimbabwe,Kenya,Ireland,and many other countries in Africa.Many of the scholars from the Gender Studies programme kept away because of the fear of Ebola. My children also scared me saying that I should not go but once i reached here I found there was a big hue and cry in the media and the International community and things were very normal out here.

Interaction with a stalwart in Women's Studies

 It was amazing to interact with Prof.Maxine Ankrah.She was the founder Director of the Gender Studies programme at Markerere and though she is 81 years old continues to be the mentor to this programme and is present in most of their activities. Her energy and commitment to Women's Studies was amazing.

International Conference on, Future of Gender Studies at Kampala, Uganda

 On 5th Novemebr, 2014, addressed the International  Conference on,  Future of Gender Studies at the Department of Women's Studies ,  Makerere University. This was attended by their Vice chancellor Prof.John Ddumba and Dean Schoolof women and Gender Studies,Prof.Consolata Kabonesa and other participants at the Conference. Also met Ruth , the Gender Studies faculty at Makrerere.