– Woman Crush Wednesday Part 1
«I will stand up for myself and I’ll stand with other women, because my liberation in a place where other women and girls are not liberated has no meaning” – Talent
It’s a lovely Tuesday afternoon and Talent has agreed to meet with us between a string of meetings and a final stop at the office before she goes home to her husband and three kids. Talent Jumo Madziva is the co-founder and director of Katswe Sistahood, an organization working with women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. We’re meeting this day to start of a series of interviews showcasing inspiring women in Zimbabwe.
Talent gives out a calm and experienced vibe; she stirs in one teaspoon of sugar in her tea and explains that Katswe’s main objective is that women have full control and ownership of their own bodies and sexuality. But Talent doesn’t see it as her job to go out there and hand out these rights. Her mission in life is to show these women that they have rights that are being violated and help raise their own capacity to change the situation.
“We don’t say we are the voice of the voiceless, I don’t want to be their voice. Someone should just find their voice so that they can speak for themselves”.
She explains that the first step is to identify a situation as a problem and to see clearly that something is not as it should be. Talent displays a desire to supporting young women and “locate their purpose” so that they can start voicing out their issues. Just being at the communities, paying attention and acknowledging each individual is a step in the right direction, although action is what they really need. She explains that
“The problem is that when you work with government they see figures. They see that 1000 girls are being sexually abused selling sex for survival. Numbers don’t sell sex for survival, its young kids who have a soul, who are human beings, who have rights, who have aspirations, they have dreams and their dreams are already being destroyed”.
It is obvious that Talent loves her job, but how did she end up where she is today? As a messenger running between the most remote communities and the highest decision-making bodies.
“I think I’ve always been adverse to the whole idea of fitting in boxes and clusters that then become a barrier to my own independence. I grew up in a society that is very oppressive, where children are only supposed to be seen not heard. Where for a young woman there are a set of expectations that may be oppressive, but you have to comply because you are a woman. And in order for you to be a good woman, if you are angry you should not display your anger, if you’re anxious you should not display your anxiety, if you’re unhappy you have to smile and pretend. So I think I got fed up of living a life of pretence where I cannot fully express my own emotions. Where I cannot challenge the different forms of injustice, where it’s not acceptable for me to acknowledge my own strength. It doesn’t pay, ‘cause even when you try to conform you still get punished. You still remain oppressed and I just think, you know what, I will stand up for myself and I’ll stand with other women, because my liberation in a place where other women and girls are not liberated has no meaning”.
Talent’s care for others can be traced back to her childhood. Coming from a humble background she explains how the gift of love and giving were emphasised. A lesson manifested when her parents no longer could pay for her school fees and her sister took it upon herself to fund her little sister’s education.
“She [her sister] was a teacher herself, things were really though and she made sacrifices and that I treasure. It also gave me the kind of strength that has carried me to this day because I then decided that I wanted to change my own situation and that of my own parents. I think it also strengthen me because I learned to work, at least my mind was set that if I had to do whatever work I would need to give it my best shot. Because I felt that I needed to give back”.
Back in present day Talent takes a deep breath followed by a glimpse of a smile. We’ve just asked her what the first thing that pops into her mind is when she hears the word woman. “Anchor” she says and gesticulates in a wide movement with both hands.
“I think our women have anchored the nation in very big ways. When you look at civil society, it’s the women’s organizations that are looking at the seemingly soft things. But these are the things that actually matter because we are really looking at lives. We are not just engaged in power struggles for the sake of our own egos and just for the sake of it. We’ve anchored spaces; we’ve been able to shape the nation in a manner that sustains the Zimbabwean soul».
She talks of the way women embed highflying policies into the realities on the ground. And how keeping in touch with these realties prevent us from straying off course, just like an anchor keeps the ship in the harbour. But an anchor is also something that can drag you down.
«We sometimes disempower ourselves because we think is the right thing to do, we are told in which to humble ourself”.
In Talent’s dream society we as women
“…celebrate our own existence, we celebrate each other’s. We reclaim our power, we use it, we shape it, we are not afraid, so that in a way our male counterparts can treat us with respect».
So how does we as women stay afloat and avoid being dragged down into a bottomless ocean? If we want change, look no further then to yourself.
«Each and every young women has got it within them, it is not out there. Find you own power, find your own balance in that support system that is located within you. And also link up with other likeminded individuals who are not self-centred, but those people that care about the great good, who want to support other women’s rights».
Our time with the busy woman is up and Talent must go on to the last appointment this day. We are left with the impression of a woman that strongly cares for others and who has faith in what we as women can accomplish together.
Mari
Sistas, Sex and Politics 