Women's Voices From Africa: A Conversation with Margaret Busby

In Chile, the country is days away from the inauguration of Michele Bachelet, the country’s first female president. In Africa, 2005 saw the election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as president of Liberia – becoming the first elected female head of state on the continent. In Kuwait, women finally gained greater political rights including the right to vote and run for parliament. But the past year has also seen a series of setbacks for women. In the United States, the governor of South Dakota has just signed legislation to ban all abortions in the state, unless they’re performed to save the life of the woman. And the Supreme Court has shifted to the right with the confirmation of John Roberts and Samuel Alito both of whom oppose a woman’s right to choose. In Afghanistan, women are still suffering widespread abuse including rape, murder and forced marriage. A new report by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission found 38% of women interviewed have been forced to marry against their will. The country’s devastated health care system has also resulted in Afghanistan having one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world with one in ten women likely to die giving birth. In Iraq, the country’s complete security breakdown has forced many women to stay in their homes for their own safety. Even female journalists have been targeted in Iraq. Reporters Without Borders is calling today for the immediate release of the American Jill Carroll and Iraqi Rim Zeid. Carroll was abducted on January 7. Zeid was seized three weeks later. Iraq is also the focus of the “Women Say No To War” demonstration scheduled for today in Washington D.C. Similar protests are planned across the United States and globe. The protest organizer, Code Pink, has said they want revive the tradition of using March 8th as a day to gather women together to call for peace, justice and equal rights for all.

While International Women’s Day is a major event in many parts of the world, it remains barely known in United States even though the roots of the day date back over a century. On March 8, 1857, women from clothing and textile factories in New York staged a protest against the conditions inside garment factories. On March 8. 1908, fifteen thousand women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. In 1910, an international women’s conference in Copenhagen established the first international women’s day. Three years later, women across Europe marked the day with peace rallies on the eve of World War I. In 1975, the United Nations began sponsoring International Women’s Day

* Margaret Busby, editor of Daughters of Africa: An international anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent. Published in 1994, it is a collection of women’s voices spanning from ancient Egypt to the present and has been called " a tribute to all black women." Born in Ghana, Margaret Busby is a writer, journalist, editor, critic and broadcaster. She became Britain’s youngest and first Black woman book publisher when she co-founded the publishing house Allison & Busby.

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