CULTURE UNDER (RE)CONSTRUCTION
Women At Work
Women At Work
GIRA INGOMA - ONE DRUM PER GIRL
Culture, as it exists today, was made by men in the absence of women. Women found themselves chained to numerous traditions, customs, perceptions, beliefs that belittle them and jeopardize their full empowerment. The Rwanda’s new national gender policy is a unique and precious asset that pulverizes taboos, lifts prohibitions, and opens the door to a new era of possibilities, premieres and precedents .
There is a growing necessity of revamping traditions and changing the community’s mindset about the role of women. It remains urgent that culture protects all human rights – especially women’s rights. The task is titanic: to correct deeply buried cultural inequalities; to advance equity for half of the population (more than half, actually) right down to the rumbling of drums, the strings of the inanga, the steps of traditionally male dances, the lyrics of traditional songs, the words of secular proverbs – all previously the territory of men, all now occupied, by Rwandan women and, increasingly, girls.
There is a growing necessity of revamping traditions and changing the community’s mindset about the role of women. It remains urgent that culture protects all human rights – especially women’s rights. The task is titanic: to correct deeply buried cultural inequalities; to advance equity for half of the population (more than half, actually) right down to the rumbling of drums, the strings of the inanga, the steps of traditionally male dances, the lyrics of traditional songs, the words of secular proverbs – all previously the territory of men, all now occupied, by Rwandan women and, increasingly, girls.
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“Gira Ingoma – One Drum Per Girl” seeks to address persistent gender stereotypes, sexist attitudes and discriminatory patterns (norms, barriers, practices, perceptions, etc…) which prevent girls to perform non-traditional jobs/roles in the creative and cultural industries such as drumming, warrior dance (intore), poetry (kwivuga), singing, juggling, etc… and therefore, perpetuate inequalities and exclusion. Two hundred and fifty (250) girls from ten (10) primary and/or secondary schools in Huye district, with the support of their teachers and trainers, will engage in a quarterly dialogue with policy and decision makers at school, sector, district, province and national level, on how to achieve gender equality and women empowerment in the cultural sector. The aim is to give Rwandan girls the power to dream, to act, and to reinvent themselves on their own terms |