Thanks for the insights Brother Oko.I have no idea such practises exist in
Gambia.However i agree women suffers mostly this inhuman treatments around
the globe, is wrong and should be condemned any where.

Particularly in the Arab world and Asia where racism is rampant against
people with darker skins.Always good to hear you and i wish you and all our
members a bless EID-MUBARAK

Respect
Niamorkono.


On 10/22/06, oko drammeh <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> This is a serious article.
>
> BUT Abrahamic religions of the jews, Islam and Christianity
> justified racism and the enslavement of African people. They are like
> drugs.
>
> Sad for the lady-
> but women all over the world are subjected to gender discrimination, since
> the days of Adam and Eve, but .......there is more
>
> IN THE GAMBIA WE STILL HAVE THE UNTOUCHABLES, even though
> we talk and touch them, we cannot share blood links and marriages. We are
> apart. They can bring you bad luck and ill fortune if you befriend a Gambian
> cast group. Even to get favours from them is unacceptable.
>
> "EMPTY RIGHTS"
> Oko Drammeh
>
>
> KNOW YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD AFRICANS/
> CLAIM THE WORLD
> The name Africa is a derivative of an ancient Egyptian word N'FR which is
> rooted for GOOD, BEAUTIFUL, PERFECTION, NOBLE, the name may have originated
> from an extinct langauge known as Proto Korgo fantan, the langauge from
> which most African langauges originated.Aferia-terra Land of the Afer
> people.
> Afri was the name of several people who dwelt North Africa near Carthage.
> One black African person is called an Afer.
>
> MEANING OF AFRICA is LAND OF PERFECTION:
> Quote Wikipedia
>
> Know yourself Blacks,
> Colour is a real day to day factor in enslaving you and undermining your
> existance and to live up to the financial collapse of AFRICA, fermine,
> drougth, hunger, poverty, aids, debts and right to livihood.
>
> Wake up Africans, Wake up !
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Fye samateh <[log in to unmask]> wrote:   *A pedagogue of the
> oppressed*
>
> Savita Hiremath
>
>
>
> The eternal Other, ''the perpetual minor'', ''a devil's doorway'', ''an
> occasional and incomplete being'', ''a kind of imperfect man'' — woman is
> everything but a person. This historical accident is elevated and abased
> simultaneously. She suffers during wartime and she suffers in peacetime.
> She
> has to fight in a situation where every revolution has a meaning but
> feminism. She is tagged along for every protest that concerns the society,
> yet, she has to wage her own war in a situation where only empty rights
> prevail; where each trivial victory is but a brief escapade.
>
> Step down the caste hierarchy and you invite yourself to a more wretched
> landscape: Dalit woman is paraded naked, raped; her children and husband
> are
> forced to drink urine; she is made to carry shit on her head and told to
> force it down her throat too. She is ostracised. She is prostituted; her
> sexuality is religion's playground. Even Dalit men have debased her to a
> level lower than where they find themselves in; from where they are crying
> for emancipation.
>
> ''She is a Dalit among Dalits,'' says Dr Ruth Manorama. This phrase would
> have gathered little attention if not for the halo of Right Livelihood
> (Alternative Nobel) that surrounds her now.
>
> ''Dalit men react to the victimisation they suffer at the hands of the
> upper
> caste people by pouring it out on their wives, daughters...'' Perhaps,
> this
> is one of the worst tragedies of humanity that the oppressed themselves
> attempt to fill the emptiness by reducing their own women to drudgery and
> further oppression. Or else, how will they construct their sovereignty
> unless they set themselves up against someone else?
>
> ''I take up such issues with Dalit men during our regular meetings. Yes,
> this way I become irritable to them. But my argument is since they have
> suffered, they should see to it that their own women are spared. I want to
> see an Ambedkar in them.'' ''If you dig deeper, you will see that the
> upper
> caste ideology has percolated down to the lowest levels and that's where
> we
> are.
>
> The standards are set by the upper castes. And it's so natural that those
> who inevitably look upward, end up following them. Hence, you will see
> many
> Dalits Brahminising themselves. This way they think they elevate
> themselves
> to a higher level.'' Coming from a Dalit family in Chennai which initiated
> her into activism at a young age, Ruth knows what it means to be
> discriminated against just because she is one among ''the dregs of
> humanity''. There's one quality that sets her concerns apart from that of
> other activists': genuineness.
>
> Having worked for Women's Voice for years, she can talk at length on many
> issues: poverty, illiteracy, subjugation of Dalits; the poor social
> indicators that they display and the depressing social and economic
> achievements. Ruth has the acuity to see the interconnectedness between
> all
> these issues. She knows that it's a tissue of mocking echoes. She knows
> pain.
>
> ''This interconnectedness is far too obvious. Here you'll see that each
> issue is entangled with another. Take dowry system for instance: you
> cannot
> separate it from the caste system, patriarchy, consumerism, globalisation,
> etc. Each of these works in its own way to maintain the status quo.
>
> Dowry forces women to stay within endogamy and helps patriarchy perpetuate
> endlessly. Hence, you have Devadasi system and bonded labour thriving.''
> Thrive they will especially when some of the finest qualities of women
> have
> been bent or twisted out of shape only to have her enslaved to male
> dominance. That's how when the upper castes decide to outrage Dalit women,
> they don't even need to devise new strategies. The old ones work just
> right.
>
>
> ''Gender oppression is the same for all women irrespective of their caste.
> But when it comes to poor Dalit women, the issue is multi-layered. There
> may
> be some options available for upper caste women like walking out on a bad
> marriage. But what will a Dalit woman do if she doesn't even have a
> shelter?
> I know many women for whom the topmost priorities are food and shelter.
> Harmonious family relations are secondary.
>
> Dalit women's priorities are different from adivasi women or women
> belonging
> to minorities. Moreover, they have to face atrocities both within their
> community and without. That's why it's imperative that we see the
> specificity of all these issues. We have to see them in their wholeness.
> These are the issues of the 'Fourth World' (a Dalit's world),'' she
> explains.
>
> Her decades of association with slum-dwellers, unorganized workers, and
> urban poor has Ruth firmly anchored in reality. Perhaps that's how she is
> able get to the root of individual issues while keeping the larger picture
> in mind. But how does she tackle these problems especially when women are
> hemmed in by the family structure; when the feminine situation betrays
> little solidarity towards other women because each woman associates
> herself
> with a family or a caste or a religion but never with the collective
> consciousness called woman? ''Through organisation,'' replies Ruth.
>
> Trenchant as these arguments are, they are so beautifully laced with
> thoughtfullness, angst. ''If we have to create a humane world, we have to
> fight caste, class, patriarchy. I have learnt this by working with the
> poor.
> If the apartheid could be rooted out of South Africa, why can't we
> eliminate
> the caste system in India?''
>
> She is also painfully aware that women, especially upper caste women,
> contribute to it by protecting their own subjugation, willingly or
> unwillingly. ''Women not only adhere to the status quo, they help it
> perpetuate by keeping the spiral of silence intact. If you accept the
> status
> quo, life is much easier and you don't have to fight for anything. You get
> perks and plum posts. Patriarchs are also happy with you because the
> existential order is let to rot in its blissful state.''
>
> Although she has taken out innumerable protests and led huge crowds of men
> to mainstream her concerns, she knows that she is standing on the fringes.
> And that's not a vantage point from where she can dream of creating
> something anew! She knows that she has to move to the centre to be heard
> by
> the bourgeoisie. That's why her criticism is unsparing and her zeal
> unflagging.
>
> ''Tell me, when did the intelligentsia in India oppose the caste system?
> Mere acknowledgement does not work. Gandhi did not do much about it. He
> only
> opposed untouchability. Even trade unions are so fixated on only economic
> issues that they never tackle Dalit issues like untouchability or
> wife-beating practised by their own members. That's the reason why we have
> SC/ST workers' unions. Unless unions combine economic issues with social
> and
> political issues, their fight can only have a partial impact.'' Ruth knows
> her struggle is to emerge beyond the given and instill hope in those who
> look up to her. For once, we have a woman here who expresses her happiness
> in all its simplicity at being recognised. She isn't just a celebrity
> these
> days, but a Dalit feminist celebrity. Ruth is well aware of that. She also
> knows she is not a voice in the wilderness anymore.
>
> ''If someone says I am a Dalit feminist, I am happy to be clubbed with all
> the Dalit women. It's a matter of pride because I come from the most
> downtrodden section and I am happy to represent it. From a nonissue, the
> issue of the oppressed has suddenly become a core issue. Otherwise, how
> often do we see Dalit issues hitting the skies?'' True. Unless one makes a
> spectacle out of everything, it's difficult to come under the media glare.
> But in the case of Dalits, such spectacles happen only when the women are
> either raped or paraded naked. On other days, they are mere 'off-beat
> items'.
>
> Yet, throw her into any disheartening situation, Ruth will emerge
> optimistic. She has Ambedkar, Karl Marx, Paulo Friere and her family for
> intellectual support. ''If Dalits have survived even after 4000 years of
> oppression, there must be something in them.'' Quoting Marx she adds: ''We
> will keep up our fight because we have nothing to lose but our chains.''
>
> Ruth's reach Dr Ruth Manorama's working life has been spent on
> organisation
> building, mobilisation of people and advocacy on behalf of Dalit women
> through a large number of organisations.
>
> She is: General Secretary of Women's Voice, founded in 1985, to work with
> women in slums, struggling for land, shelter and survival rights of the
> urban poor.
>
> President of the National Alliance of Women, set up following the Fourth
> World Conference of Women in Beijing in 1995 to monitor government
> performance on its various commitments to women and lobby for change.
>
> Joint Secretary of the Christian Dalit Liberation Movement, formed in the
> 1980s to mobilise Christian Dalits for affirmative action.
>
> Secretary of the Karnataka State Slum Dwellers' Federation.
>
> Secretary for organisation building of the National Centre for Labour, an
> apex organisation of unorganised labour in India.
>
> President of the National Federation of Dalit Women, set up in 1995.
>
>
> ------------------------------
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