Silika - To Make Our Lives Shine

Dedicated to the memory of Kagonga; may her songs live on.Abstract: African women's development groups are frequently promoted as self-help efforts to overcome economic crises and persistent poverty. Indeed, government or other directed self-help enterprises will often respond to women's difficult financial circumstances only through organized women's groups as in, for example, the Women in Development projects in Kenya, East Africa. There is a strong assumption locally, nationally and globally that women's groups ought to be profitable organizations; the influence of capitalist assumptions is profound. In Kenya, for example, the necessary fee for a license to inaugurate a women's group sets up expectations of future profits--it takes money to make money. In the rural area of Maragoli, Kenya, there are over 200 government-licensed Women Groups as well as other women's groups operating without licenses. Many are unsuccessful if measured in terms of economic accumulation. The publicity on both local and national levels surrounding their economic ineffectiveness undervalues women's contribution in these groups, permitting men and government officials to denigrate the benefits of women's solidarity.Resume: On presente souvent les groupes d'emancipation des femmes africaines comme etant le resultat d'efforts d'entraide pour combattre les crises economiques et la pauvrete tenace. En effet, les entreprises gouvernementales et autres organisations d'entraide vont subvenir aux besoins financiers des femmes par le biais de groupe organises feminins tels les projets > au Kenya, en Afrique orientale. Aux niveaux locaux, nationaux et globaux on presume que les groupes de femmes doivent etre des organisations lucratives. L'influence des idees capitalistes est profondement enracinee. Au Kenya, par exemple, on justifie le cout de l'inscription en disant--il faut de l'argent pour gagner de l'argent. Dans la region de Maragoli au Kenya, il existe plus de 200 groupes de femmes affilies au gouvernement ainsi que d'autres groupes non affilies. Bon nombre sont infructueux en terme d'accumulation economique. Models in current usage developed from three fundamental criticisms of the earlier literature. The first criticizes the optimism concerning economic progress of women through modernization, or the imposition of a capitalistic economic system. The second re-evaluates the role of women, given the continued strength of patriarchal ideology which has actually expanded through changing economic practices and deliberate state policies. The third critique examines women's deployment of decision-making power in economic, social and political contexts in the light of gender and class inequalities. Today's literature speaks about women's continuing hard work within changing systems of production and their contribution to local and national economics and to development. It uses case studies to examine women's responses to economic restructuring (i.e., under structural adjustment policies) and to locate their strategies for empowerment (cf. Blumbert et al. 1994). This paper is a contribution to that literature.African women's efforts in women's groups are portrayed locally, nationally and globally as a viable means for economic improvement. Researchers have recognized that Africa has a particularly rich heritage of women cooperating with women in secret societies, revolutionary groups,(f.2) official women's organizations that may be associated with a ruling party, employment and trade union organizations, voluntary associations, modern cooperatives,(f

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