empower
/ɪmˈpaʊə,ɛmˈpaʊə/
verb
past tense: empowered; past participle: empowered
give (someone) the authority or power to do something.
synonyms:
authorize, license, entitle, permit, allow, sanction, warrant, commission, delegate, certify, accredit
My PhD research involves interviewing female entrepreneurs, to understand the challenges, opportunities and strategies of Ugandan women seeking to grow their businesses. Growing up in the UK, the campaign for poverty reduction in Africa has fed me images of starving children and built profiles of broken African women, struggling to thrive against gender inequality. While one cannot deny that poverty and gender inequality exists in nations like Uganda, becoming comfortable with this one-sided portrayal of African society is harmful.
Privilege says "Things could be a lot worse"
Between the ages of 5 and 12 years of age, I would fill my dinner plate to the brim. Secretly, I think I was trying to compete with my four older brothers who were growing teenagers at the time. I remember this phase so well, because "eyes bigger than her stomach" became my brand at family gatherings. I could rarely finish a quarter of what I ever put on my plate. Each time this happened, my parents would remind me that "there are children in Africa who don't have any food to eat, and here you are, wasting food". I would usually retort with something along the lines of "well, why don't we give them my leftovers then?".
As children, our view of the world is informed by the 'World' we live in. That's the people we interact with, the media we consume and the social structures we exist within. Our theory of mind, our ability to 'understand things from someone else's perspective', takes a while to mature. Because of this, social relativism is difficult to grasp back as a child. And it makes arguments like "things could be a lot worse", unconvincing of some moral obligation to finish a full plate of food. At least it was for me.
As adults, there is a danger in continuing this social relativism. Now, it's healthy to have perspective and practice gratitude. Perspective becomes unhealthy when we silence our own lived experiences of poverty and inequality, because someone 'out there' is suffering more than us. We are born into the worlds we live in, and that becomes our everyday reality. While the characteristics of suffering look different across cultures and economies, the experience of suffering is very much the same. It's not pleasant, and we want it to stop.
To my women of privilege, don't gaslight yourselves.
Higher income countries like the UK, are more likely to enforce legal and regulatory structures to punish gender unequal practices. But this does not necessarily correlate with higher levels of experienced 'empowerment'. In fact, there is an argument that in countries where diversity and equality policies are alive and mainstream, discrimination goes underground. This creates a fertile ground for 'micro-aggressions' to take place - daily behaviours that are hard to call-out, but are derogatory or oppressive of the affected persons.
For example, repeatedly being excluded from post-work drinks as the only woman in your team. It may not be intentional, but it feels unfair. You can't call it out, because you don't want to look weak. Yet, you know that those post-work drinks are networking opportunities that you are missing out on.
Speaking to many women business-owners in Uganda, I often feel weak and pathetic. How can I complain about anything, when these women have done so much, in such difficult circumstances? I start to feel embarrassed and disempowered. And this is an unhelpful emotional state to be in. Therefore, instead of benchmarking my experiences of suffering against others, I have decided to add their stories to my toolkit. In times of suffering, I can lean on their inspiration to gently encourage me to persevere.
Poverty says "Things could be a lot better"
The sheer number of organisations supporting women's empowerment that exist in Uganda, like Ugandan Women Entrepreneurs Association (UWEAL), suggests there is still work to be done. Women's rights activists have featured strongly in Uganda's post-independence history. UWEAL formed in 1981 by four women who saw the huge potential of women in business, but the poor legal and social infrastructure there to support them. Uganda Women's Network (UWONET) formed in 1993, following the East African Women's conference held in Kampala. They continue to campaign for women's rights, lobbying for both legal policy and social attitudinal change so Ugandan women can thrive and flourish.
We cannot deny that gender inequality exists in Uganda. Constantly benchmarked against measures of gender equality from 'developed' nations, it is easy to self-perceive as a disempowered woman in Uganda. And while this is very true for a lot of women, it is not true for all.
Focusing only on the challenges facing Ugandan women business-owners only perpetuates the discourse that they are disempowered. And nothing can be more demotivating than internalising an identity of 'impoverished' and 'discriminated'. Things could be a lot better for Ugandan women, and they will be. But I want to use international women's day as an opportunity to celebrate the incredible empowerment of three Ugandan female entrepreneurs, who don't need anyone to...
authorize, license, entitle, permit, allow, sanction, warrant, commission, delegate, certify, accredit
... them. They've done that for themselves.
Sandra Ejang
Orphaned aged 13, Sandra went to live with her grandmother, her only living relative. Sandra's grandmother was a farmer and beekeeper. Growing up, she watched her grandmother work hard so she could pay for Sandra's education. She would often help her grandmother keep the bees and sell the honey, but never envisaged starting her own business in beekeeping two decades later.
Sandra's grandmother died shortly after Sandra became a single mother. With no stable source of income, she started up a number of small businesses so she could feed her daughter. Despite the success of all the businesses she started, none of them fully satisfied her. After some years, following in her grandmother's footsteps, Sandra founded a honey business called Asaliwamoyo, which means 'honey of the heart' in Swahili - or sweetheart for short.
Asaliwamoyo is more than just a honey business however. Sandra provides over 500 farmers with bee-hives, and buys back the honey they make. She then sells the honey on, to an established market of consumers across Uganda. Sandra also processes the honey to make lotions, soaps, treatments, serums and confectionary. For one year, the farmers pay Sandra back for the bee-hives, until they own them entirely. Although Sandra's business has an undeniable social mission, she refuses to shout about it:
"I don't want people to like my business just because it has a social mission. That's not what I believe is right. I don't want people to come, and take pictures of sad children and all they think of us is needy.
"I want people to see the business as good in its own right. The social impact side of things is for me. Business growth for me is not just about being the biggest bee-keeper in Africa, but it's about transforming people's lives"
Prudence Ukkonika
Growing up with a father who made home brews from fermented matooke (banana) and who had opened up the first bar in his district, it would seem like Prudence was destined to go into the alcoholic beverage industry. In reality, it took many years and the loss of her enterprising first-born son for Prudence to fully establish Bella Wines.
As a young girl, Prudence was very enterprising. She started up lots of mini-businesses, selling and making goods and products. She would use any opportunity to look for a market gap and find ways to fill it. But she never envisaged the success that Bella Wines would bring her. When her first-born son died unexpectedly, Prudence decided to pick up his legacy where he left off. Her son had begun buying and selling locally produced Ugandan wine in Kampala. Just when his business was on the verge of taking off, Prudence's son sadly passed away.
Devastated by the loss of her son, Prudence struggled to muster up the energy to return to work. With 5 other children to support, bereavement was a luxury she couldn't afford. In prayer one night, Prudence was inspired to continue the business her son had started. Today, Bella Wines is Uganda's most successful wine company. Prudence has travelled the world with her impressive wine selection, made from hibiscus, banana and other Ugandan fruits, made completely organically - no preservatives, no chemicals, no shortcuts.
"When my son died, it was too much. I wanted to go abroad, leave everything and disappear. But I started Bella Wines to build on the work he started.
"I now see myself as an entrepreneur and proud to be a woman. Here in Uganda, people listen to women more than they listen to men. We don't just create customers, we build relationships to retain them"
Anne Kyomugisha
When Anne’s father died leaving no will, her and her family were kicked off their land by relatives. For many years, Anne was practically homeless with her mother and siblings. Struggling to afford both the legal battle for her rightful ownership of the land and the children’s school fees, Anne’s mum eventually gave up. Living the challenges of displacement, Anne was inspired to become a civil engineer, so she could create the important housing for displaced people like she and her family had been.
Despite getting the qualifications to study civil engineering at Uganda’s prestigious Makerere University, she couldn’t afford the tuition fees. So not to burden her already over-worked mother, Anne decided to settle for a government sponsored degree in industrial design, at another university.
Although she never fulfilled her dream of becoming a female civil engineer, Anne has founded the social enterprise ‘Smart Havens Africa’ which provides affordable housing to low-income families. She offers a unique scheme whereby renting tenants can pay a small monthly fee, which then enables them to fully own the property after 5 years. When I asked her why she felt women’s businesses struggle to grow in Uganda, Anne responded:
“You say that not many women achieve business growth, but I tell you that your definition of business growth may be wrong. For some women, it is enough to just feed your family or put your kids through school. For others it's different. And neither is better or worse than the other. We start somewhere. And very often in the case of women, we start small and then we inevitably grow.”
