Discrimination Amongst Women
Saturday 22 November 2003
When I agreed to be a candidate for local government, I knew there would be challenges and obstacles ahead of me, but I never thought it would come from members of the political party to which I belonged. Especially considering the party machinery approached me in the first place. I later learned the discrimination came from one of the very individuals who approached me.
My journey started in 1996. I took some time to seek advice from three persons whom I highly respected, namely; the party leader (opposition party at the time), a medical doctor who was previously involved politically with the party and a colleague who is a Pan-Africanist and an activist. The results of those consultations were: Party leader informed me that I was considered “controversial”, the medical doctor gave me his full support and my Pan-Africanist colleague advised me against it.
After weighing all the responses and taking into consideration the support from the people in the streets, I decided to go for it. This decision was delayed as there was an unsettled situation with an incumbent councillor, I therefore offered to withdraw my application until the 1999 election as the party could not decide which of the five new candidates they would approach and ask to step down.
1998 General Election rolls around and my party is now the governing party. I then approached the area representative (MP), one of the two persons who originally approached me for the 1996 municipal election and restated my commitment. The song and dance began, as I was informed that the area’s Executive Committee had some concerns about my loyalty to the party because of my pan-Africanist activities and my form of dressing. I requested and was granted a meeting with the committee. At that meeting the problem seemed to be non-existent.
My name was then added to the slate and the campaign was launched. Needless to say, support from the MP was non-existent, but the kicker was the message sent to me via a male member of the party. The message in essence was to ask me to tone down my dressing as it was felt that I was pushing my Africanness down their throats. My reply to the messenger was “ I know they don’t want me to tone down my dressing, for if I do, I’ll go buck naked, campaign and still win” . My campaign continued with all the obstacles and challenges, which I overcame, running a campaign on a negative budget but the end result was I won my seat.
The price for my actions have been exclusion from:
- Certain public functions
- Representing the council on official matters outside the country
- Some meetings of importance regarding my portfolio
- Meeting discussing my seeking re-election while I was out of the country
- The area’s Executive Committee, while the other Councillors were included on theirs
- The MP for my area bypassing me and liaising with other councillors and the Mayor in order to build a case against me proving I’m not a team player, in addition;
- I’ve been accused of being an opposition spy in the party’s camp
- I’ve been called a weed-head and an alcoholic (my dreadlocks)
- Difficult to work with
- . Non-support of any project coming from my office, etc.
When I opted to exercise my democratic right and challenge the executive committee, the move to expel, then suspend me from the party was in full swing (August of 1999). With the intervention of the Most High, both efforts were unsuccessful. At this point I truly experienced “shunning”. Invitations were mislaid, lost or otherwise unaccounted for; trips related to Council business were secret.
In March of 1999 after winning my seat I was given “Crime and Drug Abuse” and “Community Participation” as my portfolio. Both of these were new to the Council, but I accepted these two lemons and made lemonade with one and lemon meringue pie with the other, which I gracefully served to them. Today the Council can boast of fulfilling their mandate with the existence of a Community Participation Department (CPD).
A short list of some of the achievements of the CPD follows:
- Created, designed and implemented a literacy program for employees who now can sign their names at the bank or credit union for their paychecks rather than mark an X
- Created designed, and implemented an Employee Assistance Program to assist employees with personal, work-related and/or substance abuse problems
- As head of the Housing & Shelter Committee at the City level, formulated procedures to manage the shelters, assist with the training of the Shelter Management Team and address the problems of shelters during a disaster, i.e.: hurricane
- Coordinated and formulated procedures for the EOC office
Fast-forward to 2003 and elections. After considerable double-talking and secret meetings, the mayor informed me on a Friday at 11:15 am that my name was not selected to be on the ballot. The convention was scheduled for the following day at 2:00 pm. That left me no time to contest so-called democratic convention; consequently I was effectively eliminated from contesting the upcoming election on March 5th 2003. The Area Representative (MP) who by the way is a woman and the Minister of Human Development, Women and Children at the time made this decision. Party officials have stood by and watched the game progress and labeled it a “woman’s thing”.
I feel as though I have been gang raped, dragged up the highest mountain, and kicked off by the gang wearing size 12 steel-toed boots. I have landed at the bottom bruised and mangled, but by no means broken. I will not be VISIONLESS AND WEAK-KNEED, BUT REMAIN BASICAL AND STRONG, AND WILL BE BACK COME 2008!!!
By Nzinga Barkley-Waithe
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