International Women's Day

March 8th 2008
Today is International Women's Day. This was news to some of our international volunteers who had never heard of it before. Most of the men (and some of the women) made asides wondering when International Men's Day was.
According to an email that my mother sent me, International Women's Day has been celebrated for almost a hundred years and is now celebrated in many countries worldwide including Madagascar. Previously I've celebrated by attending events hosted and promoted by Manchester City Council. I've sung with the women's contingent of the Manchester Community Choir, hosted a confidence building workshop for women, and connected with women involved in all sorts of different campaigns across Manchester at a day of events in the town hall.
I've been a feminist for as long as I can remember - at least for the past 30 years. There is very little about British society that's persuaded me that it's time to give up the fight for equality. And yet relatively, women in the UK have it pretty good.
I've been living here in this small Vezu fishing village for the past five months, and I'm still getting my head round how different my life would be had I been born here 37 years ago instead of the UK. I would be a grandmother. I would have around 8 to 10 children alive and perhaps others that would not have made it. My body would have suffered as a result of having been pregnant for much of my adult life. I would probably be on my second 'husband'. Perhaps my third (Vezu men are not known for being faithful). I'm not sure how I would spend my days. Perhaps washing the clothes by hand of the fazahar staying in the village or maybe on a small stall, chatting to other women, looking after my children and selling peanuts and beans. I'd be feeding my family on fish and rice and I wouldn't get to go out drinking and dancing at night in the way that many of the men do. What I do know is that I would probably be a member of the women's association if I was still the same 'me' and trying to work towards the economic independence of the women of the village. The life of the men in this little fishing village is not an easy one. But the life of the women definitely appears to be even harder.
So, marking International Women's Day with Andavadoaka's women's association seemed just as important to do as marking the day would be at home.

I started by meeting the WA on the beach outside Club Alo Alo at 8am Malagasy time (actually 8.45am by my watch). By 9am, all the women of the association had arrived. They were all wearing sarongs, white t-shirts and a cardboard crown on their heads proclaiming the slogan "women for development" in Malagasy. We all lined up on the beach in a crocodile, two abreast. Lalao stood behind me and I was glad of her support as I hadn't a clue what was going on. Led by Madame Ziza and her very loud whistle, we marched through the village singing. I didn't know the tunes or the words, so I just marched along and hummed snippets of the melodies or harmonies when I could. The singing was beautiful and initially I felt quite overcome.
It felt quite empowering to be part of this group of women, snaking and singing through the village. We marched through the sandy tracks of the main street and were observed by men, women and children all gathered together at the edges. Some cheered and clapped. James, one of our boat drivers, just put his hands in his ears and then heckled us through a loudspeaker.
Just before we arrived at the primary school, a very bizarre thing happened. A teenager took over the megaphone thing and started barking orders at us to march in a certain way. And even more bizarrely, we responded. We marched into the school playground and stood to attention, at his command! At the far side of the playground - just outside the tiny school - a group of men sat on small wooden benches. They were the nahudas (important men of the village) and Daniel, a BV staff member. A speech was made, a minute's silence, and then the flag of Madagascar was hoisted up on a pole while we sang two songs (possibly one being the national anthem).
Following this, I was ushered to one of the seats of the 'dignatories' and the speeches began. Daniel seemed to be the event's compere. One of the nahudas spoke, Madame Ziza, the women's association president spoke and all the while I grew more and more nervous knowing that in a few short minutes it would be my turn. As with most events in the village of Andavaodaka there were 'quite literally' hundreds of children there. I tried some quick calculations - there were at least 30 members of the WA there. So, it was feasible that most of the children were theirs, or their grandchildren.
There were a few adults in the playground too - some more BV staff members, Justin and a few more women and men from the village. Then, finally it was my turn to speak. Daniel handed me the megaphone. I was incredibly nervous. Public speaking at such an 'official' event is daunting enough in English, let alone in a language that I can barely pronounce. I got through the few words that Lalao had written for me and sat down to applause. Phew. I had managed to pronounce the very last word incorrectly however, which produced a ripple of laughter. Frankly, if you are ever paranoid about people laughing at you, then come to Madagascar. It happens so frequently, that it's just not worth worrying about any more.
I sat down, still shaking, and passed the megaphone back to Daniel. There was dancing and singing then and much shaking of arses by the WA, to the amusement of the 300 or so children in the audience. Finally, one of the women from the WA spoke, but eschewed the megaphone. She drew more applause and was very charismatic and inspiring. I have no idea what she was saying. I hope that at least some of it was radical and calling for the emancipation of women! I have no idea what any of the speeches were about - not even mine! I had asked Gildas to translate mine, but it still didn't seem to make sense. Certainly all of the speeches included some sort of thanks to God for us being here.
The event dispersed then, and the male dignatories, Justin and I, the mercenary nun from the catholic school, the old Italian man who owns some land were all invited into the school with the WA for a drink. I had a fizzy orange (it was 10.30am) but I was shocked to see many of the women drinking beer! Malagasy women do not tend to drink alcohol at all, let alone in public. But then perhaps it's allowed on special events such as International women's day? I even saw a few women downing triple shots of togagash - the petrol-like homebrew that induces extreme drunkenness and memory loss!
There is a women's football match this afternoon and a party in the epi-bar tonight. I definitely won't be drinking togagash as this is definitely a March 8th that I don't want to forget.