Bringing our own seats to the table

Lesego Nswahu Nchunga | Monday March 8, 2021 12:55

The reality is that the support is often clearly a theatrical performance than it is an actual position by which one can stand. It is often peppered by the high tea events, or panel discussions which lead absolutely no where, and are intended merely for photo opportunities as a part of a “communications strategy” to which will be reported merely as a tick box as there is often no real impact that these events have on the actual causes surrounding the cause. So following the tea party, the success is often measured by who attended, how many of the who’s who attended, what they wore and who organised it.

Occasionally, there will be a donation to an organisation which works on gendered issues, but one which does not align itself strongly with any political issues. Of course, the corporates and politics are indivisible from each other. So corporates would not want to tarnish their image by associating themselves with organisations which take actual positions against abuse of power positions by politicians in any way.

March 8 is one of those days when performative activism - this time in the form of performed feminism - is at its most rife. Organisations will observe the day by a bare and bald assertion that they “support gender equality”. On that day, for about an hour, they will often host a panel discussion, with a woman as a host, or a man who works on issues related to “the rights of the boy child” – because there is an emerging cultural or societal notion that the empowerment of women and girls is often the disempowerment of men and boys and that therefore there is a need to focus on boys without a real understanding of the issues thereto related.

The hosts are usually only trophy activists because most real activists are left outside the doors of the corporates because they are too bold and too outspoken, and too political (even if the politics are not partisan politics but rather personal politics). The corporates want “activists” who can easily be commissioned and paid a fee to speak well about Women’s Day, without calling out the corporates on their shortcomings.

You see the real observation of the day, for many corporates is not to actually to introspect and interrogate the realities of the experiences of the women in the organisations. So the idea is never to address the fact that there are no sexual harassment policies in many institutions for example, thereby normalising men’s insistences of sexual favours in exchange for promotions, because that would be too uncomfortable a topic to address as it is so entrenched in Botswana’s corporate culture. The idea is also not to address parental leave policies which often only do the bare minimum, and even then only for mothers, and also even then only for mothers who were also the carriers of their young.

The idea with the corporate high teas and social events or panel discussion is to celebrate the historical successes of the women in the establishments or to just sit and “celebrate one another as women” and throw around catch phrases, for Twitter’s sake, and to dress up and look cute. The activism in many of these spaces is done to increase social capital rather than because of an actual devotion for impactful change. It’s usually associated with surface level activism, or really, slactivism! It is usually a paternalistic recognition of women as deserving of equality, but only to the extent that the women not only know their place, but also are not loud and disrespectful about how they occupy it, and will not call men out too loudly.

It is actions devoid of real meaning or substance, and it’s really just intended for the perceived glory that comes with activism without paying the price for it.

This column, is not a corporate space. We are about real activism and discussing issues at their most critical cores. We are anchored in inclusive politics, and have always made it clear. Mostly we are about the womxn and activists who are often not invited to the high teas or the panel discussions because too loud and too opinionated, and too ungovernable, and too aggressive.

In commemoration of Women’s Day this year, we will spend the month having various conversations with women who do not have seats at the high teas, and we will address the various issues which many performance activists will not discuss. At the core of them will be this years’ Women’s Day theme, “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world”. In an effort to create a round table or panel discussion feel, we will look at what the theme represents for many people who are often not invited to these spaces, but who are very critical to achieving the intended objectives of the day. It is a month long celebration because perhaps it should take more than a day to observe, celebrate and honor womxn and to ensure that the necessary voices are audible.

Happy Women’s Day!