In 2011, I wrote an article about women confronting VAW using ICTs that featured a story of how women in the olden days creatively used local platforms to combat violence against women. The 59-year-old woman told us that when she was growing up as a young girl, women used to look for a strategic location in the village to broadcast their messages. This location was usually an anthill. The woman would stand on top of the anthill and shout about her husband’s bad behaviours. She would say “my husband is bad, she beats me when I give meat to the children, he is a glutton, he abuses me all the time….”. This was to let everyone in the village hear about her husband’s abusive behaviors. This would prompt the villagers to gossip about him and local musicians would compose songs about him. This shame would cause him to eventually change his ways.
Today, technology especially social media has provided us with much more advanced platforms compared to an anthill where we can broad cast our message globally. I have previously shared similar cases where women like Prisca Baike have used technology to amplify their struggles against violence.
Likewise, a former student at Makerere University used the only tool that was in her possession- a smart phone and took a self of University administrator who forcefully grabbed her boobs and started licking them when she went to pick her academic documents. Read the full story.
She later circulated the picture on social media and exposed the act. Her actions attracted support including the University Vice Chancellor applauded her for exposing the errant officer who harassed her.
Consequently the officer has been arrested and we hope justice will be served.
This morning as I was sorting and organizing books on my desk, I came across one of the magazines by a regional youth organization. I flipped through the pages to see its content and I picked interest in an interview with a young and prominent female journalist.
