Introduction

Why Women?

In 2018, I won an overseas scholarship to volunteer in South Africa for three weeks. For half of that time, I worked in townships with disadvantaged, female youths infected by AIDS/HIV, leading educatory projects in areas with immense water scarcity. Most notably in Cape Town, on the brink of becoming the first city in the world without water. This blog aims to revisit this site of interest, nurturing a deeper learning about water and development in Africa in relation to gender. 

                                    

Figure 1: A township in Port Elizabeth, SA, where I worked.

Source: Photograph taken by myself (2018).

A Brief History

The rights of people to gain access to safe water in Africa are intrinsically linked to post-colonial struggles. The ‘Scramble for Africa’  illustrates this, marking a rush between Western European powers in the 19th century to occupy and exploit swathes of the continent, while paying no heed to Africa’s ethnic and linguistic borders. Although colonialism introduced new water and sanitation infrastructure, in instances of prolonged occupation there were steep divisions regarding access to this, benefitting European elites whilst neglecting indigenous populations.

With the dissolution of empires at the end of World War 2 post-independent water laws emerged embodying the fundamental human right of access to safe water, such as the 1998 South African National Water Act. Nevertheless, there remains issues adopting such discourses in practice.

Firstly, due to internal conflict regarding land rights, as many land rights, and subsequent rights to the water which flows through that land are still tied up to wealthy, white colonial families.  Secondly, due to external conflict among countries, since colonialists demarcated unequal agreements over trans-boundary water shares. 

These colonial influences, compromising Africa’s water situation, are arguably most heavily bared by women, as women are predominantly responsible for water collection and more dependent on sanitation infrastructure. Future posts aim to explore these issues in greater detail.

Figure 2: A linguistic map of Africa, evidently inconsistent with sovereign borders.

Source: Nations Online, map made by Mark Dingemanse.

Why Africa?

Africa has the lowest proportions of national populations with access to safe water in the world.  Although this claim hides internal variation within and across countries, I aim to focus on areas unserved by Target 6.1 and Target 6.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls where adequate and equitable sanitation is absent. Due to my personal interest in South Africa, I aim focus on the southern region of the continent, whilst keeping my mind open to learn about different case studies along the way.  

A Word on Representation

Too often the media singularises Africa into an exoticized image of hot, dusty landscapes with 'huge herds of animals’, starving children and ‘naked warriors’, cloaked in death- and it’s just embarrassing. Surely, we have moved on from racial stereotyping? Leading me to question why this problematic portrayal of Africa prevails. Perhaps, because bad news is more likely to elicit an emotional response to entice the reader. Or perhaps because a steady stream of discourse, presenting a needy, broken Africa helps to justify top-down, Western intervention.

Yet prejudice exists at multiple levels. Not only in the press, or in the sorrowful white reporter who fell in ‘love with [Africa] and can’t live without her’, but also in us. Every time we ‘treat Africa as if it were one country’ or mascot skeletal African children, we fall guilty to these biases.

It’s time this narrative got re-evaluated, with women being portrayed beyond their primitive instincts and ‘naked breasts’, but as potential agents of development, which this blog aims to do.  So please, comment below if you notice anything unhelpful. It is only through increasing work, awareness and having these conversations, can we begin to shift our presupposed thinking, when writing about Africa.