“To me, being a feminist is about both belief and action”: Jean Kemitare (Uganda) – 1/4

Meet Jean Kemitare, a feminist activist from Uganda.

There is something mysterious about Jean Kemitare. She is quiet, but every time she speaks she brings incredible value to the conversation. Her eyes are a little sad, but her laugh will give you the giggles long after you’ve heard it. I was fortunate to meet Jean as a young professional and learn from her excellent work to prevent violence against women in East and Southern Africa, and I always wanted to ask her about her life and feminist journey. That’s done now, and I am excited to share this interview with you!

Jean told me how her childhood and family shaped her into the feminist she is today (part 1, below) and her work to prevent violence against women and strengthen African feminist movements (part 2). I loved listening to Jean’s analysis of how African feminists movements have evolved over her lifetime (part 3). We ended our interview with great feminist parenting tips which I know I will come back to, again and again (part 4). I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Hello Jean! Thank you for joining me for this conversation. We met through work many years ago, and I’m excited to have this chance to get to know you at a deeper, more personal level. Can you please introduce yourself?

Hello, my name is Jean Kemitare and I come from Western Uganda, I am passionate about choice and voice for women, and my work has mostly revolved around women’s rights – specifically prevention of violence against women. I currently work for Urgent Action Fund Africa as the Programmes Director. I am a single mother to two teenagers, and I am also part of a huge extended family that I love.

Not many of my guests speak about their family when they introduce themselves – certainly not their extended family. Can you tell me more about your folks and how they’ve shaped you into the feminist you are today?

My grandfather was a catechist who was ahead of his time and believed in education for both boys and girls, even though he was mocked for sending his daughters to school. So I grew up in a family with high educational standards, and around aunties who were, and still are, strong women, and who have excelled in their respective fields. Some of them are gender activists. My aunts have been like mothers to me and they have influenced me significantly, both because paternal aunties are very important in patrilinear societies like mine, but also because I didn’t grow up with my biological mother. 

It must have been fantastic to grow up with such strong role models!

Yes but of course, it was still a patriarchal family. Most men were polygamous, including my father. When I was two months old, my parents quarreled with each other and my mother left. My father decided I would never see her again and he went to court for custody. As an engineer he had more resources than her, so he won. Sometimes I reflect on my life and I’m like, wow, violence started in my life when I was two years old.

My point is that there were different expectations and standards for me than for other children because I wasn’t the biological child of the women who raised me. There were also different responsibilities for boys and girls in the household I grew up in. The girls had to manage the household and the boys could come home at their convenience while we could not It would annoy me when my mom (that’s how I call my step-mom) would come home and my younger brothers would have made a mess, she would say to my younger sister and me: “You girls! what have you been doing the whole day? This place is a mess.” Or when there were different standards for the time of the day when boys and girls had to come home.

Those experiences shaped my early awareness of injustice and my passion for women's issues. I can say that is where my feminist journey began. Of course, the consciousness came way later, when I started working at Raising Voices on women’s rights, specifically on the prevention of violence against women.

“Sometimes I reflect on my life and I’m like, wow, violence started in my life when I was two years old.”

I find it interesting, this difference you make between the beginning of the journey and the beginning of the consciousness. Can you tell me when you connected the dots and how that consciousness moment happened?

There were many moments. When I was 10, there was a male individual in our household who was harassing me and another girl, a neighbor, for sex. We decided to take revenge by tearing all the pieces of paper his room, including his Bible. This angered him and he never bothered us again. We got told off for shredding his Bible, but it was our way of resisting, you know?

I later went to an all-girls secondary school, which gave me some agency. But that was challenged in university because there I was expected to behave in a certain way again, and to not express what I thought and who I was. And I was like, wait a minute.

Nothing beats the determination of a girl. Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.

What about today? Do you call yourself a feminist? What does that word mean to you exactly?

Yes, I call myself a feminist. For me, a feminist is someone who believes that women and men have equal rights and value. Whether one is a stay at home mom and the other one is a man walking in business or vice versa, they deserve the same opportunities and the same access to resources. That is what being a feminist means to me, someone who believes in that, but not just believes, takes action to make it happen. To me, being a feminist is about both belief and action.

When you introduced yourself you said that you were passionate about “voice” and “choice” for women. Can you tell me more about those two words and why they matter so much to your conception of feminism?

Patriarchy sees women as having less worth and value and therefore sees their contributions are less important. I see women’s voices as their ability to speak out and contribute to the agenda that affects them. For example, women's voices are not dominant when laws on women’s bodies, sexuality, laws on abortion, are discussed and passed by men.

Even when women are allowed to participate in political spaces, they’re seen as decoration, not for their ability to bring substance to the table. And too often, women who are allowed to speak out are women with patriarchal voices. There are a lot of women who are in spaces and positions where they could move things, but they reinforce patriarchal beliefs around women’s place in society, violence, their role in the household, and the choices they make.

“Even when women are allowed to participate in political spaces, they’re seen as decoration”

What about choice?

Choice, to me, is women being able to live and thrive on their own terms. If I choose to be a stay-at-home mum, or if I choose to work, it’s all okay. Whatever type of work I choose to do, that’s okay, even if it’s sex work. If I choose to have a child or to not have a child, that’s my choice. If that’s what I want at the moment, or for the rest of my life, so be it. As long as I decide that this is what I want for myself – not because someone else believes that’s what good women should do or be. 

To me, choice and rights come together. It’s about me having the right to be the woman I choose to be and to enjoy my human rights, as long as I’m not infringing on other people’s rights.

I love the clarity in Jean’s vision. Click here for the second part of our conversation, where Jean describes her current and past work to prevent violence against women and strengthen African feminist movements. Let’s go!

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I can’t wait to hear your thoughts. Write a comment below, or let’s chat on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram @EyalaBlog.

Want to connect with Jean? Find her on Twitter @JeanKemitare