Out of Africa, part of Canada: Tracing the Ismaili
http://www.peak.sfu.ca/the-peak/98-2/is ... ature.html
The E-Peak
issue 09, vol 99 -- June 29, 1998
Shiraz Ramji
My father came to Tanzania in 1922, and initially worked
on a coconut plantation in Zanzibar. My mother came to
Tanzania in 1930 after she got married and worked as a
mother and a homemaker, raising eleven children and
surviving to be a grandmother to twenty grandchildren.
Most Ismailis migrated from India to East Africa in the
1900s to work on plantations, in railways, in small
businesses, and as civil servants for the British
Government. They were labeled "British Indians" and
issued with British passports.
The experience of growing up with my mother and five
sisters in East Africa has helped me learn, listen and work
with women for social justice. My mother, Rehmatbai
participated in the women's association and empowered
me to work for women's rights as human rights. The
women in East Africa empowered themselves through the
Ismaili women's association and in the process produced a
new generation of Canadian Ismaili women activists and
leaders such as Sunera Thobani, former president of the
National Action Committee on the Status of Women and
Tazeem Nattoo, former chair of the SFU Board of
Governors.
There is no religion that labels itself as 'patriarchal' or
'sexist'. Instead, all religions agree that women should not
be abused or mistreated. So most men, including Ismaili
men, grow up thinking that women are well treated in their
religion. However, even when taught that women must
submit themselves to men, religious men and women alike
are encouraged to see these patriarchal teachings as
valuable and useful elements of tradition. Ismaili women
commonly face problems to do with abuse, isolation,
marriage, depression, poverty, divorce and family violence.
Asian feminists from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan,
and Sri Lanka see feminism as an awareness of women's
oppression and exploitation in society, at work, and within
the family, and conscious action by women to change this
situation. Feminism is about challenging the division of
labour in the world that places men in charge in the public
sphere while women slave away unpaid in the home,
carrying the whole burden of family life.
African novelist Ama Atat Aidoo comments that, "When
people ask me rather bluntly every now and then whether I
am a feminist, I not only answer yes, but I go on to insist
that every woman and every man should be a
feminist-especially if they believe that Africans should take
charge of African land, African wealth, and the burden of
African development."
Although there is no universal definition of feminism or
feminist theory, women living in almost all parts of the
globe share a common experience of gender
discrimination. Feminism has evolved in different
communities, countries and continents around different
issues. Unfortunately, the public and private media in
Canada, Britain and the U.S. has only focused on 'radical
feminists' who say that women's liberation is first and
foremost liberation from male domination. Although most
divorced women are not feminists, the media promotes
feminists and "marriage busters", lesbians, and man-haters.
Of course, and contrary to uninformed belief, all feminists
are not lesbians, and all lesbians are not feminists.
DIVIDE AND RULE
In the 1920s in Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya, were all
under to British colonial rule, so the school curricula
centred around English literature, history, language and
culture. The Asians and Africans were encouraged to act
like the upper class English people and dream of living in
Britain. In fact, some of the rich Ismaili children went to
Britain after their elementary education in East Africa.
The racism institutionalized by the British promoted ethnic
divisions through school and residential segregation for
Africans Asians and Europeans. The label "Asians"
covered people from India, including Ismailis and Punjabis.
Throughout their education, Asians were socialized to
accept the British "divide and rule" policy. Asians had to
live with racism and at the same time became racist against
the Africans.
Colonialism was dictatorship with the British governor
playing the role of a dictator. Both African and Asian
women and men did not have the right to vote and British-
institutionalized sexism reinforced gender division through
different professional and occupational opportunities for
women and men.
The myth of superiority of English culture was implanted in
the colonized people including the Ismaili women and men
through education and commercial products including suits
and dresses made in England. Commercialized medicine
and breastmilk substitutes in England were also introduced
in Africa. Baby food changed from mothers' healthy
breastmilk to commercially produced infant formula milk
delivered in bottles or cups. English style dressing, eating
with fork and knife, and bottle-feeding was associated with
the European standards of civility and modernization.
Presently, the colonial legacy of European superiority, and
Asian inferiority is begin challenged by some of the Ismaili
women born and/or educated in Canada. For example,
wearing traditional South Asian clothing illustrates the
reclaiming of Asian identity. And increasingly, Ismaili
mothers are breast-feeding their babies.
OUT OF AFRICA
During the 1960s, Britain lost its colonies in East Africa.
The new political leadership consisted of Indigenous
Africans and a couple of Asians and Europeans, almost all
of them were men. The race-based apartheid system in
education, health and housing was officially dismantled.
However, the pre-independence economic domination by
the Europeans and Asians continued and racial hierarchy
did not disappear. In order to keep their British passport
and landing rights, some of the Asians emigrated from East
Africa to Britain.
There were two other main events which triggered the
Asian migration form East Africa to Europe and North
America. The first was in Tanzania when the government
confiscated property in order to control the economy and
dismantle the residential ghettos. The other event was the
expulsion of all Asians from Uganda by dictator Idi Amin
who used Asians as scapegoats to show-off his military
power and perpetuate his survival. The Kenyan Ismailis
came to Canada over a period of many years to avoid the
Ugandan experience and the 'Westernization' of Ismailis
during the colonial era had already prepared Ismailis to live
in Europe and North America. Most of the Ismailis
migrated to Canada after 1970 because it was similar to
Britain. Now, after 25 years in Canada, about half of the
Canadian Ismaili population has been born in this country.
FILLING THE GENERATION GAP
We generally think of grandparents as old people, but
there are many middle-aged grandparents around who are
in their forties and fifties. Since 90 per cent of the elderly
Ismaili women aged 65 years and over are grandmothers,
the formation of an Ismaili Grandparent-Grandchildren
Friendship Association will highlight the presence of
grandparents in the Ismaili community.
The goal of the Grandparent-Grandchildren Friendship
Association will be to create a truly intergenerational
community. The friendship association will aim to reverse
the current trend of an age-segregated society-one in
which grandparents, parents, and children have become
increasingly distanced and emotionally-alienated from each
other. Old and young Ismailis have a real need for each
other, and the burden of being an Ismaili parent is
considerably reduced when children have regular and
intimate contact with their grandparents.
The message of hope in my interview with several Ismaili
sisters is clear, "We hope to have more egalitarian
relationships in homes and in the community. We want to
have less competition, greed, and divorces. We want to
see the growth of the Canadian Ismaili women's
association both at the grassroots level and at the national
level."
Shiraz Ramji is a mature, feminist, Ismaili student currently
studying women's studies and gerontology at Simon Fraser
University.