Notes to broadcasters
Special Note: This script is intended to emphasize how much work and what a variety of work farm women do. It also encourages men to talk about their own role in farm work.
Content: Joseph Onyango and Frederick Odera are neighbours in rural Siaya District, Kenya. They meet each other at the market one day and talk about how traditional responsibilities for men and women have changed
Script
Joseph Onyango:
Hello Odera! How are you and your family? I have not seen you since the village meeting last week.
Frederick Odera:
Yes, hello Onyango! I am fine and my family too. We have been very busy on the farm so I have not been able to come to the market.
Joseph Onyango:
Why are you so busy with farm work, neighbour? Is your wife ill or is she lazy and not doing her work? Ha, Ha!
Frederick Odera:
No, my wife is fine, but she is busy marketing some of the crops she just harvested. She has stored many sacks of maize and beans for us to use and she has taken the extra to town to sell.
Joseph Onyango:
Why don’t you tell her to stay at home and to cultivate the fields? My wife must first take care of the fields before she goes to the market. Women are getting too much attention these days!
Frederick Odera:
But Onyango, how can you say that? Sometimes my wife uses the money she brings home to pay school fees or to take the children to the clinic. She buys things we need on the farm and sometimes she even gives my mother some extra money to buy sugar. I don’t even need to ask her what she is going to do with the money she earns because I know that she always thinks of the family first.
Joseph Onyango:
Well, I think women have forgotten the old ways. They don’t act like they used to and now you can even find women joining women’s groups, running their own businesses and taking money to the bank!
Frederick Odera:
Neighbour, I agree with you that some traditions are changing, not only for women, but for men too. Are we following the ways of our fathers? My father used to have many cattle which he took care of each day. He would wake up very early each morning and return later in the day. At night he would protect the household from thieves and wild animals.
I don’t live in the traditional way anymore. Now I rise late in the morning and go to the market to look for work. Sometimes I stay away from home until late at night.
Joseph Onyango:
Yes, it is true that our lives are different from our fathers’. My brothers don’t even live here in the village any longer, instead they have gone far away to work in the city. They do not come home to visit or send us money. Their wives and children remain here in the village without protection.
Yes, life is changing but isn’t that all the more reason for women to work hard on the farm?
Frederick Odera:
Women are working hard on the farm; they take care of the children and old people, but also, the fields and the animals. Then they go to market where they work and earn money from selling their extra crops. When the women return home from the market they must gather fuelwood and water, wash clothes, and prepare the evening meal. There is too much work for women now.
Joseph Onyango:
Well I suppose you are right, but my wife has not told me that she needs my help on the farm.
Frederick Odera:
Of course not, neighbour–your wife has probably been too busy!
Acknowledgements
This script was written by Helen Hambly Odame and is based on her research in Siaya, Kenya. Her address is c/o Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, North York, Ontario, Canada, M3J 1P3.
