By Morenike Taire

Cote D’ivoire, Egypt and Libya  have in the last weeks     been embroiled in conflict, resulting mainly from sit  tight rulers refusing to shift base.The phenomenon of sit tight leadership has been one of those to most define post colonial African politics. Nigeria has had her good share of sit tight rulers, with Generals Yakubu Gowon and Badamasi Babangida spending 9 and 8 years respectively at the helm of her affairs.

Democracy as a form of government only became really fashionable on the continent after the release of quintessential prisoner of conscience Nelson Mandela, the abolition of apartheid and the integration of majority rule, with Nobel Laureate Mandela being voted the first president of that dispensation. It  became plausible perhaps for the first time  that indigenous leaders can outlive their usefulness and their welcome and that the people can succeed at ousting them.2010 and 2011 are dates rather far away from the days of the demise of the Congo’s Mobutu Sese Seko and Uganda’s Idi Amin Dada; still they go down in history as the year in which Africa has witnessed the most insistent insurgencies and acts of  insurrection so far against  sit tight heads of government.Indeed the world has watched in the last few months, bewildered and bemused  as these calls have ended in conflict situations in Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt and Libya.The act of war is mostly believed to be caused and carried out by the male folk. Yet, African women have also had their roles, for good or bad, in contemporary African conflicts. The following are some of the women making conflict news:

Mrs Genevieve Bro-Grebe:     COTE D’IVOIRE

This minister under the Gbagbo administration and president of Women of Cote d’Ivoire was at the forefront of motivating her country women to go out and vote before the 2010 elections, mainly under the auspices of a pro-Gbagbo organization.

In the last week, she mobilized the women of Cote d’Ivoire  to gather in front of the camp of the UN of Riviera 3. While it is unclear exactly whose interest she is protecting she has stated however:
Peacefully we will sit in front of the camp of UNOCI to prevent them from sitting around in Abidjan.  In front of these unbearable scenes, women of Cote d’Ivoire cannot remain silent. We will remain here for six days to demonstrate our great trouble against the behaviour of UNOCI

UNOCI is the United Nations Operation in Cote d’Ivoire
In January, the African Union set up a panel to find a solution to the Ivory Coast political crisis, which included Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan. Officially, Ivory Coast did not send a representative, having been suspended by the African Union; but a delegation of “women patriots from Ivory Coast”, a pro-Gbagbo organization also led by Genevieve Bro Grebe. How could it be that one of Cote d’Ivoire’s most vocal women advocates is also supporting a sit tight administration?

Nawa El Saadawi: EGYPT

Egypt’s most prominent feminist Nawal El Saadawi is an  activist, writer, scholar and physician.  Her writings and activities around Arab women’s rights have cost her a psychiatric job, imprisonment, and a lifetime of struggle.  Her resilience and determination has gained her public support, respect and admiration. Saadawi’s work has concentrated mainly on Arab women’s sexuality and legal status.  In a syndicated interview last week after the ousting of Mubarak, she said:

Women and men are in the streets as equals. We are in the revolution completely. If you know the history of revolutions, you find that after the revolution the men take over and women’s rights are ignored.  In order to keep our rights after the revolution women must be unified. This revolution changed everything.

Clearly she has every intention of using the ouster of Mubarak, which she was at the forefront of fighting for, to further the cause she for which she has fought for nearly 50 years.

*Mrs Genevieve and El Saadawi

We are calling for justice, freedom, equality, new democracy and no discrimination between men and women, Christians and Moslems… and to have a real democracy.

Other younger women, walking in her footsteps, have played prominent roles in the revolution that saw Mubarak out.

The Amazonian Guards:   LIBYA

As Libyan leader Moummar Ghadaffi fight to keep his government, wealth and probably his life, much is in the hands of his bodyguards, who are all female.Gaddafi is a man with precise, if peculiar, tastes. Case in point:

His notorious “Amazonian Guard,” an elite force of female bodyguards. Choosing the members of the Amazonian guard, every member must, allegedly, be a virgin hand-picked by Gaddafi, and must then undergo extensive martial arts and firearms training at a special academy before becoming official members of the force.

Gaddafi and his 'Amazons'

The bodyguards dress in military-inspired guard, wearing either khaki jumpsuits or fatigues with red berets… as well as make-up, polished nails and jewelry, even when on the job. Rumors persist that Gaddafi demands “sexual favors” of his guards, but other rumors contend that they must remain chaste throughout their years of service.

According to Gaddafi, the job works to “empower” women, rather than merely exist as the whim of a megalomaniacal despot. “Women should be trained for combat,” he believes, “so that they do not become easy prey for their enemies.”