Voices of African women – this week · Global Voices
Nish Matenjwa

Fleur writes about the harrowing case of 7 soldiers sentenced to life for rape and crime against humanity for the rape of 119 underage girls in Congo. The government of Congo has also admitted partial responsibility and financially compensated the family of the victims. Fleur says
….it sends an important and strong message! Frankly I am very surprised! They really recognised the gravity of rape. Financial compensation doesn’t erase everything, but it’s good to see that rape and murder are taken very seriously and severely punished. There is hope, after all.
Black Looks posts an update on the Nigerian Gay Bill Update which has now had its first reading in the Senate. Things are far worse now. The Bill, extremely repressive when it was first originated, will now also include other clauses that make will make the safety and work of the gay community, organisations working for LBGT rights and HIV/AIDS organisations that more dangerous. Black Looks writes
The Bill effectively silences the issue of homosexuality in Nigeria and removes all Human Rights of HR defenders, lesbians, gays, bi-bisexuals and transgendered people.
Afrikan Eye has written a long and interesting post on the effect of colonialism on African women. The aim of the post, she says is not lay blame but to ‘share knowledge and information and give us all some historical perspective as we look at our current state of affairs and make plans to mould our future’. She also writes
May we as Africans strive to restore African women to a position of respect and dignity that even exceed that which she enjoyed in the past. For it is only when a nation respects women and treats them with dignity that true development can occur. Women are at the frontlines of humanity as mothers and primary caregivers. Therefore, in nurturing and building them, we are building the whole nation and continent.
Particular bloggers in the Kenyan blogsphere has been on the receiving end of abusive comments and e-mails. In a post entitled ’Violent Writing and Gangsta Writers’where she takes issue with the people who write these comments and e-mails, W.M.has written an excellent post that has received wide support within the Kenyan blogsphere. She writes
Incivility is the blunt weapon of those who have disenfranchised themselves from the society of reasoned discussion. Insults are the pitiful shadows of lyrical expression, and gangsta writing the frustrated and simultaneous love/envy of those who have command over, and pride in, the authoritative arrangement of their own words.
Finally, Ore while going to the pictures to see the film ‘Pride and Prejudice’ writes about the importance ’holding your assumptions lightly’ while Mama JunkYard writes about the 108 Miles she has been taking to and fro work.