SHARKPUNDITRATA 2

What is going on?  Now, it is African women who seem to be making more progress than their male counter-parts.  Are African men being castrated or what?  All we hear are this woman or that woman being appointed to this post or that post on the international scene.  What happened to our males? 

What is going on?  Now, it is African women who seem to be making more progress than their male counter-parts.  Are African men being castrated or what?  all we hear these days are this woman or that woman being appointed to this high profile post or that high profile post on the international scene.  What happened to our males?

At the United Nations, the second highest ranking official there is Dr. Asha-Rose Migoro who is Deputy Secretary-General at the institution.  At the World Bank, there is Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who is one of three Managing Directors, but the lone female; she is followed by Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili as Vice President for Africa.  The two highest ranking diplomats for Africa are females, Ambassador Amina Salum Ali is the African Union Ambassador to Washington, DC, while her counter-part in New York is Ambassador Lila Ratsifandrihamanana, Permanent Representative of the African Union to the UN.

Okay, before we start having hypertention about the eunuching (castration) of our men, let’s remember that only one out of the 53 Presidents, Prime Ministers, Dictators in Africa, are all men and that lone female is Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia.

So, here’s another high profile appointment for our women’s folk - South African judge Navanethem Pillay who has been confirmed as the next UN high commissioner for human rights, replacing Canadian Louise Arbour.

Navanethem Pillay, known as Navi, is a South African of Tamil Indian descent.

Navanethem Pillay, former judge at the International Criminal Court

The daughter of a bus driver from Natal province, she rose during the apartheid years to become the first non-white South African to start her own law firm, winning victories for apartheid prisoners, including her own husband.

She studied human rights law at Harvard, and with the end of apartheid, was appointed in 1995 as a South African High Court judge - becoming the first non-white to take such a senior position in the legal system.

Her international career began with her eight-year appointment to the Rwanda tribunal based in Arusha, Tanzania. She served four of those years as the court president.

Ms Pillay, 64, has since moved to the International Criminal Court in the Hague - and as in Arusha, has been central to the setting of legal precedents for the treatment of genocide suspects. (Source: BBC)

Nevertheless, we congratulate Navanethem Pillay on her high profile appointment.

To comment on this article, please click here.