"Silika — To Make Our Lives Shine": Women's Groups in Maragoli, Kenya

Abstract

African women's development groups are frequently promoted as self-help efforts to overcome economic crises and persistent poverty. Indeed, government or other directed self-help enterprises will often respond to women's difficult financial circumstances only through organized women's groups as in, for example, the Women in Development projects in Kenya, East Africa. There is a strong assumption locally, nationally and globally that women's groups ought to be profitable organizations; the influence of capitalist assumptions is profound. In Kenya, for example, the necessary fee for a license to inaugurate a women's group sets up expectations of future profits—"it takes money to make money." In the rural area of Maragoli, Kenya, there are over 200 government-licensed Women Groups as well as other women's groups operating without licenses. Many are unsuccessful if measured in terms of economic accumulation. The publicity on both local and national levels surrounding their economic ineffectiveness undervalues women's contribution in these groups, permitting men and government officials to denigrate the benefits of women's solidarity.