GERTRUDE MONGELLA

She is a feminist, a mother, a teacher and a politician. She is an international figure. Mrs Mongella is known to many as Mama Beijing after having been invited by former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali to chair the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing in September 1995. Mrs Mongella is Special Advisor to the ECA Executive Secretary and to the UNESCO Director General. She has been nominated by the OAU Secretary General as member of the newly formed African Women’s Committee for Peace and Development. Since her appointment, she has become a well-known world figure. Despite widespread objections to the Conference being held in China because of its human rights abuses, Ms Mongella said that on the basis that "about one in six women in the world is Chinese" the venue was appropriate. She also emphasised that the Beijing Conference was "about women, not for women only."

Gertrude Mongella was born on the island of Ukewere in Lake Victoria in Tanganyika in 1955. She is married and the mother of four children. Her 50th birthday was celebrated in Beijing in September 1995. She was 12 years old when she left her island home to attend a school run by Maryknoll nuns whose intention was to educate a generation of women to be able to participate in the development of their country when it gained independence from Great Britain. After school, she attended the University College of Dar-es-Salaam and earned a degree in education.

Following her subsequent entry into politics, in 1975 she became a member of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA). Since then, she has held several ministerial positions. She was primarily the Minister of State for Women’s Affairs. From 1985 to 1987, Ms Mongella held the post of Minister of Lands, Natural Resources and Tourism. From 1987 to 1991, she held the post of Minister Without Portfolio in the President’s Office. A member of the Central and National Executive Committee of the ruling political party in Tanzania, she was Head of the Social Services Department at party headquarters from 1982 to 1991. At the end of 1991, Ms Mongella was appointed High Commissioner to India.

During the ten years prior to 1991, she represented her country at numerous international meetings, conferences, seminars and workshops, particularly on issues relating to women and to development and the environment. In 1985, at the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievement of the United Nations Decade for Women in Nairobi, she was the chairperson of the African group and vice-chairperson of the conference. In 1989 she was Tanzania's Representative on the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and led a delegation to present the country’s report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in 1990. That same year, she participated in an expert group meeting on Women in Political and Decision-Making Positions in Vienna, Austria. From 1990 to 1993, she also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW). She is currently the Special Advisor to the ECA Executive Secretary as well as to the UNESCO Director General. Mrs Mongella is also member of the AWCPD and the founder of an NGO called Advocacy for Women in Africa (AWA).

For Gertrude Mongella the task of chairing the conference was not only a major personal challenge, it was also an honour for all her sisters in Africa. Her experience as a diplomat and a politician helped her considerably to head the Secretariat of the Conference and also in chairing the meeting itself – a role she performed with great success.

In her concluding remarks to the Conference and with direct reference to "Action for Equality, Development and Peace", she declared: "The real work of transforming words into action is only now beginning." Since then, Mama Beijing has indeed transformed words into action. She took an active leading role in setting up a mechanism which enables African women to participate effectively, at all decision-making levels, in the continent’s peace and development process.

In November 1996, she chaired the Women’s Leadership Forum on Peace in Johannesburg. This meeting resulted in the drafting of the terms of reference of the proposed African Women’s Committee for Peace and Development. At that meeting, she said to African leaders: "Since we all recognise that women do not generally support armed hostilities and conflicts, can we work out specific modalities which can more directly involve women in the peace process so that they can contribute their wisdom and compassion to resolving conflicts before they flare up into brutalities? There are still too many conflict-resolving endeavours in Africa which exclude women. How long will women continue to give life just to see it taken away by force of arms?"

During the first African Women’s Forum, chaired by Ms Graça Machel in Accra in January 1997, she shared her vision of leadership. "If you want to be a leader," she said, "you have to be clear what you want and what you stand for. You must stand for principle. Principle will never let you down … You have to be able to choose what are the principles worth dying for … And you have to add on a little sacrifice. Leadership needs a lot of sacrifice - personal and public sacrifice."

Ms Mongella also participated in the Pan-African Conference on Peace, Gender and Development in Kigali in March 1997. The Conference sought to support the efforts of the Rwandan women to combat intolerance and to participate in the reconstruction and reconciliation of their nation.

As part of the African women’s peace mission to Burundi organised by FAS and the OAU, Ms Mongella visited the Bubanza displaced persons’ camps. She spoke to the women in their native language, pointing out that "our delegation is composed of women from all parts of Africa and has come to Burundi to encourage you, the women of the country, to take a stand for peace and to convince your men to stop the fighting. We should tell the leaders of Burundi and of the region to work towards peace for the people."

Mama Beijing is also an international figure, and in June 1998 she was invited by the women of Beijing to return to the city, the site of that significant conference three years before. The demands made upon her now are quite considerable and one could just as easily meet her at an in international meeting as in the fields of an African country. In answering questions on her unusually demanding travel schedule, she explains with her usual warm smile "I cannot say no to the women when they need me. I meet illiterate women from rural areas who are committed to improving the lives of women. If these women can be so committed to bringing about change, then why not me?"