Being born a female was akin to a curse and this prompted the feminism phenomena, activism and calls from local and international bodies on the need to rescue and empower the girl child. The song has been so loud, that screams of the boy child have been stifled. Instead, he’s been deemed a foe; forsaken, chided and abandoned.
The result is boys stuck in men’s body, angry at women, intimidated by women. Men are now stuck in the cocoon of masculinity and perceptions like men do not cry becoming poor excuses of what manhood is. It is a man’s world no doubt, but it ain’t nothing without a woman. Once we understand this, we’ll appreciate why equilibrium is necessary to help these two beings co-exist.
The battle of the sexes is uncalled for and a time bomb in waiting. When a woman is supposedly disrespected by a man, you will hear all organisations coming in defence of the ‘weaker sex’ but when it is the other way round, one only hears murmurs and whispers. While we are singing choruses of girl child education, making the atmosphere conducive for girls, saving them from child labour, does it occur to any one that the boys also go through child labour?
The boys have to go to the shamba before school, graze animals and split firewood leaving them with no time to study. We empower girls in terms of education and leave boys who have dropped out of school to smash their brains on boda bodas. In the counties, they have been turned into men in black and mercenaries for hire by politicians, they way lay girls because they are idle and hopeless, crime rates have shot because the boys have no one to guide them.
Eight out of ten street children are male. In the mines of Nyatike, a larger percentage of the children offering labour are boys, while the girls are either in school or at home because of strict rules protecting them.
Go to our jails, read reports on mob and police killings, who are the victims? Your answer is as good as mine. More girls are enrolled in schools, many stand better chances of getting employed compared to their male counterparts and the list of the plights of the boy child soars and soars.
Who will speak for the boy child who also faces sexual molestation like sodomy? Where is the outcry when stories of house helps who sexually exploit male children arise? Where are gender-based NGOs when men are battered and stabbed by their wives? Do they know how their double standards is destabilising our society and pitting the sexes against each other?
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In yesteryears, boys were taught how to be men, they would sit with their uncles, fathers and grandfathers and be taught how to lead, head a family, be a provider, protect the family and be a man. Then came modernisation and the world has turned individualistic. Fathers rarely talk to their sons as they are busy making money and have abandoned parenting to teachers.
As a result, we have tech savvy men who speak impeccable English, well-learned and independent but have no regard for others or themselves. They have no reverence for responsibilities. It is a little wonder that we have so many dead beat fathers, homes are breaking and men neglecting their children; the trend is likely to get worse if nothing is done to empower the future male generation.
There is an urgent need for organisations, the church, government and other stake holders to start doing more to empower the boy child. And the best thing is to empower both sexes so that one is not disadvantaged at the expense of the other. Men too need socio-economic empowerment, but most importantly, boys need to be taught how to be men.
