It was International Women’s Day and we were all happy to celebrate women all around the world. It is always good to celebrate but the truth of the matter is, some men need to come to terms with who they are and why they are around, otherwise, it is all for nothing! This is the strangeness of this big yearly celebration.
In Africa, Women’s Day largely revolves around the hard times women face because their men are so hopeless. Many husbands and fathers do not pull their weight and do not understand or care how desperately their families need them.
For most families in Africa, women are the mothers, fathers and breadwinners of the households. They struggle in every way to sustain the family regardless of whether the husband is present or not for most men don’t care and are hardly in the lives of their children and are always absent anyway.
There is school fees, food, rent and medical bills all waiting for non other than the mother. Without any feelings of guilt, men carelessly leave their families to go get new wives and do the same thing. More like a cycle! It is unfortunate that in the developing countries, no court usually ensures that these men offer support to their families so imagine what becomes of the future of the children with no father in their lives for love, guidance or role model.
The children end up a future with far greater chances of leaving school, getting into drugs, getting sexually involved too early, landing in jail or even committing suicide.This is what study after study shows. Children need their fathers that much.
Maybe what we need after Women’s Day is an International Men’s Day every March 9, to grapple with some of these issues. Celebrate a man saying to his wife and children, “I love you. I am committed to you. And I enjoy spending time with you because you help me become who I am meant to be.”
This goes beyond Father’s Day, that annual day in June that can be so sappy and commercial and questionable. How can you celebrate Father’s Day when your father is not around?
Men need certain things to do well in life. They need a battle to fight. They need an adventure to pursue. And they need a beauty to rescue. This is what the stories of old, the ancient scriptures and parables, say.
But the sad truth on this Women’s Day is that plenty of men are not even doing this. They have somehow given up. For everyone sake, including their own, it’s time they woke up.