LOUISVILLE — Musimbi Kanyora, a native of Kenya, lives in Geneva, Switzerland now — she’s general secretary of the World YWCA. So she thinks of the challenges of diversity with a global view, not an American one
Kanyora has seen what she calls “the growing fear of the different other,” and says that racism has sometimes made her fear she could be attacked as she walks along a street in Europe. She sees how vulnerable many Muslims in Western countries feel.
And Kanyora, speaking July 8 at the 2006 Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women, held up her arm to display three wristbands: three brightly-colored reminders of how the economic diversity of have and have-not plays out in the world.
First, she held up a white band to commemorate The One Campaign against poverty. Kanyora describes the problem plain and simple: “Poverty kills.”
She has visited a village in Thailand where girls and young women are sold into the sex trade — a decision made, so often, because their families need money. She met one young girl who had quit school and was selling peanuts on the street, because her mother was ill and the family needed rice. A girl like that may be one small step away from the sex trade.
People are more likely to be poor, Kanyora said, if they are indigenous, people of color, of lower caste, if they are women or children. “People who are poor live in a toxic environment,” she said — subject to violence, illness, disasters.
And they often are feared — called names such as lazy or dishonest.
But what are the responsibilities of people of faith, and people of means, regarding those who are poor, Kanyora asked?
“Every time you run that tap of water, do remember that we are connected to one another,” she said. In Africa, many people long for a drop of clear water.
“We implore you, as the people of the south,” to realize that U.S. policies “affect each one of us in every corner of the world. You are a privileged nation … but it comes with lots of responsibility.”
Kanyora’s second bracelet was red, to commemorate World AIDS Day.
For her, this disease is personal. About seven in ten of those with AIDS or HIV infection come from Africa. Some of Kanyora’s cousins have died of AIDS, and a beloved brother is infected with HIV.
“It is no longer an illness from Africa, it is a global illness,” taking 8,000 lives a day, she said. Some predict that by 2010, in four years, 100 million people may be infected with HIV — many of them women and children.
What can people do? Work to prevent infections. Stop stigmatizing. Be in solidarity with those infected and affected by the disease.
And give generously to fight HIV — “do not permit apathy to grip you,” Kanyora said.
Her final bracelet was yellow, a sign against racism. She spoke of the fear she sees of those who are different.
And finally, she spoke of hope — a hope, she said, bolstered by the women’s movement, by knowing that women have always accepted and sheltered her, always given her a place to rest, always provided courage.
