{"id":1918,"date":"2018-04-03T07:40:55","date_gmt":"2018-04-03T07:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wozazim.org\/?p=1918"},"modified":"2018-04-03T08:45:51","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T08:45:51","slug":"speech-by-president-barack-obama-presentation-of-the-robert-f-kennedy-human-rights-award-white-house-washington-d-c-23-november-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/?p=1918","title":{"rendered":"Speech by President Barack Obama, Presentation of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, White House, Washington D.C., 23 November 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n

Thank you so much.\u00a0 Thank you.\u00a0 Please, everybody have a seat.\u00a0 Everybody have a seat. What a wonderful evening.\u00a0 Before I begin, let me just acknowledge some folks here in the crowd.\u00a0 First of all, Ms. Kerry Kennedy, for the great work that she\u2019s doing day in and day out.\u00a0 Mr. Philip Johnston, thank you to both of you for helping to organize this tonight.\u00a0 Obviously I\u2019ve got to say thanks to my favorite people \u2014 Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy, also known as Ethel Kennedy. To Representative Donald Payne, Representative Gregory Meeks, and Representative Edward Markey, who are all here \u2014 thank you for your attendance and your support of this important award.<\/p>\n

You know, every year for 24 years, starting the year this award was established, my friend, Senator Edward \u2014 Ted \u2014 Kennedy, spoke at this event.\u00a0 And I\u2019m told that he looked forward to it all year \u2014 that he relished the chance to shine a bright light on an injustice and on those fighting it, and to support them in that fight.\u00a0 He also enjoyed a family reunion.\u00a0 He relished the chance to pay tribute to those carrying on the unfinished work of his brother\u2019s life \u2014 work that for nearly half a century in the U.S. Senate he made his own.<\/p>\n

He was pleased that this award honored men and women across the globe doing a wide range of urgent work \u2014 fighting to end apartheid, advance democracy, empower minorities and indigenous peoples, promote free speech and elections and more.\u00a0 Because Ted understood that Bobby\u2019s legacy wasn\u2019t a devotion to one particular cause, or a faith in a certain ideology \u2014 but rather, it was a sensibility.\u00a0 A belief that in this world, there is right and there is wrong, and it is our job to build our laws and our lives around recognizing the difference.<\/p>\n

A sensitivity to injustice so acute that it can\u2019t be relieved by the rationalizations that make life comfortable for the rest of us \u2014 that others\u2019 suffering is not our problem, that the ills of the world are somehow not our concern.<\/p>\n

A moral orientation that renders certain people constitutionally incapable of remaining a bystander in the face of evil \u2014 a sensibility that recognizes the power of all people, however humble their circumstances, to change the course of history.<\/p>\n

Those are the traits of Bobby Kennedy that this award recognizes \u2014 the very traits that define the character and guide the life of this year\u2019s recipient.\u00a0 And while we feel a certain sadness that Senator Kennedy is not with us to honor her, let us also take pleasure tonight in knowing just how much he would have loved and admired Magodonga Mahlangu and the organization that she helps lead \u2014 WOZA, which stands for Women of Zimbabwe Arise, and is represented tonight by one of its founders, Jenni Williams. As a young girl raised in Matabeleland \u2014 in the Matabeleland region of Zimbabwe in the early 1980s, Magodonga witnessed the \u2014 I\u2019ve got to make sure I get this right \u2014 Gukurahundi massacres \u2014 the systematic murder of many thousands of people, including her uncle and several cousins \u2014 many of whom were buried in mass graves that they\u2019d been forced to dig themselves.<\/p>\n

She witnessed the fearful silence that followed, as talking about these events was forbidden.\u00a0 Magodonga found this to be intolerable.\u00a0 She wanted to speak out \u2014 she wanted people to know the truth about what was happening in her country.<\/p>\n

So it was a revelation when, years later, she discovered a group called WOZA whose mission is the very opposite of silence.\u00a0 WOZA was started back in 2003 to empower women to speak out about the issues affecting their families and their country \u2014 desperate hunger; crumbling health and education systems; domestic violence and rape; and government repression ranging from restrictions on free expression to abduction and murder of dissidents.<\/p>\n

WOZA\u2019s guiding principle is \u201ctough love\u201d \u2014 the idea that political leaders in Zimbabwe could use a little discipline.\u00a0 And who better to provide that than the nation\u2019s mothers?\u00a0 Since its founding, the organization has grown from a handful of activists to a movement of 75,000 strong.\u00a0 There\u2019s even a men\u2019s branch, I understand \u2014 MOZA.\u00a0 And over the past seven years, they have conducted more than a hundred protests \u2014 maids and hairdressers, vegetable sellers and seamstresses, taking to the streets; singing and dancing; banging on pots empty of food and brandishing brooms to express their wish to sweep the government clean.<\/p>\n

They often don\u2019t get far before being confronted by President Mugabe\u2019s riot police.\u00a0 They have been gassed, abducted, threatened with guns, and badly beaten \u2014 forced to count out loud as each blow was administered.\u00a0 Three thousand WOZA members have spent time in custody or in prison, sometimes dragged with their babies into cells.\u00a0 Magodonga and Jenni are due back in court on December 7th, charged with \u201cconduct likely to cause a breach of [the] peace.\u201d\u00a0 They face a five year sentence if convicted.<\/p>\n

That so many women have decided to risk and endure so much is in many ways a testament to the extraordinary example of tonight\u2019s honoree.<\/p>\n

Each time they see Magodonga beaten back \u2014 beaten black and blue during one protest, only to get right back up and lead another \u2014 singing freedom songs at the top of her lungs in full view of security forces \u2014 the threat of a policeman\u2019s baton loses some of its power.<\/p>\n

Each time her house is searched, or her life is threatened, or she\u2019s once again arrested \u2014 more than 30 times so far \u2014 she continues to stand in public and inspire the people of Zimbabwe \u2014 the power of the state then seems a little less absolute.<\/p>\n

Each time she has emerged from incarceration after enduring deplorable conditions and brutal abuse \u2014 and gone right back to work \u2014 the prospect of prison loses some of its capacity to deter.<\/p>\n

By her example, Magodonga has shown the women of WOZA and the people of Zimbabwe that they can undermine their oppressors\u2019 power with their own power \u2014 that they can sap a dictator\u2019s strength with their own.\u00a0 Her courage has inspired others to summon theirs.\u00a0 And the organization\u2019s name, WOZA \u2014 which means \u201ccome forward\u201d \u2014 has become its impact \u2014 its impact has been even more as people know of the violence that they face, and more people have come forward to join them.<\/p>\n

More people have come to realize what Magodonga and the women of WOZA have known all along:\u00a0 that the only real way to teach love and non-violence is by example.\u00a0 Even when that means sitting down while being arrested, both as a sign that they refuse to retaliate, absorbing each blow without striking back \u2014 and a warning that, come what may, they\u2019re not going anywhere.<\/p>\n

They even manage to show love to those who imprison them.\u00a0 As Jenni put it, \u201cMany a time we have in effect conducted a \u2018workshop\u2019 for our jailers, acting out the role of a mother and teaching how the country can be rebuilt if we have love in our hearts.\u201d When asked how they can endure so much violence \u2014 and what keeps them going in the face of such overwhelming odds \u2014 the women of WOZA reply, simply:\u00a0 \u201ceach other.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that may be Magodonga\u2019s greatest achievement \u2014 that she has given the women of Zimbabwe each other.\u00a0 That she has given people who long for peace and justice each other.\u00a0 That she has given them a voice they can only have collectively \u2014 and a strength that they can only have together.<\/p>\n

They are a force to be reckoned with.\u00a0 Because history tells us, truth has a life of its own once it\u2019s told.\u00a0 Love can transform a nation once it\u2019s taught.\u00a0 Courage can be contagious; righteousness can spread; and there is much wisdom in the old proverb:\u00a0 that God could not be everywhere, so he created mothers.<\/p>\n

In the end, history has a clear direction \u2014 and it is not the way of those who arrest women and babies for singing in the streets.\u00a0 It\u2019s not the way of those who starve and silence their own people, and cling to power by threat of force.<\/p>\n

It is the way of the maid walking home in Montgomery; the young woman marching silently in the streets of Tehran; the leader imprisoned in her own home for her commitment to democracy.<\/p>\n

It is the way of young people in Cape Town who braved the wrath of their government to hear a young senator from New York speak about the ripples of hope one righteous act can create.<\/p>\n

And it is the way that Magodonga Mahlangu and Jenni Williams and the women and men who take to the streets of Harare and Bulawayo and Victoria Falls because they love their country and love their children and know that something better is possible.<\/p>\n

Bobby Kennedy once said, \u201cAll great questions must be raised by great voices, and the greatest voice is the voice of the people \u2014 speaking out \u2014 in prose, or painting or poetry or music; speaking out \u2014 in homes and halls, streets and farms, courts and cafes \u2014 let that voice speak and the stillness you hear will be the gratitude of mankind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Magodonga and WOZA have given so many of their fellow citizens of Zimbabwe that voice \u2014 and tonight, we express our gratitude for their work.<\/p>\n

It is now my pleasure to join with Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy to present the 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award to Magodonga Mahlangu and WOZA.\u00a0 (Applause.)<\/p>\n

\t\t \n\t<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thank you so much.\u00a0 Thank you.\u00a0 Please, everybody have a seat.\u00a0 Everybody have a seat. What a wonderful evening.\u00a0 Before I begin, let me just acknowledge some folks here in the crowd.\u00a0 First of all, Ms. Kerry Kennedy, for the great work that she\u2019s doing day in and day out.\u00a0 Mr. Philip Johnston, thank … Continue reading Speech by President Barack Obama, Presentation of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, White House, Washington D.C., 23 November 2009<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2006,"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions\/2006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}