Female Supremacy Articles - Page 13

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Very little, it seems. In a society where women are expected to bow without question to their husbands' sexual demands, even if their spouses are unfaithful, where wife beating is all too common and where women who marry under customary law are still considered minors, her victory does not just stand out. It proclaims that centuries-old Botswana tradition is doing the bowing now, to irresistible change.

A woman with a decisive manner and a taste for matching two-piece embroidered outfits, Ms. Seboko seems very comfortable in her new role. But her path to one of Botswana's most important traditional posts was anything but easy.

After her father died in 1966, Ms. Seboko's uncle became chief. Her only brother succeeded him in 1996. When he died in 2001, her father's relatives put forward a male cousin of Ms. Seboko as his successor, saying that according to custom, only males could rule.

Ms. Seboko, backed by her mother and seven sisters, insisted to the tribal elders that the touchstone was not custom, but the 38-year-old Constitution of Botswana, with its guarantee of freedom from discrimination. Botswana's women's rights leaders urged her forward, saying that women must grasp power, not wait for it to be handed to them.