Zukiswa Nzo, center, is one of 25 Mandela Washington Fellows visiting IU and an advocate for the disabled in South Africa.
It should have been a night remembered for other reasons than becoming disabled.
A trained development economist, Zukiswa Nzo was out with friends celebrating a new job on Feb. 16, 2007, when suddenly someone yelled, “Ngicela amafone (give me your phones),” followed by a gunshot.
Instead of advancing in her career, Nzo – known by her friends as Zuki – found herself recovering from injuries suffered during a carjacking and beginning a new life as a paraplegic. Paralyzed from her hips down, she spent the next eight months recovering in a Johannesburg hospital.
“When I got out of there, my eyes opened up, in terms of the discrimination that persons with disabilities face in our society,” she said. “I was facing all of the barriers first hand … That’s when I decided to become a change agent.”
She began a blog, “My Journey as a Paraplegic,” while working at the South African Broadcasting Co., and became a columnist to give people a forum where they could ask questions. She has served on the South African Disability Development Trust board, and received disability equality training to help others become more aware. She’s an ambassador for the Wings for Life World Run, aimed at finding a cure for spinal cord injury.
Today, she is an entrepreneur and an advocate for disability inclusion. She also is one of 25 people from 18 countries who are at Indiana University participating in the Mandela Washington Leadership for Young African Leaders program.
On Thursday, she and other Mandela Washington Fellows spent a morning with faculty in the IU Maurer School of Law, learning about how the American legal system offers protections for people with disabilities and domestic violence victims as well as those who face discrimination due to the race and gender.
They heard from Kevin Brown, the Richard S. Melvin Professor of Law and founder of the Maurer School’s Summer in Southern Africa Program; Leslie E. Davis, assistant dean for international programs; Catherine Matthews, assistant dean of students; and Aaron Bonar, a J.D./Ph.D. candidate and a graduate fellow at the Center for Constitutional Democracy.
Kevin Brown, the Richard S. Melvin Professor of Law in the IU Maurer School of Law.
In his presentation, Brown highlighted the importance of the U.S. Constitution in governing through the rule of law, as compared to how law functions in other lands. He highlighted the fundamental importance of the 14th Amendment, which requires equal protection for all, not only at the federal level but also in all 50 states.
“It’s important to note that the concept of equality, that America holds dear, is a concept of individual self-determination. This is what really makes the United States unique among human societies,” said Brown, who has traveled to Africa more than 10 times. “It is a society that at its very core believes in the ability of the individual to develop him or herself in the way that they want to develop and then to pursue their own plans and purposes, consistent with the rights of others to do the same.”
He went on to explain that the U.S. concept of equality is based on individual freedom and liberty and not on tradition. Thus, it suggests the law should ignore individual characteristics that people can’t choose for themselves, such as race, ethnicity and gender, so it “transcends those characteristics.”
Brown was followed by Matthews, who described the challenges and limitations of U.S. law when it comes to protecting victims of domestic violence. The last two speakers, Bonar and Davis, addressed legal issues for people with disabilities.
Being disabled and impoverished go hand-in-hand across Africa. Bonar has studied the issue on the ground in Liberia, where a protracted civil war left many people maimed at the hands of combatants.
He cited statistics from Handicap International, which found that 16 percent of Liberia’s total population are disabled in some way. Within this population, 61 percent have mobility issues, 24 percent are visually impaired, 7 percent are deaf and 8 percent suffer from psycho/social illnesses.
Of that same 16 percent who are disabled, 99 percent live in extreme poverty. Among the rest of the total population, 48 percent live in poverty.
While Liberia signed and ratified the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2012, it did not ratify an accompanying protocol on how to implement the legislation, Bonar pointed out. Efforts to promote equal protections there have been “lackluster,” as has access to services, he said.
Several Mandela Washington Fellows acknowledged similar problems in their home countries. They were keenly interested in what Davis had to say about the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
The Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, begun in 2014, is the flagship program of President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) that empowers young people through academic coursework, leadership training, and networking.
“The difference between the United States and South Africa is that we haven’t localized UN convention as much,” Nzo said. “We are still having a debate about whether it is necessary to have a separate disability act, or would we still be separating the disabled. Should we start making sure that disability is included in every single piece of legislation? Disabled people are everywhere … All these laws should be fully inclusive.
“But I’ve seen pluses in having legislation, based on what I’ve seen in Bloomington,” she added. “It’s what enabled (American) society to become more accessible.”
Ishiyaku Adamu, another Mandela Washington Fellow, who is national president of the Nigerian Association of the Blind, agreed.
“The Americans with Disabilities Act has provided immense opportunities for a person with disabilities here,” he said. “For the two weeks I have been here, there hasn’t been any building that I can’t enter. There is no public transportation that I haven’t found accessible. All the websites that I have been accessing, the materials have been accessible … This is something very great that ADA provides. We hope to see that in Nigeria.”
Adamu said his country does not have a single law that protects those with disabilities. On three different occasions – in 2003, 2010 and 2014 – laws to address the rights of the disabled were passed by Nigeria’s national assembly, but not signed into law by the president.
He said an effort is now underway among several organizations, including his group that represents 6.4 million Nigerians who are blind or partially sighted people, to resolve issues that prevent the bills from being signed.
Both Adamu and Nzo will be meeting with and hoping to learn from representatives of organizations that advocate for the rights of the disabled in Bloomington and Indianapolis.
“One thing that struck me so much when I came into the United States and Bloomington in particular was the accessibility of services to the disabled,” said Lillian Banmi, a medical doctor and gynecologist from Cameroon. “I felt like weeping. I was so touched and impressed that the disabled are recognized to be equal to those who are able … If there is one thing I will take back to my country, it’s (support for) the implementation of services that they put into the law (in my country) but have not been followed.”
“One of the things that really impresses me about this country is the accessibility of this country,” added Hombé Kafechina, programs manager at a nongovernmental organization in Togo that protects the rights of children. “The roads, the buildings and the buses are accessible for people who live with disabilities. This is not the same reality in our countries … There are some ideas here which are simple ideas that can be implemented in our countries.”