Epic of Gilgamesh

Uganda is an agricultural country (subsistence farming) in fact agriculture accounts for 90% of the population. Uganda has a population of about 23 million people out of which 15 million are women. Subsistence farming is mainly carried out in rural areas of the country on small family plots of land by the rural women (land tittles are in the names of their husbands). We normally refer to them as the basket winners or food producing computers. We call them the silent heroes whose efforts to look after the families have not been recognized at all yet in cultivating food they save lives and change lives! The little that they grow is put to home consumption and if there is any surplus at all it goes to the market to earn a little money in order for the women to be able to purchase other basics like salt, paraffin and also to take care of the children's numerous needs.

In Africa, Uganda was one of those countries that were hit hard by HIV/IADS since the early 80s. Since then the government came up with an openness policy to fight the pandemic. All stake holders have since worked together as a team these included; the government, NGOs, CBOs, Faith Based Organizations, individuals etc. Indeed since then success has been registered in terms of aw in Uganda still faces a lot of problems which have been made worse by this pandemic. She is torn between being player of so many roles and grappling emotionally and physically with the HIV/AIDS dilemma.

The women in Uganda, due cultural tendencies have not had a choice to stay alive. The African culture which gives men liberty to have more than one partner, men can wed in church but at the same time the Ugandan constitution allows traditional /cultural marriages meaning that having more than one wife is normal and not condemned.Secondly for the Moslem men, even where they cannot manage looking after the family, they continue to marry up to four women because the Koran allows it . This culture which empowers men to have as many partners as they can also empowers them to produce as many children as they want and in most cases they do not take care of them it is the women who will make sure that they eat, dress, get education and medication. It should be noted that in African culture and in particular Uganda many children and many wives are seen as a source of power and respect and thus even family planning is seen as an insult to the rural man. The women normally go secretly to the family planning centers and if they are unlucky and the husband finds out, then hell breaks loose, the man marries another woman who is willing to deliver more children and the women are afraid of that.

The above situation has lead to the death of so many innocent rural women due to HIV/AIDS whose orphaned children have been taken care of by their grand parents who are very old to do the digging in order to give them food and as a result the children have taken to the streets as baggers (street children)

Those women who have been fortunate to stay alive , most of whom are weak with lack of retroviral have had to stay on and till the land in order to look after their children and in most cases their husbands . Even in situations where women get to know their status, the men will still continue asking them for sex and refusal is taboo as punishments can be unlashed on them by their husbands. Such punishments include abandoning of the woman and her children, marrying other women or chasing them away from their homes.

In rural Uganda, the women work from dawn to sunset yet what they harvest cannot even allow them to have more than one meal a day, normally they have the evening meal of the day which is not even balanced because all the good food and vegetable that they grow, they have to sell to buy essentials. Their children go malnourished and as such even when the children go to school they are never attentive because the bodies are too weak.

The situation has been worse in the war torn areas of Northern Uganda, where the rebels of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) have been very brutal to the rural women and the children. . Where women in the Internally Displaced Camps (IDP) have had to take up their role as the basket winners, look after the family and at the same time bear the abuse of a husband who will still take on another wife even under such situations. Women have contracted HIV/Aids both from their husbands and from being raped by the rebels. The women have been traumatized but life has to go on. Currently the government has tries to take families back to their homes so that they can lead normal lives but for the rural woman normal life means toiling away on the land from morning till when the cows come home (evening)

There is an urgent need to carefully re examine the fruitless , over burdened roles of the rural woman who is currently playing the roles of ; a miserable mother , a miserable cultivator/ bread winner ,a miserable wife without rights to a role of a proud mother , a knowledgeable wife who knows her rights, a meaningful income contributor and a saver.

This new product of a woman will go a long way in improving her life, that of her children the family and the community in general with self esteem and confidence.

Some charity organizations like the one I represent (Foundation for women and youth in development) FOWAYODE have thought of the following to help improve the lives of the rural women-

-First and fore most to sensitize them about their rights and build confidence in them in order for them to be able to face upcoming challenges

-we should come up with small income generating activities for the rural women on top of agriculture in order to subsides their income. These would include: poultry, piggery, goat rearing, snack making, tailoring, weaving, baking etc.

-sensitizing and encouraging the women to go for testing of HIV/AIDS in order for them to know their status

-sensitizing them on simple accounting skills and a saving culture. Encourage them to pull the little resources they have by saving it through the micro finance institutions in their localities.. When the savings have grown they can trade together as a group for example buying maize seeds and selling them to the World food programme and other buyer's etc

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There is so much to be done to help the rural woman who is so disadvantaged because of the backward cultural tendencies and primitive agricultural methods which have been aggravated with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We believe that a woman is the history, the present, the future and the backbone of any nation since they give birth to children, they nurture them and see them grow into citizens who take up roles for a nation's development and for that programmes should be formulated to protect them and also improve their lives for they have so many hats (mothers, wives and bread earners.)

in gilgamesh, there are many references to events that also took place in the bible as well as other stories and legends. so you'd have to specify your question by actually asking about a specific event in the epic as they are all spread out throughout the middle-eastern region

According to the Epic of Gilgamesh, he was priest king of the city-state Uruk in the kingdom of Sumer.

Answer 1

A poem and among the earth's earliest literary works portraying a mythological Sumerian King from about the 3rd millennium BCE filled with the stories of Spirits, monsters and gods.

Answer 2

There's another really famous story. It's one of my favourites It's a very long story called an epic. It's about a king named Gilgamesh. He's a hero who has a lot of adventures, along with his best friend, whose name is Enkidu. Enkidu is a wild man who runs with the animals. But then he meets Gilgamesh, and they really hit it off.

One day, they were looking for adventure, so they decided to travel west to the mountains, high up into the cedar forest, to bring cedar wood back to the city. Cedar trees are tall and straight, and the wood lasts a long time. It's perfect for building a palace. But there was another reason for going to the cedar forest -- a demon lived there. He was a huge, angry demon named Huwawa. Gilgamesh and Enkidu thought they were strong enough to defeat him in battle, and they wanted to try.

So the two friends set out. They moved so fast, a trip that should have taken six months, they made in just two weeks. Leaving the river valley, they climbed higher and higher. The air became crisp and cool, and they could hear the sounds of rushing streams and the wind blowing in the trees. Soon, they reached the place where the cedar trees grew tallest and straightest. They brought out their axes to start cutting them down. Gilgamesh had just touched the first tree with his axe when they heard an awful roar. It was Huwawa. The demon took a giant leap toward them. "Why are you cutting my trees?" he said. "Leave now, or you'll be sorry!" His face was horrible and twisted with anger.

Well, I would have left right then, but Gilgamesh and Enkidu turned to face the demon. They called on the sun god to protect them. The sun god liked Gilgamesh, so he sent the 13 great winds to wrap themselves around Huwawa and bring him to the ground. The demon promised Gilgamesh all the cedar wood he could carry if only he would set him free. But Enkidu didn't believe a word. "Don't let him go," he warned Gilgamesh. So with one swift stroke, Gilgamesh killed the demon. Then they were free to choose the finest cedar trees. They cut them into logs, lashed the logs together into a raft, and floated back down the Euphrates river to the city.

After that, Gilgamesh was even more famous. Tales of his deeds even reached the ears of the gods. The goddess Inanna heard about Gilgamesh. She was the goddess of love, and she fell in love with him. But Gilgamesh brushed her off and was very rude. Well, Inanna was also the goddess of war, and now she was furious. She sent the giant bull of heaven to trample the city. As the bull charged toward them, Enkidu caught it by the horns, and Gilgamesh struck the beast with his sword and killed it.

The grateful people threw a huge feast to celebrate, but the gods were not pleased. Soon afterwards Enkidu became very sick and died. Gilgamesh was really upset. He started to search for ways to become immortal so he'd never have to die himself. He decided to find Ziusudra, the only man to survive the great flood. Surely, he knew the secret of eternal life. Gilgamesh wandered into the wild lands, and eventually came to a door leading into a mountain. It was the entrance to the land of the gods, guarded by fearsome scorpion-men, who allowed him to enter the dark tunnel where no human had ever set foot. At the end of the tunnel, he found the dazzling garden of the gods, where the bushes were hung with jewels. There he found a woman who asked Gilgamesh why he looked so sad. "I want to be immortal," Gilgamesh said. "Just enjoy your life," the woman replied. "Eat, drink, dance, love. That's what life is for." But Gilgamesh wasn't convinced. So the woman told him how to cross the ocean and find Ziusudra. But when Gilgamesh finally found him, Ziusudra couldn't help. "Immortality is a gift of the gods," he said. "It is their secret, and theirs alone." So Gilgamesh came home empty-handed, but wiser. Now, as he looks at the walls of his city-the city he's spent his whole life building-he realizes how much better it is to do good work in the time that he has, rather than spend time trying to become immortal. So, that is part of the epic of Gilgamesh. His story and my journal are alike in a way. When our stories and thoughts are written down, other people can read and understand them. And that's why I think it's so great that we've learned to write-because now our stories and ideas can be remembered forever.