Feminism is not African, a question of cultural doublethink
One of the most crippling things for African men and women who are feminist is continually needing to respond to claims that feminism is not African. Whether they advocate equal education opportunities for girls and boys or women’s reproductive rights etc., African feminists hear the same mantra again and again, “Feminism is not African.”
Well, here’s a few examples of things which are not, per se, African – democracy, automobiles, scotch eggs and the English language. Heck, the word Africa is not African. But you never hear anyone object to those things for having originated elsewhere.
Furthermore, did you ever hear Germans advise other Germans to stop using mathematics because its roots are in Africa? Or, Italians refraining from coffee because coffee originates from Ethiopia? Neither have I.
To be sure, feminism as an ideology traces to early twentieth century America, where white women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony led the Seneca Encampment and suffrage movements. However, already then the movement was influenced by previously enslaved African women such as Anna J Cooper and Ida B Wells as well as men like Frederick Douglass.
A group of women, under a ‘Women’s Liberation’ banner, march in support of the Black Panther Party, New Haven, Connecticut, November 1969. (Photo by David Fenton/Getty Images)
In addition, the world’s first feminist union was African. Not to mention that African history contains some of the earliest accounts of women claiming power.
Considering all this, why do so many people make the claim that feminism is not African? After all, most Africans are unquestionably in favour of women’s rights. They agree that women should be able to participate in shaping society, they agree that African women should be leaders in their own right, they agree that African history always cherished women of prominence.
In other words, they agree with the feminist cause. Yet, because of a psychological state known as “doublethink” they claim to not believe in a cause in which they actually believe.
Doublethink was described by George Orwell in his legendary book, 1984, as the ability to simultaneously hold two contradictory beliefs. Unlike cognitive dissonance, a related term where contradictory beliefs cause conflict in a person’s mind, doublethink is marked by complete unawareness of holding contradicting views.
It is doublethink, for example, to support women’s equality in Africa but to simultaneously claim that the most successful tool for achieving women’s equality—namely, feminism—can not be African.
By the way, in case there’s any doubt that feminism is the most successful tool for securing women’s rights consider the following.
It is thanks to feminism that we live in a world today where women can vote, drive, work, or get a university education. In a pan-African context, we have feminism to thank for legislating against harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation and breast ironing. Feminists saw to it that the new South African constitution inserted anti-rape laws.
In April 2014, when hundreds of girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram militants, it was feminists who brought awareness about the incident to an international audience. Culturally too, African feminists have put in place literary festivals and publishing houses and three of Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize recipients are feminists.
It would be a tragedy if the legacy and emerging feminist movement in the continent were stifled by a doublethink message. Just because the term feminism was coined in the west does not mean it only is relevant in the west. As the renowned African writer Ama Ata Aidoo says, “how feminism is formulated depends on the details of the particular environment.”
Well, the details of our particular environment are this. We rank too low on the Global Gender Gap report. Which is not all too surprising when you consider that despite prevailing unjust conditions for women, the Nigerian senate recently voted against a Gender Equality bill.
Let me be clear, men also have their gripes with society that should be taken equally seriously. They face pressure to be providers, they have to put up with a destructive definition of masculinity and so on. As Uchegbu Ndubuisi Chiagozie writes, “society prevents men from showing emotions and vulnerabilities”. The truth is, both genders benefit from a feminist society where men and women live fully human lives, mutually and equally.
So next time someone sneers at feminism while claiming to support women’s rights, don’t forget that there’s a great chance that they’re a victim of doublethink.
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14 Comments
Seriously in the US women’s voting rights first and then the civil rights movement..
Equal opportunities for women is not the same as ‘equality for women’. it is not cognitive dissonance because most people in Africa are in support of providing equal opportunities for women and removing institutional structures that demean women BUT there is low support for a reversal of social roles played by men and women with the result of providing a copy of invading foreign culture. African society hangs on a thin balance of roles that share equal power among the genders in overt and subtle ways without eliminating opportunities for women. For instance, despite the well known mouthpiece role of the man in African society, women’s role in nurturing and grooming the child empowers the woman to inculcate the early powerful values and norms that drive children and adults of both gender to success. Africans are therefore in support of long workplace absences for nursing mothers but western workplaces will grant 6 weeks to 12 weeks without pay to nursing feminist mothers! Ditto for extreme feminists who advocate no childbirth. In Africa , the power of the genders emanate from the role you assume and not your utilitarian or material phenotype. IAs a continuing example,feminism which advocates equal roles in child nurturing actually reduces this natural endowment and socially vested power of the feminine mother role in exchange for financial workplace benefits that are fleeting and reverses the traditional breadwinner role . It is no wonder that empowered African women frequently detest feminism at times more than the men and the feminist movement has such a hard time in Africa.
Feminism has brought the western countries to their knees economically. Only patriarchical societies can sustainably grow. Why bother with feminism? What can women produce outside the home but broken families and abandoned children?
Feminism is not the same thing as role reversal, feminism is about women speaking out for themselves, asking for their fair share and demanding the respect that is due them. Society teaches us to give without reciprocity, bear ill treatment from males without complain, be the foot mat and accept responsibility when things go wrong. In schools we are subjected to the same criteria but when it comes to the workplace and governance, we are expected to take a back seat and keep quite and let men lead because they are men and not necessarily because they are the most competent to do the job. So feminism is not saying we are men and want to be but we want to be acknowledged and accorded the respect we deserve for who we are and what we have to offer. We are not asking for too much!
Who cares where it was originated? The question is not about foreign (alien) but why it is treated as one…
heavy censorship on here. we can’t even have an open honest conversation, minna.
Minna, you do realise that this section is heavy censored by the Newspaper. Counter-productive! Not really progressive. We can’t even call a spade for a space on here. I think you need to break your illusions about wanting a real debate in this forum.
It is not a dbl. think – it is a dbl standard. Please get yourself invited to the top parties in society. Politicians and top business men (married and religious) are throwing parties full of high-end paid party girls. Going against their supposedly support of women’s rights and equality. However this goes both ways. It is simply just a very materialistic culture. Why change? It upsets the power structure.
Feminism is not in our culture. For years now, salaries earned by my wife is strictly her own money to do and decide as will, while my salary is our collective money and capital which she also claims a stake inside the same money on a monthly basis. Tell me if this is feminism?
Feminism is evil and it is not African. My wife is totally my and she does my bidding as I direct her. She looks for me to lead her and guild her and protect her. She loves me and honour me. She humbles herself before me and totally understood that I’m the boss.
At the same time she is educated, career woman who earns a decent salary and a very responsible mother and wife. She is happy and she is not subservient to me.
We do not need Feminism in Africa. I do not recall when my parents favoured me over my sister.
God made man to be the head of his family and not the other way around.
Peace
I totally agree. Women in western countries are so emancipated through feminism and so called women-empowerment that they are empowered to destroy their own homes…..so many of them are single-mothers because of this feminism thing. It is not scriptural.
Yes o Mr. Ade
A lot of broken homes because of feminism
Peace
Most Africans and mostly African men simply do not understand feminism. Maybe we should start by educating people what feminism means. Mostly, they will take the negative aspects in a woman and her behaviour and call that feminism. It is contradicting to say feminism is evil and still appreciate that your wife is educated! Someone mentions that he’s still the boss even when the wife is educated! He doesn’t feel she’s feminist because she is submissive. That right there is the problem. Your wife’s empowerment does not make you less of a man, what it does is give the woman opportunity too. Men will never be women and women men, PERIOD. But, both men and women can have equal access to opportunities and empowerment. Feminism is not evil.
Feminism is not African. This is why the Nigerian descriptive ways of naming or explaining feminism is uncomplimentary.
E.g., “awon obirin elegbe “kini oko yio se?” (Yoruba), meaning women who belong to the group that uphold the authority of women over men and question the authority of men over them.
In Onicha-ugbo, Delta State, they are called “ikposho si kii li di?”, meaning women who question the value of marriage?
None of these is complementary, take note.
We will review and take appropriate action.