Women's Quest for Rights: African Feminist Theory in Fiction
2007; Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1938-9809
Autores Tópico(s)African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues
ResumoIntroduction If African women of the twentieth century should stop and think when the rain started beating quoting Chinua Achebe's popularized proverb, it will be when the men galloped away, enveloped as they were in the colonialists' new culture of religion, education and money driven economy. The women were left behind to mind the homes, the children and the farms. Their erstwhile dependence on the men deepened as their consumerist status heightened. The men had all the money and the power. We blame colonialism as whip horse but it is colonialism that eventually offered the beacon of light of women's western education and exposure which propelled us to the outer wider world and recognition of the commonality of women's subjugation world-wide. Women in Africa latterly have joined women in other nations in their quest for rights, for opportunity, relevance and recognition. This feminist quest is not imported, it cannot be. Nobody knows the latent volcano of the soul of woman nor indeed of man which can erupt suddenly and determinably. Feminism is reaction of women with guts and steam and nobody tells the other to remove her head from the yoke. It is only the determinant weight. This is so when we later examine the varied nature of feminisms in countries and women's reactions to their burdens. The term feminism is English, as the language itself, but its realization is inextricably bound to the culture and peculiar backgrounds and experiences of the women. It thus becomes worthwhile at this point to show the coping strategies of some women in cultures in Africa to maintain some measure of autonomy in their roles as daughters, wives, and mothers. This is an important prelude to women's emancipation and quest for rights and status today. It is incidental to reproduce some of the assertions of Chinweizu in book tellingly titled Anatomy of Female Power. His thesis is that women are powerful and exercise that power over men contrary to general belief and acceptance. He writes: Because every man has as boss wife or mother, or some other woman in life, men may rule the world, but women rule the men who rule the world. Thus contrary to appearances, woman is boss, the overall boss, of the world. (1) He then went on to list three prongs on which female power hangs in the domination of man. These are; mother power, bride power and wife power. I am quick to disprove this semblance of female power by citing an Ogbaru Igbo proverb: Onwunwe nwata na enwe ewu bu na aji Translates as a child's ownership of is only skin-deep. In other words, it is no ownership at all. This is informed by an anecdote which tells of how father bought kid and gave it to son to keep and tend. Everybody called it the son's goat. The son took great care of goat, feeding it with choice verdure and spring water and the fattened accordingly. One day the boy came back home from collecting grass for the to find that his goat has been slaughtered for meal for some august visitors without consent or even information. He realized to chagrin that, that was never his, the real owner had demonstrated ownership. That is analogous to female power. The woman is mother but the child belongs to father whose name and lineage he bears and belongs to. The same applies to the wife who relocates to the husband's house albeit in an impressive ceremony and whose name she bears. The high degree of dependence and so handicap is apparent in this situation. However, I here reproduce Chinweizu's distinctions in the nature of male and female power realizations: Generally then, whereas male power tends to be crude, confrontational and direct, female Power tends to be subtle, manipulative and indirect. Whereas aggressiveness is the hallmark of male power, maneuver is the hallmark of female power. …
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