More than a Gender
Historically, “feminism” has an intrinsic thought linked to Western feminism. Even feminism in non-western countries was dominated by the voices of whites due to colonization. African feminism is more than a title and is far more detailed than interchanging “African” and “black”. Therefore, the term African feminism has been accepted and rejected by numerous African scholars who disagree on the components that reflect the ideals and motives of an African feminist. While incorporating key factors, distinguishable to Africa and its people, African writers and activists contrast ideas of Western feminism. African writers have created a platform for African feminist to show the complex structure to what defines feminism.
First, we must define “African feminism” in the eyes of African scholars to understand their approach to writing and sharing perspectives and personal experiences of African feminism. The basic ideas of feminism are based on Western feminism with ideologies of women with the same intentions and mindset, working together in hopes to achieve a similar goal. Feminism can be defined specifically for a time period, country, and even more specifically, regions in Africa. African women were faced with numerous hurdles while introducing the topic of gender. A common goal of women was to be treated as a full citizen in all spheres of life however difficult that may be to define. Ama Ata Aidoo, the author of Our Sister Killjoy, explains what she believes to make up her definition of feminism. In the article, ‘African feminism: the African woman’s struggle for identity’, Aidoo is quoted: “It is not possible to advocate independence of African development without also believing that African women must have the best that the environment can offer. For some of us, this is the crucial element of feminism” (Goredema 34). However, the use of ‘feminism’ was a rejection of the women’s movement of Africa. Author, of journal article ‘Theorizing African Feminism(s)’, Pinkie Mekgwe gives her opposition of the term feminism as described by Patricia Hill Collins, “Collins’s view of feminism is that it is predominantly a white westernized experience that too often sidelines issues of racial difference, hence the imperative in her work to develop a black feminist perspective that would more accurately reflect the realities and culture of black women” (Mekgwe 168). African feminism was clearly distinguishable from the simplistic ideas of Western feminism, but some scholars rejected the terminology completely.
African womanism is a term used by Clenora Hudson-Weems to emphasize the conflict with mainstream feminism. She had designed and created this term for women of African descent, with African culture in mind, and to focus on the African struggles, experiences, needs, and desires of ethnicity and gender. In the article ‘Africana Womanism and African Feminism’ Pamela Yaa Asantewaa Reed redefines Clenora Hudson-Weems’ definition as “The Africana womanist is 1) a self namer; 2) a self-definer; 3) family-centered; 4) genuine in sisterhood; 5) strong; 6) in concert with the African man in struggle; 7) whole; 8) authentic; 9) a flexible role player; 10) respected; 11) recognized; 12) spiritual; 13) male compatible; 14) respectful of elders 15) adaptable; 16) ambitious; 17) mothering; 18) nurturing” (Reed 168). Agreeing with Hudson-Weems are many other scholars who agree that the definition is key to creating a feminism that is tailored to fit the needs of African women. Filomena Steady focuses her energy on the ideals of “humanistic” feminism. Similar to African womanists, Steady’s main purpose is for human survival and well being. For that she tells of the importance of African lives in comparison to Western feminism, “For the Black woman in a racist society, racial factors, rather than sexual ones operate more consistency in making her a target for discrimination and marginalization…both men and women, white males and females, as members of family groups, share a proportionally higher quantity of the resources than do Black males and females” (Reed 171). It was easy for vital details to be overlooked, as resources we not an issue for their feminism.
Scholars have wanted to create a strong distinction between the colonizers and the colonized when defining the term feminism. Cheryl De la Rey believes that when describing feminism, class, gender, and race should be included. “Being a woman is not distinct from being either black or working-class or heterosexual. We cannot partial out gender from the rest of who we are- for we are simultaneously classed, raced and gendered.” (De La Rey 7). Africa was such a diverse country that one type of feminism wasn’t sufficient to exactly fit every culture, region, etc. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was an early African womanist to self-name. She was inspired by her son to change her name to rid the European name and ties. Colonization created an image of feminism that was strictly for women, selfish to women. Did colonization bring the ideas of feminism? Hudson-Weebs claims that African women were the blueprint to feminism. Westerners adopted the movement with they saw Africans speaking out, verbalizing, and seeing it working (Reed). The sisterhood that African women share is inseparable.
Western feminist ideas were based off the suburban housewife to the nuclear family who was extremely unhappy with her day to day life. Reliant on white-collar husbands, and a prisoner to housework, it differed greatly for African women. Women were actually known to be breadwinners of the family. Women are responsible for subsistence agriculture that requires a woman to have the ability to supply the entirety of her family with food. The women work together in Matsemas, which are groups of women who help each other weed or harvest their fields in a quicker, more efficient way. (Ntseane 319). Some women even desired the subordinate housewife title. The main goal of African feminism is to reject the norm of outcasting men.
Another key factor that characterizes African feminism is the lack of separatism from men. Women are wanting to challenge oppression but in an inclusive light rather than alienating men or rejecting culture. They want to recognize men as partners in the struggle rather than the enemy. In the term, “raised by a tribe”, it is completely necessary for the balance in gender roles. Children are such, literally, raised by an all-inclusive family which included collective learning. African women, historically, were the primary caregivers and responsible for the majority of the food for the family. Mekgwe says, “ African feminism is not antagonistic to men but challenges them to be aware of those aspects of women’s subjugation that differ from the generalized oppression of all African people” (Mekgwe 169). Discussing gender doesn’t automatically assume a feminist approach, but does, however, shape the way feminist and womanist deal with these issues. African men share the political and economic struggles that women face, so why exclude them? Goredema says, “I have never called myself a feminist. Now if you choose to call me a feminist, that is your business; but I don’t subscribe to the feminist idea that all men are brutal and repressive and we must reject them. Some of these men are my brothers and fathers and sons. Am I to reject them too?” (Goredema 38). As one of African womanists’ strongest distinction is the desire to keep culture and be inclusive to men in ways of feminism.
The responsibilities African women have varies from culture to culture, region to region. However, one thing that they have in common is motherhood. African women specifically have a large emphasize of their duties as a woman to care for her immediate family, extended family, and even society. Good motherhood is critical for these families to stay afloat. There is a strong relationship between motherhood and nature, which relates women and African beliefs to ensure good harvests. In a review article on ‘New Perspectives on African Feminism and the History of African women’ the co-authors agree, “A woman’s central role as mother has never come into question by either men or women, and the core experiences of an African feminist are solidly pronatalist and heterosexual” (Raps and Mikell 262). In actuality, women consciously identify themselves as the homemakers and don’t identify with the typical housewife model.
Westerners misinterpret the African model of housewife and criticize African traditions, such as polygamy. Wambui Wa Karanja believes that monogamy doesn’t exist. She says, “Sofola believes that the more the man becomes an openly shared commodity, the fewer centra he becomes in the woman’s life, and the mother/child dynamic becomes the primary one” (Reed 172). It is necessary for a woman to want to share their husband, as to not have a distraction. Karanja believes that women would be distracted from motherhood if otherwise. Educated African women would spend too much time worrying and being insecure of rejection from her husband. It even creates a tension between women treating them as a threat to their personal relationship.
Educated African women weren’t in abundance during the developments of feminism in Africa. Education was very limited to who got access and from where. Most of the education throughout Africa was based on Western ideas, leaving women vulnerable. Goredema writes, “Women, therefore, played central, but socially subordinate roles in African society, resulting in their being denied access to institutions that were gendered a male preserve, such as academia” (Goredema 40). Therefore, the number of educated African women is small in creating a platform for feminism in a country with low levels of literacy. African women writers are able to share their perspective and experiences through writings.
Many African writers, including Ama Ata Aidoo, Nawal El Saadawi, Mariama Ba have written and shared experiences through literature to express their African femininity and what it means to them. Female writers tend to use proverbs and folktales in order to highlight the complexities and possibilities of understanding feminist struggles. It allows emphasis on characters to see hardship and exposure to exploitation and marginalization. African feminist pieces were introduced in the seventies to accomplish the distinction of their own personal feminism experiences.
Ama Ata Aidoo, the writer of Our Sister Killjoy, considers herself a feminist and many of her writings confirm. To her surprise when she had started writing, she was intrinsically concerned with nationalism, neo-colonialism, and Africans in the diaspora (Aidoo 127). Her thoughts kept returning to these issues. Aidoo believes that you cannot be a feminist without being a nationalist and with similar intentions as Sissie, the main character of her book, she has similar viewpoints. In an interview, Aidoo says, “But it is not an autobiographical work. She has a perspective of her own, just as there are many situations in which I might take even more ‘extreme’ positions than she does in the book” (Aidoo 129). Sissie was an educated African woman who was traveling in Europe for education. She was appalled at the things and people she was seeing. Europeans are ignorant and still treat her as an exotic, which creates stereotypes. She is hurt and distraught that her own people are leaving Africa to relocate to Europe and living in equivalent, if not worse, poverty and cold. In the last section, Aidoo sees Sissie’s letter to her past lover as a semi call to action for the readers. Sissie expresses her anger in the people who fail to bring knowledge back to Africa. Also acknowledging the fact that not many see this as an issue or share feelings with her. Aidoo says, “The fact that as a people we have had to unmake ourselves, due to the colonial intervention, in order to seem acceptable in our own eyes” (Aidoo 132). Ideas of westerns had taken over the minds of Africans to try and shape and form themselves to resemble Europeans. Finally, Sissie tears up the letter realizing it was subconsciously a letter to herself, expressing her anger and viewpoints of the world and fault she was seeing.
Similarly, Nadine Gordimer, author of July’s People, uses her platform as a writer to help achieve her agenda of feminism. During an interview, Gordimer shared her very active involvement in many activist groups throughout the eighties and early nineties which created inspiration for her books. She has created powerful female roles that helped define her portrayal of an independent selfish accepting woman to achieve her personal happiness and desires. Although July’s People doesn’t focus on a female protagonist, Gordimer has used her writing as a platform. She says in an interview, “But it was interesting because it was one of the attempts to write from the people, to see history from the personal point of view rather than from the historian’s point of view” (Gordimer 154). A large part of the misconceptions of African feminism is the lack of history that was written by Africans.
So Long a Letter, written by Mariama Ba, portrays a major theme of feminism and addressing the topic of polygamy. So Long a Letter is an epistolary novel between two African women in different continents. Ramatoulaye, the protagonist in Senegal, and her friend, Aissatou, was living in America. The topic of divorce has arisen when Aissatou divorces her husband after he secretly marries another woman, per his mother’s demands. Divorce is rare and so is monogamy in African traditional culture. Ramatoulaye experienced a different approach to rejecting polygamy when the unexpected death of her husband took a toll on her and her family. Ramatoulaye was responsible for hosting his family and the traditional mirasse. She is disappointed and enraged to realize that her husband’s second wife, who is uneducated, will receive the majority of money and gifts people have brought in mourning. Ramatoulaye is especially angry that her husband’s younger wife left school and is uneducated. She, herself, was educated and had taken it upon herself after her husband’s death to remain unmarried. Traditionally, it was expected of her husband’s brother to assume the responsibility of Ramatoulaye and her children. Charles Ponnuthurai Sarvan, author of ‘Feminism and African Fiction: The Novels of Mariama Ba’, he explains, “A woman is abandoned or exchanged as if she were a commodity; married or single, she has little liberty: no “decent” woman can go out, for example to the cinema, unescorted” (Sarvan 456). Ramatoulaye had to remain a mother to her numerous children when they experienced obstacles, themselves. So Long a Letter presents educated African women defying traditional cultures. While African feminism includes these type of women, it strongly neglects the economically class of the intrinsically illiterate people of Senegal.
African feminist and womanist have spent years trying to define what it means to the women of the country. Feminism has to be considered and modified for each particular class, ethnicity, and region when discussing Africa. Pre-colonial traditions and western education have influenced the way African writers shape and retell their stories of the motherland and create an experience for readers to see and understand the complexities of African feminism.