This chapter argues that feminism in Africa is anchored on a different worldview from mainstream feminism in the West. Where Western feminism sees men as the enemy and oppressors of women, feminism in Africa regards men as partners in dismantling the harmful aspects of patriarch. African feminism is distinctive from Western feminism in that it uses the intersectionality of African women oppressive forces as a category of analysis and re-construction. Western feminism has remained questionable and incompatible with African values and realities, especially when it identifies men as the enemy and stands against values of marriage, childbearing, and preservation of the family. Western feminism has also failed to address significant issues of race, ethnicity, identity, class, and gender, which affect African women. Hence the need for experiential based and culturally congruent regional feminism like African feminism advocating for emancipation of not only African women but all groups suffering from the ills of patriarchy and accompanying forces and modes of oppression.
Top1. Introduction
Feminism seeks to understand the ways in which women are oppressed in order to reduce, if not eliminate their oppression. Feminists presuppose that men are privileged with patriarchal dividends at women’s expenses. As such, feminists make efforts towards reversing perceived injustices instituted against women, across the ages (Amaefula, 2021). The term feminism is therefore linked to concerns about inequalities between men and women and to the efforts to advance the social role of women (Heywood, 1992). Maguire (1987) sees feminism as a three-pronged process involving the belief that women universally face some forms of oppression and exploitation, a commitment to uncover and understand what causes and sustains oppression in all its forms and a commitment to work individually and collectively in everyday life to end all forms of oppression. Thus, feminism is based on the belief that women are disadvantaged because of their sex and that this disadvantage can and should be removed. As such, feminism is the struggle for the liberation of women. It encompasses epistemologies, methodologies, theories, and modes of activism that seek to bring an end to the oppression and subordination of women by patriarchical structures everywhere in the world (Musingafi, Mafumbate & Khumalo, 2021).
African feminists have a holistic attitude to feminism and do not see it as being oppositional to men, which separates them from their Western counterparts. They approach women oppression from a holistic perspective addressing the injustice in the environment of the total production and reproduction of their society involving men and children. Feminism in Africa is located in the continent’s historical realities of deception, oppression and domination brought about by patriarchy, slave trade, colonialism, racism, neo-colonialism and globalisation. The inter-connectedness of gender, race, ethnicity, poverty and class are placed at the centre of the feminist discourse. African feminism is thus concerned with the realities of the challenges that African women encounter in their daily lives, which can be traced to historical injustices. The lived experiences influence the perception of African feminism. For example, North African women may identify with topics from Arab cultures of their origin and not with issues of Black women in Sub-Saharan Africa (Atanga, 2013). Similarly, White South African women would identify with Western feminism than African feminism (Stuhlhofer, 2020).
It should be noted that women, whether globally or in Africa, are multidimensional in terms of their status, identity, class, education, involvement in politics, activism in the civil society, economy and social life experiences. Hence, they experience oppression differently. This conceptualisation of women struggles enables us to understand the existence of both powerful and powerless women in all spheres of life. Oyewùmí (2003), observes that like all other women in the world, some African women are powerful, influential, intelligent, and capable, some lack power and influence, and others are more powerful than most men in their society.
Although the African feminist discourse acknowledges grievances on issues like female control over reproduction or variation and choice within human sexuality, debates about essentialism, the female body, or the discourse of patriarchy (which are the major pillars of Western feminisms), its central argument seems somehow divorced from Western feminists’ arguments. It remains largely heterosexual, pro-natal and above all concerned with the feminisation of poverty issues. Because of these different worldviews, Western feminism has failed to comprehend deep rooted concerns of African women.
As observed by Tamale (2020), in Africa, women’s struggles against oppression predate colonialism. There is a long history of women mobilising to resist patriarchal and political domination, asserting their personal and collective rights. Several legendary women helped transform their societies even before colonisers stepped foot on their soil. Examples include Queen Eyleuka (Dalukah) of Ethiopia, Queen Lobamba of Kuba (Congo), Princess Nang’oma of Bululi (Uganda), Queen Rangita of Madagascar, Queen Nzinga of Angola, Queen Nyabingi (northern Tanzania & western Uganda) and Mbuya Nehanda of Zimbabwe.