How did we get here? A historical profile of the African woman

Abstract

Scholars and feminists have continually assert that the major issue in gender mainstreaming is women empowerment. This paper takes a historical profile of the African woman within the traditional society. It has usually been considered historically that African women were very powerful. It has also been argued that the African woman’s situation is different from the Western woman’s in that she had always been powerful and politically relevant. This paper does a historical profiling of the African woman in a bid to ascertain the veracity of this claim. It compares the traditional woman with the modern woman to find answers to the question of power, control and social relevance as it is related to the African woman. It set out to ascertain the reality that is the African woman now and the relevance of her position of power within the African and global milieu. She is found to have been quite powerful and visible in terms of her social and religious activities in the pre-colonial Africa. She was also a force to reckon within the political life of many of these African societies. Even in the politics of some of the societies during the colonial period, she was able to fight along with the men to displace the colonialists as exemplified in Kenya. Nonetheless, it was found that the twin forces of colonialism and Europeanisation led to the disempowerment of the African woman. Her previous independence was exchanged with the psyche of submission and dependence on the male. All these forces combined to create a new type of African woman that became disempowered and needed to fight for her empowerment alongside the Western woman in the modern age.

Keywords: African woman, traditional society, historical profile, women empowerment, colonialism and Europeanisation