‘Miss Independent’: gender and independence on the African continent

Abstract

Modern African societies have emerged from rich cultural heritages and traditions tangled with an ambivalent colonial experience. One aspect of the rich African cultural heritage that has however persisted in post-colonial Africa is the perception of independent social living as a male dominated prerogative in which the female is seen as a submissive subject. My intention with this paper is to show that, over the past two decades, a growing new trend towards a rejection of this male dominated concept has emerged in African traditional society and is fast growing in social life on the continent; a trend aptly captured by the pop music of the R&B superstar Ne-Yo in his single ‘Miss Independent’. This trend strongly illustrates the growing rejection by women of the traditionally held stereotypical masculine role of independence. Women are increasingly rejecting the submissiveness and dependence on the male as contained in the ‘old order’. This paper illustrates that there are fast emerging consequences for this new trend with particular reference to family life, courtship and marriage. The research method used in the study is both descriptive and analytical.

Keywords: Gender, independent living, African, Ne-Yo, masculine, feminine, marriage, Africa-gender