Nationalism and freedom in colonial Nigeria: a gendered perspective

Abstract

Nigerian nationalism, like that which arose in all parts of Africa under colonial rule, was a demand for freedom in response to colonial domination in the country. Although nationalism unfolded in different phases, the central theme that the idea connotes was its agitation for independence and the freedom of Nigerians to govern themselves. Thus, the idea of freedom was the driving force of nationalists at the time. While the ideas of nationalism and freedom featured between 1900 and 1960, there is the lingering and almost sometimes irrelevant question of the status accorded to women both as individuals who were members of the colonial state and fragments in the nationalist struggle for freedom and in this sense struggling for freedom alongside their male counterparts from colonialism as well as freedom from the male dominated political terrain. This paper hopes to show that although freedom was desirable by all, the definitions and limits of that freedom were to be outlined by men alone. Any action by women against that definition was therefore considered anathema.

Keywords: nationalist struggle, freedom, colonialism, menfolk, women participation