Women in west African societies under colonial rule: a study in cultural resilience among Uzairhue women of Benin province, 1900-1960

Abstract

The study of colonization in West African societies has mostly negated and neglected the gender factor. The emphasis has either been patriarchal or simply gender neutral. Yet the women in West African societies bore the yoke of colonization as much as they paid the price of the colonial enterprise. In the process, West African women demonstrated uncommon resilience that kept the indigenous productive processes and economic systems afloat in the face of the marauding globalization. This study examines the role and place of Uzairhue women of Benin Province in sustaining the internal dynamics of the indigenous economy and society, and by extension, the African agency in the face of the export oriented transformation of colonization. It also interrogates the internal dynamics that motivated the activities of the women. Finally, it concludes that the historical reality of Uzairhue women under colonial rule contradicts the thesis of stagnation and change that dominates colonial studies in West Africa, and makes bold to posit that, on the contrary,they represent an embodiment of cultural resilience and its struggle for survival. It therefore recommends that a critical review of the place and role of women in contemporary affairs of the region be undertaken as a possible way out of the region’s crisis of development.