If we start off from the contention that women are commonly oppressed by male patriarchy, what are the defining characteristics of femaleness and maleness, strength, and weakness? Have these characteristics remained the same over time? When did they change? Since this is a work in progress, I will raise these questions in the course of my research, which will focus specifically on the Yoruba of Southern Nigeria. I will not necessarily answer them definitively today, except to point to the exciting new research on gender among the Oyo Yoruba by Oyeronke Oyewumi (1998).
By Mojubaolu Olufunke Okome
Introduction
In this paper, I intend to explore the multiple ways in which African women exercise and deploy power, despite the social, economic and political constraints that they face. Thus, I will address both constraints and possibilities that shape the actions and reactions of African women. The goal of exploring women’s power is to emphasize that there are opportunities for enhancing women’s power by using and expanding mechanisms that are available in their culture.
This paper is not meant to indicate that women are not marginalized, impoverished, or invisible in public life. It is intended to recognize that women are not a lump of humanity, that there are class, ethnic, status, religious and other differences among them. At the same time, I intend to recognize that there are traditional avenues that are available for women to exercise power, and they ought to be emphasized in the quest for further empowerment for all women. The paper will also demonstrate that women are not necessarily natural allies. The distinctions among them may divide and prevent the building of women’s movements that struggle for women’s rights. This recognition is not necessarily devastating. An awareness that there are cleavages among women can be used to build even stronger movements that are directed at serving all members by addressing their needs. This is a work in progress. My research is ongoing.
It has become generally accepted almost as a truism that women are disadvantaged and discriminated against worldwide. One of the most valuable contributions of feminism as a movement is that it lays out the nature, form and extent the evidences that exist of man’s inhumanity to woman. Contemporary feminists have shown evidence of the inequities and inequalities that proliferate in all parts of the world against women. They are right. Against this background, I ask the questions: Do women have any power in African society? Under what circumstances? These questions are asked because I am an African woman who in my personal experience, is aware that the studies that posit the automatic powerlessness of women as a group vis a vis all men do not explain my own experience. They also may indicate the existence of a very real human situation, but do not give any idea of the richness and vibrancy of life as it exists, and as I know it. To demonstrate what I mean, let me quickly make the following observations:
There have been studies in the past that made the claim that indeed, some women are powerful. Such studies then provide us with examples of women who have taken leadership roles in their societies. From these studies, it is clear that when we speak of women, we ought to specify that there are class differences among women. These class differences imply that some women are granted social, political, and economic privileges that are not open to other women. These privileges are also not open to majority of men in society. Examples abound all through Africa.
The point is also increasingly being made that if we take as a starting point, the feminist contention that gender is socially constructed, then, constructions of gender must take on different forms in different geographical locations. Thus, the gendering of society in Africa does not automatically take on the same form as we observe in the western world. This also is an important observation that informs my work. Since Africa is composed of 52 countries, and Nigeria, the country with the largest population has over 250 ethnic groups, there are cultural differences that make the social constructions of any categories more complex than in the West. What we need to do in Africa is to conduct studies that go from one ethnic group to the other and consider issues of gender. We cannot make conclusions on the conditions in Africa without doing this initial groundwork.
Let me also hasten to note that virtually all of Africa was colonized. Whatever we observe in Africa today is a combination of precolonial culture overlaid by elements absorbed as a result of the experience of colonization.
Dimensions of Women's Power
To return to the question of women’s power in society, and the circumstances under which they may have power, and the influence of women’s power or weakness, I make the following initial claims:
Women may have power in society in the following institutions: the family, kinship group, community, ethnic group, state. Instances of power would include women’s power as mothers vis a vis children, regardless of age. As wives, the first wife has more power than other co-wives. As political officials, there are examples of women who are queen mothers e.g. the Edo of Nigeria, the Buganda of Uganda, the Akan of Ghana. Women can also have economic power based on their ability to own the means of production, or the ability to control the gains that they make from exchange. There are also examples of women’s ritual power. Some are priestesses, goddesses.
A second set of questions arise. If we start off from the contention that women are commonly oppressed by male patriarchy, what are the defining characteristics of femaleness and maleness, strength, and weakness? Have these characteristics remained the same over time? When did they change? Since this is a work in progress, I will raise these questions in the course of my research, which will focus specifically on the Yoruba of Southern Nigeria. I will not necessarily answer them definitively today, except to point to the exciting new research on gender among the Oyo Yoruba by Oyeronke Oyewumi (1998). Oyewumi argues that among the Oyo Yoruba, seniority, and not gender is the definitive category. To apply Western gender categories to Oyo Yoruba society is to erase the real lived experiences of people. This is because as a woman, a person may be powerful in some respects, and weak in others. For example, one and the same woman may be a daughter, wife, mother, sister, grandmother, mother in law, political official. Each status carries with it advantages and disadvantages, and those advantages and disadvantages are held vis a vis other individuals in society, who may be male or female. Women are not precluded from exercising power, even ordinary women who are poor.
Let me pause and explain. As a daughter, a woman has rights in her natal family vis a vis the wives in the family. As a matter of fact, other women who marry into this kinship group refer to her and all the “children of the house" as “my husband". She has privileges and entitlements that arise from this status. She also has rights to her family’s land, inherits from her father through the unit that is headed by her mother (in a polygynous family). As a wife, this same woman has little power vis a vis her sisters in law and mother in law. She gives them the respect that is due to these statuses. As first wife, she has more power vis a vis subsequent wives. She no longer has to undertake the tedium of everyday chores when more junior wives are married. She ought to be consulted in all matters including the marrying of the cowives and family decisions. AS mother, a woman has real power over her children, regardless of their age. As a sister, a woman has power vis a vis younger siblings. She has less power vis a vis older ones. As a mother in law, she has enormous power vis a vis her daughter in law. She can decide to use this power in a just manner, or choose to be oppressive vis a vis her daughters in law. As a grandmother, a woman is respected by all that are junior to her as having attained the heights of old age, and thus as having become wise. As the Yoruba say, o ti g’oke agba.
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