Feminism in Africa or how my literature professor told me he paid 20 cows for his wife

[red_cowboyboots]

esterday when I went to my African Literature lecture and the lector said that the new topic was African Women Writers, I was pretty excited. I know little to nothing about African women writers and was pretty excited to find out why they were a seperate topic, etc. What I did not expect was that the entire lecture would actually be about the

Comments

Teacher Ulrike gets up on the soapbox...

[saffron_ree]

There are many feminisms, all over the world. Not all of them are the result of "importing" Western values into a Nonwestern society. However, local, or indigenous feminisms may be articulatd differently from eachother, and many have different agendas from Western feminism. For example, in American feminism, we talk a lot about our differences- recognizing the different experiences of Women of Color and working class women is an important part of our discourse. However, in Nigeria, for example, feminists don't discuss their (ethnic-based) differences, they emphasize what they all have in common, so as to be able to work in coallitions together

[electric_claire]

I am almost done reading Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism. It's so good! I highly recommend it. (As the above commenter mentioned, some of the women in the book do not use the term "feminism," but do use the word "womanism.") There is one essay by a woman from Africa- Nigeria I think- who talks about growing up in Nigeria and having to do all the dishes and take care of all the housework while the boys in her family did not, as well as having to go to school and do really well academically. She talks about how she "discovered" feminism when she studied abroad in the United States, but she makes it clear that although nobody she knew in Nigeria ever questioned the role of women, etc., it's not that she never had those thoughts or feelings of inequality and unfairness growing up there. She just didn't have a way to express those opinions or feel they were valid until she came to the United States and learned that other women her age didn't grow up making their brothers' beds before school and making dinner