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What is the value of the African woman? PDF Print E-mail
Written by Ann Githinji   
Thursday, 24 July 2008

The aforementioned question aims at critically examining how the identity of the African woman has been constructed by political, economic, social and cultural institutions both at the global and local level. 

In other words how does the world understand who the African woman is and what her place is in the world? Identity is inextricably linked to meaning and value.  For the purpose of this discussion, the term African woman refers to all women of African descent throughout the Diaspora.

We all start the journey of our lives as infants, virtually unconscious of our own existence save for the fulfillment of our life supporting needs. None of us is born with an innate sense of our intrinsic worth. Through interaction with our environment, we begin to have a sense of who we are and what our purpose and position is in the world. Ideally, growing up in an affirming, nurturing environment would result in the development of confident, positive individuals who are well equipped to realize their full potential for the benefit of humankind.

It is the aim of this discussion to examine the environment that impacts the identity and hence the value of the African woman in the world. There are several oppressive systems that limit the identity of individuals and these include but are not limited to racism, sexism, ageism, classism, elitism, ableism among others. For the purpose of this discussion, we will examine racism and sexism as it impacts African women.

First, a few definitions are in order. Oppression is defined as “keeping [someone] down by the cruel or unjust use of authority”. Racism, which is the belief in the inherent superiority of one race over all others and thereby the right to dominance, has had serious implications for people of African descent. Racial inferiority of African people was used to justify colonialism in Africa and slavery in North America. Colonial powers saw themselves as saviors of African peoples, coming to rescue them from savage and barbaric lifestyles. It is interesting that some of the political power struggle was staged on the bodies of African women as in the case of female genital cutting. The Christianizing colonizing powers saw it their duty to save the African women from the savagery of female genital cutting without any consideration of its cultural meaning.

I was made race conscious upon my arrival in America when an American friend referred to me as black. Prior to that, I had never heard anyone refer to me that way. That label does not only distinguish my race but is laden with loads of meaning that are mostly negative.

On the other hand, slavery violently uprooted millions of African women and men from their homelands for economic exploitation in North America. Racist ideologies that claimed the incomplete humanity of the African people was used to justify their inhumane subordination. The enslaved African women were repeatedly dehumanized through cruel sexual and physical assaults at the hands of their owners. The African women were seen and treated as breeders that were supposed to ensure a constant supply of slave labor. Once again the body of the African woman was the platform used to promote illegitimate economic growth that did not profit the African people any. To date the sexuality of African people is still embroiled in racist ideologies that are at the bottom of how the west relates to the south.

On the other hand sexism, which is the belief in the inherent superiority of one sex (the male) over the other and thereby the right to dominance, permeates the globe like air. So pervasive is sexism that it is virtually unrecognized in everyday settings. Male privilege has undermined the realization of the full potential of women all over the world.

Women of African descent find themselves located at the cruel intersection of racial and sexist ideologies. Sexism has been used to justify sexual assault, domestic violence and gender payment disparities.

Unfortunately, the current educational systems in Africa do not seem to correct sexism; rather they work to maintain it. My high school experience, at Precious Blood Girls' High School, illustrates this point clearly. In my senior year, our male mathematics and physics instructor would continuously insult us in class. He would tell us that we were thick-headed and that unless he cooked the mathematics and physics like food so that we could eat it, we would never understand what he was trying to teach us. Consequently, several of the students in our class did not like mathematics or physics and complained about the difficulties of these subjects. On the other hand, our peers in the other senior class had a female mathematics and physics instructor who did not insult them, and they performed better in these subjects.

Our high school sports' coach, who was also the school's disciplinarian, harassed us further. I remember listening to him describe in detail how two other students were sexually interested in him and how they would even seduce him in class! He would often use derogatory language when talking to students. For instance, he would refer to our breasts as “KCCs” (Kenya Cooperative Creameries) or to a student having her menses as “one who is leaking”. Who or what gave these male instructors the authority to verbally abuse their female students and get away with it? What was the effect of these overt negative messages on the identity and value of the female students?

What is the way forward?
Women of African descent throughout the Diaspora resist racism and sexism both individually and collectively to the best of their ability. Many of them have a self-consciousness of their identity and value that defies racist and sexist definitions. What is required are more collaborative efforts to address these systems through political, economic, social and cultural institutions. There is need to examine how women of African descent perpetuate racist and sexist ideologies. No oppression is complete without the collaboration of the oppressed. These matters need our consistent and concerted efforts for the promotion of the well-being of our future generations.

Points to ponder
The identity and value of the African woman is inextricably linked to how the world views and relates to Africa. Racism has serious implications on how we raise our children especially in racially diverse environments. Immigrant African women and men need to network with their African-American brothers and sisters to figure out the best strategies for surviving the daily torment of living in a race-conscious world.

Education at all levels should include curricula that teach gender equality. In addition, students in primary and secondary levels of education in Africa should submit teacher evaluations at the end of each term. The evaluations should be anonymous and should be used to assess the teacher-student interactions.

Community leaders such as religious leaders and village elders should examine in what ways they perpetuate racist and sexist ideologies and do away with them.

Each of us should do some introspection and determine in what ways we contribute to the existence of oppression. The first step in this process would be acknowledging our privilege.

This paper was first presented at the African Women in the Diaspora Conference in Minneapolis, Mn.

Ann Githinji
About the author:
Ann Githinji is a research co-ordinator on the African Well-Being Project (ARWP) at the University of New Mexico's Division of Prevention and Population Sciences.





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grim facts
written by Stephen Wanyama , July 24, 2008
Women: A world apart
Life expectancy
Africa: 46 UK: 80

Chance of a girl going to primary school
Africa: 60 % UK: 100 %

Minutes worked per day
Kenya: 590 UK: 413

Female literacy
Africa: 53.2% UK: 99.9%

Births attended by a midwife
Africa: 43 % UK: 99 %

Deaths in childbirth a year (per 100,000)
Africa: 920 UK: 13

Women using contraception
Ivory Coast: 15 % UK: 84 %

Average number of children
Africa: 5.5 UK: 1.7

Deaths during abortion every year
Africa: 29,800 UK: 8

Female MPs
Africa: 6.5% (Chad) 49% (Rwanda) UK: 18.5 %

Professional and technical staff who are women
Africa: 46% UK: 32%

Women with HIV
Africa: 13,200,000 UK: 21,000

In at least 20 African countries, more than half the women have also suffered female genital mutilation.
African women grow at least 70 per cent of its food and are responsible for half the animal husbandry. Most of what they earn is spent on the household and children; men, by contrast, spend a significantly higher amount on themselves.
Of the 25 million people living with HIV and Aids in Africa, nearly 57 per cent are women. That figure rises to 80 per cent among those aged 15 to 19.
African women earn only 10 per cent of continental income, and own less than 1 per cent of its property.
Only 37 per cent of African women survive to the age of 65, compared with almost 90 per cent in the UK.
Fully two-thirds of the 40 million non-school attending children are girls.
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Sad, But True
written by Project Sunshine , July 26, 2008
Ann's article touches on several points that I have observed, not least of which is that the African woman is one of the most heavily contested bodies in the world. Not only a site for cultural war (FGM, slavery, domestic abuse, abortion rights/protest) but also a political space - where those who converted the African woman to the "African Girl Child" find a home for discussion. On that part alone, when has the African woman not been treated as a 'child' incapable of making her own decisions?

The other point was on the Precious Blood high school re-telling. Consider that this is the top girls' school and these are reports from a former student. What of those African women who are in lesser known schools, not just at PB where 75% of the graduating class is called to the universities in Kenya? And have people all but forgotten St Kizito's Girls?

As an African woman in the Diaspora, I wholly agree!
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 24 July 2008 )
 
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