The Influence of the Twentieth Century on the Roles of Men and Women in African Societies - Essay Example

The Twentieth Century was a time when the gender role in many different African societies came to be challenged by the colonial government. The colonial government tended to work towards the slow removal of African culture to be replaced by the Christian, European one, with little regard for the feelings of the Africans. Those who came to be affected the most were the women in African societies whose way of life came to be threatened by the colonial government. Previously, women had their own tasks to execute in society and men, who also had their own tasks to play, did not challenge many of these roles. With the coming of the colonial government however, these roles came to be directly challenged, as it sought to redesign the African way of life according to its liking. The colonial policies tended to result in chaos between the genders as each strived to maintain the roles that it had traditionally held in the traditional society. Many of the policies that the colonial government instituted were aimed at achieving certain imperial goals but these came to be resisted by the men and women in African societies who felt that their way of life was being threatened by the European colonizers. While the initial response was resistance, this resistance came to fall apart as many African societies either adapted to the European way of life or chose to abandon the gender roles, which they had held in the traditional society. Therefore, it can be said that it is indeed true that gender chaos is a true reflection of how the roles of African men and women were affected in the twentieth century. The colonial policies on various issues came to affect the way men and women in African societies behaved and it can be said that they may have caused gender chaos. The colonial government tended to put limits on some of the traditional practices of African societies in order to achieve one goal or the other. While some of these intentions may have been good, they tended to create a lot of discord in the African communities involved, with some either choosing to ignore the colonial policies while others tended to do it the way they were required, and later do it the traditional way. An example of such colonial policies is given by Lynn Thomas (2003) who in her work states that in order to reduce the instances of abortion in the Meru community in Kenya, the colonial government decided that the age of female excision was to be reduced. This was done because while it was a normal thing within this community for women to have premarital sex, if they became pregnant before excision, then they were required by their communities to abort the child. This requirement came about because those girls who had not been excised were considered not to be real women and their offspring were considered not to be human but demons. Such forced abortions were believed by the colonial government to be the reason why there were low birthrates among the Meru leading to low population growth. This colonial policy met with resistance from members of the community especially the women, who saw this as a violation of their traditions. While there was compliance with the colonial requirements, the older women in the society and at times the girls involved, often took it upon themselves to do the excision on the girls at the required age, even though these girls had already undergone the operation. The role of women in African societies came to change during the period of the struggle for independence against colonial rule. In many of the African traditional societies, men were the dominant gender being given preferential treatment in the attainment of all the prominent positions in society. Women, on the other hand, were less visible, often concentrating on the management of their own homes and families. This was the custom throughout most of Africa until such a time as Africa came to be colonized. For several decades after colonization, the role of women in society remained the same but this came to change when some women started gaining the opportunity to have an education. This created a situation where women came to be empowered enough to challenge the role of men in society. Elizabeth Schmidt (2002), states that women played a prominent role in the struggle for independence of Guinea from the French. While these women were vilified by the colonial government and their own societies as being prostitutes and divorced women who had nothing better to do, the men in the resistance movement came to see their value and actively recruited them into their organizations. This can be said to have been an instance of gender empowerment, since women came to participate in a domain which was not considered to be theirs. According to Dorothy Hodgson and Shirley McCurdy (2001), women in African societies have often been depicted as being submissive and respectful. While this has been the case, with the advent of colonization and the integration of Africa into the global scene, this has turned out not to be the case as the African women have come to become more assertive of their rights and freedoms in the face of opposition from the traditional way of life. Some women have chosen to live their lives against what the society expects of them and in a way, it can be said that they have come to gain prominence as they fight to have equal rights to the men in their societies. While in many cases this can be presented in a positive light, in the African societal setting, this is not the case since it is the norm within these societies that women live in utter submission within the boundaries that have been set for them. However, whenever women choose to push these boundaries and live outside them, they tend to cause a negative reaction against them. These women come to be labeled as being wayward and as going against what the society expects of them. Such attitudes against these women ensure that they are ostracized from their own societies and only get to live at the very edge of it. Since they have chosen not to live according to the expectations of their societies, they are looked upon as being nothing more than wicked and as such are completely rejected. It can be said that the male dominated African society is not yet ready to accept the fact that women can also be as independent as men and that they can play a role in determining their own lives and future. Moreover, Lisa Lindsay (2003) states that wealth and dominance were signs of masculinity in African societies, and many African men aspired to achieve these two aspects. During the pre-colonial period, the role of men in society was determined by their sex and the expectations that came with it. However, during the colonial period and after, many of these expectations came to change as the politics and economics of the African societies also changed. In order to prove their masculinity, men had to get employment so that they could fulfill the role of provider in the family. Status was no longer achieved through the acquisition of traditional titles, but through the ability to take ones children to school so that they could have an education. In certain circumstances, men who had gone to war during the World Wars tended to attempt to rejoin their societies through a display of their achievements abroad. They wore their military uniforms and spoke the language of the colonizing power in an attempt to impress their peers. This was all an effort by these war veterans to increase their standing in society through a display of the abilities and materials they had not previously possessed. Andrea Cornwall (2005) gender roles in African societies have come to be shaped by the modern world, and the process has come to have extremely conflicting results. In the traditional society, for example, it was the norm that women did the majority of domestic activities such as cooking. Cooking was considered to be a feminine activity in which no normal man could indulge himself. However, with the advent of colonialism, this came to change as many of the men who were conscripted into the colonial armies that fought in the world wars were trained to be cooks. This was in direct conflict with the traditional practices since cooking was considered to be a feminine practice. While in their employment, however, these men seem not to have considered their work as being feminine and instead, they looked upon it as a source of livelihood. The ability to adjust their way of thinking so as to adapt to such a way of life helps to show just how much the gender roles in African societies came to change in such a short period. One would surmise that the gender roles in African societies became more fluid than they had been before the colonial period. Kristin Mann (1985) analyses the marital tendencies of the educated African elite that was based in Lagos and states that while many men among them were involved in Christian marriages, they tended to have other wives or mistresses. Mann states that this was due to the fact that many of the men felt that their Christian marriages, which demanded monogamy, were not satisfactory hence the need for them to return to traditional marriage practices. Mann is unique in analyzing such marriages by including women, despite the fact that there were scarcely any records of them in the archives where she conducted her research. There seems to have been a lot of conflict within these elite marriages because of the polygamous nature, despite their education, of the men who were involved in them. This is the reason why many of the men involved advocated for a return to the marital traditions of their forefathers who practiced polygamy. One would say that the return to polygamy may have been a way through which the African men chose to fight the forces of colonialism and the Christian faith that came with it. The role of men in Christian marriages was greatly reduced and a return to polygamy seems to have been a way through which these men felt empowered because then, they would be able to marry as many women as they chose without any need to answer to anybody. The women who came to be involved in such unions seem to have been itemized because they did not have a say in their husband’s position to marry other wives. Instead, they were expected to remain good Christian wives and expected to be submissive to the wishes of their husbands. African women, as stipulated by Barbara Cooper (1997), in Niger have come to break the shackle of tradition and have come to become extremely independent. This is because the modern world has come to provide marriage opportunities that were not available to them in traditional societies. In those societies that have retained a traditional aspect, marriages have come to be seen as a source of free labour, especially when one considers that slavery has been abolished. As a result, most men tend to marry younger wives so that they can fulfil the obligations that were fulfilled by slaves. Younger wives have come to be the main source of labour not only for their husbands, but also for their senior wives. On the other hand, those women who have had the opportunity to have an education seem to have developed a sense of independence, since some either have gone into business enterprises or have come to receive government employment. These educated women often choose to retain their independence by not getting into any marriages. Instead, they have come to prefer informal relationships that do not in any way compromise their independence. As a result, a majority of women, either through their religious rights or through their education, have come to gain independence from their traditional roles in society. This has created a situation where there is conflict between the roles of men and women in society, as the former do their best to fight against the tide that is eroding their dominance. References Allman, J. et al (eds). 2002. Women in Colonial African Histories.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Cooper, B. 1997. Marriage in Maradi: Gender and Culture in a Hausa Society in Niger, 1900- 1989. London: Heinemann. Cornwall, A. (ed.). 2005. Readings in Gender in Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Hodgson, D. and McCurdy, S. (eds). 2001. ‘Wicked’ Women and the Reconfiguration of Gender in Africa. London: Heinemann. Lindsay, L and Miescher, S. (eds). 2003. Men and Masculinities in Modern Africa. London: Heinemann. Mann, K. 1985. Marrying Well: Marriage, Status and Social Change among the Educated Elite in Early Colonial Lagos. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Thomas, L. 2003. Politics of the Womb: Women, Reproduction, and the State in Kenya. Berkeley: University of California Press. Read More