10. Gender Equality is African

Gender Equality is African

Two TED-talks on how colonialism shaped Africa's gender relations and on feminism

In this blog post, I would like to introduce two TED-talks which were in my opinion eye-opening and food for thought. The first TED-talk was about the African roots of gender equality by Reagan Adenyi. He discussed how precolonial Africa predominantly knew societies with gender equality. Women had for example leading positions during military practices, were the most powerful spiritual figures, and were successful entrepreneurs boosting nations'  economies. Reagan points out that nowadays, however, women are lagging behind in for example the areas of literacy, employment and politics. And the main question he puts forward is why African women do no longer have the same experience of gender equality from the past, when they were likely to be considered equal to men. According to Reagan, the current situation of gender inequality in Africa has to do with colonialism, especially during the time of the Christian European colonization of the continent. During this period, the Victorian conception of women's role in society was imposed on African societies, which entailed that women should stay in the private domain whilst leaving the 'real world' to men. So this reshaped societal culture that developed, due to Christian European colonization, resulted in women being excluded from the new religious and socio-economic system and the discontinuation of their rights in large parts of Africa. One could thus argue that the current societal culture in large parts of Africa was shaped by colonialism, post-colonialism and neocolonialism, and that till nowadays the legacy of these periods is continued. To conclude, Reagan advocates to fight against these conceptions because he claims that gender equality is inherently  and traditionally African; gender equality is African.

I found this video eye-opening, because I did not know about Africa's history of being gender equal. This in fact all has to do with the production of culture and consequently the products culture produces, which shapes our understanding of for example Africa's current issues related to gender inequality. Also, I never thought about this relation before, so this also tells something about my westernized look on colonial practices in Africa; I have never really been told about gender inequality being a product of Victorian culture and their impacts on colonial and current Africa. Maybe solutions for the achievement of gender equality in Africa can be enhanced through telling historical stories like Ragean did, but then in a local African context. Maybe if these stories are told, African citizens either men or women feel connected to their historical roots of gender equality and the ways it helped the continent thrive. 

Secondly, and related to the previous TED-talk, I would like to discuss a talk about why we should all be feminists by Chimanda Ngozi Adichie. The 30-minutes story she tells is first of all very inspiring to listen to, since she talks about personal experiences of gender inequality in the Nigerian context. Besides, she argues that culture does not make people but that rather people make culture. And since this is the case, people should also be able to re-make and re-shape culture so that gender equality is achieved. Right now, gender prescribes who we should be instead of stimulating who we are. If people are able to make a culture with gender equality, a lot more African women can achieve great things through being creative and innovative. In the end sustainability requires the empowerment of women and men, since 52% of the world population is women and 48% of the world population is men.