AFRICAN WOMAN AND FEMINISM.
At my building stage of boyhood, in one of processes of trying to build me, I was privileged to have my dad take my to one of the umunna meeting. Like a first timer in such a marvellous gathering, you can imagine what the feeling was like. Like an uneasy pretender who wouldn't allow people notice the feeling running through his mind, my eyes was just hovering about in order to see if people around are noticing this feeling through my composure. What marvelled me the more was seeing one lady amongst that gathering of men, she wasn't just there in a passive manner rather she was being active in critical issues being raised there. Why I felt the way I felt was that prior to that meeting I've always had this feeling that women are always not allow the privilege of sharing the same ground with men. After, the meeting my inquisitive self lured me into engaging my dad into a discussion on why the woman was allowed to enjoy the privilege of appearing in meeting of umunna, my dad responded with an analytic question; he asked what makes a man? Which he responded by saying 'responsibility'. So from there he told me that the woman has done so many responsibilities more than a man could do that's why she was regarded as fit to enjoy the privilege of man. The woman has taken the responsibility of staying back at home to see that the father's lineage is not vanished through the 'iha nwanyi' culture, she does work to sustain and cater for her children etc. Like they say if a child washes his hand he joins elders in eating, so the woman has done something which a man does before he could be regarded as a man. After all this from my dad, a new knowledge and perception was added in my world.
The above anecdote is meant to amend some half baked beliefs have of Africa especially when it relates to feminism. In the clime which we found ourselves, it is a well known fact that not every male that can impregnate women are regarded as man. To be a man is always a virtue which stems from the responsibilities which you've been able to overcome. Just like in things fall apart there's a place where someone said something in the gathering of umunna and okonkwo sharply rebuked that person with a sweeping statement that the meeting is for men. It is quite bad though that some male figures have been mistakenly called a man when they've not conquered any responsibility,that's part of the values which we've traded in the name of civilisation. So, for women to get to that level of being seen with that eye which is used to see a man in the African sense, then, they must be ready to face and clear responsibilities.
Feminism is what every reasonable human on Africa should work towards achieving because when we arrive at that stage where everyone is seen with equal eye, then, responsibility becomes shared and balanced. There won't be a world where the men will always be toiling day and night just to be seen as real men and there won't be a world where they women will only be the 'oriakus' of the world. All hands must be on deck this time around. It baffles to see a man maintaining his #200 while the woman who virtually does nothing maintains her with #10000. So, in Africa we've always had the stage open for everyone to be what he/she wants to be but we don't push people into the stage