“Every woman and every man should be a feminist – especially if they believe that Africans should take charge of our land, its wealth, our lives and the burden of our own development” Ama Ata Aidoo
I was a feminist probably by the age of 10; I just didn’t know the F word.
In 2008 my colleague Sarah Mukasa told us about an inspiring meeting she attended in Freetown, Sierra Leone, with women from local communities living positively, and working on issues of HIV and AIDS. At that meeting the facilitators brought up the subject of feminism.
“Are you a feminist?” the facilitators asked.
We are the women answered. “If you are working to support women, you are a feminist. What’s the fuss?”
There were some that didn’t know what the meaning of feminism was, and so they asked, and their response was, “This is ‘boku gramma’. This is what we do and who we are – feminists.”
‘Boku gramma’ translates as ‘Big English’, ‘fancy words’, and sometimes I think the word ‘feminism’ itself is ‘boku gramma’. But then I think again, and I remember the power of words.
Words such as:
Feminist
Feminism
Feminists
Feminisms
I was always one of those children who asked 101 questions. Questions like:
“Mummy why do you have to cook Daddy’s food?”
In secondary school I was the student who would get into trouble for questioning a teacher in front of the whole assembly.
In my 6th form college I was the compound prefect and extremely tough (in hindsight a tad too firm) with the junior boys because I knew I needed to act extra tough to get them to obey me. In the very early days of my prefectship I had seen them gravitate to my male deputy and recognized that I needed to put a stop to it quickly.
But up until the age of 19 I hadn’t really reflected on why I had always resisted certain things – helping in the kitchen when I would rather read, obeying a teacher without questioning, allowing the junior boys to ignore my leadership.
And then I turned 19 and enrolled to study ‘Communications and Cultural Studies’. At the time I had no real interest in Cultural Studies. I even had no idea what that meant. You could say it was boku gramma to me. One of the modules I studied was ‘Feminist Theory’, and on our reading list was bell hook’s ‘Ain’t I a Woman’. The book blew me away, here was bell hooks explaining in very simple language things I instinctively knew. The unfairness of being asked to cook only because I was a girl, and a growing understanding of why my Mum was worried that I showed no interest in cooking. Even more mind blowing for me was how bell hooks explained the connections between different types of oppression. I had just moved to the U.K. and I had no real conception of race. I was struggling to deal with comments like “Why am I speaking to a bloody African?” when I would ask the customers who had called into the Pizza Hut delivery where I worked to spell their address because I simply couldn’t understand their accent. At the same time I was recognizing that I wasn’t oppressed on every level and in every space in exactly the same way. These issues of race and being part of an underclass that I was now grappling with in the U.K. had not been issues for me at all in my home country Ghana. I then began to think of the class issues in my home country. About the fact that growing up we had always had house helps, and so I could get away with not cooking or cleaning and hide myself away in my room to read. I began to feel a sense of responsibility. That I couldn’t have this new knowledge and do nothing about it. I could see that the world is not fair. The world is not fair on so many levels. The issues you grapple with will depend on where you are (your geographical location) and who you are (your economic and social status, sexual orientation, able bodied or physically challenged).
I began to read more. Not just academic texts by the likes of Michelle Wallace but also fiction by African women writers such as Ama Ata Aidoo and Buchi Emecheta which showed me in a language I could understand the unique challenges that African women face.
In this digital day and age it has become even easier for me to continue learning about feminisms. I check out the African Feminist Forum’s website. I go to OurSpaceIsLove for inspiration. I read Ms Afropolitan’s blog, and of course I encourage open and honest conversations about sexualities on my own blog inspired by my own feminist politics.
I identify as an African feminist, which simply means the issues I primarily concern myself with are those that affect my continent. I seek to address these issues holistically – to recognize that individuals do not live single-issue lives, and that all forms of discrimination must be dismantled. This in my view is what feminism is about. I am hoping that, if you’re not already a feminist, your own ‘Aha, this is why everybody should be a feminist’ moment is fast approaching. And yes I said EVERYBODY. Men can be feminists too.
A selection of staff from the African Women’s Development Fund at the 3rd African Feminist Forum in Dakar, Senegal. From left to right are: Rose, Sophia, Rissi, Zeytuna, Mavis and Gertrude.
Photography by Nyani Quarmyne
Professor Ama Ata Aidoo speaking at an event ‘outdooring’ Nneka as AWDF’s Ambassador for the Arts.
Photography by Bob Pixel
This post is part of Blu’s BelieveUme Forum, a social commentary on work-life balance in Ghana. Join the discussion at: http://blughana.wordpress.
Just as I thought…the emotional approach. We want hard, solid, air-tight facts! Or did I miss a paragraph?
🙂 You didn’t miss a paragraph my dear
damn that’s an incredibly sexist comment.
I fail to see what was “emotional” about this. It was experiential. And what are facts if not elements based on the human experience?
Anyway, if feminism is as you described it, that is dismantling unfairness and injustice everywhere, then yes, we should all be “feminists”.
I know right? I think some men try to disregard women’s opinions by describing whatever they say as ’emotional’. As if ’emotion’ is not valid, and that men themselves are not emotional. Ironically Edward’s piece read to me like a very emotional piece…unlike him, I have no issue with emotion in writing. Indeed I am very sceptical about pieces that purport to be ‘scientific’ and without any sort of ‘human bias’ because I think that’s impossible. Thanks for commenting Malaka
What did your mum tell you was her reason for cooking dad’s food? And who were you expecting to cook dad’s food which by the way a portion ended up in your bowl….? Sometimes the permises used by the so called ‘feminists’ are moot
A nice article. I think it expresses your views and experiences simply but in an enlightening way. I am married to a northerner and ghana is my second home. I never had, in our little northern town, the benefits of cooks and cleaners and I never questioned the daily life of my sisters, except in the cases where adultery or abortion was concerned or when I felt like they were being taken advantage of, which was not very often at all. I recently attended a WOW (Women of the World) conference and there was a session on feminism: the ‘f’ word. People, men and women, stated they either were or weren’t. I spoke up and said that for me, married to an African man – a northern ghanaian from a very patriarchal society, my feminism lied in living within the middle path. I have to take into account his pride but when I do that, I win. My feminism is triumphant when I am successfully balancing all areas of my life: family, children, husband, work, home, friends, personal pursuits. Not many understood me …. which was a shame.
In some countries women no longer need to be angry, to fight, to burn their bras etc. – but feminism needs to still have that capital ‘F’.
I have a blog about sisterhood at sisterhoodacrosscontinents.com
I have always supported feminism but we cant help but admit that it has led to the break down of the traditional family structure in the western world where over 50 percent of all marriages end in divorce with 75 percent of those filed by women.