African Women And Developement Term paper

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African Woman and Development:

Recycled Oppression

Jose’ Torres

V.P. Epps-Sophomore Core

Due: March 30, 2000



The women of Africa have endured the systematic oppression of their development for countless

of years due to elements in cultural, political and, historical events. Long before British-colonial

occupation and the slave trade, the male dominated African tribal culture adhered to many

oppressive yet accepted and structured forms of role categorization of women in African society.

It is in examining the roots of such origins, that one can begin to understand the lineage of African

women’s’ developmental hinderment.

The position of women in pre-colonial Africa was impeded mainly because of cultural

aspects of their way of societal existence. African females would be type-cast from birth and

instructed in manners of learning subservience, as is the case of human behavior in most societies,

as strict and hindering gender roles determined the path of their life (Dennis 69). As young girls,

African females developed very closely with their mothers and would aquier the constricting

elements that continue the ongoing chain of events. The young females would take part in the

daily duties of their mother and learn the oppressive traits as did their female ancestors before

them. They would perform back breaking chores for the tribal family in preparation and guidance

to their preset life stature. The developing youths would perform the very chores for their male

parent that would prime them for subservience to other men in time to come. They would walk

for great lengths to procure heavy buckets of water that was balanced on the head in most tribes,

as well as perform other domestic duties such as: cooking, cleaning, sewing and mending

garments, and other such tasks required of developing bride prospects. The same held true for the

young males of the tribe who performed male specific duties with their fathers at times. They

would be also negatively conditioned to become dominant over females of the tribe as they

worked ceaselessly with the seasons crops and other provisional duties. Through stories and

various teachings, young African girls and boys learned were conditioned to become

knowledgeable in the roles that are preset for them. Young men were taught to provide for their

family and to exhibit dominance over their female counterparts. Young females were taught to

respect men and were primed to the future of one day marrying and appeasing their own husband

and following the same guidelines of their female lineage, thus once again creating another

reoccurrence in the seemingly endless cycle of complacency. As this was all that was known to

them since birth, this disturbing level of complacency lead to the unquestioned acceptance and

redristibution of such oppression to future generations of young men and women (Achebe).

The religions of African tribal cultures conceived that the position of women within their

society was complementary to that of men. The societies of early African tribes believed men to

be spiritually superior to women, fashioning powerful gods in the form of man, in opposition to

peaceful female deities in further attempts to have total control.

“The religions of many Nigerian societies recognized the social importance

of female gods of fertility and social peace, but women were also associated

with witchcraft which appeared to symbolize the potential social danger of

woman exercising power uncontrolled by men (Terborg 22).”

African women, conditioned to be subservient and upholding of the social integrity of the tribe,

were still only considered to be fulfilling their obligations to the men and oftentimes the arduous

efforts and work performed by the women of the tribe would not even be considered as arguable

or an issue at all. Duties that in American society today are viewed as heavy labor or “mans

work,” would almost always be performed by the female in service of the leader of the family

(Dennis 56). The negative mental programming and control of African women, is further

reinforced by the males of the tribe believing their actions to be true. The justification of such

practices is that it has been their way of life as their gods have proclaimed it to be. The

complacency of the...

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