African Women: From Old Magic To New Power
NAKED woman, black woman, clothed with your color which is life, with your form which is beauty . . ./ Your solemn contralto voice is the spiritual song of the beloved." So wrote Senegal's Poet-President Leopold Senghor. A beautiful Ghanaian playwright and teacher, Effua Sutherland, recently tried to describe another aspect of the African woman's traditional role. "She is a goddess because she founds society. Her breasts are more of a motherly symbol than a sexual one. She is the power behind man." Mrs. Sutherland carefully recited the words of English Explorer Mary Kingsley, who once wrote: "The old woman you may see crouching behind the chief, or whom you may not see at all but who is with him all the same, is saying, 'Do not listen to the white men, it is bad for you.' " Added Mrs. Sutherland: "That is our secret. We are divine."
Against the mythical concept of the African woman as a spiritual force is the harsh truth that millions of women in Black Africa still endure purely tribal lives of childbearing, drudgery and subjugation. From Dakar to Dar es Salaam, they can be seen, like beasts of burden, carrying enormous loads of food and firewood on their shoulders and heads. But it is also true that in the decade of social upheaval that has come with political independence, African women have begun to leave the villages and the townships to step quite suddenly, with hardly a flicker of their ebon eyes, into the modern world.
Kenya's Eliza. In a massive rejection of traditional roles and values that might be called the African counterpart of the Women's Liberation movement, hundreds of thousands of African girls have left their villages to go to school, and have never returned. In the Ivory Coast, seven times as many women as men are moving to the cities. Some join the growing student population; 40% of Kenya's secondary school pupils and 10% of its students overseas today are women. Others manage to find jobs as shopgirls, typists and clerks. In Monrovia, Liberia, women drive cabs. In the Congo they serve as paratroopers, and in Nigeria as police officers.
At the time of independence, crash courses were held in many African capitals to teach the wives of government officials the niceties of Western manners. The handsome Ngina Kenyatta, fourth wife of Kenya's President Jomo Kenyatta, 79, is an African answer to Eliza Doolittle. She is said to have spent a year being coached by British instructors in deportment, table manners, fashion, ballroom dancing and public speaking before emerging as "Mama
Ngina," the poised and gracious First Lady.
Against the mythical concept of the African woman as a spiritual force is the harsh truth that millions of women in Black Africa still endure purely tribal lives of childbearing, drudgery and subjugation. From Dakar to Dar es Salaam, they can be seen, like beasts of burden, carrying enormous loads of food and firewood on their shoulders and heads. But it is also true that in the decade of social upheaval that has come with political independence, African women have begun to leave the villages and the townships to step quite suddenly, with hardly a flicker of their ebon eyes, into the modern world.
Kenya's Eliza. In a massive rejection of traditional roles and values that might be called the African counterpart of the Women's Liberation movement, hundreds of thousands of African girls have left their villages to go to school, and have never returned. In the Ivory Coast, seven times as many women as men are moving to the cities. Some join the growing student population; 40% of Kenya's secondary school pupils and 10% of its students overseas today are women. Others manage to find jobs as shopgirls, typists and clerks. In Monrovia, Liberia, women drive cabs. In the Congo they serve as paratroopers, and in Nigeria as police officers.
At the time of independence, crash courses were held in many African capitals to teach the wives of government officials the niceties of Western manners. The handsome Ngina Kenyatta, fourth wife of Kenya's President Jomo Kenyatta, 79, is an African answer to Eliza Doolittle. She is said to have spent a year being coached by British instructors in deportment, table manners, fashion, ballroom dancing and public speaking before emerging as "Mama
Ngina," the poised and gracious First Lady.
African women on the move have many other examples of female success at which to point. Angie Brooks of Liberia has served for the past year as president of the United Nations General Assembly. Annie Jiagge was Ghana's first woman lawyer, judge and finally Supreme Court justice. She headed an investigation into the corruption of the Nkrumah era that has been hailed a landmark in African political reform and justice. Sophie Lihau-Kanza is one of the four chief ministers in President Joseph Mobutu's Congolese government; and Mrs. Olyn Williams, Sierra Leone's first female Permanent Secretary, is a champion of the cause of women in politics. "Men in government spend most of their time stealing," she snaps. "That's why nothing gets done."
Letitia Obeng, a biologist, is director of Ghana's Marine Science Institute. Jacqueline Ki-Zerbo of Upper Volta is the head of a teacher-training school in a traditional Moslem society, where women are supposed to know their place. "Some accept me," she says, "and some do not. But I laugh at them. Men should help women develop."
Pink Bath Salts. While the new African woman is out to change her society, other women have risen to prominence in the traditional power structure. One of the best known of these is Honoria Bailer Caulker of Sierra Leone, who in 1961 was elected paramount chief of the Shenge district (pop. 25,000). A Junoesque woman who stands 6 ft. 1 in., Madame Honoria enjoys such baubles as a white Mercedes, an open palanquin in which she is carried by her subjects, a golden mace presented to her chieftaincy by Queen Victoria, and an elaborate bathroom in which everything from bidet to bath salts is pink. She is accompanied on her official rounds by an official elephant-horn player, who blows great blasts to announce her arrival and departure. She conducts her tribal court with dispatch and dignity. At a recent session, she quickly settled the case of a man who was accused of beating his wife because the woman did not want him to marry her sister. As both husband and wife wailed, Madame Honoria briskly dismissed the man with a warning and told the woman to accept the sister as her husband's second wife. "At least," said Honoria, "it's someone you know."
For sheer power and wealth, few African males can match the market mammy, that gigantic woman of commerce who controls much of the transport and the trade in textiles, food and hardware in both Nigeria and Ghana. In Lagos, bankers tell of one hefty woman who cannot write her own name, but can get a $560,000 letter of credit whenever she needs one. In Accra, the mammies have been wooed and feared by politicians since independence, and no government has managed to tax them effectively. "They can't read or write," says one Ghanaian journalist, "but they can damn well count."
Letitia Obeng, a biologist, is director of Ghana's Marine Science Institute. Jacqueline Ki-Zerbo of Upper Volta is the head of a teacher-training school in a traditional Moslem society, where women are supposed to know their place. "Some accept me," she says, "and some do not. But I laugh at them. Men should help women develop."
Pink Bath Salts. While the new African woman is out to change her society, other women have risen to prominence in the traditional power structure. One of the best known of these is Honoria Bailer Caulker of Sierra Leone, who in 1961 was elected paramount chief of the Shenge district (pop. 25,000). A Junoesque woman who stands 6 ft. 1 in., Madame Honoria enjoys such baubles as a white Mercedes, an open palanquin in which she is carried by her subjects, a golden mace presented to her chieftaincy by Queen Victoria, and an elaborate bathroom in which everything from bidet to bath salts is pink. She is accompanied on her official rounds by an official elephant-horn player, who blows great blasts to announce her arrival and departure. She conducts her tribal court with dispatch and dignity. At a recent session, she quickly settled the case of a man who was accused of beating his wife because the woman did not want him to marry her sister. As both husband and wife wailed, Madame Honoria briskly dismissed the man with a warning and told the woman to accept the sister as her husband's second wife. "At least," said Honoria, "it's someone you know."
For sheer power and wealth, few African males can match the market mammy, that gigantic woman of commerce who controls much of the transport and the trade in textiles, food and hardware in both Nigeria and Ghana. In Lagos, bankers tell of one hefty woman who cannot write her own name, but can get a $560,000 letter of credit whenever she needs one. In Accra, the mammies have been wooed and feared by politicians since independence, and no government has managed to tax them effectively. "They can't read or write," says one Ghanaian journalist, "but they can damn well count."
In the years since independence, African women have discovered that although they have gained the right to vote and to seek positions of leadership, the rigid customs and dictates of their tribal societies have not kept pace with the times. The nomadic Turkana women of East Africa still perfume their bodies over fires of scented wood. The Hausa wives of northern Nigeria still amass huge fortunes in the form of thousands upon thousands of Japanese-made enamel bowls, which they cram into their huts, causing at least one Hausa husband to complain bitterly: "I don't even have enough room to pray."
"The main stumbling block for women in Africa," says a Ghanaian professor, "is the adaptation of customary law to modern society. The tension is over how and why old customs should be obeyed." Many tribes still practice clitoridotomy, or female circumcision, as part of the initiation into adulthood. A few tribes stitch together the labia of girls at puberty and unstitch them only after marriage. Tribal inheritance systems can leave a wife with little or nothing when her husband dies. A bride price ranging from about $40 to as much as $4,000 is still exacted from a prospective bridegroom by the bride's father, but the custom is slowly declining. Tanzania's new marriage code will permit a young man to pay the bride price after the wedding on the installment plan. The Christian
Council in Ghana has tried to set the fee at a modest and uniform $35, but many parents feel this is much too low for their family's pride and their daughter's honor.
Black Europeans. Most controversial of all is the widespread practice of polygamy, which most of the young women of the cities vehemently oppose. "If my husband took another wife, I would hound him to death," says one Nairobi university graduate. "But anyway, he wouldn't." A surprising number of educated women seem to disagree. Reasons Grace Onyango, Kenya's first African woman to be elected to Parliament: "If a man can handle 15 wives at one time, he can probably lead a nation." In any case, few African males favor abolishing the practice. As a Kenyan chauffeur puts it: "A man with one wife is like a man with one eye."
The emergence of African women has caused little discernible reaction among African men, although the males often discuss the relative merits of traditional girls and modern girls as wives. Joseph Oduho, a Southern Sudanese rebel-organization official, recently married an educated woman after his tribal wife died. He says: "My former wife couldn't read or write. She spent her time in the kitchen with the children. She would choose a new wife for me, and she knew how to cure me if I was sick. I could lie to her, and it didn't matter. She was simple, but she understood me. My new wife is a college graduate. She won't let me have another wife. I can't lie to her because she knows when I'm lying, and she is not afraid to tell me so. Part of her life is her own. My old wife devoted her entire life to me."
"The main stumbling block for women in Africa," says a Ghanaian professor, "is the adaptation of customary law to modern society. The tension is over how and why old customs should be obeyed." Many tribes still practice clitoridotomy, or female circumcision, as part of the initiation into adulthood. A few tribes stitch together the labia of girls at puberty and unstitch them only after marriage. Tribal inheritance systems can leave a wife with little or nothing when her husband dies. A bride price ranging from about $40 to as much as $4,000 is still exacted from a prospective bridegroom by the bride's father, but the custom is slowly declining. Tanzania's new marriage code will permit a young man to pay the bride price after the wedding on the installment plan. The Christian
Council in Ghana has tried to set the fee at a modest and uniform $35, but many parents feel this is much too low for their family's pride and their daughter's honor.
Black Europeans. Most controversial of all is the widespread practice of polygamy, which most of the young women of the cities vehemently oppose. "If my husband took another wife, I would hound him to death," says one Nairobi university graduate. "But anyway, he wouldn't." A surprising number of educated women seem to disagree. Reasons Grace Onyango, Kenya's first African woman to be elected to Parliament: "If a man can handle 15 wives at one time, he can probably lead a nation." In any case, few African males favor abolishing the practice. As a Kenyan chauffeur puts it: "A man with one wife is like a man with one eye."
The emergence of African women has caused little discernible reaction among African men, although the males often discuss the relative merits of traditional girls and modern girls as wives. Joseph Oduho, a Southern Sudanese rebel-organization official, recently married an educated woman after his tribal wife died. He says: "My former wife couldn't read or write. She spent her time in the kitchen with the children. She would choose a new wife for me, and she knew how to cure me if I was sick. I could lie to her, and it didn't matter. She was simple, but she understood me. My new wife is a college graduate. She won't let me have another wife. I can't lie to her because she knows when I'm lying, and she is not afraid to tell me so. Part of her life is her own. My old wife devoted her entire life to me."
In the years since independence, African women have discovered that although they have gained the right to vote and to seek positions of leadership, the rigid customs and dictates of their tribal societies have not kept pace with the times. The nomadic Turkana women of East Africa still perfume their bodies over fires of scented wood. The Hausa wives of northern Nigeria still amass huge fortunes in the form of thousands upon thousands of Japanese-made enamel bowls, which they cram into their huts, causing at least one Hausa husband to complain bitterly: "I don't even have enough room to pray."
"The main stumbling block for women in Africa," says a Ghanaian professor, "is the adaptation of customary law to modern society. The tension is over how and why old customs should be obeyed." Many tribes still practice clitoridotomy, or female circumcision, as part of the initiation into adulthood. A few tribes stitch together the labia of girls at puberty and unstitch them only after marriage. Tribal inheritance systems can leave a wife with little or nothing when her husband dies. A bride price ranging from about $40 to as much as $4,000 is still exacted from a prospective bridegroom by the bride's father, but the custom is slowly declining. Tanzania's new marriage code will permit a young man to pay the bride price after the wedding on the installment plan. The Christian
Council in Ghana has tried to set the fee at a modest and uniform $35, but many parents feel this is much too low for their family's pride and their daughter's honor.
Black Europeans. Most controversial of all is the widespread practice of polygamy, which most of the young women of the cities vehemently oppose. "If my husband took another wife, I would hound him to death," says one Nairobi university graduate. "But anyway, he wouldn't." A surprising number of educated women seem to disagree. Reasons Grace Onyango, Kenya's first African woman to be elected to Parliament: "If a man can handle 15 wives at one time, he can probably lead a nation." In any case, few African males favor abolishing the practice. As a Kenyan chauffeur puts it: "A man with one wife is like a man with one eye."
The emergence of African women has caused little discernible reaction among African men, although the males often discuss the relative merits of traditional girls and modern girls as wives. Joseph Oduho, a Southern Sudanese rebel-organization official, recently married an educated woman after his tribal wife died. He says: "My former wife couldn't read or write. She spent her time in the kitchen with the children. She would choose a new wife for me, and she knew how to cure me if I was sick. I could lie to her, and it didn't matter. She was simple, but she understood me. My new wife is a college graduate. She won't let me have another wife. I can't lie to her because she knows when I'm lying, and she is not afraid to tell me so. Part of her life is her own. My old wife devoted her entire life to me."
"The main stumbling block for women in Africa," says a Ghanaian professor, "is the adaptation of customary law to modern society. The tension is over how and why old customs should be obeyed." Many tribes still practice clitoridotomy, or female circumcision, as part of the initiation into adulthood. A few tribes stitch together the labia of girls at puberty and unstitch them only after marriage. Tribal inheritance systems can leave a wife with little or nothing when her husband dies. A bride price ranging from about $40 to as much as $4,000 is still exacted from a prospective bridegroom by the bride's father, but the custom is slowly declining. Tanzania's new marriage code will permit a young man to pay the bride price after the wedding on the installment plan. The Christian
Council in Ghana has tried to set the fee at a modest and uniform $35, but many parents feel this is much too low for their family's pride and their daughter's honor.
Black Europeans. Most controversial of all is the widespread practice of polygamy, which most of the young women of the cities vehemently oppose. "If my husband took another wife, I would hound him to death," says one Nairobi university graduate. "But anyway, he wouldn't." A surprising number of educated women seem to disagree. Reasons Grace Onyango, Kenya's first African woman to be elected to Parliament: "If a man can handle 15 wives at one time, he can probably lead a nation." In any case, few African males favor abolishing the practice. As a Kenyan chauffeur puts it: "A man with one wife is like a man with one eye."
The emergence of African women has caused little discernible reaction among African men, although the males often discuss the relative merits of traditional girls and modern girls as wives. Joseph Oduho, a Southern Sudanese rebel-organization official, recently married an educated woman after his tribal wife died. He says: "My former wife couldn't read or write. She spent her time in the kitchen with the children. She would choose a new wife for me, and she knew how to cure me if I was sick. I could lie to her, and it didn't matter. She was simple, but she understood me. My new wife is a college graduate. She won't let me have another wife. I can't lie to her because she knows when I'm lying, and she is not afraid to tell me so. Part of her life is her own. My old wife devoted her entire life to me."
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