Prince Paddy Awonfor
16 March 2008
opinion
On March 8, 2008, the Cameroonian woman, like her counterpart the world over, celebrated the 23rd edition of the International Women's Day with the same fanfare and gaiety as well as the same anxiety and apprehensions and the same aspirations and challenges.
Judging from the celebrations, one is compelled to wonder aloud whether apart from celebrating this eventful day in grand style, the Cameroonian woman has actually left the bus stop often mistaken for her destination in terms of emancipating herself from the shackles of repugnant cultures, obnoxious religion and societal impediments believed to be obstacles to her advancement in life.
It has generally been acknowledged that the Cameroonian woman, like any other African woman on the continent, has for centuries been reduced to the position of bond slave in the home by negative tradition, primitive religion and superstition that has left her worshiping her husband as God's representative on earth.
Incredibly still, this ties up with men's belief that the biggest events in a woman's life are; coming of age, marriage, procreation, cooking his food, making his bed and attending to all other things that lead to the comfort of the man who in turn makes the woman happy since it takes two to tango.
There was even a time in some parts of Africa and the world when parents wept over the birth of a female child whose fate of womanhood from birth was subjected to all forms of social taboos and rigidities.
Interestingly, only very few people in the world today are of the opinion that the African woman has been fully liberated from the clutches of subjugation even in this 21st century because the doctrinal obligations of a woman as a second fiddle player is imbued in the gospel according to creation.
However, the Cameroonian woman, as I see her, seems to be evolving with the passing of time. She appears to owe the gamut of her evolution to the advent of the New Deal of President Paul Biya because, to be honest, in Ahidjo's era, the Cameroonian woman was basically seen and not heard unlike today that she has garnered some steam and has become a vocal contributor in debates on not only of Community matters, but of National and International issues.
Ironically, the number of heavy and feather weight Cameroonian women who seem to be making their way up the rungs of the ladder is so minimal to be rated compared to over half the country that is woman.
If my memory does not fail me, it was in his epitaph at the demise of the CNU Party in Bamenda when President Biya, in proclaiming the birth of the CPDM on March 24, 1985, opened up to the Cameroonian woman whom he described as one who plays a prominent role as a wife, mother, educator, guardian of the home and of those values which give, protect and guide life.
Since that day more than any other period in her history, the Cameroonian Woman, with a whet appetite for freedom, has sought to find her feet firmly on the ground in her clamour for gender equity.
And since then, the Cameroonian woman while finding her feet, has acknowledged the fact that the man and the woman express themselves basically in different ways with the woman's expression being a natural adjunct to that of the man but that after Bamenda, the Cameroonian woman has shown enough maturity in the management of persons and property.
It could be true that the women jamboree in Beijing, China, many years ago fuelled the already galvanised Cameroonian woman and spurred her into the aerobics of emancipation. But, candidly speaking, no matter how ferocious things seem to be evolving in matters of feminism, the Cameroonian woman cannot, with any degree of certainty, claim to have made tremendous in roads in her clamour for gender equity because she is still inwardly looking and markedly disadvantaged to her man who is yet to concede equality with the woman who has nevertheless, made some remarkable strides in the domain of education.
Even so, the Cameroonian woman must continue to mull over the uphill process of emancipating herself from the yoke of men and societal inhibition, a task which demand that the women themselves play a vanguard role in the defense of their cause if they are truly serious to break the barriers of subjugation. And this can only be possible if the women themselves are fully conscious of their mission, clear in their vision and united in their purpose because it has been said time and again that the greatest foe of a woman is none other than the woman herself.
Since time is changing very fast, the Cameroonian woman should wakeup and change with time in order that she does not become a forgotten factor in the realm of change because after all, it is only the woman alone who knows the art of saying the things that she does not mean and mean the things that she does not say.
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