Nigeria: Bolanle Awe and the Feminist Discourse

opinion

Since the Beijing Conference of 1995, the issue of women and their lot within the socio-economic, cultural and political context of any nation resurged with fresh political energy at a global level. This resurgence is critical to feminist and gender discourses everywhere. These discourses have often been polarised along so many ideological and racial lines bothering on conceptual and political issues and problems of patriarchal influence, the scope of gender disequilibrium across regions and geographies, the dynamics of required political action, and the possibility and implications of cross-cultural alliances and solidarity.

This last point is the occasion for the rich flowering of African feminism and its rich inputs into the woman question especially within the context of underdevelopment in Africa. For African feminists--or womanists as many would prefer, the issues of gender, patriarchal domination, patriliny, etc. resonates with some fervent energies that connect with the overall development of the continent rather than a sterile idea of liberation that has occupied western feminism. The fundamental idea central to African feminism is simple: the woman too can take her place in the development effort and match the men folks stride for stride in the collective attempt to upturn the development and governance fortunes of postcolonial Africa.

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