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14.08.2015 Opinion

The African Woman, The Pivot In Society

By Mba Naa John Bosco Darimoah
The African Woman, The Pivot  In Society
14.08.2015 LISTEN

This week I and my thoughts have been fielding a lot of questions on who a woman is in the African continent. The answers i got have been overwhelming and quite astonishing and to extent embarrassing and that is the black mind for you. One night when I looked at my wife, my mother and my eight sisters I see no difference between us as human beings. The issue pricked my conscious one night and I thought it wise to share my mind field works with the readership population why is discrimination against women in the African continent and especially in Ghana has to be a matter of no concern.

Surprisingly the world is watching with horror as some scrupulous men in society with their extremist desire to lord it over women have gone into the extremes by not discriminating no matter the status of women in society whether a marriage women, school girl or a child they all have had their own stories to tell ranging from sexual violence, rapes, beatings and social humiliation to the extent of calling farm implements. Wooo! That is your African woman for you where sexual slavery and forced marriages have not escaped this group of people in society. I dare not called it a night mare, a dream? NO. What about the trauma, the emotional stresses this group of people have gone through in life and we called it a nightmare, a child joke? NO.

This really speaks of what existed in nature depicting the African woman who carries her baby at her back in the usual African characteristic style rushing on to her office been the kitchen. And in some circumstances, she is been considered as a farm hand (tool) in some communities. That is your African woman for you. Our mothers have been relegated to the status of a farm implement and a sex machine for too long. But they say women are their own enemies. It is true women and that the loop hole men have detected and capitalised on. But it is fair men? Why? Why society?

Yet women are the focal point in society. They help in almost all the developmental stages of their offspring’s. In certain part of African and in some traditions, the queen mother serves as the soul of the nation while on the other hand much attention is accorded to men and women are less seriously respected although by class some may influence the outcome of important issues or events in the house.

In many parts of this country, the regime is witnessing a gradual change of attitude toward the female sex. Until recent, the women folk were treated like farms hands and for pleasure making. Where men would make poultry of women and be selecting the fatty and juicy ones at random for pleasure making. It was considered a waste of resources and time to educate a woman. People felt that they would be training them up for some other persons benefit. This was really thought unacceptable in view of resources needed to train the men counterparts who would re-invest in their native homes and raise families.

Besides, in some part of Ghana in-spite of the extremely hardworking womenfolk they are still been relegated to the back ground as wood fetchers, cooks and bearers of children unfit for any higher tasks and responsibilities in society. This phenomenon unfortunately has been associated to northerners in general as a second class tribe simply because of where they are coming from through no fault of their. However, that is the world. Though some people in their ignorant stage are still living in fool’s paradise need a change or less change will change them so must it be with women too. Today, women are increasingly on top of events with a substantial number of them seen to be occupying top administrative positions and a chunk of them are involved in governance and leadership positions. That stance on women status as farms implements must be stopped.

Thanks to the John Mahama’s government for appointing the first ever Ghanaian woman to head the electoral Commission one of the most sensitive positions in the World over. Many of our womenfolk have been trained to take up middle management positions in government and society. Though in politics, women are still considered to be underdogs despite the great mark of improvement and achievement that they have made in society we still need to push them up to an appreciably positions like their male counterparts.

Women to be fully acceptance as social mates in the African society need great cultural re-orientation and tolerance and done modestly combine with behavioural change. In Africa as a whole, it is an open secret that the female gender does not stand for weakness. Even, the most unscrupulous male chauvinists must admit the vital services women contributions to society and to their families. Women seek to protect their children from all the ills of society according to their capabilities as individuals. They relentlessly fight the problem of poverty, diseases and backwardness. Many of our mothers literally take over the provision of basic necessities for their deprived children and homes .

They farm, trade, weave and hustle to make both ends meet especially if their male counterparts are dead, idle or been irresponsible. Mothers also educate their children by narrating courageous stories and folk stories to them with the hope of imparting wisdom, strength and optimism in them. This helps in producing God fearing and responsible adults. It can be gain said with reasonable justification that in any African family setting the woman is very versatile and indispensable in all affairs and duties if given their right place in society.

This feature is been attributed to my late mother Mrs. Darimoah Martina kubiemah and to all women in the fight for equality in society but not those who want to gain power to lord it over men. Long live the

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