Women In History: A Brief Survey

Today is a special day for all mothers/women. The world will forever be grateful to Anna Marie Jarvis who pioneered the idea of Mother’s Day. In my previous writings on this occasion, I looked at the historical dimension of the occasion. In this piece, my interest is to provide a general survey of how mothers/women have fared in history. I use mothers and women interchangeably, because I believe that mothers and women have faced and continue to face the challenges enmeshed in patriarchal societies.

Ever since Eve, the progenitor of humanity, was said to have eaten the forbidden fruit the set sin in motion, the contours of the history of women have never been the same. Women have suffered in many ways. In some cases, religion was invoked to sustain all forms of discrimination against them. Demographically, while women are more religious than men, the hermeneutics of religious texts have been the preserve of men. Any woman who dared to challenge malecentric interpretation of religious texts was considered a rebel. Incidentally, it takes ‘rebels’ not conformist to bring change. Changing the paradigms of the world does not come through dialogue. It comes through revolution. This explains the radical stance of some women, who have been at the forefront, challenging androcentric theories and praxes.

In pre-Islamic Arabia, popularly referred to as Jahiliyyah, used to refer to the first hundred years of life in Arabia before the advent of Islam, women were generally not treated well. The so-called pagan Arabs had an assumption that women were nothing other than receptacles for the sperm of a man. It is recorded that in a society where feuds were rampant, an Arab man would cry upon hearing that his wife had given birth to a baby girl. While we should be cautious about the assertion that female infanticide was a regular practice in pre-Islamic Arabia, we should not discount the fact that females were generally not treated well.

Among the Hebrew people, a typical Hebrew man, as part of the repertoire of morning prayer, will thank God for not creating him a woman. He would boast of his masculinity. Obviously, women were not considered pure enough to contribute to the theocratic structure of the Hebrew society. Of course, we had a few instances where some women, like Deborah, joined the foray to challenge the suppression of the Hebrew people. But generally, women wee not treated well.

In many African traditional societies, women were as well not treated well. For example, while the social structure of the Akan is largely matrilineal, with an etiological mythology that privileged a woman as the founder of the Akan group, women were often relegated to the background [politics was/s patriarchal]. For many years, some practices, such as extreme forms of widowhood rites – which were performed to supposedly prove a woman’s guilt or not of her husband’s death – were against the interest of women. As late as 2008, my mother had to be subjected to some form of negative widowhood rite when my father passed on to eternal bliss. The persistence of Trokosi among some Ewe groups in Africa is emblematic of how we have undermined the interest of women.

In colonial Africa, the Victorian concept of womanhood favoured men against women. Colonial education was couched in a sense of segregation in terms of what men and women learned. A man was trained for colonial administrative job, while a woman was trained to be a ‘good’ wife, performing domestic duties. Colonial political economy, which was framed around land, also favoured men against women. In countries like the Gambia, which is noted for groundnut production, it is alleged that women had to use ‘witchcraft’ to challenge men and some colonial officers who had dispossessed them (women) of land. The practice of village wife among the Lele of Congo was also anti-women.

In ancient Greece, women were considered not mentally strong enough to participate in the activities in the polis. A woman’s so-called mental infantilism was considered axiomatic to the Greeks. In many European countries, including Britain, women could not participate in politics until the twentieth century. The whole idea of Mr. and Mrs., followed by a man’s name, is a residue of patriarchal system in the ‘modern’ world.

The above presents the extreme forms of patriarchal system. The extreme reverse of patriarchal system is matriarchal practices. While not valorising homosexuality (I will do that in another piece), the attempt by some radical feminists to promote lesbianism as a counterforce to malecentrism is also a major challenge to women among the Akan. There are a few women who spurn marriage, because they see marriage as a means of perpetrating the subjugation of women. Others are also promoting girl-child education (which is in principle not bad) at the expense of the education of boys. Affirmative action continues to favour girls against boys. If care is not taken, we will find ourselves in societies where boys would risk being endangered species.

I trust that we will find a balance point where men and women will have equal access to the goodies of life. I salute special women and mothers in my life. I want to appreciate my mother, Agartha Adjei, whose toils and struggles have brought me this far. I thank my wife, Josephine Tweneboaa Afrifa, who has had a huge impact on my life, since we met. I thank Elizabeth Addai (also Elizabeth Scales), who has been very supportive since I got to know her. I thank Matilda Ansah, Dr. Gladys Ansah, Patricia Serwaa Afrifa, Matilda Abruquah, Kashfatu, Naidatu Hameed, Efia Owusua Agyemang, Cecilia Appiah, Aarifa Mohammed, Jemima Adjei (of IAS Legon), Jemima Adjei (of UCC), Dr. Stella Nyanzi, Dr. Florence Ebila, Milliam Kiconco (my former co-president at Makerere Institute of Social Research, Makerere University) and all other women who have contributed to shaping my life. My female colleagues in school – Aishatu Rufai, Elizabeth Afagbegee, Faustina, Margaret, Irene, Aiyi Musah, Gifty, Caroline, Comfort, Pat, Pamela, Nana, Rosemond, etcetera – contributed to my intellectual development.

God bless our mothers; God bless our women.
Satyagraha
Charles Prempeh ([email protected]), African University College of Communications, Accra