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“The Mother of Women”: Maanda Ngoitiko and Maasai Struggles for Gender Justice in Northern Tanzania

by

Dorothy L. Hodgson

How does an illiterate Maasai girl living in a remote homestead in northern Tanzania become a nationally and internationally recognized activist, noted for her fearless confrontations with local and state authorities over land rights, education, and corruption (among other issues) and the creation of the Pastoralist Women’s Council (PWC), a non-governmental organization that has successfully mobilized hundreds of Maasai women to challenge arranged marriages and domestic violence, become visible and vocal leaders in their homesteads and communities, embrace the education of their daughters, transform property rights, and seek collective modes of ensuring their economic security? By exploring “from the ground up” the experiences and perspectives of Maanda, the PWC and the women (and men) they work with, this paper contributes to the growing literature on women’s collective action in Africa (e.g. Steady 2006), the possibilities of gendered modes of activism and institution-building (e.g. Hodgson & Brooks 2007), and continued debates over the possibilities and perils of alternative discourses and strategies for seeking gender justice (e.g. Hodgson 2003, nd a, nd b; Merry 2006). The paper draws on extended interviews and conversations with Maanda in Tanzania and the United States, almost 25 years of ethnographic research with Maasai in Tanzania (most recently [2005-6] a year of study with and about several Maasai NGOs, including PWC), and focus group interviews with PWC community members.

Gender, Governance, Violence, and Politics in Kenya

by

Bessie House-Soremekun

The purpose of this paper is to examine the democratization movement in Kenya over the past three decades, i.e. (1980-present) with particular emphasis on the violence which erupted both before and after the presidential election that was held on December 27, 2007. The paper will discuss the critical role of women in the democratization process, the gendered impacts of physical and emotional violence, the ongoing dynamics between state and civil society, as well as steps which have been taken in recent decades by the populace to demand more accountability from their political leaders. The paper will discuss in some depth the power sharing arrangement between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, its implications for the present and future of Kenya, as well as the numerous challenges that Kenya now faces in dealing with high levels of unemployment, gender inequities, poverty, high population growth, persistent droughts, and political instability.

Echoes of Matriarchy:
Patriarchy as Negative Contestants and Gender Imbalances in Selected Nigeria Literature

by

Binta Fatima Ibrahim

Academic exploration into gender issues in literature and culture has taken a new dimension. The trends in writings and discourses have been to observe the female sex at the domestic background. The roles played by the women as mothers, sisters, child, custodian, home managers, child and material producers, financial and emotional providers, family maintainers are enumerated through character portrayal in literature. The oppositions and challenges that the women face, are accentuated in the language use of the characters. The concepts of matriarchy and patriarchy are the major focuses of the analysis done in this study. Patriarchy is the male domineering tendencies to overrule and lord it over the mother. It is a political stereotype word assigned to man by the society to control and relegate his wife to the background. The negation of the discriminatory formats of the female in opposition to the male actions is known as. Matriarchy is therefore a reaction to the reoccurring decimal that inhibits the women’s capacity to enjoy her human rights where power and supremacy has been arrogated to men. The struggle by women to be domestically, financially and economically impendent is emphasized as being matriarch. This write up using the sociologist framework examines the theories of matriarchy and patriarchy as treated in the novels of Akachi Ezeigbo, Buchi Emecheta, Chimamanda Adiche, Philip Begho, Ada Ileokunawa of Nigeria. Part of the findings of this studies on gender literature is the functional and contributory essence of African literature (using Nigeria as a focus) in recent gender studies and developmental policies.

Neo-Slavery and Human Trafficking in Boutora-Takpa’s Journal D’une Bonne

by

Ngozi O Iloh

Entrepreneurship in Textile Design:
Means to Self-Actualization/Economic Sustenance for Women in ‘Purdah’ In Ondo State, Nigeria

by

Awosika, Bridget Itunu

In every Nigerian community, culture and religion restrict most women through stereotype sex roles, domestic labour and childcare from participating in many state issues while men are accorded the positions of ‘masters’ and small ‘gods’. The Islamic religion allows girls to be given out in marriage to old men of same age group with their ‘grandfathers’. Such men later put the girls’/wives’ into ’purdah’; i.e.; veiling, use of gloves and socks, perpetual restriction to rooms: without work, socialization and access to shopping, for all the twenty four hours of the day through out life!. The practice of ‘purdah’ compels husbands to provide all the needs of their wives and children; hence, desperate men pretend to have the financial wherewithal to cater for their wives and children so that they can veil such wives. This paper observed that contemporary global economy, greed and irresponsibility of some husbands have made it impossible for women in ‘purdah’ to enjoy the necessities of live. In the light of inadequate care, prevalent poverty and the restrictions placed on women in ‘purdah’ this paper discusses indigenous textiles technology as a viable avenue for their self-actualization/esteem and economic survival. An oral interview was conducted on 255 women in ‘Purdah’ drawn from Ore, Ondo, Owo, Ikare and Akoko in Ondo State Nigeria. to find out how they are coping concerning economic strength, survival strategies and readiness to acquire skills, which they can practice to augment the incomes of their husbands for self and family economic sustenance. The results showed that 58.5% of respondents agreed to acquire skills to remove redundancy. 41.5% wanted to acquire skills for self-actualization and economic sustenance while 38.4% agreed to embrace the idea as a way of making some money to boost their families’ economic strength. 93% of the respondents agreed to partake in the programme only if their trainers would be women. The paper recommended that compulsory vocational courses should be taught in the schools’ curricular for create opportunity self-employment and economic reliance.

Faire Bon Ami:” Sex and Punishment in Twentieth Century Colonial Libreville, Gabon

by

Rachel Jean-Baptiste

Displacement/Mobility: Women’s Health and the New African Diaspora

by

Changing Urban Identities:
Changing Feminine Communities in the Works of Nigerian Author Buchi Emecheta

by

Gretchen Kellough

In my paper, I compare three novels by Nigerian author Buchi Emecheta to discuss how the author demonstrates how the traditional roles and values between men and women are disrupted in the urban environment of Lagos, and marital relationships, motherhood, and same-sex friendships suffer as a result.  I explore how Emecheta portrays the modern city and changing urban identities that potentially destroy the traditional values that protected and insulated women, particularly the value of female community.  For example, the close proximity of living quarters in the urban environment antagonizes the tension and animosity between co-wives, and so instead of helping each other, the women harbor feelings of jealousy and superiority towards one another.  One of the greatest sacrifices by women who move to the cities is giving up a sense of belonging that existed in their village communities.  In village society, men and women lived more segregated lives, which allowed them to foster their same-sex communities. The urban environment creates a situation of emotional exile for the women who find no supportive network of same-sex friendships.  However, the intertextual crossings of the three texts point to a way in which the author believes her young female protagonists can successfully navigate the experience of exile: their path to a sense of belonging in a changing urban environment lies in the protagonists’ successful participation in female communities not founded upon shared native cultures or languages or origins but on shared geographies and experiences, in effect forcing the reader to reflect upon a comparison of natural or native community (village) with artificial or foreign community (city).

Sexual Behavior Among Ghanaian Youth, Its Implications for the Spread of HIV/ AIDS

by

Agyei Siaw Kennedy

The ever deadly disease, HIV/AIDS first identified in Ghana in March 1986 has been the major nightmare of both the borned and the unborn. It is known that almost 85% of its transmission from one person to another is through sexual intercourse-heterosexual and homosexual.

Black-Arab Encounters: Images of African Women in Arabic Poetry

by

Touria Khannous

A survey of key figures in Arabic poetry, from pre-Islamic times to the Abbasid period, reveals a variety of works in which Black African women find representation. The images themselves call for explication and commentary. This variety derives from Arab incursions into Black Africa, both economically and ideologically, and concomitant linguistic expansion as writers and travelers reflected Arab imperialism and sought to reinforce Arab hegemony.Such dissemination of cultural ideas about race also rests on the gendering representations of African cultures by the submission of those cultures to the Arab rhetorical and cultural order. Throughout, I examine how ideologies and movements at different times of Arab history such as tribal politics and the Shu’ubiyya movement affected and informed the representation of African women. Following the objectives of this study, my paper proposes to explore what Arabs have said in Arabic about Black African women, by looking at a representative selection of poems, beginning with the pre-Islamic era up to the Abbasid period (750-1258), which saw the further expansion of Islam into Africa.

Influence of HIV/AIDS Awareness Information on the Sexual Behavior of Adolescents in Selected Rural Communities in Nigeria

by

Babatola Ayodeji Kolapo

This research was carried out to study the influence of HIV/AIDS awareness information on the sexual behavior of 540 adolescents selected by multistage sampling from ten secondary schools in two rural communities in the southwestern part of Nigeria. All the adolescents were aware of the disease HIV/AIDS but only 44% and 31% of them could identify correctly the routes of transmission and methods of prevention of the disease respectively. Of the 540 adolescents studied, 29% had experienced sexual intercourse before, with the mean age of sexual debut being 14.1 years of this number; appropriately 39% had used condoms at their last sexual encounter and majorly to prevent pregnancy. Consistent condom use was reported in only 12% of the sexually experienced adolescents, 29% of them were involved in current multiple partnerships, and 35% of them had had more than 2 life time sexual partners prior to the study. About 25% of the sexually experienced adolescents had engaged in transaction sexual activity and 80% of this number had stopped it. Television was ranked as the foremost primary source of HIV/AIDS awareness information (62.6%) followed by radio (41.9%) and village meetings were ranked the least (5%). The frequency of exposure to the HIV/AIDS awareness information was majorly daily (34%) and weekly (28%). Incessant power outages were identified by 54% of the respondents as a barrier to receiving HIV/AIDS awareness information. Approximately 90% of adolescents expressed some level of understanding of the information presented to them and 75% said the information answered the questions they had about HIV/AIDS.

Overwhelming the burden placed on the woman in To Live Again by Bilqisu Abubakar

by

Alexander Kure

Fictional narrative especially one that is socially committed is often hinged on life experiences. Therefore, interestingly, written literatures in Nigeria by women and some of their male apologists have continuously focused on the condition of women hence Bilqisu Abubakar’s maiden novel To live Again (2007) has made the condition, in another word, the burden of women especially in the Hausa/Fulani-Islamic-Northern Nigeria her central concern. The novel interrogates the sources of this burden and show that they emanate from within and without of women. However, instead of the usual acceptance of the status quo by women as often reflected by some of these writers, the author argues that women in particular and the society in general can overwhelm the internalised notion that women have been constructed socially, economically, religiously and so on to be subservient in whatever context or society they find themselves. In the context of the above, this paper supports the author’s point of view by fore grounding its discourse on the constraints and possibilities that will specifically shape the Northern Nigerian women either to enable them overcome the problems that arise from discrimination or limit their ability to do so. The central thesis being that because the burden bored by women in each society take different forms there arises the need to design and utilise workable strategies in different historical epochs and societies to find and understand the factors responsible for their existence, maintenance and institutionalisation to help work out the possibilities to eradicate them.

Guns and Gender: The Complex Roles of Female Abductees in the Lord’s Resistance Army

by 

Renovation while Rebuilding:
Comparing Muslim and Christian Women’s Associations in the D.R. Congo

 by

Ashley Leinweber

Scholars of Africa have long acknowledged that the burden of agricultural and developmental work has fallen on the (literal) heads of women. African women represent a dichotomy by being on the one hand marginalized, but on the other, the primary movers and shakers to keep communities afloat in times of natural disaster, war, or everyday increasing poverty. In the aftermath of the conflict that ravaged Eastern Congo for over a decade, women who had historically been powerless began to join together in associations to rebuild their communities, gain autonomy and self-respect, and create a safe environment in which their children could prosper. This paper discusses empirical evidence from fieldwork conducted with Muslim and Christian women’s associations in 2008 and 2009 in the Maniema Province of Eastern DRC. The presentation will compare and contrast the anticipated and achieved objectives of Muslim and Christian women’s involvement in local associations. Though the majority of Christian organizations were begun with the encouragement and assistance of international donors, women have co-opted the foreign model to respond to particular local needs, both cultural and religious. Muslim women, who are members of a religious minority, received less international assistance, but chose to emulate the organization of their Christian sisters to obtain similar ends. Women’s post-war associations in D.R. Congo have proven a springboard for feminine involvement in democratic politics, increased access to education, and the revamping of cultural norms that discourage their participation in the realms listed above, as well as religious rites and public community life more broadly.

Women in Nigerian Politics: A Study of the Role of Women in Obansejo’s Administration, 1999-2007.

by

Mary Alaba Yetunde Lewu

Gender disparity in political participation is a global phenomenon. Here in Nigeria, prevailing socio-cultural and religious practices, coupled with economic constraints pose formidable barriers to women’s political participation at the top level. The few who dare to tread on this forbidden ground often face formidable obstacles. This paper looks at the various women-friendly programmes embarked upon by Successive Nigerian governments and why the desired results have not been achieved.Focussing on the Obasanjo’s administration, 1999-2007, the paper concludes that women probably did not participate at the level that paved way for higher political offices. Consequently, unless some fundamental structural changes are made, women’s political powerlessness is not likely to change in the foreseeable future despite the increase in the number of women appointed to political positions.

African Diaspora and Education:
Struggling Against Race and Gender Inequality in Brazil

by

Andreia Lisboa de Sousa

This article focuses on the challenges of utilizing an African Diasporic approach to the field of education in Brazil. The study seeks to offer a historical overview about the context of the law 10639/03 and the National Curriculum Guidelines that regulate the teaching of history and African and Afro-Brazilian culture. Subsequently, race and gender relations will be discussed within this context, seeking to critique the preponderance of a male-centered perspective within the educational field in the country. Lastly, the article also aims at emphasizing the role played by the Black Diasporic Movement in the development of the Brazilian curriculum concerning issues of inequality.

Mothers and Grandmothers: Strategies for Construction of Motherhood in Cape Verde

by

Andréa de Souza Lobo

Studies about African kinship that discuss relationships between generations are not new in Anthropology—whether the approach is classical, focuses on the institutional structure of kinship systems, or contemporary analyses—which insert the topic in the context of relations constructed in everyday life. In the case of Cape Verde, in order to understand the central role of women and the relations among women for reproduction of family relations, the part of grandmothers cannot be overlooked. With this argument, this paper seeks to show how motherhood, as it is seen in Cape Verde, is not restricted to the mother figure, involving other women in the sharing of substances that are essential for everyday life such as food, bed, house, goods, and values.

In this context, an important strategy arises that makes motherhood in Cape Verde a particular case. The fact that one generation is not sufficient for full realization of maternity, since it requires coordinated efforts of two generations of women within the family structure. Mother and grandmother complement each other in the task of caring for and feeding children and this union provides the local sense of what a child needs in order to be happy and supported. Likewise, exercising maternity in both stages of life fulfills motherhood for a woman. This article thus presents the argument that being a mother in Cape Verde is a cycle which starts with the birth of a child and is only fully completed when the woman becomes a grandmother.

Afro-Brazilian women, black masculinity and a kiss in white hegemonic spaces:
The symbology of racial violence

by

Sílvia Regina Lorenso Castro

The body is simbolically a place for crossing political ideologies, power and definitions about the identities. By struggling against all kinds of violence, silence and invisibility the black body challenges the role of affection and sexuality within the Afro-Brazilian public spaces. In the poem, Reaja à violência racial: Beije sua preta em praça pública”, Ori addresses issues of black masculinity, sexuality and black women’s body in a envioronment nurtured by white hegemony, and the role of the body as a tool for black people’s liberation. The poem was originally created within the discussions on a campain against violence within major Afro-Brazilian communities in Bahia. Later it became a classic contribution to the Unified Black Movement (MNU), in early 90s, and for discussion on the black body – male and female – within the African Diaspora.

The Blind Photographer: Photography and Politics in Apartheid South Africa

by

Chrissy Lutz

Professional photographers in South Africa between 1948 and 1994 revealed their sentiments about apartheid – Marxist, nationalist, liberal – in their published photos, even as they photographed mundane events. This paper, accompanied by a visual presentation of the photos, compares the work of photographers such as Peter Magubane, David, Goldblatt, Bob Gosani and other South Africans to the previously-unseen, unpublished photos of Violet Gilmour-Northcott, an English photographer, who visited South Africa between 1949 and 1951.

Gilmour-Northcott photographed black women and children in settlements at Capetown and, like the male photojournalists to whom this paper will compare her, “empty” space. As Mary Louise Pratt suggests, an Englishwoman’s representation of space in a country of subject peoples carries a markedly different subtext than does that of a representative artist of those peoples. Okwuit Enwezu and Octavio Zaya point out that the difference lies not in authenticity of the photographic text but rather, in the use of subject as contested terrain by photographers. One example is that the photographers used space and light in different manners. The South Africans tended to convey space as prison, whereas Gilmour-Northcott often takes ownership of space in the imperial photographic manner. On the other hand, many of Gilmour-Northcott’s photographs present women in the settlements as ingenious, imaginative, and dependent only upon each other. Male African photographers present women in a dramatically different manner.

Let’s celebrate Modupeolu Faseke's “The Nigerian Woman”

by  

Nnamdi O. Madichie

This paper acknowledges the 'silent voices' of African Women, drawing upon a publication that was encountered purely by chance - Modupe Faseke's "The Nigerian Woman" published by Agape publications ( Ibadan, Nigeria) in 2001. The purpose of this paper is to propel the muffled voices (i.e. internationally) and contributions of reputable academics in an emerging market context on a subject that has pervaded the global podium - i.e. women. The approach is strictly qualitative in nature - a content analysis of a single book on women written by "a woman of status" - Dr (Mrs) Faseke, a graduate of the University of Ibadan and one time Head of the history department at the Lagos State University (Nigeria). It is hoped that the paper would contribute its quota (by highlighting a qualitative account of the Nigerian woman) to the discourse of sexualities in Africa - which coincidentally happens to be the theme of this conference.

Women and Land Conflict in the Southern Cameroon Grasslands

by

 Emmanuel M. Mbah

Land conflict is a recurrent phenomenon between village-groups and ethno-tribal communities in the Southern Cameroon Grasslands of Bamenda, the roots of which could be traced to the later stages of the pre-colonial era, just before the advent of colonial rule in 1884. For approximately fifty years before 1884, there were ongoing migrations and settlement by various groups and sub-groups in the region, and it was during this period that the roots of the present-day disputes over land could be established. Many of these migrations were the result of communities looking for fertile land to settle, and of course, by nature of their role as food providers for their households and communities, it is only fair to conclude that women had a far greater part to play in these disputes than has previously been ascertained. There are two angles of the relationship between women and land conflict to be investigated here. The first involves land conflict between ethno-tribal and village communities in the region, many of which, as mentioned earlier, began during the period of migrations and settlement, and sparked in part by the quest for fertile soils. The second has to do with farmer-grazer disputes, a conflict that was imposed on Bamenda Grassland communities by British colonial authorities when they allowed the Fulani and their cattle from Nigeria and Northern Cameroon to migrate to the region as early as 1916. Destruction to indigenous farms and crops by Fulani cattle brought women to the center stage of this second conflict. While the role of women in both forms of conflict remain my focus, this essay will also address the ways in which women have been affected by land disputes as well as how they have attempted to resolve them throughout the years.

Managing Sexuality, Sex Work, and Heroin Addiction:
Gendered Spaces, Concerns and Needs in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

by

Sheryl A. McCurdy

Heroin use dominates the multifaceted desires, concerns and needs of injecting drug users (IDUs) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. This paper examines the ways in which drug use and sexuality are intertwined and situated within the social, political and economic contexts and specific locales that gendered power dynamics play out. It is based on newspapers, reports, in-depth interviews with 120 drug users and two surveys conducted with over 800 heroin injectors conducted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania between 2003 and 2009. Depending on sex and stage of heroin dependence, one’s sexual desires, needs and practices change. Some male IDUs report sometimes using heroin as a form of Viagra and more chronic users report a lack of interest in sex. “Heroin,” they say, “is a jealous wife”. Most female IDUs engaged in sex work to support their habit. Greater than their interest in sexual pleasure was their concern for safety and need for protection from violence as perpetrated by male drug users and their clients. In the spaces where men and women inject heroin, it is not unusual for a male IDU to sexually assault another female or male IDU lying in a drug imposed stupor and none of those involved calls this rape. Male IDUs also bragged about how they surreptitiously punctured condoms to deceive sex partners into having unprotected sex. This gender analysis, framed within structural violence and social suffering theories, examines IDUs selective engagement in disputes over needs and concerns related to sexuality and sexually transmitted infections.

Plaited Hair and Gyrating Hips: African Women in British Women’s Travel Narratives

by

Jacqueline-Bethel Mougoué

My research interrogates British women travelers’ gendered assumptions about post-colonial African women. In my essay I analyze five travel narratives published between1979 and1997. These narratives are significant in that they illuminate historical knowledge about British and African women. However, Africanists must not take modern British women’s convictions about post-colonial African women at face value or as absolute truth. I argue in this essay that like their Victorian counterparts, modern British female travelers expressed ideologies of western cultural superiority and assumptions about “normative” gender roles within zones of contact with African women. In the larger piece from which this paper is drawn, I highlight four significant themes of westernized cultural and gendered social assumptions that British women expressed about African women. These notions were anchored to perceptions about African women’s physical traits, gender roles and duties, and their perceived patterns of sexuality. However, for the sake of brevity, I will only focus on British women’s assumptions about African women’s physical traits and sexual behaviors at the conference.I focus on modern British women in the middle to late twentieth-century who explored post-colonial Africa. “Post-colonial” refers to the period after 1960 in which most African countries gained independence from their European colonizers.Mary Pratt, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation (London: New York: Routledge, 1992), 6. Contact zones are spaces in which people that are geographically and historically separated come into contact with one another. The Victorian era of the U.K. was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 1837 to 1901.

Tradition and Modernity/Religion and Sexuality

by

Oludele Adesina Moyofade

This paper is set to examine critically, the reason why Africa must hold itself guilty of perpetuating European evil doctrine in our homeland. It would be fair to assume that, the people whose ancestors had been held in most brutal form of slavery and colonial oppression that involve virulent white supremacist racism for over five hundred years would be repulse by a religion which sanction such inhumanities, to carry this logic further, if these same were told outright that they should worship a god that promote slavery, white supremacy and racism, then one would expect such a people to become enemies of promoter, of such a god. Yet this is the god that many of our people, African worship today. Conclusively, this paper further suggested that our culture and traditions is an indispensable weapon in the current struggle for better African, and we must hold of it and forge the future with the past. African culture is as old as man himself and yet we know little or nothing of it. We must capture our heritage and our identity if we are to liberate ourselves from the bond of slavery, racism and legacy of colonialism.

“Chris Abani: Gender Damage”

by

 Brenna Munro

The paper I propose is part of a larger project on the emergence of new sexual and gendered subjectivities in Nigerian literature, in the context of intense state homophobia, a new local gay rights discourse, the AIDS epidemic, and the politics of globalization. I would focus here on the queer Afropolitan aesthetic being fashioned by diasporan Nigerian writer Chris Abani. He examines the imperative to produce virile, heterosexual masculinities and obedient hetero-femininities in the wake of colonialism, and explores queer genders, therefore, as a mode of dissent to the postcolonial status quo. Normative black hetero-masculinity is challenged through homoeroticism, but primarily through trans-gender identifications and, most provocatively, fantasies of redemptive castration. I examine Abani’s novels Graceland (2005), Becoming Abigail (2006), and The Virgin of Flames (2007)—set in Lagos, London and L.A. respectively—in all of which he imagines the racially fraught trope of castration as a kind of apocalyptic new beginning. In Becoming Abigail, Abani’s sex-trafficked young female protagonist castrates her abuser, but refuses the role of sexless victim, while queerly over-identifying with her lost mother. Abani is usually read through a national lens as part of a literary “third generation,” a familial metaphor that encodes a set of ideas about what constitutes natural or proper relation—namely, heterosexual reproduction. Abani’s work challenges this model of national “filiation” through its emphatically cosmopolitan network of allusions, as well as its emphasis on thinking outside “heteronormativity,” and attending to what we might call damaged genders, as a source of potential redemption.

Gender, Sexualities and Work: A Case Study on Domestic Workers in Nigeria

by

Zahrah Nesbitt-Ahmed

This is a study on the sexual and reproductive health of domestic workers in Nigeria. The analysis of domestic workers is critical not just because they are at particular risk of exploitation but also because their human rights, in particular, their sexual and reproductive rights, are systematically violated. Employment in many instances requires that all workers be tested for pregnancy (as well as HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and other infectious diseases) before they are employed. There are also restrictions on marriage, families, abortions, dress, days-off, and social interactions. In addition, few domestic workers get any health education on HIV/AIDS and reproductive rights. Attempts to control domestic workers’ sex lives and relationships often reflect an underlying fear that domestic workers pose a sexual and social threat to families. They also reinforce the commonly-held stereotypes about domestic workers being promiscuous that employers use to justify restricting their freedom of movement. This research intends to uncover the hidden lives of these groups of workers who work in the privacy of homes. It will provide information on the profile, nature, living and working conditions of domestic workers, and how these affect their sexual and reproductive health. In particular, this research will look not only at the vulnerability domestic workers face as a result of their living and working conditions but also how they maneuver and exercise autonomy in these very restrictive contexts.

“Of Hens and Cocks: Masculinity and Democratic Change in Kenya ”

by

Hannington Ochwada

This paper is about how masculinity has negotiated Kenya's electoral politics since the re-introduction of multi-party democracy in 1992. I argue below that in spite of the amendment of Section 2A of Kenya's Constitution in December of 1991, making Kenya a multi-party political democracy de jury, women have not been significantly included in the process of democratic governance to impact fundamentally the political and economic decisions as equal partners of men. Thus, masculinity has gendered the apparatus of the state, as politicians have continued to promote androcentric practices embedded in the culture of patron-client relationships and quietism. The practices have been inimical to the political interests of minority groups and the inclusion of women in the political process. The political culture of clientism gained more currency in political relations with the insertion of Section 2A into the Constitution of Kenya in 1982. Section 2A of the Constitution had up to 1991 ensured that Kenyans participated in the country’s political process only within a one-party political dispensation under the auspices of the Kenya National African Union (KANU). In 1991 the constitutional amendment that repealed Section 2A theoretically expanded the political space in Kenya, giving impetus to a wide section of Kenyans to demand political inclusion in decision making processes. Yet women and minority voices remained largely muffled in the ensuing struggles for democracy. In this paper I analyze information from archival materials, government and non-governmental reports to explain how masculinity continues to define the political culture in Kenya.

The Challenges of Gender Equality and Elimination of Feminization of Poverty
and the African Development Process

by

Mike O. Odey

The 21 st century African women are generally showing that they are more reliable agents of political and economic transformation than men. Amazingly, women are slowly but surely emerging with a new outlook as agents of motivation, beauty, excellence, resilience, zeal, and accountability to debunk traditional and conventional views about them. Furthermore, Women in Africa are clearly demonstrating that if given the chance, they are capable of bringing the Black continent out of the backwoods of the African experience because of the loss of faith and confidence in men. However, women like children still remain the most vulnerable groups because of the feminization of poverty, inequality and other intractable problems confronting women in Africa. Thus, to eliminate gender disparity and poverty is to promote optimism for the African miracle and advance towards sustainable livelihood in the Black Continent. Set against this background, genuine empowerment of women who constitute the disproportionate number of the rural sector and those living below the poverty line appears to be one of the most strategic options to confront the hydra headed problem of continental development. The article examines the challenges of stamping out poverty and gender exploitation in the different sectors of the African economy. It brings out some current aspects of gender disparity and applied their broad implications on the existing dimensions of poverty as related to the handicap of women in the African development process. The work is anchored on four key issues of women’s empowerment, equality and equity of the United Nations program of the African development agenda and argues that to achieve sustainable economic growth and development in Africa, it is imperative to liberate Women from their involuntary plight of male dominance. Finally, the work concludes that there is need for more “gender awareness”, latitude and “sensitivity” on the part of African women to handle their own issues themselves in furtherance of the African development question beyond the current lip service.

The reality of homosexuality in Africa :The Yoruba Example

by

Ebunoluwa O. Oduwole

This paper discusses the question of homosexuality within the context of an African culture. It identifies two main positions on the reality of homosexuality in Yoruba thought. One denies the existence of homosexuality seeing it as foreign to the culture and having no root in Africa and the other claims that there are traces of its origin in traditional Africa. The paper argues from ordinary language and ideas in Yoruba thought that there are traces of homosexuality in traditional Africa though the influence of Western culture made it more pronounced. The unacceptability of homosexuality in traditional Africa however stems from the argument that it threatens marriage, family values, acceptable cultures and traditions which the Yoruba hold in high esteem. Thus arguments pointing in the direction of homosexuality as an aberration and perversion are mounted up against it. The paper further examines some of the issues that homosexuality may generate in the face of modernity and argues that the strong religious and cultural bias of the Yoruba renders such unacceptable . The paper asserts that even with the challenges that homosexuality has meet with in modern Yoruba society the future of homosexuals is uncertain. Homosexuality cannot be seen as an idea that needs repackaging and redelivery in the face of modernity.

African Women at the Receiving Ends

by

Segun Ogungbemi

From time immemorial women have been at the receiving ends of unwholesome treatments by men. It appears as if women have no other choice than to live in the world of men in spite of some of their gruesome treatments particularly during conflicts. The question is: what is the origin of women being treated as means and not as ends in themselves? Is there any moral justification for treating women as means only? This paper examines the causes of maltreatment of women. It also raises some fundamental moral and ethical reasons why in the 21 st century women ought to be treated as equals with men and if there is any justifiable or any moral warrant not to treat women as equals, it ought to be to their interest as in the case of military operations or any other human activities that will endanger their life at a particular situation. The moral and ethical approach which this paper takes is a philosophical and plausible means of giving women their rightful place as equal partakers in the universe of humans.

“Are the Amazons Really Coming?”
Interrogating Women and their Quest for Political Inclusion in Africa

by

Okpeh Okpeh

The question of women’s participation in the political process of contemporary Africa remains one of the most contentious and often talked about issues of our time. As nations of the world democratize on the basis of the universalization of liberal values, the actual extent of women’s involvement and scope of participation in the political process unfolding in the African continent has become topical in comparative political discourses, throwing up serious conceptual and methodological issues that continued to arouse the interest of scholars. For example, although African women constitute a significant part of the continent’s electorate and have immensely contributed to the protracted struggles for the enthronement of democracy in the continent, they continued to be outside the circumference of political power and therefore less-advantaged relative to men in all ramifications of the public sphere. Analysts have observed that this subordination of women in the realm of power constitutes the basis for their marginalization and even oppression in society. In this paper, we shall attempt to illuminate this strand of thought on the problematization of the gender question and its representations in the political sphere. Exploring the relationship between the character of the public sphere and the subordination of women in Africa, we would argue that a critical nexus does indeed exist between gender and the construction of power and politics in contemporary Africa. Using the rapidly increasing statistics from the experiences of some African countries, the paper hopes to draw far-reaching conclusions on why women are underrepresented in African politics and suggests the way forward.

Women and the Dynamics of Conflicts and Post-Conflict Reconstruction Program in Africa:
Some Examples from West Africa

by

Okpeh Okpeh

It has been established that more than any other social group women and children are the worst affected during conflicts in Africa as it is with other troubled regions of the world.  Equally true is the view that they are almost always at the receiving end of post-conflict reconstruction programs because their interests are given the least attention by the operators and managers of the peace-building processes. This paper relates the experience of women with conflicts and the attempts at peace-building in Africa. Isolating some examples from the West African sub-region, the paper shows how and why women are usually victims of social conflicts in the continent and explains the variables that undermine gender concerns in post-conflict reconstruction programs in the continent.

Protest Against Matchmaking: The Example of Zulu Sofola’s Song of a Maiden

by

Okey Okwechime
Kola Eke

Gender is not a thing in itself, it articulates with many other aspects of selfhood – especially societal perception of sexuality. The issue of matchmaking as it affects gender and sexualities is often not tackled directly by many authors, this is why Zulu Sofola’s Song of A Maiden is most compelling. The play gives a profound attention to the subject of matchmaking as an infringement especially on the women’s right of choice of spouse. One of the things about Sofola’s play is her castigation of the institution of prescribed marriage. Sofola is implying that marriage should be the result of free choice of the individual man and woman, united primarily on the basis of romantic attraction, and a harmony of tastes and interest. One may say that the foundation of Sofola’s style is the intense feeling with which she writes, and the sheer hostility with which she unfolds the drama of matchmaking. Sofola’s hero and heroine do not love each other; they do not find each other’s personalities pleasant. Yet they are the prescribed bride and groom. The strong points of Song of A Maiden are its eccentric characterization of the central figure, the disapproval of the bride’s mother, and the mutual hostility between the bride and groom.

Female Participation in Technical Theater Practice in Nigeria: Problems and Prospect

by

Shuaib Shadiat Olapeju

In Nigeria, theatre art as a profession or as an academic endeavor is equivocally dominated by men as reflective in live, celluloid and home video productions. This traits is however visible in the artistic components of theatre production that are highlighted in the area of acting and directing as well as the technical appendages which incorporate make-up, lightning, properties, scenery and sound effect. But more importantly, the trend of male patrichial dominance in theatre discipline is more pronounced on the technical theatre scene, where the percentage of female participation has been reduced to its barest minimum when compared to their male counterpart as a result of male egocentric behavior.

In fact, the few female theatre designers in the practice are regarded as only being fit to handle costume and make-up aspect alone. Out of all the technical requirements of the theatre leading to societal occupational and economic gender imbalance among practitioners.

Widowhood Rites in Nigeria and their Socio-Economic Impact on the Family

by

Cecilia Abiodun Olarewaju

The death of a husband is a tragedy that befalls a woman and her children which leads to physical and permanent break in the relationship of the late husband/father and his immediate family. The woman is culturally subjected to the performance of some rites and restricted from work/socialization for sometime so she could mourn her husband. It is most stressful and devastating because the expected assistance that would help widows and their children to withstand the emotional and psychological trauma and frustration associated with this loss is not always there. Rather friends and relations of the dead compound the problems faced by widows by taking over and sharing the assets of their late husband. This study identified the various widowhood rites in the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria and their socio-economic impact on the family. It recommended that laws should be enacted to save women from these harsh widowhood rites and general bias against the Nigerian female gender.

Polygyny and the Sexuality of Women in Africa

by

Omolade Olomola

Sexuality is a central aspect of being human throughout life and encompasses sex, gender identities and roles, sexual orientation, eroticism, pleasure, intimacy and reproduction. Sexuality is experienced and expressed in thoughts, fantasies, desires, beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviours, practices, roles and relationships. While sexuality can include all of these dimensions, not all of them are always experienced or expressed. Customs and tradition play a very crucial role in the sexuality of human beings thus the need for sexual rights. Sexual rights embrace human rights that are already recognized in national laws, international human rights documents and other consensus statements. Sexual rights include the human right of women to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence.

Gender dimension in household solid waste management:
a comparative study of two cities in southwestern Nigeria

by

E. O. Oloruntoba,
A.O. Coker,
A. O. Olowookere,
M. K. C. Sridhar

Urban waste management is at a low hub and currently constituting a risk to public health in major cities in many developing countries. In Nigeria, solid waste management practice has largely focused on technical aspect of waste disposal with little or no attention paid to the involvement of women in household waste management. This study therefore assessed the knowledge, attitude and practice of women in household solid waste management in two major cities in southwestern Nigeria. Three hundred respondents (150 from each city) were randomly selected from two medium income areas, Omole and Bashorun in Ikeja and Ibadan North East Local Government Area of Lagos and Ibadan Metropolis respectively. Results showed that a sizeable proportion of women within the age group 20-39 in the two areas (26% for Omole and 17.3% for Bashorun) had better idea of waste reduction as compared to the older group (>40years). In both areas, a sizeable proportion also knew about sorting at source. However, knowledge of waste management (reduction and sorting at source) was better in Omole, Lagos than in Bashorun, Ibadan. About 72% and 53% of women from Omole and Bashorun agreed that waste constitute a serious health problem in Nigeria while majority felt that waste collection and disposal is the sole responsibility of government. It was also discovered that occupation has a great influence on waste reduction practice as more housewives practiced it. It was found out that most women dispose their waste in to refuse dump, while a considerable number still burn in spite of the environmental hazards involved. Majority of women from Omole (73%) and Bashorun (60%) felt that women were not always involved in making decisions about solid waste management. The study therefore calls for the integration of women who are home managers into the planning and execution; as well as training on solid waste management.

Phat Girlz: Identifying with Yoruba Culture from the Diaspora

by

Adagbada Olufadekemi

Women Entreprenuership in Nigeria: Cultural Perspectives and Assessment of Basic Competence

by

Fayomi Abimbola Olugbenga

There is an increasing campaign towards the establishment of private business by Nigerian women at both governmental and non-governmental levels. This is because women are considered to be at the lowest level of the poverty ladder in Nigeria. Many Nigerian women have found a haven in Entrepreneurship as recourse to the problems of poverty. The key challenges facing these women however, is to increase the rate of survival and success in their businesses. This requires skills, knowledge, and attitude. Though the government of Nigeria put in place some policy incentives in support of Nigerian Women entrepreneurs, many women-owned business are found to become moribund in the first five years of existence. The cultural perspectives and their basic competence may be reflected in their level of success.

The Place of Women and the Under-Privileged in Liberian
Post-War Conflict Resolution and Peace-Building

by

Ayomola O. Oluranti

 It is a priori knowledge that there can never be a good war or a bad peace. War has become a global albatross as reports from Sudan in Africa and Palestine and Israel in the Middle East confront us daily. Both the downtrodden and the privileged are victims. Although, the civil war in Liberia started in 1989 and ended in 1997, we are still left with bitter traces of the appalling levels of violence and brutality, systematic rape, and the destruction of crops as well as poisoning of wells and outright genocide. Ferocious assaults were unleashed against women and children in the various communities, resulting in millions of them becoming refugees in neighboring countries or internally displaced. Children were exposed to child soldering, serving the ragtag armies in supporting roles as cooks, porters, messengers and spies. Millions were left orphaned as a result of HIV/AIDS pandemic. Women became victims of sexual and other physical violence. They were also forced to watch their husbands and children killed, tortured and kidnapped. Women were subjected to unspeakable acts of violence on their persons and against their children while attempting to sustain the vestiges of their families and communities.

However, in the process of peace-building and conflict resolution, women and children are the most sidelined. From the Abidjan accord of 1999 to Liberia Peace Talk in Ghana in 2003, women were conspicuously underrepresented. Their absence from peace tables and political initiatives in a whole range of peace processes is a detriment to achieving peace. This paper is set to examine the need for the involvement of women in peace building and peacemaking processes in Liberia. This is important because women constitute the larger percentage of the people inhabiting Liberia with an approximate percentage of 60%. It will also recommend measures on how to engage womenfolk in ensuring a long lasting peace in this part of sub-Saharan Africa. The paper adopts documentary and interview methods to collect data from various sources and collects pictures depicting the living issues as appendix.

Giving a Second Chance:
An Experiment in Providing Education for the Girl Child Household Help in South Western Nigeria

by

Obilade Oluyemisi Oluremi
Gbenga-Akinbiola Abosede Oluranti

Patriarchal cultural values and practices that are widespread and endemic in Nigeria generally entrenches gender-based marginalization, discrimination, and exclusion. This is most obvious in the area of education. Statistics abound to underscore the huge gender disparities that exist in enrollment, retention, and completion of education between the girl child and the boy child. For instance, 62% of the seven million out-of-school children of primary school age are girls while gender disparity in enrollment is sometimes as high as 30% in favor of boys. Females, especially girls, are particularly susceptible to the backlash of the interplay of poverty and patriarchy. Often, poor families allow their female children to work as household helps; a form of child labor akin to servitude and slavery for a token. Many of these girls never get an opportunity for education or any other form of training for their future. Realizing the implications of these for the individual and national development, the researchers developed a program of intervention to provide these girls access to education.

The objective of the experiment was to see how individual women’s agency could be harnessed into enhancing educational opportunities for these girls. The study is a longitudinal research spanning 10 years involving a small group of women using an adaptation of Laubach’s “each one-teach-one” approach to develop a program of each-one-mentor-one. This is a mandatory system whereby each girl is placed with a woman who is committed to enrolling her in school and providing all necessary support for her completion of the two basic levels of education. This paper presents the finding of the program.

Gender Equity in Resource Management Implications for Millenium Development Goals in Nigeria

by

Dr. Olaleye Florence Oluremi

Millennium Developments Goals (MDGs) of year 2000 were an offshoot of improving the condition of humanities through out the world especially the poor marginalized members of the society. Advancement of women’s right and gender equality is recognized as critically necessary for progress. Goal three of the (MDGs) clearly called for the promoting of gender equality and the empowerment of women. This paper examined Nigeria’s place in the national realization of MDGs in relation to gender empowerment and equity in resource management. Resources to be examined in this paper include environmental resources, financial resources and human resources. The effective management of these resources calls for attention as touching on gender. The paper is structured into four sections. The first section is the introduction; section two discusses gender equity in the management of resources such as land, capital and education. Section three examines major challenges and environmental support for gender equity vis-a-vis their implications on MDGs. Suggestions and recommendations form section four. Inventory and interview served as sources of information. Data collected were analyzed using percentages. Based on the findings, conclusion and recommendations were made

Breaking the Circle of Poverty:
Combating Teenage Pregnancy and Early Marriage Through Non-Formal Education

by

Oluyemisi Oluremi Obilade
Oladunni Olufunmilola Obilade

Teenage girls in Nigeria, like most women in the country, have been victims of gender oppression as a result of the existing patriarchal culture which devalues women’s lives and achievements. This is reflected in various forms of exclusion and discrimination in access to the basic needs of life such as health, education and economic resources with the resultant deprivation and poverty. Statistics from some parts of Nigeria show that girls constitute less than 30% of secondary school students’ enrolment. Unfortunately, many of these girls drop out of school before completion due to poverty and socio-cultural factors that predispose them to early marriages and teenage pregnancy thus entrenching a vicious circle of poverty.

This research is an experiment in capacity building in knowledge and skills using non-formal education among secondary school girls in selected states in Nigeria. It is an innovative approach using local resources, local personnel and peer-sharing to build a core of 150 one-to-one peer educators to work among teenage secondary school girls. The goal is to reduce the incidence of teenage pregnancy and early marriage through improved knowledge and informed-decision making skills .The research combines qualitative and quantitative methodologies involving sensitization and awareness raising, focus group discussion, interview guides and intensive training workshops .The results are analysed using appropriate statistical and qualitative analyses packages. These resultant outcomes will be presented in the paper at the conference.

Food Consumption Pattern of Lactating Mothers in Ondo West Local Government Area in Nigeria

by

Cecilia Abiodun Olarewaju

This research was carried out to assess the food consumption pattern of lactating mothers in Ondo West local government area of Ondo State in Nigeria.36 lactating mothers were randomly selected from each of the five post natal clinics in the local government area to make a total of 180 respondents. An open ended questionnaire used in the research consisted of items which sought information about the personal data, income and food consumption pattern of the respondents. The questionnaire was given face validation by three experts in nutrition and childcare. Data collected in the research were analyzed using frequency counts and percentages. The results showed that 57.2% earned below N10, 000.00 in a month. 70.6%, 66.7% and 68.9% of the respondents consumed mainly carbohydrate foods as breakfast, lunch and dinner while only 27.8%, 21.1% and 29.4% consumed proteinous foods as breakfast, lunch and dinner respectively. 65.6% did not eat “in between meals”. It was suggested that workshops and enlightenment programmes through mass media should be organized to teach lactating mothers the importance of water, protein, calcium, fruits and vegetables in their diets; they should also be exposed to empowering skills to augment their income for better nutritional status.

Combating Emotional Slavery: Educating Female Polytechnic Students on Couple's Life

by

Gbenga-Akinbiola Abosede Oluranti
Badekale Mojisola Victoria

In most non-residential institutions of higher learning, a greater percentage of female students are ensnared under the guise of love by their boyfriends to live what is termed “couple’s life.” These students of the opposite sex rent accommodation and start to cohabitate. Several reasons have been advanced for the involvement of the girls in such relationships. Such reasons range from poverty, peer pressure, and desire to conform to parental emotional neglect and loneliness, which is often ‘assuaged’ by the boys’ insincere protestations of love. Many girls in cohabiting relationships also see it as a way to solidify and ensure sustainability of the relationships. In these relationships, the girls become in essence cooks, laundry women, and bedmates to their respective boyfriends. This practice is however not without its dire consequences. Many of these girls end up so busy with ‘house-chores’ that their academic performance slip lower and lower; many end up being sexually, emotionally, and economically exploited while several are exposed to the risk of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS. One girl was even murdered by her live-in lover. Realizing the dangers posed by such relationships to the well-being of these girls, the researchers embarked on a program of educating girls with a view to develop their critical consciousness and decision-making skills. The paper presents the result of that education program.

Diverse Expressions of Sexuality in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria

by

Lai Olurode and Lekan Oyefara

The university space presents immense opportunities for expressions of varieties of sexuality behaviour. Theoretically, the flowering of these diverse expressions of sexuality has been aided by some distinctive features of the university environment. Noticeable among these peculiar characteristics are the youthfulness of students’ population most of who are escaping direct parental authority for the first time, an environment where teaching and research theoretically take place without much interference, unrestrained interaction among students and between them as individuals and groups and their lecturers, and between them and school authorities. These engagements, sometimes emotional and at others professional and ostensibly for reasons of tutelage, do occur in contexts of unequal power relations and in which school power is exercised over students. Students’ socio-economic background may help to negotiate and navigate the complex relationships in ways that are sustainable and supportive of students’ life chances. The data which were analyzed in this paper were drawn from a representative sample of over 30,000 students’ from the university of Lagos in Nigeria. The data was complemented by information sourced from the rich cultural heritage of the Yoruba, particularly their music and proverbs which touch on diverse forms of expressions of sexuality

Drawing the Body: Postmodern Orality and Discursive Femaleness in Nigerian Hip Hop

by

Yomi Olusegun-Joseph

The contemporary temperament in Nigerian youth culture to articulate a voice of generational difference from established socio-cultural codes of ‘adult society’ in a bid to renegotiate the dominant social terms of power relations has informed a geography of generational identities and subjectivities largely constituted in hip hop, a post-modern cultural practice. Although this counter-discursive phenomenon has been tenuously acknowledged in newspaper reviews and editorial reports, there has been a dearth of academic intervention to explain this development and its potency to re-map the frontiers of inter-ethnic relations and gender dynamics, a gap, which this paper sets out to redress.

Recognizing its historical antecedent as a counter-hegemonic discourse, the paper argues the circulation of hip hop in Nigeria as a deconstructive, trans-cultural, and trans-generational practice that has had an immense impact on re-thinking gender(ed) signposts and the discursive drawing of the female body. It suggests that sexuality, represented by both male and female lead practitioners, becomes problematic in locating what constitutes masculinity and femininity in this youth discourse. It insists that although the female body gains a measure of liberation and visibility through hip hop, woman still remains subtly other(ed). It concludes by giving the implication of this development on the society and suggests ways by which social policies may ground a new era of youth inclusion and reorientation.

“Kodjo besia, supi, yags and eagles:
being tacit subjects and non-normative citizens in contemporary Ghana”

by

Kathleen O’Mara

For the past decade and one half, same sex loving social networks have formed in urban Ghana, creating micro communities which inhabit largely concealed spaces ranging from Bukom, old downtown Accra to relatively new suburbs and shakily constructed migrant encampments. The kodjo besia, yag, supi, and eagle or lgbtiq emergent communities and their social practices which are the subject of this paper are drawn from over two dozen life story narratives collected since 2005. Part of an ongoing research project on lgbtiq networks and communities in late twentieth and early twenty first century Ghana, this paper examines their contributions to our understanding of the lived experiences of sexual minorities in a globalized world. Despite existing sodomy laws, police entrapment and extortion, condemnatory charismatic and Pentecostal Christian public discourse, and general public antipathy to non-normative sexual expressions, lgbtiq networks in Ghana engage in community building activities (e.g., community meetings, house and bar parties, volunteer work with the police, unofficial church marriages, respectful burial, and HIV education). Such efforts contribute to sustaining lgbtiq networks, both materially and emotionally, as well as their community and spiritual leaders who have developed strategies of indigenizing non-normative sexualities and tacitly claiming queer subjecthood. In particular, this paper examines the ways lgbtiq individuals not only perform/express agency in their social practices, but forge new forms of citizenship which challenge hegemonic notions of Ghanaianess, tactics which mirror the approach of tacit subjecthood rather than silence about sexual difference.

Gendered Violence in Nigeria

by

Olufunke Mary Omoju

In this paper, I examine violence against women, a global epidemic affecting millions of women daily and present debilitating obstacles to the development of women, their families and communities and even their national economies. According to the CDC, nearly four women experience violence by a current or former spouse or boyfriend at some point in her life. Gender-based violence manifests in numerous ways, few are: (a) Domestic violence (b)Torture (c) Forced prostitution and marriage (d) Sexual violence e.g. Sexual harassment, Rape, Sexual Slavery, Abuse and Exploitation, Trafficking, Forced pregnancy, Incest, Voyeurism. Physical-psychosocial –Depression, Rejection, Trauma, Guilt, Suicidal attempt, Loss of self esteem (b) Medical e.g. unwanted pregnancies, increased morbidity and mortality, Spread of STIs e.g. HIV (c) Economical e.g. Poverty, Illiteracy, reduced productivity resulting from fear of molestation

Hindrances to the Career Development of Female Academics Staff in Nigerian Universities:
A Case Study of Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife.

by

Adesunkanmi Sherifat Omolola

This study examined gender issues in the academic career development in Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The University was chosen as a case study in view of the fact that, statistics have shown that there are 194 male and 15 female professors’ ratio 13:1. These observations created puzzles, which the study sought to explore.

Data for the study were collected from primary and secondary sources. Primary data were obtained through the use of questionnaire and in-depth interview. The questionnaires were administered to female academic staff selected using stratified sampling method. Purposively selected female academic staffs were also interviewed. Secondary data were obtained from texts in the library and official sources. Simple statistical techniques like percentages and the chi-square were used in analyzing the data.

Kicking Against the Pricks: The Nigerian Constitution an Impediment to Women’s Rights in Nigeria

by

Kevwe Omoragbon

A constitution is a body of rules which regulates a country’s activities and guarantees its citizens rights. However, women’s rights are not respected in Nigeria and the issue of violence against women still goes on unabated. Despite ratifying various international conventions such as the International Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, Nigeria has failed to domesticate these laws as a result of provisions in its constitution making passing of laws such as that on violence against women as good as kicking against the pricks.

This paper examines the provisions of the Nigerian constitution which have impeded the domestication/ passing of laws relating to women such as their inclusion under the residual list and the cumbersome amendment procedure. Nigeria has had about ten constitutions in the last ten years (as opposed to the American Constitution which is close to two hundred years) but this issue has been left unresolved.

The paper will also examine the heterogeneity of Nigeria, the impact of Sharia which will debar the passing of such laws in the Northern parts of Nigeria as well as other issues of concern in the south unless gender (specifically women’s’) issue is transferred from the residual list to the federal legislative list. It will also proffer recommendations and suggestions for reforms to ensure a lasting constitution for Nigeria that will guarantee women’s rights.

Labour Migration and Rural Production System in Southern Western Nigeria

by

Anthony Olusegun Omoyajowo

This paper is an investigation of the various ways in which migration, as a global social phenomenon has impacted on the contemporary rural communities in Oyo State of the southern part of Nigeria The study will determine the push and pull factors in relation to gender bifurcation, and also shall proceed to provide answer to the question as to whether migration is gender restricted, or whether it involves both spouses. If that is the scenario, the spousal movement trend shall also be determined. Is there any truism in the belief position that labour migration from the rural areas to urban areas depends on the importance of livelihood?

The second part of the paper shall focus on the effect of labour migration on the traditional production system, which is predominantly agriculture. The extent to which food security of the people has been affected is also within the purview of this discourse. The paper draws from oral, written and archival sources in order to examine the intersection between the push and pull factors and the overall determinable effect on the traditional production system. The data collected from the randomly selected respondents shall be analyzed by means of descriptive method of analysis.

Sisterhood- motherhood Nexus in a Changing System

by

Florence Abiola Omoyajowo

To a traditional Africanmind, sisterhood is an antithesis of motherhood, and to a great extent, many values are placed on motherhood as a stage of life an African woman desires to attain, so much so that reaching the age of puberty, the expectation getting married in order to start raising children gets heightened on the parts of both the spinster, family and the close associates in the larger society. It is however a matter of serious concern for any woman not to get married and starting raising children after reaching the culturally approved age to do so. It is, in fact, viewed as an anathema.

On the other extreme of the divide is a class of people that holds the view that sisterhood is a normal phenomenon as it is a calling from God, and a matter of personal choice. This is a religious belief that hinges on the premise that human beings have the free will to choose how his or life is patterned. This also purports to see the traditional view as antiquated in modern times.

In essence, this paper seeks to address the gap between these two extremes and an attempt is made to proffer answers to whether the state of sisterhood is not a paradox to the religious dictum that says “be fruitful and replenish the earth”. A careful examination of the views of a cross section of both married and unmarried people shall be done. The people purposively selected for the study will be stratified into adult males and females with a view to balancing the information supplied.

“The Woman’s Place…” Media and (Mis) Representation of Women
in Political Leadership Positions in Kenya

by

Joyce N. Omwoha

The media in Africa are contributing in significant ways towards democratic governance and accountability. However, in spite of the remarkable progress made in media proliferation and diversity over the last few years, there still remain troubling concerns. The media in Kenya has acted as an existing force of structural and professional deterrent for aspiring and ambitious women seeking political leadership positions. This is because of its underrepresentation and (mis)representation of women in leadership positions in their texts. Most of the issues that seem to “sell” so fast are the women issues pertaining their leadership capabilities and successes or failures.

Kenyan newspapershave been used as a tool to propagate the gender factors and concerns that influence women’s participation- by propagating masculine institutional cultures both subtle and not so subtle ones. They have constructed women as unsuited to political and leadership roles. This paper will focus on the role of newspaper articles in manifestation of gender related issues that impede women’s participation in political leadership positions in Kenya, and the kinds of resistance that women continue to experience in non-traditional domains such as political leadership positions.

Gendered Spirituality and Socio-Economic and Political Power in Colonial Yorubaland:
The Jima Chieftaincy among the Ikale-Yoruba

by

Mobolaji Opeola

This paper emphasizes the integrative and fundamental significance of gendered spiritual authority for socio-economic and political control in colonial Yorubaland by specifically examining the political economy of the spiritual-derived authority of the Jima female chieftaincy among the Ikale people of southeastern Yorubaland. In fact, because of her political, economic and spiritual powers, the Jima was not only greatly feared but also highly respected and to become the Jima was regarded as the highest honour to which an Ikale female personae could attain.

Indeed, one of the most striking attributes of Ikale’s pre-colonial socio-political system which probably dated back to the earliest known phases of Yoruba history was the institution of the Jima chieftaincy. The sociological explanation for the power and respect accorded women in Ikaleland is not unconnected with the manner in which succession to rights is traced not exclusively or even predominantly in the male line but both male and female lines. The Jima was regarded as an Oloja Obiren, (female king) and head of women with all the paraphernalia of office.

ach of the 14 Ikale pre-colonial kingdoms had its own Jima who was also heavily involved in the religious ceremonies that accompanied the installation and burial of the king. The Jima’s economic functions centred on a firm control of trade and market activities. The Jima was also supreme in the rituals associated with the worship of most Ikale traditional gods. Thus, the paper intends to make the totality of Ikale socio-political and economic structure intelligible through the spiritual, economic and political control exercised by the Jima.

Foreign Investment Promotions: Neglected Gender Dimensions

by

Diane Chinonso Orefo

In their quest for rapid economic development, many African governments have established elaborate schemes to attract foreign direct investments into their economies. Indigenization laws which were passed in the 1970s restricting foreign ownership of certain segments of the economies have been repealed. Generous tax-free holidays have been granted to new foreign investors and restrictions on the repatriation of profits have been rescinded. Similarly, foreign investors are frequently exempted from paying customs duties on machineries, raw materials and other components used for local manufacturing. In addition, to accelerate the investment process, “One-Step” mechanisms have been created under which the entire approval process for foreign investments is completed under one roof and in less than one day.

Using evidence gathered from the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), this paper argues that a missing dimension in foreign investment promotion is that it is not sensitive to gender inequities. The paper will demonstrate that investment promotion activities tend to privilege male-dominated enterprises to the detriment of female-owned enterprises. It will argue that investment promotion activities are neither geared to encouraging foreign-direct investments from women entrepreneurs nor creative affirmative processes for African women to go into business with the foreign investors who come into the economy. Accordingly, the paper will contend that foreign investment promotion efforts help to perpetuate gender inequity in Africa.

Diaspora, Gender, and Identity:
Contesting Marriage among the Hausa on a Cameroonian Frontier, c. 1920—1955

by

Harmony O’Rourke

This paper addresses the history of Hausa diasporic communities in the Cameroon Grassfields. It focuses on the ways in which geographic dispersal and complex hierarchies of gender, religion, and ethnicity have shaped people’s capacity to define themselves and their communities as Hausa. In particular, this paper enhances our understanding of Hausa diasporic history by viewing it through the lens of marriage. Such scrutiny offers a nuanced view of the roles women played in settling the frontier and in the reproduction of Hausa daily life. This lens also illuminates the gendered principles upon which power and authority were reproduced at household and community levels, and it challenges the way patrilineality has dominated oral traditions about the ways family identities have been reckoned in the diaspora. It brings to light how conflicts among men and women provoked debates about what cultural elements and social practices constituted Hausa identity and a sense of belonging in Hausa society. Lastly, it reflects how gender itself became increasingly central to how the diasporic Hausa understood community and identity over the course of the twentieth century, especially after the establishment of the Islamic Court in 1947 in the Grassfields which served to reinforce male authority in the domestic sphere.

Health, Illness, and Medical Issues in Nigeria

by

Olubunmi Osakuade

In the area of health care services, there are differences between the definition of health in the West and in Africa and consequently, the meaning of the term medicine. To the Yoruba man, health means, good luck, riches, protection against witch attack and living in harmony with living and departed souls of the community constitute health. This definition of health is closer to that of the World Health Organization (WHO) than that of the West. WHO’s definition “is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of diseases or infirmity” In short, a healthy man is a favourite of spirits of the community ancestors and the Orisas, and a believer in Olodumare.

As a practitioner of traditional medicine, I intend to establish spiritual healing and herbal medicine as alternative health care facilities to orthodox medicine in Africa. Alternative here means that which may be used instead of the other. It is also intended to prove that both spiritual and herbal services could not be considered as mere integral part of orthodox medicine as preached in the Declaration of Alma-Ata adopted on September 12, 1978 by the internal conference on primary Health Care.

Aje in African Orature: Way Forward for Women Emancipation

by

Sola Owonibi

Witch-craft is one of the productive weapons of blackmail the Yoruba man uses to control the energy potential in a woman. No woman will want to be tagged as a witch because witches are stigmatized and isolated in the community. (Owonibi, 1996)

In African context, a female achiever is usually stigmatized as an Aje (a witch), and in traditional African culture, an Aje is de-humanized and summarily sentenced to death by the social order. This is a fate that most African women will not toy with, even with a long pole, no matter the attraction. Even in the contemporary African world, no woman will love to be called a witch. Being an Aje is being in possession of a power superior to that of man. Aje became stigmatized when she humiliated the rival male powers and swallow male deities. This greatly threatened the domineering powers of the African man who did every thing possible to retain power. Hence, Aje was labeled as an out-cast, malevolent spirit that negates all good virtues. With this, a seal is placed on the energy potential of the woman.

This paper considered the place of Aje within the framework of African Orature and posits that Aje symbolizes the superior power and authority of womanhood deliberately corrupted by the African man so as to perpetuate himself in power. So, for any meaningful success to be achieved in female gender empowerment, we must return to the status-quo. The woman must proudly associate with being a ‘witch’, break through the wall of prejudice and accord unto it a positive connotation like that of a ‘wizard’. This will propel the woman to defeat man even in male-dominated areas.

Tanure Ojaide's God’s Medicine-Men and Other Stories: A Feminist Perspective .

by

Sola Owonibi

From time immemorial, the Nigerian woman is seen as the ‘butt’ of a repressive patriarchal structure that persistently reduced her dignity and human essence and compelled her submission to the whims and caprices of the man. Women have therefore over the years, been conditioned in the environment of masculine dominance.

With the advent of modernization, however, the world-view of women has experienced radical changes and hence the need for the reconstruction of the place of woman. Tanure Ojaide represents this world-view in his collection: GOD’S MEDICINE-MEN AND OTHER STORIES. The fiction is a collection of ten short stories out of which, however, this paper studies only the first story, Come Back When You Are Ready To Die with a view to expose how well Tanure Ojaide responds to feminist’s aspiration for a non-sexist literary out-put.

Apartheid and the feminization of poverty and disease:
Being black and woman in a South African rural periphery

by

Stephens Ntsoakae Phatlane

Both the African Union and the Southern African Development Community have recently adopted declarations and protocols that insist on gender parity in all member states. For this reason, in 2007, the African National Congress at its 52 nd National Conference in Polokwane adopted a resolution, which guaranteed 50% gender parity in all its decision-making structures and in government. This marked a radical departure from decades of women exclusion that needed more than just a liberal constitution to correct. The foregoing notwithstanding, black women’s full access to and control over productive resources to reduce poverty remains an elusive prospect. Under apartheid, they experienced gender oppression even more acutely than racial oppression. This paper therefore contends that through numerous apartheid laws and practices, the African people’s class position was fixed, but that of black women were doubly fixed by the patriarchal nature of apartheid society as a whole fixed. As a result, even though the health consequences of apartheid-engendered poverty may have been serious for both black men and women, the experiences of black women were direr because of their position in the home and in the labour market. The paper then concludes that if inadequate socio-economic circumstances invariably lead to diseases of poverty, then the historical roots of the current gender-based health problems lie squarely in the socio-economic and political context of apartheid. Central to this argument is the view that apartheid inequality was more than just a race problem, but a gender problem too, hence the ‘genderized’ nature of HIV/AIDS today.

Women and Legal Shifts in European Colonial Holdings in Africa

by

Blase Pinkert

European colonial holdings within Africa reshaped legal systems from that originally of indigenous people’s values and law codes to a mixture of indigenous values melded with those of Europe and the Christian missions present within colonial holdings. This began with a duel legal system, one of traditional law and that of official law. European powers placed their own judges and courts in place which laid the groundwork for this patriarchal shift.

This paper will attempt to show the shift from a somewhat matriarchal society to one patriarchal in nature by way of legal systems. This will follow the shift from indigenous law to customary law to current law and the effects upon women. It will focus on colonial holdings in Malawi, Zambia, Nigeria, and South Africa. While colonial powers viewed the indigenous people as savage for not having a state which had laws and courts, these indigenous populations followed a rational set of laws. These were not laws backed or enforced by any state. When the colonial powers intervened and placed courts within this setting it upset the current power structure placing populations into a state of confusion and disarray. This led to colonial powers reinforcing courts, placing a dual legal system in effect, and eventually the adoption of the European legal system. Laws regarding adultery, marriage, divorce and transfer of property have all assisted in this shift.

The Good Mother and the Contaminating Mother:
Experiences and Expectations of Motherhood Following an HIV-Positive Diagnosis

by

Gretchen du Plessis
Heidi Celliers

This paper aims to offer some insights on how the experiences and perceptions of motherhood and reproduction change for South African women following an HIV-positive diagnosis. Feminist and critical approaches are used to analyse data collected through in-depth interviews and observation. The need for a conceptual shift in the notion of empowerment in order to understand constrained decision-making for mothers living with HIV is propagated.

The paper tells, in the voices of the research participants, of how taken-for-granted views of motherhood change after an HIV-diagnosis. Many of the women did not regard themselves as having been at risk for contracting HIV. Some still harboured resentment towards men who were seen as being absolved from testing and responsibilities towards female partners, born and unborn children. But the retelling of their stories is also a celebration of the beauty and strength of women as mothers who, in many cases, became the silent care-givers for those affected and infected by HIV.

Dressing the Part: Dress Culture, Gender, Compliance and Resistance in Mobutu’s Zaire

by

Danielle Porter

During Mobutu’s Authenticity campaign, he dictated that citizens had to wear traditionally Zairian clothing. The Authenticity movement primarily centered upon men, especially in the realm of dress culture. For Congolese men, Authenticity was synonymous with the abacost, which was derived from the French phrase, a bas le costume, or “Down with the suit!” Mobutu decreed that Zairian men had to wear the abacost. At the same time, it seems that women were an afterthought in the Authenticity campaign; women were simply told to wear traditional clothing and hairstyles, which was relatively vague compared to their male counterparts.

The movement known as the SAPE ( Société Ambianceurs et Persons Élégants) emerged as a result of popular music, economic failure and political oppression during the 1970s and 1980s. Those that followed the movement of the SAPE are known as sapeurs. The word sapeur comes from the French slang word sape, which means “to dress with class.” What is interesting about the sapeur movement is the fact that a majority of the people involved in the movement were male.

Gender Inequalities in the Ghanaian Society

by

Oppong Peprah Prince

Societies all around the world have different ways by which they view and regard the individuals in the society. Most societies vary in the degree to which they regard the roles of men and women. In the United Nations Human Development Report, it was concluded that ‘no society treats its women as well as its men the equally”. This assessment views that, men are highly recommended in their works and roles than women and also women are less treated well in the various societies. Gender inequality can therefore be defined as the way, behavioral attitude, and the discrimination that society base on to show differential treatment for its members. Some of the reasons why the women are unequally not compared to the men are as follows: Societal Systems and Practices, Educational levels, Work, Cultural Beliefs, Household division of labor.

The discrimination of women against the men in our societal system has affected a number of women and to a large extends to the whole society. Most women are neglected in our communities and its resultant effects can be seen from the following, poverty, longer rate of health cost among the women, psychological problem mostly in the women.

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Africa Conference 2010: Women, Genders, and Sexuality in Africa

Convened by Dr. Toyin Falola and Coordinated by Saheed Aderinto for the Center for African and African American Studies

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