Why Nigerian Feminism Is Trash!

First of all, feminism is different from Women’s rights. Feminism, according to recent definitions, says all gender are equal, abi? Women’s Rights, on the other hand, is self-explanatory - it speaks for women’s rights only. Although both feminism and Women’s Rights have obvious links, it is pretty apparent that women’s rights began before feminism did. The first person to have used a pen in support for women’s rights was a man - Plato. Later, women, in a society that now saw a shift in gender roles, started to speak for themselves. Mary Wollenstonecraft, one of the earliest British women who wrote for women’s right described women as “vain inconsiderate dolls.”

I think Nigerian feminists seemed informed by Nigerian women who struggled against a system that oppressed men and women. Yet, there seems to be a gap of inconsistent information inspiring modern Nigerian feminists. Let me show you what I mean:

The earliest known woman to champion women’s rights in Nigeria is Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. Yhup, Fela’s mother. She was far much more than being the first woman to drive a car. She was a teacher, and she was quoted to have said that precolonial Nigeria practiced gender equality. Nigeria became a British protectorate in 1901. Kuti was born in 1900. If there was any prominent women right activist that knew about pre-colonial Nigeria, it would be her, yes?

Then there was Margaret Ekpo who was born in 1914 in Creek Town. What made Margaret Ekpo begin to participate in politics and women’s rights? Her husband, a doctor, (a man) was angered about the oppressive treatment of the Colonial masters. She attended nationalists meetings on his behalf as he was a civil servant and could not attend. It was during one of these meetings she was fired up by Nnamdi Azikiwe and Herbert Macaulay’s speeches. In other words, men inspired her. Later she formed a Market Women Union in Aba.

Flora Nwapa, Born In 1931, is Nigeria’s first female novelist. Yhup she too wrote about Women’s rights in her works such as her 1986 book Women Are Different. Just like Margaret Ekpo and Funmilayo Kuti, Flora Nwapa also spoke about the oppression that women went under during the British colonialism. However it is important to realize that men went through oppression as well, and the enemy was the British Government, not men.

Another woman that realized this concept was Gambo Sawaba, a woman rights activists born in 1932 and credit for promoting education in the North.

Buchi Emecheta, also understood the difference between the portrayal of the African woman by pure African culture and the pollution that foreign culture brought. She said one time:

“At home in Nigeria, all a mother had to do for a baby was wash and feed him and, if he was fidgety, strap him onto her back and carry on with her work while that baby slept. But in England she had to wash piles and piles of nappies, wheel the child round for sunshine during the day, attend to his feeds as regularly as if one were serving a master, talk to the child, even if he was only a day old! Oh, yes, in England, looking after babies was in itself a full-time job.”

None of these women claimed to be feminists, and they understood that their struggle was alongside men’s. The women’s right struggle in Nigeria formed a complementary part of the Nationalistic movement...and then came feminism.

The most effective weapon the colonial government used against the country was indirect rule. Through this rule, they turned the non-central rule of the Igbos into a monarchy, and placed more men in power. They also stripped women off all their political participation and reduced them into second class citizens, imposing heavy taxes as well. This is what made Women’s right a part of Nationalistic efforts.

With the rise of third wave feminism and sexual revolution in the West, women’s right movements in Nigeria turned into feminism. Third wave feminism blamed men for subjugating women. The civil war had widened the cultural gap that colonialism had created, and my these periods, Nigerian feminism was not concerned with the past cultures and how it had evolved. Nigerian feminism simply duplicated Western feminism agendas and applied it.

Unlike its predecessor, Women Liberation, which stood up to corrupt government practices, modern day Nigerian feminism points to Nigerian men as the enemy and seeks to compete with the ‘masculine institution.’ This is stupid really, because the real problem is not men but corrupt government encouraging vile leadership practices. If women and men face the problem like they did in the beginning during the Nationalism era, perhaps we can re-gain our Independence. This time, from the corruption eating the country.
Noooooo, y’all would rather compete about who is kneeling and who is not, or who is cooking and who is not. Shior!