An african woman; strong and resilient, bold and stern, disciplined and hardworking, the real home maker! Hi readers, you would agree with me that a typical african woman has the qualities I mentioned in my first sentence, these qualities make an african woman unique.
However, it occured to me that the greatest enemy of an african woman is her fellow women. Why? Africans, right from inception (according to history) are known to be ignorant of so many things. Thankfully, formal education was introduced to us by the white men and we became aware of so many things we called “our curse”. Unknown to us, these things could be explained by science and technology. In this dispensation, the 21st century, our mentality as Africans is still clouded with a lot of ignorance.
Yes , I repeat that the greatest enemy of an african woman is her fellow women. It baffles me to see a woman making stunts to oppress and tarnish the image of another woman just for selfish motives. Excuse me, this is done to what end? Feminist would fight to achieve gender equality but unfortunately, their battle to empower women has not become a total success because even within the female gender, a lot of lackadaisical attitude towards one another’s affair is predominant.
An illustration of such is what happens in some african communities where the educated but ignorant people still think that a woman is responsible for the gender of a baby. In such communities, those who take the first line of action to eject a woman from her husband’s house are the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. The mother-in- law forgets that she has daughters who are yet to be married and she would not stop until she ruins the happiness in her son’s home because she wants a grandson. You would agree with me that stories such as this, is still a major headline in one out of ten african homes.
The questions are these: “is gender associated with success?” , “is gender associated with relevance?”, who isn’t relevant? Anyone has the ability to achieve anything , regardless of gender. History has recorded so many women who are achievers in the world today. Another question is, “is gender still associated with leadership?” Women are leading in so many fields as the decision-making head. I was once opportuned to be amongst the interns on a project which happened to be led by a female architect. So tell me, why would women still make lives of other women unbearable just because they see themselves as inferior to the men?
The story of the trials , struggles and pursuit of an african woman can not be told without emphasizing on the level of antagonism received from fellow women. It hurts deeply to see women raising their sons to disrespect other women when they have the ability to raise kings and not beasts! Why would a woman fabricate lies which reflects pure hatred for another woman just because she wants her son to do her bid(s)? Would you agree with me that this isn’t necessary? As a woman, all you need do is train your son to appreciate value and modesty…he will never trade you, “his mother”, for anything. In the real sense, african magic stories are true in this regard.
A woman struggles to succeed amidst the voices of naysayers, she tries to be independent amidst the voices of the spiteful. Most importantly, she tries to keep her home but the voices of female relatives keep distracting her husband. If only the animosity of women towards fellow women can be eliminated, we would live to be happy!
