When Agbowo and Liberation Alliance Africa collaborated to host the Arts and Women event in March, the conversations explored points of intersection on womanhood: Who is a woman? How does a woman represent the self and her embodiment of humanity in a society that constantly attempts to relegate, shame, and define her as less-than? What does it mean to navigate a world that has politicised womanhood for capitalist extraction of labour? What does diversity mean in the context of being woman and feminine? How do women remain authentic and relevant in the face of patriarchal expectations of “good womanness”? What does representation look like in daily life, in the arts, politics, and leadership?
Led by Liberation Alliance Africa’s co-dreamer Omolara Oriye, and contributors to Agbowo’s “The Woman Issue,” the diverse gathering offered perspectives on individual and collective understandings of gender, identity, and expression. They centred the many ways that womanhood is experienced, eschewing policing what womanhood means or what identity is right or wrong in the context of womanness.
Societal Expectations and Definitions
In her short story “Fonahanmi,” one of the panelists Oreoluwa explores family dynamics and interactions between women. The story allowed for reflection on societal expectations and stereotypes about women’s roles. The women in conversation focused on Nigerian society’s failure to recognise daughters as children, which is evident in how children are identified, referred to, and raised in families. An audience member highlighted how children are differentiated based on gender, in a way that denigrates female children are less desirable. For most people, a family with two sons has “two children”; a family with two daughters has “two daughters.”
Society indulges a gendered upbringing of female children, allowing their childhood to be cut short to introduce them to social reproduction activities. So, while boys have more time to play, learn a few tricks, ride bicycles, and watch TV, girls are saddled with caring, cooking, washing, and being responsible for their younger siblings.
A point of injury came up, in how often strained relationships between mothers and daughters come from both parties’ struggles to navigate patriarchal and societal roles. A strong sub-theme was forgiving one’s mother for things she did not know. Nigerian mothers often attempt to impose their ideas and ideals of womanhood on their daughters because it is all they know; in some cases, it is the only way they can think of to protect their daughter from patriarchal backlash.
The conversation highlighted that perhaps a way to start healing is to initiate intergenerational dialogue, to unpack the harm done and arrive at a place where we could all unite against an oppressor that demands that mothers work until they drop, an oppressor that indoctrinates daughters into an endless routine of thankless, unpaid labour and care work.
Intersections, Generalisations, and Contrasts
Even while in the same phase of their lives, women in the same environment often have different experiences. One grasps this better through the concept of intersectionality, where our core identities — class, age, religion, gender identity and expression — impact how we see ourselves and how others see us, and translate into how we show up in the world and the kinds of experiences we are a part of.
The conversation moved to experiences of womanhood that transcend differences and encouraged self-reflection on classism and class solidarity. While more women are coming into self-liberation, resisting the patriarchy and capitalism and being progressive, it is crucial to ensure that they do not contribute to the shaming, subjugation, and “othering” of other women based on class.
When we see women we deem less progressive than us, we should make room for education, empathy, and reflection, especially where it does not cause political or real damage to women. Rather than dismissal and intolerance, we must encourage movement towards liberation as a collective, even when it means a call to correction and education. We must not let dangerous rhetoric and careless narratives thrive.
A Case About Women in Leadership
There is something to be said about women in positions of authority whose climbs are only made possible through the exploitation of other women’s labour. Who, for instance, does the care work, the cooking and cleaning for privileged women? It is in keeping with the Marxist theory of social reproduction, which details how capitalism depends on the outsourcing and exploiting of poorer women’s labour.
It is true that capitalism leverages women’s identities to tick off diversity or representation quotas, using women as placeholders in positions of power without the agency to make change. But sometimes, the women selected for those positions are, of their own volition, foot soldiers of the patriarchy and enforce harmful norms, relying on their positions to give them coverage.
Is increasing women’s participation in politics enough without considering the ideals and values of those women? Is it time for feminist women to invest funds and capacity into politics?
Women’s Representation in the Arts
Historically, Nollywood’s onscreen representation of women has promoted a “reward system” for women’s subjugation. In most stories, the young woman who is loved by a poor man but instead chooses a rich man is often doomed to childlessness, domestic abuse, and a lack of happiness. Her life is in shambles because of that decision. In contrast, the rejected poor young man often goes on to become rich, finding happiness as the archetype of “the perfect man.” It is a depiction that reduces women’s lives to caricature, deliberately maintained to keep women seeking patriarchal approval.
The pieces in Agbowo’s “The Woman Issue” paint a more nuanced picture. The issue cover by Abisola Gbadamosi presents women as fierce, bold, god, and glorious. Iyanuoluwa Adenle’s poem “Open” explores desire and pleasure as sites of liberation. Together, the pieces are a vision of women who are boundless and desirable. Through art that embodies pleasure as liberatory politics, they name and take their freedom and inspire others to pursue liberation.
Continuity
While hetero-patriarchal capitalist structures continue to demand the subjugation of women, conversations and organising like this one, at the Arts and Women event, contribute to the resistance, and promote women as worthy of respect, dignity, humanity, and rest. Safe spaces for women to share experiences and deliberate on ways to liberate themselves foster solidarity and bolster our dream of collective liberation. ♦
About the Organisations
Agbowó provides platforms for creative Africans to reach and interact with the local community and the global audience. Founded in 2017 and led by Habeeb Kolade, the organisation produces literary and art publications while convening art events and programs that enhance creativity and collaboration among Africans.
Liberation Alliance Africa is a feminist, pan-African collective raising critical consciousness through radical knowledge production, policy advocacy, decolonial feminist organising, interrogation power structures and privilege, and documenting the cultural evolution of a liberated Africa.
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