Every African feminist has at least been confronted with the most loved controversial argument: “feminism is not African?” we are told. This statement erases the different movements of African women throughout the history of the world. More importantly, it denies indirectly that patriarchy affects African women as well. Moreover, we know resistance from the oppressed always happens where oppression rules.
In this essay, I am giving you three favorite African feminists who led movements or fought for African women’s liberation. Just because these women may not have access to the academic language to name and coin terms for their work, they still did feminist movement work.
I would also like to mention that I am working on an encyclopedia of 500 African women who shaped our continent’s core and history.
1.Aissata Kane: August 18 1938 – August 10 2019
Known as “Yaye Kadia” ( Mother Kadia), Aissata Kane was a feminist who dedicated her life to fighting for the advancement of women’s status in Mauritania. She grew up during a period education for girls was taboo in Mauritania, but her family invested in her education.( VOA news: Aissata Kane). In 1957, the final year of her secondary education, Kane formed a group to promote girls’ education, called the Comité pour la fréquentation scolaire féminine (“Committee for Female School Attendance”). She campaigned for girls to be sent to school and fought against “gavage,”[1] practice at the time aimed at making girls be more “beautiful” before marriage, but with disastrous health consequences. The practice consisted of Willingly or by force, make girls swallow unbearable amounts of food to gain weight and please their future husbands[2]
Recognizing her activism and her rigorous work, President Moktar Ould Daddah entrusted her with the Ministry of Family Protection and Social Affairs. Becoming the first woman minister in a Muslim country, from 1975 to 1977, in this still macho cultural area and with anchored patriarchy, she multiplies feminist actions. She federates around her energies that extend beyond her country’s borders by founding the International Association of Francophone Women (AIFF), headquartered in Mauritania. [3] ( Traversee-Mauritanides)
In 1978, the military seized power in a coup d’etat, Aïssata Kane moved away from public policy. However, that will in no way diminish her activism. From the UN summits on women in Nairobi (1985) and Beijing (1995) to the African Women’s Conference, including the International Union of Family Organizations and the Pan-African Family Organization, her voice remains linked to many decisive actions and advances. Without forgetting that she worked with the youth and the youth with her Mauritanian Association for Child Protection.[4]
Aissata Kane was also a convinced ecologist and chaired a Mauritanian association for the protection of the environment.’ She wanted to plant trees wherever she could.
2. Abayomi Oyinkansola, Nigeria: March 6 1897 – March 19 1990
Born on March 6, 1897, and named six names: Oyankinsola, Olaosebikan, Ajibike, Morenike, Ajibati, and Moronkije, Abayomi was the oldest of two children in a family of educated scholars. Her father, Sir Kitoyi Ajasa, was a lawyer and a publisher of the newspaper the standard during the earliest years of British colonialism. She studied in England, where she spent 11 years of her life. Upon finishing her schooling in Music, Abayomi returned to Nigeria, where she became a music teacher. She became an activist first by joining the organizing for Nigerian girls education to be equal to that of boys. As the chief commissioner for the Girls guides, Abayomi built bridges between wealthy women and the working classes for Nigerian women’s overall rights. On May 10, 1944, alongside 12 other women, Abayomi founded the Nigerian women’s party, To further encourage women, especially in Lagos and its environs to rise up for their rights. The party helped to bring together all the different women’s organizations under one umbrella. It gave women tools to cultivate nationalism at the intersections of their rights. Abayomi organized local market unions and pushed Nigerian women to be part of local independence movements.[5] ( Encyclopedia: Abayomi Oyinkansola).
Abayomi was also the first African feminist to address classism among women’s organizations. She urged elite women to work alongside poor and middle-class women [6]
3. Mamia Chentouf (Arabic: ماميا شنتوف, (1922–2012)
Mamia Aïssa born Mamia Abdelli in 1922, daughter of Aïssa Abdelli. His father was a former gendarme who came from the Tlemcen region in Algiers and a member of the MTLD steering committee in 1947. In the nationalist movement crisis, Mamia’s father remained close to Abdallah Filali * and for a long time loyal to Messali, who made him treasurer in Algeria from his party the MNA created in December 1954. For Mamia Abdelli, studies were crossed by the repercussions of militant life. Having become a midwife in working-class neighborhoods, she was one of the few young women, like her friend Kheira Bouayed, who are active in the MTLD organizations. Her organizing life started at the University of Algiers with the progressive and nationalist Algerian medical students, a rare minority but animated by an intellectual and political fervor.
From 1943-1944, she was involved in the Friends of the Freedom Manifesto movement; in May 1945, she took part in the demonstrations of the Algerian masses in Algiers, brutally repressed, notably in the rue d’Isly, and which were the occasion of the terrible repression in Sétif and in Constantine. In 1946, she was elected vice-president of the Association of Muslim Students of North Africa, where she defended women’s presence. In 1947, she created the women’s organization of the MTLD she led: the Association of Algerian Muslim Women.
Along her life journey, Mamia Abdelli fought for diversity and equal rights centering women and indigenous rights. It got her in trouble and she went to exile in Tunisia for some time
References
[1] Abayomi, Oyinkansola (1897–1990) | Encyclopedia.com
[2] Lady Oyinkansola Abayomi: An Amazon, trailblazerSaturday Magazine — The Guardian Nigeria News – Nigeria and World News
[1] L’obésité, un critère de beauté : “La pratique du gavage des filles peine à disparaître en Mauritanie” (francetvinfo.fr)
[2] Mauritanie: hommage à Aissata Kane, première femme ministre (voaafrique.com)
[3] AÏSSATA KANE, UNE ICÔNE S’EST ÉTEINTE (traversees-mauritanides.com)
[4] AÏSSATA KANE, UNE ICÔNE S’EST ÉTEINTE (traversees-mauritanides.com)
[5] Abayomi, Oyinkansola (1897–1990) | Encyclopedia.com
[6 Lady Oyinkansola Abayomi: An Amazon, trailblazerSaturday Magazine — The Guardian Nigeria News – Nigeria and World News