Our main goal in this chapter is to interrogate feminist discourse in Africa. Five key questions guide our critical engagements in this chapter: Were women marginalized in traditional African society? Was the traditional African society based on a patriarchal culture that subordinated women? Did the colonial and missionary cultures import and impose the Western bivalent, missionary, and patriarchal culture on African societies? Are there signs of marginalization of African women in the contemporary era? And, is the uproar about African women marginalization a mere social construction of difference − the idea that African women are treated differently in ways that subjugate them—which does not reflect reality? In addressing these questions, we propose a culture of conversation that aims to reconstruct feminist discourse in Africa by situating it within the African cultural context.

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Constructed Difference or Women Marginalization in Contemporary Africa? Building a Culture of Conversation

  • Amara Esther Chimakonam,
  • Jonathan O. Chimakonam

摘要

Our main goal in this chapter is to interrogate feminist discourse in Africa. Five key questions guide our critical engagements in this chapter: Were women marginalized in traditional African society? Was the traditional African society based on a patriarchal culture that subordinated women? Did the colonial and missionary cultures import and impose the Western bivalent, missionary, and patriarchal culture on African societies? Are there signs of marginalization of African women in the contemporary era? And, is the uproar about African women marginalization a mere social construction of difference − the idea that African women are treated differently in ways that subjugate them—which does not reflect reality? In addressing these questions, we propose a culture of conversation that aims to reconstruct feminist discourse in Africa by situating it within the African cultural context.