RADICAL FEMINISM: THE FOUNDATION OF CRISES IN MODERN AFRICAN FAMILIES. BY UWAKWE ROLAND O C
I found this on facebook and decided to share, what do you guys think of this, share your thoughts:
"If I had a hammer…I'd smash patriarchy. I found it"
Honestly, it is very difficult to write a topic like this, because of the tendency of being labeled a misogynist, uneducated, and uncivilized; however I am perturbed by the increasing rate of marital crisis in our society and the fact that we are doing so little to curb it.
Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical reordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts. It also seeks to abolish patriarchy by challenging existing social norms and institutions. This movement started in the developed Western societies where women have taken over and are in control of events. However it is gradually being experienced in Africa.
Historically, there is no doubting the fact that women have been maltreated, marginalized and deprived of the opportunity to express their God giving potentials to the fullest by the old order, albeit it is not enough reason to fight the modern man.
It is not within the scope of this work to give us the statistics of the increasing rate of divorce in our modern world, but it is shocking to know that six in ten marriages are likely to end in divorce; the figure is even higher in more advanced societies. There is a paradigm that the more economically balanced a woman is, the higher tendency of challenging the male partner, this is because money comes with power and authority, and men hate to be challenged. Another school of thought also argues that the more money a woman has in comparison with the husband, the more chances of the marriage ending in crisis, a recent example is the Tiwa Savage marriage which broke up because the young woman felt she is the one taking care of the family.
Radical feminists have also confronted the modern legal systems, especially in the areas of rights of equality, property rights and inheritance, for instance in the recent past, in Igbo land women were not allowed to partake in the sharing of their late father's property, but going by the Supreme Court decision in Ukeje V. Ukeje such unwholesome practice can no longer hold water
Aside all these, I like to appreciate a lot of women in our society who despite their position, income and level of education, still maintains the traditional principle of giving their husbands the required respect and obedience as stated in the Holy books. They are the real amazons of this age; such women ought to be celebrated. Another group of women in Africa who ought to be respected and admired are the Muslim women who have accepted the fact that God has a well-ordered plan for the family right from creation, when He made the man the head of the family.
These are unlike the majority of African women of today that have forgotten the real African feminism that stands for hard work, resilient and courage; they therefore have embraced the Western lifestyle of freedom and comfort, the result being that the average young girl in Nigeria, anticipate to have everything without giving anything in return. They have been trained to believe that they can get anything they want without hard work, they expect to be treated like angels without been angelic, they love to be admired and adored like a princes without exhibiting the qualities of royalty.
Honestly, it is very difficult to write a topic like this, because of the tendency of being labeled a misogynist, uneducated, and uncivilized; however I am perturbed by the increasing rate of marital crisis in our society and the fact that we are doing so little to curb it.
Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical reordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts. It also seeks to abolish patriarchy by challenging existing social norms and institutions. This movement started in the developed Western societies where women have taken over and are in control of events. However it is gradually being experienced in Africa.
Historically, there is no doubting the fact that women have been maltreated, marginalized and deprived of the opportunity to express their God giving potentials to the fullest by the old order, albeit it is not enough reason to fight the modern man.
It is not within the scope of this work to give us the statistics of the increasing rate of divorce in our modern world, but it is shocking to know that six in ten marriages are likely to end in divorce; the figure is even higher in more advanced societies. There is a paradigm that the more economically balanced a woman is, the higher tendency of challenging the male partner, this is because money comes with power and authority, and men hate to be challenged. Another school of thought also argues that the more money a woman has in comparison with the husband, the more chances of the marriage ending in crisis, a recent example is the Tiwa Savage marriage which broke up because the young woman felt she is the one taking care of the family.
Radical feminists have also confronted the modern legal systems, especially in the areas of rights of equality, property rights and inheritance, for instance in the recent past, in Igbo land women were not allowed to partake in the sharing of their late father's property, but going by the Supreme Court decision in Ukeje V. Ukeje such unwholesome practice can no longer hold water
Aside all these, I like to appreciate a lot of women in our society who despite their position, income and level of education, still maintains the traditional principle of giving their husbands the required respect and obedience as stated in the Holy books. They are the real amazons of this age; such women ought to be celebrated. Another group of women in Africa who ought to be respected and admired are the Muslim women who have accepted the fact that God has a well-ordered plan for the family right from creation, when He made the man the head of the family.
These are unlike the majority of African women of today that have forgotten the real African feminism that stands for hard work, resilient and courage; they therefore have embraced the Western lifestyle of freedom and comfort, the result being that the average young girl in Nigeria, anticipate to have everything without giving anything in return. They have been trained to believe that they can get anything they want without hard work, they expect to be treated like angels without been angelic, they love to be admired and adored like a princes without exhibiting the qualities of royalty.
These set of African women are deceived by the wave of radical feminism that tends to reorder God's standard and direction to mankind. Such ideologies from the West find their footings in Africa because we have been trained to believe that anything from the white man's land is gold and good, even when they contradict with some fundamental principles of life, we tend to rationalize it as noble. This is largely because, from the word go, we were taught the ideologies of the Western world; we read and study with their languages, so we really learn nothing of ourselves.
Irrespective of human ideologies, we must understand that it is God that instituted marriage with well-established principles, therefore it should not be compared with any other human institution, a woman can be the President of Nigeria for all I care but that same woman should respect and be obedient to the husband at home, that's God's principle which very few human minds comprehend.
Ezinne Okoroego summarized it thus, "the idea of equality with men is a disaster to the family. It is as disastrous as when the pilot and the copilot try to fly the aircraft at the same time. The woman in her feminine qualities should be loved and cared for while the man in his masculine dignity should be respected, when this is done, a wholesome family will be achieved"
Irrespective of human ideologies, we must understand that it is God that instituted marriage with well-established principles, therefore it should not be compared with any other human institution, a woman can be the President of Nigeria for all I care but that same woman should respect and be obedient to the husband at home, that's God's principle which very few human minds comprehend.
Ezinne Okoroego summarized it thus, "the idea of equality with men is a disaster to the family. It is as disastrous as when the pilot and the copilot try to fly the aircraft at the same time. The woman in her feminine qualities should be loved and cared for while the man in his masculine dignity should be respected, when this is done, a wholesome family will be achieved"
feminism means different thing to everyone and has been misinterpreted so many ways to suit one another, for me i think its about equal opportunity which ofcourse includes men..... if a man can go to school so should women, ther are places where it is belived that if you have a boy child, d boy child shld go to school and while the girl child should be home and there are some families who believe while educate a girl girl when she will be married off to a man... so its actually fine to want same equal opportunity
ReplyDeletethe world is changing please, equal opportunity doesnt mean challenging your husband in a loud tone. Men should stand up for their responsibily, these days men want to marry high standard working class women, they practivally want women that can work for them, cook for them, clean for them and still be able to perform her duties as a wife and a mom, men should challenge themselves to be a better man. those days that men take pride in providing for the homes is fading away gradually, wake up dear men and do your job. while women are busy developing themselves, men are sleeping waiting for a woman to be care runner of a home, i laugh when i hear men say, my wife must work, or my wife can never be a housewife or my wife must be a career woman, you see why can't we find men these days that want to be a provider as well as challenging their wife or wife to be to be better, all you hear these days are lazy men who wants to marry a career hardworking women and still hope to eat her money in the name of a woman should be submissive.... i think we need to raise more responbile men in the society...
ReplyDeleteeven if your wife earns more than you, as long as you as a man is going out and coming in and trying to take responsibility, your wife will always respect, adore you and possibly give you more from what she earns because she has seen a responsible hardworking man, but if you are the likes of tiwa's husband who despite the fact was not making any money but still lavish money with alcohol and irrelevant wastage, do not expect your wife to part u at the back and breast feed you. no woman love a lazyass man, infact women are attracted to hardworking man because they believe that even if he doesnt have today, he will have tomorrow, so zero excuse to lazymen outthere
ReplyDelete