F for Feminism

Feminism – that word a lot of African men hate so much. If you stand up for yourself, challenge a societal norm or say something in support of women, you’ll hear it: “you are starting to sound like a feminist!” And no, it is not meant as a compliment. They’ve even added it to the talking stage questionnaire. Right after, “what is your favourite colour?” comes: “are you a feminist?” A response in the affirmative will disqualify you sometimes. For some, it is a red flag. They want nothing to do with feminism, to them, it as a threat to masculinity. How dare you want to be equal with a man they ask. The idea of equality is an attack to control and male privilege.

The word feminist is equivalent to a slur in some spaces. However, whether you subscribe to feminism or not, you cannot deny the impact it has had. Thanks to feminism, women like me can get a job and actually get paid for it (although the gender pay gap still lingers). Women like me can open bank accounts in our own names. We can vote we, get educated, own a property and for the most part have access to opportunities we wouldn’t have had access to 70 years ago.

Thanks to feminism, I have a voice, a voice my grandmother wasn’t allowed to have and my daughter and her daughter’s voices will be even louder than mine. So yes, feminism doesn’t always look pretty. It shakes tables. It challenges the status quo. It confronts centuries of inequality. And sometimes, it’s angry. But can you really blame it?

It is very important not to view feminism through a single lens. While women in the Western part of the world are fighting for equal pay and workplace equity, this is not what women in my part of the world are fighting for. Here, women are fighting for the right to live. To breathe. To be safe. To not be married off as children. To not have our bodies mutilated as part of culture. These are the realities of many women, not some made up scenarios.

The goal is to achieve equality, but the fight is different, depending on where you stand. Feminism has to be intersectional, all women’s struggles cannot be grouped as one. For feminism to be effective, it must meet women where they are or it risks being exclusionary and elitist.

Often feminists are termed as bitter and angry. Wouldn’t you also be? Wouldn’t you be angry if your entire existence was under threat, if your autonomy as a human being was dismissed? That anger is awareness, it is a survival tactic.

To those who cringe at the word “feminism”, the fight is not against you. It is against systemic inequality. A world which values women and treats them as equals is better for all of us. It is progress. While we’ve come a long way, the fight is not over.