Women and the social construction of gender in African development

Africa Today

Volumn 43, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 269-288

  Kalu, Anthonia C ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AFRICA; ARTICLE; BEHAVIOR; CRITIQUE; DEVELOPING COUNTRY; ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; ECONOMIC FACTORS; ECONOMICS; ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION; EVALUATION; GENDER ISSUES; GENDER RELATIONS; HUMAN RELATION; INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION; MASS MEDIUM; POLITICAL SYSTEM; PRINTED MEDIA; SOCIAL BEHAVIOR; SOCIAL CHANGE; SOCIAL EVOLUTION; SOCIOECONOMICS; SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT; WOMEN'S RIGHTS; WOMEN'S STATUS;

AFRICA; BEHAVIOR; COLONIALISM; COMMUNICATION; CRITIQUE; DEVELOPING COUNTRIES; ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; ECONOMIC FACTORS; GENDER ISSUES; GENDER RELATIONS; MASS MEDIA; POLITICAL SYSTEMS; PRINTED MEDIA; SOCIAL BEHAVIOR; SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT; SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS; SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT; WOMEN'S STATUS;

AFRICA; BEHAVIOR; COLONIALISM; COMMUNICATION; CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES; DEVELOPING COUNTRIES; ECONOMICS; EVALUATION STUDIES; INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS; MASS MEDIA; POLITICAL SYSTEMS; SOCIAL BEHAVIOR; SOCIAL CHANGE; SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS; WOMEN'S RIGHTS;

EID: 0030300229     PISSN: 00019887     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (38)

1. See Robert Tucker, ed., The Marx and Engels Reader, 2d ed. (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1978), pp. 653-664.
2. Vernacular here does not refer only to African languages; included is the worldview embedded in the black English vernacular. For example, in Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (New York: Bantam Books, 1980), she gives the following example, based on language use, about the different worlds in which she and her black associates live and the different knowledge bases and learning strategies evoked by the worldview that underlies each one. "At school in a given situation, we might respond with 'That's not unusual.' But in the street, meeting the same situation, we easily said, 'It be's that way sometimes'" (191). The point here is not in the dialectical differences between the standard English and the black English vernaculars. Rather, it is in the centuries-old blues notes carried in and by the vernacular phrase, which do not need explanations as to what is connoted or denoted within the African-American community when this vernacular statement is used. Further, within the African-American community itself, gender constructions manifested by this phrase are also illuminating.
3. Toni Morrison, Beloved (New York: Penguin Signet Books, 1987), p. 38.
4. Ibid., pp. 44-45.
5. The implications referred to here would be indicated by the second meaning of Nwanyibuife (Woman is carrying Something), which was presented as part of the theme of the African Literature Association Conference held in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1992. From my exploration of Igbo thought, I understand this to mean that the "something" she carries has more positive than negative connotations. In that sense, the inferred load is not burdensome: rather, it authorizes her participation and action within the culture.
6. Sangmpam, "Social Theory and the Challenges of Africa's Future," Africa Today, vol. 42, no. 3 (Third Quarter, 1995), pp. 62-63.
7. For examples of epics, myths, and legends, see for instance, Daniel P. Biebuyck and Mateene Kahombo, trans. and eds., The Mwindo Epic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969); D. T. Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, translated by G. D. Pickett (London: Longman, 1965); Elizabeth Isichei, Igbo Worlds (Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1979); R. N. Henderson, The King in Every Man (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972); Daniel Biebuyck, Hero and Chief: Epic Literature of the Banyanga (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978); Ulli Beier, The Origin of Life and Death: African Creation Myths (London: Heinemann, 1966); and J. Knappert, Myths and Legends of the Swahili (London: Heinemann, 1970).
8. For examples of epics, myths, and legends, see for instance, Daniel P. Biebuyck and Mateene Kahombo, trans. and eds., The Mwindo Epic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969); D. T. Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, translated by G. D. Pickett (London: Longman, 1965); Elizabeth Isichei, Igbo Worlds (Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1979); R. N. Henderson, The King in Every Man (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972); Daniel Biebuyck, Hero and Chief: Epic Literature of the Banyanga (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978); Ulli Beier, The Origin of Life and Death: African Creation Myths (London: Heinemann, 1966); and J. Knappert, Myths and Legends of the Swahili (London: Heinemann, 1970).
9. For examples of epics, myths, and legends, see for instance, Daniel P. Biebuyck and Mateene Kahombo, trans. and eds., The Mwindo Epic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969); D. T. Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, translated by G. D. Pickett (London: Longman, 1965); Elizabeth Isichei, Igbo Worlds (Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1979); R. N. Henderson, The King in Every Man (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972); Daniel Biebuyck, Hero and Chief: Epic Literature of the Banyanga (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978); Ulli Beier, The Origin of Life and Death: African Creation Myths (London: Heinemann, 1966); and J. Knappert, Myths and Legends of the Swahili (London: Heinemann, 1970).
10. For examples of epics, myths, and legends, see for instance, Daniel P. Biebuyck and Mateene Kahombo, trans. and eds., The Mwindo Epic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969); D. T. Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, translated by G. D. Pickett (London: Longman, 1965); Elizabeth Isichei, Igbo Worlds (Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1979); R. N. Henderson, The King in Every Man (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972); Daniel Biebuyck, Hero and Chief: Epic Literature of the Banyanga (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978); Ulli Beier, The Origin of Life and Death: African Creation Myths (London: Heinemann, 1966); and J. Knappert, Myths and Legends of the Swahili (London: Heinemann, 1970).
11. For examples of epics, myths, and legends, see for instance, Daniel P. Biebuyck and Mateene Kahombo, trans. and eds., The Mwindo Epic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969); D. T. Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, translated by G. D. Pickett (London: Longman, 1965); Elizabeth Isichei, Igbo Worlds (Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1979); R. N. Henderson, The King in Every Man (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972); Daniel Biebuyck, Hero and Chief: Epic Literature of the Banyanga (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978); Ulli Beier, The Origin of Life and Death: African Creation Myths (London: Heinemann, 1966); and J. Knappert, Myths and Legends of the Swahili (London: Heinemann, 1970).
12. For examples of epics, myths, and legends, see for instance, Daniel P. Biebuyck and Mateene Kahombo, trans. and eds., The Mwindo Epic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969); D. T. Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, translated by G. D. Pickett (London: Longman, 1965); Elizabeth Isichei, Igbo Worlds (Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1979); R. N. Henderson, The King in Every Man (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972); Daniel Biebuyck, Hero and Chief: Epic Literature of the Banyanga (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978); Ulli Beier, The Origin of Life and Death: African Creation Myths (London: Heinemann, 1966); and J. Knappert, Myths and Legends of the Swahili (London: Heinemann, 1970).
13. For examples of epics, myths, and legends, see for instance, Daniel P. Biebuyck and Mateene Kahombo, trans. and eds., The Mwindo Epic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969); D. T. Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, translated by G. D. Pickett (London: Longman, 1965); Elizabeth Isichei, Igbo Worlds (Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1979); R. N. Henderson, The King in Every Man (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972); Daniel Biebuyck, Hero and Chief: Epic Literature of the Banyanga (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978); Ulli Beier, The Origin of Life and Death: African Creation Myths (London: Heinemann, 1966); and J. Knappert, Myths and Legends of the Swahili (London: Heinemann, 1970).
14. Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (New York: Fawcett Crest, 1959).
15. Sangmpam, "Social Theory and the Challenges of Africa's Future," p. 44.
16. Buchi Emecheta, Kehinde (Oxford: Heinemann, 1994).
17. Kwesi Yankah, "Displaced Academies and the Quest for a New World Academic Order," Africa Today, vol. 42, no. 3 (1995), pp. 7-25.
18. Chinua Achebe, A Man of the People (New York: Doubleday, 1967), p. 39.
19. Flora Nwapa, Efuru (London: Heinemann, 1966).
20. Achebe, Things Fall Apart, p. 117.
21. Ibid., pp. 123-124.
22. Bessie Head, The Collector of Treasures (London: Heinemann, 1977), p. 6.
23. Ibid., p. 1.
24. Ibid., p. 6.
25. Ibid.
26. Joseph C. Miller, ed., The African Past Speaks: Essays on Oral Tradition and History (Folkestone, England: Dawson, 1980), p. 1 [emphasis added].
27. Ibid., p. 3.
28. Jan Vansina, "Memory and Oral Tradition," in ibid., p. 262.
29. Ibid., pp. 275-277 [italics in the original].
30. Achebe, Things Fall Apart, p. 12.
31. Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language (New York: Pantheon Books, 1972), p. 108.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid., p. 142.
34. Ibid., p. 147.
35. Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah (New York: Anchor, 1987).
36. Nwapa, Efuru, pp. 118-119.
37. Okot p'Bitek, Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol (London: Heinemann, 1966).
38. Note the difference inferred here in comparison to the Christian/ Western idea of family construction discussed earlier. Ultimately, what becomes important and necessary is the concept of family embedded within the community.