Gender in the African Traditional Context

Abstract

This paper sets out to argue that the family is the foundation of every society. In this regard everything should be done to save the Kenyan family. Family is one of the oldest and most common human institutions. Since prehistoric times, the family has been an important organization in society. Most people grow up as a family, and as adults establish a family of their own. Some traditional African societies had an Equalitarian System which gave women and men equal power in the family. Researchers have not found a truly Matriarchal System in which the mother headed the family and had the most power in society. But in most African cultures the mother was essentially honored. People regulated themselves by elaborating rules governing sexual pairing. These rules were, and remain extremely diverse, although prohibitions against incest - sexual relations between close family members – have been virtually universal. The incest taboo requires individuals to find and marry mates from outside their own family group: There are two general sources of complexity in family structure. The first originates in taking more than one spouse. Some African cultures practiced polyandry, the system by which one woman takes more than one husband. The other is Polygyny or Polygamy where one husband marries more than one wife. It further argues that feminism has some strengths and weaknesses as far as the African family is concerned. Only the strong points of feminism should be upheld. The negative ones should be discarded. It also argues that there are a number of strengths of the traditional African family, which should be incorporated in the Kenya constitution. Again the negative ones should be one away with. It centres on the African Womanism as a movement which encourages the African Women and Men to evaluate the state of the family now and decide: “Whither way forward for the African family: Womanist or Radical feminism?” It concludes by stating that let the good values from both feminism and womanism be carried forward and let the negative ones be discarded. The purpose of this paper is to present on the question of Gender in the African tradition. The issue to be covered by the presentation will include among others: The African understanding of gender, the role of culture in gender relations, obstacles in the African traditions that militate against women’s rights, and incorporating beneficial African traditional practices on gender in the constitution.