2.2. Historical perspectives of women’s roles in the African contexts
2.2.4. Peacebuilding context
Peacebuilding wise, the intersection of African women’s social, economic and political roles in the pre-colonial era, was also interweaved with their ability to position themselves at the centre of peace processes across different communities. Several studies (Ngongo-Mbede 2003;
Mohammed 2003; Guyo 2009; and Isike and Uzodike 2011; among others) on women’s peacebuilding positions before the advent of colonialism in Africa speak of their ability to engage different strategies like: consultation, prayers, mediation, caregiving, and traversing of group and ethnic boundaries to influence and work together for the purpose of peace.
Among the Tupuri ethnic group of Cameroon for example, the elderly and matured women
18 This story as further stated by Leymah Gbowee (2013) motivated and helped them (the women of Liberia) to revolutionized the work they were doing in efforts to stop the Liberian conflict as they acknowledged that if the women in the story could challenge the structure of patriarchy, then they too could do something about the conflict situation in the country.
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of society exclusively assumed the responsibilities of advisors, consultants, and mediators of communal conflicts (Ngongo-Mbede 2003:32). A thesis by Fatuma Boru Guyo (2009) also acknowledges the upholding of similar roles by the Orma and the Pokomo women in the Tana River District of Kenya in the resolution of pre-colonial conflicts. Guyo (2009:37-38) reveals that the older women in these communities acted in advisory roles and used their agency to impact policies through their husbands, sons and male relatives, which were considered vital guidelines for the prevention and resolution of the conflict between the Orma and the Pokomo peoples before colonialism. As noted by both authors, these women were recognized and respected in their communities as intermediaries and connoisseurs of conflict resolution.
Literature exemplifying peacebuilding efforts furring pre-colonial conflicts in Somali elaborates that women’s roles were noted in their ability to overlook the conflict and ethnic divides in pursuit of peace through the tradition of marriage. According to Mohammed (2003:103), this peacebuilding strategy comprised unannounced visits by a young group of unmarried women from one of the combatting clans to the other, without the knowledge or approval of their family members. In the context of this practice, the preparation and marriage ceremony that ensued after the young women revealed their status to the rival clan, set the wheels for a peace negotiation that ultimately resulted in the resolution of the conflict (Mohammed 2003:103). Further appraisal by the author distinguishes another approach by Somali women to resolve inter and intra clan conflicts through the construction of human chains by women between the warring groups. This often was executed with a determined resolve by women to stay put until the factions withdrew, to prevent killings, and create the scenario for possible dialogue and negotiation. Isike and Uzodike (2011), Guyo (2009), and Mohammed (2003), commonly substantiate that women in pre-colonial Africa used an assortment of conflict resolution strategies; including praying for peace, serving as conciliators, and acting as peace envoys and facilitators in situations of societal conflicts.
Concluding on the fore-discussed historical reviews, it can be resolved that the socio- economic and political agency of women in pre-colonial Africa was defined by their aptitude as well as magnanimity to: maintain family bonds; nurture household and livelihoods;
preserve family lives; perpetuate social harmony; and contribute to their economic
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empowerment as well as development of society. Likewise, while the political dimension of women’s peacebuilding efforts in the pre-colonial times is not distinctly detailed by the scholarships reviewed, the fundamental point is that women had the essential human skills and abilities to mediate and influence the resolution of conflicts. Postulating these realities is not to deny that women were marginalized or their roles challenged by hegemonic ideologies of maleness and the patriarchal nature of society, where the male was seen as more of a leader than his female counterpart. In the case of Liberia, as in other traditional settings across the continent, African women were considered the property of their husbands and their social contributions, despite being complemented by those of their male equals, were basically emasculated (Government of Liberia/UN 2011). In addition, even though women towered economically, they remained underpowered owing to lack of formal education and access to land and agrarian resources, the lack of appreciation for their agricultural contributions, and majority exclusion from decision-making structures (Countries and their Cultures Forum - Culture of Liberia; Government of Liberia/UN 2011; Nagbe 2010). Basically, it is resolute to construe that the prominence of women’s roles in the pre-colonial times was symbolic of both agency, leadership, and marginalization, which are attributes present and in continuity contemporarily.
Against the backdrop of the above historical appraisal, scholars like Amadiume’s (1987) and St. Clair (1994:27) have argued that the problem of marginalization more or less ensued and reached its peak with the advent of colonialism. According to Amadiume’s (1987), the arrival of western colonialism chaperoned by the introduction of western education systems, legislations, Christianity and the modern state system of voting and electing leaders constituted a ruthless change to the socio-economic and political standing of African women in the past. Not only did this change severely subjugate and destroy existent traditional institutions, it also discounted women’s economic influence and further confined their roles to household duties and subordinating them to men (Amadiume 1987). In light of this, St.
Clair (1994:27) maintains that the commonality and vibrancy of women’s role in traditional African societies was a pre-colonial ambiance, an oddity that changed with the dawn of colonialism. The understanding garnered from this discourse and the works of (Boserup 1970;
Staudt 1981 & 1989; Dennis 1994; and Campbell 2003, etc.) who hold similar views, is that,
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colonialism radically masculinized and feminized the roles of men and women. Likewise, it bred inequality between them that transcended to the post-colonial and today’s modern era.
Albeit these exclusionary colonial dynamics, scholarships19 also elucidate that some African women20 remained strategically active, seeing as they founded and joined resistance movements to fight for political independence through various community mobilization systems and structures.