The original idea for this piece was to write a short essay on Nigerian Feminism over the past 50 years. However there are still those who feel that “feminism” is unAfrican and I feel there needs to be a discussion on what Nigerian Feminism is before one can begin to name Nigerian feminists. I give an example. Earlier this year I was at a workshop on Gender and Militarization and we were working through ideas around “feminist methodology”. One of the participants asked for clarification on the term ‘feminist’. From the discussion it soon became clear that many of those present were reluctant to use the term which they associated with “lesbianism” or “man-hating” which were “unAfrican” and feminism was a western idea and as such not something they wished to be a part of. Some consensus was reached but anything to do with same-sex desire was dismissed by all but two women including myself. What should have come next was a discussion on whom or what can be said to be authentically African? Who is the holder of this power to define who or what is African which assumes a static or fixed condition? How can they do so given, for example, the cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity in a geographical entity of nearly 1 billion people? Even to say it is “unNigerian” is equally problematic.
