LIFE
Feminist or Humanist?
Imagine if you could not love freely, or have control over your choices in life. Imagine if you were told that the value of your life was only worth a fraction of the value of the man standing beside you, not because of what he has achieved in his life, but simply because he is a man. Imagine living a life where your existence is in peril because you were born a woman. For some of us, it may be difficult to imagine, but for many women across the world they do not need to imagine because it is their reality.
Sometime ago, I was at a gathering of young people organised by the Musers Club of the University of Lagos. Interestingly, the group is largely comprised of students of the Faculty of Law. This meeting was to discuss “The Dark Skin Problem” and I was invited because my novel, Yellow-Yellow, was one of the four books from which excerpts were selected for discussion. Basically, the discussions centred around Colourism and the inferiority complex associated with dark skin and our African identities even in the form of speaking our native language.
I love listening to undergraduates – for one, they keep me connected in this new world of tweets and hashtags, but more because they are at the point where the fire of youth is still burning strong and they genuinely believe that anything is possible; the world is their oyster. They have all the answers for making the world a better place. It is a good thing! Historically, the enthusiasm of youth has spurred significant change in societies, revolutions even. But young people often say some cringe-worthy things and we forgive them for they have not lived enough to know better. It is our responsibility to teach as we learn, and learn as we teach – I guess this could also sum up the reason why I like to be around young people.
One of the issues up for discussion was feminism. The young women on the panel were flag-flying feminists. A young man on the panel said that he was not a supporter of feminism and did not believe in women’s rights or child rights or any such subsets of rights (permit me to refer to them as such) because he believes in human rights. On some level, I can understand where he is coming from. If we lived in the world of economic theorists, where equations are derived under a ceteris paribus assumption, then that “humanist” point of view would be good enough. But we live in a world where power by any design – physical, racial, age, religion – has been used to oppress people and rob them of the basic right to be treated with dignity.
Because of this imbalance we have these subsets of rights. Because there was a time when a woman’s vote counted for less than a man’s vote; because a girl somewhere in the world is prohibited from getting an education; because a woman somewhere in the world is earning less than a man with the same qualifications; because a woman somewhere is at risk of losing her life for marrying the man she loves; because a woman somewhere is denied the right to choose; because… This is why we fight for women’s rights to address the structural, cultural and historical imbalances that keep women down. For some of us, the ability to choose is taken for granted, which is why it is important for those with experience to teach others and draw lessons from the experiences of others. My maternal grandparents, for instance, were ridiculed by family members for sending their four daughters to school, wasting good money that my grandfather could have used to buy my grandmother a trunk full of clothes and jewellery. It was a sacrifice my grandfather insisted on because as he said, he wanted them to be able to take care of themselves and their education was a step towards achieving that. Growing up, I always heard my grandmother encouraging women to send their daughters to school, and to value them as much as they valued their sons.
Feminism unfortunately has very negative connotations. But feminism and feminists have come a long way. From my understanding of Feminism, the movement has evolved from what was arguably a predominantly, white, man-hating movement to one whose focus is recognising the equality and full humanity of women and men. At the heart of it, feminists do not hate men nor do they want to annihilate men. In fact, the great Ms. Gloria Steinem got married at age 66, which marriage lasted three years before she became a widow.
So whether we are feminist or humanist, the reality is that girls and women are getting the short end of the stick across the world. What is important is that we have the courage to empathise and speak up against it because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
