Philosophy and Women Emancipation in Africa

Abstract

The various cultures of the world embody customs and traditions through which they display their specific identities. The social aspect of culture encapsulates the various strata of human social institutions with the attendant characteristics they express. Within the socio-natural milieu, humanity is gender driven. A society is either patriarchal or matriarchal depending mainly on the historical circumstances that must have informed such designation. The popular feeling of wide discrimination against women is found mainly in patriarchal societies where their freedom, fundamental human rights are deemed limited by the artifice of the men folk. Such setting tends to adopt a sense of gender divide which ascribes inferiority to the feminine gender. The sense of injustice informed by this kind of situation gave meaning to the necessity of women emancipation. This paper therefore brings into focus the African women existing mainly in a patriarchal driven setting of whose culturally informed subjugation engender sustained quest for emancipation. Using Philosophical tools, the paper examines the essence, nature and approaches to African women emancipation. It submits that in as much as African cultural practices which defile women dignity should be abolished in totality, African women emancipation ought not to take the African woman away from her essential motherliness.

Keywords: Philosophy, Women Emancipation, Africa

DOI: 10.7176/JPCR/50-06

Publication date: September 30th 2020