African Women in Politics: Past, Present and the Future

Abstract

An African woman is so defined because she is a wife of an African man or because she is a female of an African origin, have two different perspectives to the definition given to them and therefore to the role they are expected to play in politics within their various communities. An African woman so labelled given her marital position as a wife of an African man is seen as an appendage of a man and treated as the shadow of the man. This view is the dominant view of who an African woman has been or expected to be. The effect of this kind of view is the subjection of the will of the woman and the subjugation of her rights, interests, benefits and endowments as though she were inferior to the man in all ramifications. This view of the African woman has been the main reason for the disenfranchisement of the African woman. On the other hand, an African woman is seen rightly as a person who has not only duties but also rights; not only responsibilities but also privileges in her own right as an individual with potential, ideas, wishes, choices and interests. This view has become popular in recent times and has been the result of many decades of struggle for the recognition of women. The involvement and participation of African women in politics cannot however be traced accurately without some specific references to different periods in history. While it is desirable to inch into the history of the African woman in politics, it should be noted that it is impracticable to exhaust such events especially because Africa and by implication African women developed differently at a different speed. This precludes a generalized view of the history of African women in politics, but gives rise to the necessity of tracing the trends of events in ‘historical blocks’, instead. For the reasons mentioned above and for ease of reference, these historical blocks would be categorized as the past, the present and the future. The objective is to examine how the African woman has been boxed into the ‘mental corner’ labelled: ‘impossible’ in spite of the traceable contributions and impacts of the African women in all facets of life. In addition, this paper attempts, to identify some African heroines in the past; in terms of the role that they played in the politics of their nations; as well as the role that some African women play in the present ‘digital age’. Given these roles, questions arise as to whether these women are appendages of men. What has the present heroines done and what is the result of their efforts; what are the possibilities of having more women in politics in the future i.e. better participation and representation of women in leadership and decision-making in Africa. The paper adopts a historical method to interrogate the narratives and experiences of women in politics in Africa, with Nigeria as the case study.