The African Woman

Women all over the world come in different shapes, sizes and colours. My focus however is THE AFRICAN WOMAN, she is one big package I want to unpack. The African woman is heavily built with full curves at where curves are supposed to be and also have full calves. Even though some may be short, quite a large number of African women are of considerate height. Some may be a little light-skinned but a majority of them have beautiful dark African skin that is usually shiny. As for her hair, it is a marvel, she has dark, long and soft hair that is usually braided into corn row or Rasta or other styles. Her mountainous back is a sight to behold. To sum it up, she is BEAUTIFUL! No wonder when she passes by any man, he turns to look at twice. No wonder one female Ghanaian musician, Becca in one of her songs “African Woman” said…

“Woman, I see a woman
Everyday in the mirror, I see a woman
And every time I look at mama, I see that woman
A wonderful woman, an African woman

Mother of nature
Beautiful woman…”

You cannot describe the African woman without talking of how respectful she is. In some African cultures, the women squat or kneel to serve their men, (that man could be a brother, a father, a husband or any man at all, it does not matter her relationship

with him), they do not speak back to men no matter what, they  carry out their responsibilities joyfully usually amidst singing and most importantly, they support their men no matter what. The African woman also brings up her children according to the culture of the society and makes sure they observe all the cultural practices. As for hard work, it is a quality you can never separate from this woman NO WONDER HER HOME IS OFTEN NEAT. Keeping the home and raising children in itself was a profession and a career that most African women aspired for.

Quite unfortunately, this beautiful picture of the African is gradually fading away as the modern African woman does not appreciate the colour of her skin any longer, that is why she buys body creams and soaps that will tone her skin colour. Interestingly, much is not done to help bring back the lost glory of the African woman back to her. It is very sad because she herself does not know that her glory is lost. She is changing everything about herself that I will not be surprise if she is asking the shape of her head be changed. The modern African woman wants to wear corsets to keep her stomach firm and give her a nice shape. She wants to wear long flying hair unlike the braids and plaits. She no longer curtsies

before the men because she sees that to be primitive. She has no time to do the household chores and wants to share them with the men. Where she cannot, she hires the services of a house help who raise her children, keep her home and many more. If she has her way, she will let her husband carry her pregnancy for the nine months, some do not even want to breastfeed their babies. Simply put, she cannot be submissive any more.

She shouts at her husband when he makes a mistake, she does not have time to teach her children the culture. She sees herself as a match to the African man which can

never be possible. No wonder most African homes are breaking and more children are going wayward. It is true that times are changing and the world is a global village, but I think we should not throw our culture away totally but blend it with the change we are experiencing. Because she can rub shoulders with the man at the workplace, she thinks he is her equal. We are blindly fighting for equality when we have no idea what t means. We can still blend the “Azonto” with our “Adowa”, “Borborbor”, “Kete”, “Bawaa”, “Damba” and others.

Other people in other part of the world are transporting their culture to us which we embrace warmly and our own culture, we are throwing away gradually. We had some cultural practices such as human sacrifice, banishment, chastisement, cruel widowhood rites and the likes which are now abolished or have been replaced because of their cruel nature. There are also some practices like puberty rites which helped young people to be chaste till marriage,

festivals, drumming and dancing, songs, storytelling, poems and idioms which are fading away even though these are not cruel in my opinion. Instead of learning to prepare traditional African dishes, sweeping, keeping the home and so on, the African girls are busy  making up and visiting clubs and posting on social media. My heart bleeds when the African woman cannot prepare any African dish or speak any African language (there are a few exceptions though). If Africa is loosing her culture, then I think the African woman has lost it, she has failed!

IS it too late for us now? No, I do not think so, there is still hope for Africa, even though some people have blamed the failing African society on formal education, I think we can still

pass down our culture to the upcoming generation formally through our educational institutions, children can still be taught how to sing that beautiful African song, play that melodious African musical instrument, move their feet to the beautiful rhythm of that African sound and do many more if we want them to. Will there come a day when the African woman will stand up and save the African culture? Will there be a day when the African woman will think of a way to blend foreign culture with her culture? It can start with you and me to make a change. African women, please let us wake up and redeem our lost glory. Let our men feel proud about who they are and walk with their heads straight in the air. CHEERS to all the women out there who still uphold our culture and are proud of it!!