Welcome, Guest: Register On Nairaland / LOGIN! / Trending / Recent / New
Stats: 3,153,151 members, 7,818,473 topics. Date: Sunday, 05 May 2024 at 04:44 PM

Yoruba Women In The Pre-independence Era - Culture - Nairaland

Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Culture / Yoruba Women In The Pre-independence Era (2427 Views)

Pre-independence Yoruba Women / The Beauty Of Yoruba Brides And Women In Aso Ebi / Igbo And Yoruba Women Who Has Best Way Of Dressing (2) (3) (4)

(1) (Reply) (Go Down)

Yoruba Women In The Pre-independence Era by Nobody: 6:37am On Nov 22, 2010
Found this article online and thought it would be a wonderful idea to share it wink wink

Have anyone of you guys read the ‘Yoruba Women, Work and Social Change’ a new book by visiting American author, Marjorie Keniston McIntosh? If yes, then please shed more light on the topic.


YORUBA WOMEN PRE-IND ERA:

According to the author, “Yoruba women were mothers of the community; they had a civic commitment, a sense of responsibility. And often would work, not for themselves, but for their families - children and younger siblings.” [We still attain this sense of responsibility]

Yoruba woman of the 19th and early 20th centuries as something of an Amazon. According to the Professor, Yoruba women of that period were “heavily involved in traditional religious practices - often in leading roles, such as spiritualists and priestesses. They learned to get together in pressure groups and had a tradition of active participation in the economy and the polity.”

Co-author of ‘Work, Women and Domestic Virtue in Uganda’, McIntosh favourably compared Nigerian women with their Ugandan counterparts, who were only recently after the political regime of Idi Amin “pushed into the market economy.” McIntosh illustrated this by reading an excerpt of her book, which depicts the 1948 protest by Abeokuta women, following an imposition of a ‘flat tax’ on all females aged 16 and older in Abeokuta, by the colonial government.

The 1948 protests were spearheaded by late Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, female activist and mother of musician Fela Kuti. The author narrates how Ransome Kuti established the Abeokuta Women’s Union and became “militant and anti-colonial concerning women issues, standing up to traditional rulers and British colonial officers, speaking Yoruba only.”

The Abeokuta Women’s Union, employing all manner of traditional coercion methods, such as abusive songs, jeers, sham funerals for the king and chiefs, taunting parodies of the Oro (male-only masquerade ritual) chants, nude protests and physical assaults, laid siege on the Alake’s palace for 24 hours, repeating their palace protest for 48 hours when their conditions had not been fulfilled the next week. As McIntosh read, “Women (thousands of them) stripped naked and stood outside the palace in full view of the king, demanding his dethronement. By removing their clothes, they removed their respect for Ademola.” The protests eventually culminated in the abolition of the taxes by the colonial government.
Re: Yoruba Women In The Pre-independence Era by Nobody: 6:38am On Nov 22, 2010
I def will have to read this book.
Re: Yoruba Women In The Pre-independence Era by oludashmi(f): 1:22pm On Nov 22, 2010
Ileke-IdI:

I def will have to read this book.
I should too. . .we are GREAT!
Re: Yoruba Women In The Pre-independence Era by ChinenyeN(m): 4:18pm On Nov 24, 2010
This was before we Africans had fully abandoned our ideology of "complimentary sexes", buying into the ideology of "opposite sexes". I like this.
Re: Yoruba Women In The Pre-independence Era by Ndipe(m): 1:36am On Nov 25, 2010
Interesting, would like to know more about Africa in the precolonial times.
Re: Yoruba Women In The Pre-independence Era by oludashmi(f): 10:46am On Nov 25, 2010
ChinenyeN:

This was before we Africans had fully abandoned our ideology of "complimentary sexes", buying into the ideology of "opposite sexes". I like this.
Hmmnn. Point!
Re: Yoruba Women In The Pre-independence Era by Nobody: 12:30am On Dec 08, 2010
ChinenyeN:

This was before we Africans had fully abandoned our ideology of "complimentary sexes", buying into the ideology of "opposite sexes". I like this.

And thatz why you'll continue to be my fave Igbo.

But can we say the western culture changed this? The idea that men should deal with musculine issues, why women tackle flowery issues.
Re: Yoruba Women In The Pre-independence Era by Ndipe(m): 12:32am On Dec 08, 2010
Even, remember the Aba women's riots of 1929? It goes to show you that the notion that African women were all submissive is flawed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igbo_Women's_War
Re: Yoruba Women In The Pre-independence Era by Nobody: 12:48am On Dec 08, 2010
^^^ Interesting read.

But why shouldnt women also be taxed?
Re: Yoruba Women In The Pre-independence Era by Omenani(m): 1:14am On Dec 08, 2010
ChinenyeN:

This was before we Africans had fully abandoned our ideology of "complimentary sexes", buying into the ideology of "opposite sexes". I like this.

Correct my brother!
Re: Yoruba Women In The Pre-independence Era by oyinda3(f): 6:02am On Dec 08, 2010
Ileke-IdI:

^^^ Interesting read.

But why shouldnt women also be taxed?

people in general (either male or female) resist taxation. especially when they are not seeing their taxes being put to good use. The women were probably organized better than the men which is why they were able to hold a protest. They had a union.
Also, they probably felt the effect of the tax more strongly (they had to cater to themselves and their kids, they weren't making that much in the first place etc)

I don't know. there could be other reasons too. The book does seem like one I would love to read. In fact, it's in my school library. I picked it out (the front cover is awesome!! i'm not sure if you've seen it yet) but I put it back on the shelves and promised myself to look at it again maybe when I have a break or vacation. lol
Re: Yoruba Women In The Pre-independence Era by Nobody: 8:57am On Dec 08, 2010
oyinda.:

people in general (either male or female) resist taxation. especially when they are not seeing their taxes being put to good use. The women were probably organized better than the men which is why they were able to hold a protest. They had a union.
Also, they probably felt the effect of the tax more strongly (they had to cater to themselves and their kids, they weren't making that much in the first place etc)

I don't know. there could be other reasons too. The book does seem like one I would love to read. In fact, it's in my school library. I picked it out (the front cover is awesome!! i'm not sure if you've seen it yet) but I put it back on the shelves and promised myself to look at it again maybe when I have a break or vacation. lol

Yes, of course. But judging from the movement, seems like the women were more pissed off because THEY were being taxed, not because of the taxation itself.

Yea, I saw the cover, I was thinking they could have used a better picture tho.
Re: Yoruba Women In The Pre-independence Era by ChinenyeN(m): 7:26pm On Dec 08, 2010
Ileke-IdI:

But can we say the western culture changed this? The idea that men should deal with musculine issues, why women tackle flowery issues.
Your choice of words here is an example of what I meant by adopting the ideology of "opposite sexes". That isn't to say though, that the idea of gendered roles didn't exist for us Africans. Here, it may help to think of it this way, the gendering of roles is a reality across cultures. Most cultures, in one way or another, seem to gender roles along similar lines. The difference though, is mainly in the understanding of (as in, the ideology behind) such gendering and then the structuring of those societies based on those ideologies. Western culture ideology is/was about "opposite sexes". Whereas, African cultures (at least, those that I'm somewhat familiarized with) was about the notion of "complementary sexes", before colonization. Remnants of pre-colonial African cultures exist as a testament to this.
Re: Yoruba Women In The Pre-independence Era by Nobody: 1:07am On Dec 11, 2010
ChinenyeN:

Your choice of words here is an example of what I meant by adopting the ideology of "opposite sexes". That isn't to say though, that the idea of gendered roles didn't exist for us Africans. Here, it may help to think of it this way, the gendering of roles is a reality across cultures. Most cultures, in one way or another, seem to gender roles along similar lines. The difference though, is mainly in the understanding of (as in, the ideology behind) such gendering and then the structuring of those societies based on those ideologies. Western culture ideology is/was about "opposite sexes". Whereas, African cultures (at least, those that I'm somewhat familiarized with) was about the notion of "complementary sexes", before colonization. Remnants of pre-colonial African cultures exist as a testament to this.

True.

(1) (Reply)

Oba Olateru Olagbegi’s Died With Five Of His Wives Still Virgins / West African Yoruba In South America / Advice For A Canadian Girl, In Love With A Nigerian Boy

(Go Up)

Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health
religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket

Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)

Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 29
Disclaimer: Every Nairaland member is solely responsible for anything that he/she posts or uploads on Nairaland.