In Nigeria, as in other societies, there is, and there has always been a women's movement or more correctly women's movements. These existed before, during and after colonialism. Many of these may probably not fit into the conventional definition of a movement. Various forms of interest groups see themselves as movements. I admit that all of these do serve interests that in many ways attempt at addressing inequalities between women and men in society. While this is an acceptable criterion of minimising disagreements in the characterisation of women-based organisations, the reality is that there are still substantial differences in the forms of movements that call themselves ‘women's movements’. Some ‘movements’ may or may not have clear objectives, mission or vision but exist as ad hoc bodies, useful when the need arises but with little or no coordination, continuity or sustainability. Some may just be limited to specific local struggles.
In Nigeria, the oldest and largest wom-en's movement can be said to be the National Council of Women's Societies (NCWS) founded in 1958. Basu's (1995) definition clearly suits the NCWS.
The Nigerian women's movement is an unarmed movement. It is non-confronta-tional. It is a movement for the progressive upliftment of women for motherhood, nationhood and development.
This movement is ‘at home’ with the protection of our culture and tradition as well as with the supremacy of men. It will not rock the boat. It essentially accepts what the tradition has been and what religion sanctions.
There are sectors of this movement that are more radical than the status-quo and that would raise the struggle to a higher level but are still afraid of what the men would say or do. There are gender activists who would rather not be associated with feminism, publicly or privately. Again there are women ‘activists’ in the larger women's movement who call themselves feminists when they are in the midst of feminists but will quickly condemn ‘those crazy people’, a reference to those who publicly admit and declare that they are feminists. There are yet those who are feminists, ‘but'; these are women who want to be seen truly as feminists but become uncomfortable with discussions on such questions as the totality of who a feminist is and the extent of feminism in terms of core values, principles and praxis. They are satisfied with declaration and participation in meetings and conferences where the term feminism gets mentioned, but are generally silent when issues of sexual rights are discussed. For them, feminism has limits. They are, for instance, totally homophobic.
Feminism in Nigeria
There is no denying the fact that some forms of feminist struggles existed in Nigeria before what was clearly acclaimed and identified openly as a feminist movement: Women in Nigeria (WIN). However such struggles were largely undocumented. I make bold to state that feminism in Nigeria in its present form – consistent, organised, with clear objectives and ideology – came into being with the inauguration, in 1983, of the organisation Women in Nigeria (WIN) following the 1982 national conference on the same theme. WIN was a direct outcome of the conference, envisioned as a feminist movement and named as such.
During its first ten years WIN facilitated the development of many of the self-identified feminists in Nigeria today. WIN started off with a clearly stated rights-based approach to issues about women in Nigeria and was very clear on the issues of gender and social justice. However, the open policy of WIN of ‘come one – come all’, where anyone, male or female, was accepted as long as such a person accepted the provisions of our Constitution, carried a danger of WIN including persons who have contempt for feminism but come into WIN with their own agenda. There was no punishment for anyone who played no active roll as long as such a person showed up once in a while at meetings. In spite of the inherent weaknesses in the nature of membership criteria for WIN, one must always pay tribute to WIN as training ground for the emergence of organised feminist struggles in Nigeria. WIN's open policy of membership led to the entry of many persons who had no clue about feminism and gender justice and its core values and principles. Many enthusiastic members equated feminist struggles to abstract class struggle, with total disdain for gender issues. Internal conflicts generated by ignorance and opportunism as well as male chauvinistic understanding of social struggles as not including gender equality and equity as key components of social justice became a cankerworm that progressively weakened WIN as a movement for social transformation – a core focus of feminist struggles.
The Uniqueness & Contribution of WIN to the Nigerian Feminist Movement
From the onset, WIN engaged in research, policy advocacy and activism aimed at transforming the conditions under which women and other underprivileged classes in Nigeria lived. WIN's further uniqueness was its consciousness of both class and gender in the struggle for the emancipation of women. WIN acknowledged that, although the majority of women like the majority of men, suffered from the exploitative and oppressive character of the Nigerian society, women suffer additional forms of exploitation and oppression – as women. Thus WIN recognised the double forms of exploitation and oppression of women as members of the subordinate class and as women. WIN set out to struggle against both class and gender oppression through promoting the study of conditions of women, disseminating the outcome for policy formulation, defending the rights of women and taking actions to transform the conditions of women.
WIN's Strategies
WIN started off with the strategy of research, analysis and documentation of conditions of women in various situations in the society. The outcome of this strategy provided the much needed data for advocacy and mobilisation of women to demand their rights. This strategy also led to the practice of holding annual conferences as a means of public education and the creation of awareness, using research data and gender analysis as convincing tool for demanding for wom-en's rights. We may also mention the adoption of a clear Constitution that emerged from the involvement and participation of all members, the establishment of WIN as an institution with basic feminist principles and values, the emergence of well-defined organisational structures of leadership and representation at national and in the state branches, and clearly defined roles, responsibilities and obligations.
During these first ten years, WIN never received subvention from government and so was able to maintain its independence. It could therefore take actions without compromising since, as the saying goes, ‘the person that pays the piper dictates the tune’.
WIN's Publications
As stated earlier, one of the strengths of WIN's strategies, was documentation of research and analysis from a gender perspective. A research theme was chosen each year by consensus and the outcome was published. The first major publication of WIN was the book, Women In Nigeria Today (Zed Books, 1985) that came out of the conference that gave birth to WIN. This inaugural publication was followed by:
Women and education (edited proceedings of the 3rd annual WIN conference) (1992); Child abuse (1992); Women in Nigeria – The first ten years (1993); Women in the transition to democracy in Nigerian politics (edited proceedings of the 8th annual WIN conference held in Kano (1989); Women and violence: Breaking The Silence: Women Against Violence (edited proceedings of the 10th anniversary WIN conference, 1993); The WIN document: Conditions of women in Nigeria and policy recommendations to 2000 A.D. (1985, 1992)
These publications became invaluable in the understanding of gender issues in Nigeria. There is no way a collection of persons from different backgrounds, cultures and different experiences could be in serious actions together without conflicts. This would have been unnatural. However, WIN had its in-house policy of conflict resolution, and the principles on which the feminists worked helped in the process of constructive criticism a healthy practice for movement building. WIN succeeded as a training ground for many Nigerian feminists who are still committed in many ways to feminist struggles.
Beyond WIN
A lot has happened since the transformation of WIN from its initial focus and content to the present period when in almost every feminist gathering, questions arise that raise doubts. The Nigerian feminist movement has a forum – Nigerian Feminist Forum (NFF) – which is larger and more coherent than WIN.
The NFF was launched in January 2008 after an incubation period that started with the launching of the African Feminist Forum (AFF) in Accra, Ghana in 2006. As a chapter of the African Feminist Forum, the Nigerian Feminist Forum is bound by the values and principles of the AFF. The NFF has effectively replaced WIN as the Nigerian Feminist Movement, and it has gone beyond the historical stage of isolated country movements to become part of the continental (Pan African) feminist movement. AFF documents clearly state the content, context, values and principles of the present vibrant Nigerian feminist movement. Let me quickly point out that we in the NFF know that there are many self-identified Nigerian feminists within Nigeria and in the diaspora who are yet to be part of the NFF, which is still very young. Hence NFF is not a closed club nor is it a ‘come one, come all’ club. We have learned from the past. There are clear guidelines and conditions for becoming a part of the NFF. The secretariat of both the AFF and the NFF are ever ready to furnish potential, interested feminists who wish to be members with information on how to do join.
The information is contained in the Charter of the Feminist Principles for African Feminists clearly states how African and Nigerian feminists alike define themselves, the understanding Feminism and Patriarchy, our identity as African and Nigerian feminists, our ethics as individual and institutional African and Nigerian feminists, and our understanding of feminist leadership. The charter of the feminist principles of the AFF is binding on all the country level feminist forums including Nigerian Feminist Forum.
From WIN to NFF
WIN's lessons and experiences for the NFF as a new formation include the need for the adoption of basic principles of organisation and action. There is also the need to agree on responsibilities as well as structures for coordination and leadership to ensure organised actions and sustainability. This is already being practised in the NFF with a central organising committee serviced by a joint secretariat of two feminist organisations, both located in Lagos.
Two recent events have tested the strength of NFF. One was the rallying of Nigerian feminists and many other progressive sectors of Nigerian society to put an end to attempts by a private university to force virginity and HIV testing on Nigerian girls entering the institution. Another was the mobilisation against a state attempt to ban the use of condoms. Nigerian feminists along with various institutions caused the state to annul the policy, thereby putting an end to the matter. The most recent had to do with a proposed federal bill, introduced by the female chairperson of the Nigerian Senate Committee for Women and Youths, to institutionalise a dress-code for women. The NFF, together with several women organisations, put an end to the proposed bill through several press conferences and the weight of Nigerian women's mobilisation to fill the hall where the public hearings on the bill took place. There are many other situations that show the resurgence and revitalisation of feminist activism in Nigeria.
We celebrate these victories. It is gratifying that this can happen in present primitive neo-colonial Nigeria (and Africa), where laws are imposed by the imperialist ‘International Community'; our leaders have kept us in the backyard of that global community to serve as the dustbins or refuse dump for what does not work or what is dangerous to the community of the G8 countries. Our leaders are prepared to sign imperialist conditionalities drafted by the ailing IMF and the World Bank. These conditionalities for unequal trade agreements and perpetual indebtedness of the developing or retrogressing world where we are located, create and deepen poverty with women bearing the greatest burden imposed by culture and tradition and reinforced by the new forms of imperialist-driven religious evangelism. To worsen this already bad situation from present-day globalisation policies of re-colonisation of Africa (in particular, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe, etc.), the United States and the rest of the West have come with poverty alleviation strategies and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to divert our attention from the cruel poverty imposed by their policies and the excruciating challenges women in particular face from the new importation of imperialist style of democracy. Hence, if in spite of these burdens, feminists, the larger women's movement, and our allies have been able to challenge effectively these offshoots of imperialist-directed democracy in our country, we have cause to celebrate – with our eyes open, of course, to see when they try other gimmicks.
This is the present state of the Nigerian feminist movement and its relationship with the larger Nigerian Feminist Movement, an offshoot of the Pan-African Feminist Movement (AFF).
I foresee a sustained active feminist movement in Nigeria that will play a strong role in the African feminist movement and in the global feminist movement as a force to be recognised and respected.
The Struggle Continues!!
APPENDIX: Charter of Feminist Principles for African Feminists
The African Feminist Forum took place from 1519 November 2006 in Accra, Ghana. The meeting brought together over 100 feminist activists from all over the region and the diaspora. The space was crafted as an autonomous space in which African feminists from all walks of life, at different levels of engagement within the feminist movement such as mobilizing at local levels for women's empowerment to academia, could reflect on a collective basis and chart ways to strengthen and grow the feminist movement on the continent.
A key outcome of the forum was the adoption of the Charter of Feminist Principles, which was agreed by the Regional Working group for the Forum, to be one of its principle aims. It was felt that we need something to help us define and affirm our commitment to feminist principles, which will guide our analysis, and practice. As such the Charter sets out the collective values that we hold as key to our work and to our lives as African feminists. It charts the change we wish to see in our communities, and also how this change is to be achieved. In addition it spells out our individual and collective responsibilities to the movement and to one another within the movement.
With this Charter, we reaffirm our commitment to dismantling patriarchy in all its manifestations in Africa. We remind ourselves of our duty to defend and respect the rights of all women, without qualification. We commit to protecting the legacy of our feminist ancestors who made numerous sacrifices, in order that we can exercise greater autonomy.
PREAMBLE: NAMING OURSELVES AS FEMINISTS
We define and name ourselves publicly as Feminists because we celebrate our feminist identities and politics. We recognise that the work of fighting for women's rights is deeply political, and the process of naming is political too. Choosing to name ourselves Feminist places us in a clear ideological position. By naming ourselves as Feminists we politicise the struggle for women's rights, we question the legitimacy of the structures that keep women subjugated, and we develop tools for transformatory analysis and action. We have multiple and varied identities as African Feminists. We are African women – we live here in Africa and even when we liveelsewhere, our focus is on the lives of African women on the continent. Our feminist identity is not qualified with ‘Ifs’, ‘Buts’, or ‘Howevers’. We are Feminists. Full stop.
OUR UNDERSTANDING OF FEMINISM & PATRIARCHY
As African feminists our understanding of feminism places patriarchal social relations structures and systems which are embedded in other oppressive and exploitative structures at the centre of our analysis. Patriarchy is a system of male authority which legitimizes the oppression of women through political, social, economic, legal cultural, religious and military institutions. Men's access to, and control over resources and rewards within the private and public sphere derives its legitimacy from the patriarchal ideology of male dominance. Patriarchy varies in time and space, meaning that it changes over time, and varies according to class, race, ethnic, religious and global-imperial relationships and structures. Furthermore, in the current conjunctures, patriarchy does not simply change according to these factors, but is inter-related with and informs relationships of class, race, ethnic, religious, and global-imperialism. Thus to challenge patriarchy effectively also requires challenging other systems of oppression and exploitation, which frequently mutually support each other.
Our understanding of Patriarchy is crucial because it provides for us as feminists, a framework within which to express the totality of oppressive and exploitative relations which affect African women. Patriarchal ideology enables and legitimizes the structuring of every aspect of our lives by establishing the framework within which society defines and views men and women and constructs male supremacy. Our ideological task as feminists is to understand this system and our political task is to end it. Our focus is fighting against patriarchy as a system rather than fighting individual men or women. Therefore, as feminists, we define our work as investing individual and institutional energies in the struggle against all forms of patriarchal oppression and exploitation.
OUR IDENTITY AS AFRICAN FEMINISTS
As Feminists who come from/work/live in Africa, we claim the right and the space to be Feminist and African. We recognise that we do not have a homogenous identity as feminists – we acknowledge and celebrate our diversities and our shared commitment to a transformatory agenda for African societies and African women in particular. This is what gives us our common feminist identity.
Our current struggles as African Feminists are inextricably linked to our past as a continent – diverse pre-colonial contexts, slavery, colonization, liberation struggles, neocolonialism, globalization. Modern African States were built off the backs of African Feminists who fought alongside men for the liberation of the continent. As we craft new African States in this new millennium, we also craft new identities for African women, identities as full citizens, free from patriarchal oppression, with rights of access, ownership and control over resources and our own bodies and utilizing positive aspects of our cultures in liberating and nurturing ways. We also recognise that our pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial histories and herstories require special measures to be taken in favour of particular African women in different contexts.
We acknowledge the historical and significant gains that have been made by the African Women's Movement over the past forty years, and we make bold to lay claim to these gains as African feminists – they happened because African Feminists led the way, from the grassroots level and up; they strategised, organised, networked, went on strike and marched in protest, and did the research, analysis, lobbying, institution building and all that it took for States, employers and institutions to acknowledge women's personhood.
As African feminists, we are also part of a global feminist movement against patriarchal oppression in all its manifestations. Our experiences are linked to that of women in other parts of the world with whom we have shared solidarity and support over the years. As we assert our space as African feminists, we also draw inspiration from our feminist ancestors who blazed the trail and made it possible to affirm the rights of African women. As we invoke the memory of those women whose names are hardly ever recorded in any history books, we insist that it is a profound insult to claim that feminism was imported into Africa from the West. We reclaim and assert the long and rich tradition of African women's resistance to patriarchy in Africa. We henceforth claim the right to theorise for ourselves, write for ourselves, strategise for ourselves and speak for ourselves as African feminists.
INDIVIDUAL ETHICS
As individual feminists, we are committed to and believe in gender equality based on feminist principles which are:
- •
The indivisibility, inalienability and universality of women's human rights;
- •
The effective participation in building and strengthening progressive African feminist organizing and networking to bring about transformatory change;
- •
A spirit of feminist solidarity and mutual respect based on frank, honest and open discussion of difference with each other;
- •
The support, nurture, and care of other African feminists, along with the care for our own wellbeing;
- •
The practice of non-violence and the achievement of non-violent societies;
- •
The right of all women to live free of patriarchal oppression, discrimination and violence;
- •
The right of all women to have access to sustainable and just livelihoods as well as welfare provision, including quality health care, education , water and sanitation;
- •
Freedom of choice and autonomy regarding bodily integrity issues, including reproductive rights, abortion, sexual identity and sexual orientation;
- •
A critical engagement with discourses of religion, culture, tradition and domesticity with a focus on the centrality of women's rights;
- •
The recognition and presentation of African women as the subjects not the objects of our work, and as agents in their lives and societies;
- •
The right to healthy, mutually respectful and fulfilling personal relationships;
- •
The right to express our spirituality within or outside of organised religions;
- •
The acknowledgment of the feminist agency of African women which has a rich Herstory that has been largely undocumented and ignored.
INSTITUTIONAL ETHICS
As feminist organisations we commit to the following:
- •
Advocating for openness, transparency,equality and accountability in feminist-led institutions and organisations;
- •
Affirming that being a feminist institution is not incompatible with being professional, efficient, disciplined and accountable;
- •
Insisting on and supporting African women's labour rights, including egalitarian governance, fair and equal remuneration and maternity policies;
- •
Using power and authority responsibly, and managing institutional hierarchies with respect for all concerned. We believe that feminist spaces are created to empower and uplift women. At no time should we allow our institutional spaces to degenerate into sites of oppression and undermining of other women;
- •
Exercising responsible leadership and management of organisations whether in a paid or unpaid capacity and striving to uphold critical feminist values and principles at all times;
- •
Exercising accountable leadership in feminist organisations, taking into consideration the needs of others for self-fulfillment and professional development. This includes creating spaces for power-sharing across generations;
- •
Creating and sustaining feminist organisations to foster women's leadership. Women's organizations and networks should be led and managed by women. It is a contradiction of feminist leadership principles to have men leading, managing and being spokespersons for women's organizations;
- •
Feminist organisations as models of good practice in the community of civil society organizations, ensuring that the financial and material resources mobilised in the name of African women are put to the service of African women and not diverted to serve personal interests. Systems and structures with appropriate Codes of Conduct to prevent corruption and fraud, and to manage disputes and complaints fairly, are the means of ensuring our organisations;
- •
Striving to inform our activism with theoretical analysis and to connect the practice of activism to our theoretical understanding of African feminism;
- •
Being open to critically assessing our impact as feminist organisations, and being honest and pro-active with regards to our role in the movement;
- •
Opposing the subversion and/or hijacking of autonomous feminist spaces to serve right wing, conservative agendas;
- •
Ensuring that feminist non-governmental or mass organisations are created in response to real needs expressed by women that need to be met, and not to serve selfish interests, and unaccountable income-generating agendas.
FEMINIST LEADERSHIP
As leaders in the feminist movement, we recognise that feminist agency has popularised the notion of women as leaders. As feminist leaders we are committed to making a critical difference in leadership, based on the understanding that the quality of women's leadership is even more important than the numbers of women in leadership. We believe in and commit ourselves to the following:
- •
Disciplined work ethics guided by integrity and accountability at all times;
- •
Expanding and strengthening a multigenerational network and pool of feminist leaders across the continent;
- •
Ensuring that the feminist movement is recognised as a legitimate constituency for women in leadership positions;
- •
Building and expanding our knowledge and information base on an ongoing basis, as the foundation for shaping our analysis and strategies and for championing a culture of learning beginning with ourselves within the feminist movement;
- •
Nurturing, mentoring and providing opportunities for young feminists in a nonmatronising manner;
- •
Crediting African women's labour, intellectual and otherwise in our work;
- •
Creating time to respond in a competent, credible and reliable manner to other feminists in need of solidarity and support whether political, practical or emotional;
- •
Being open to giving and receiving peer reviews and constructive feedback from other feminists.