African Motherism is one of the theories among other African Feminist theories. Since the continent is characterized by togetherness and sharing cultural belief, the discourse of gender is examined based on cooperation and complementarity roots of men and women. Thus, theorists approach the discipline with the heart of mutuality and wholeness. The principle of motherism is theorized on this ground. The philosophy was coined by Catherine Obianuju Achulonu in 1995 to be used as an alternative to Western feminism.
Acholonu proposes this theory which is built on the significant nature and reality of African women. Thus, she put principles under the theory to be adapted by African women and men for the development and positive interaction of men and women in the future. The basic concepts posited from it are, motherhood (sympathy), creating structures, building, rebuilding, spirituality, tolerance, understanding and cooperation are picked up among other points for the purpose of this article.
Let’s see these thoughts in the experiences of Ghazi Okonjo-Iweela, whom Forbes and Time Magazine list her as one of the world’s most powerful and influential people as a renowned economist. She is a Nigerian most figurative and significant woman. She was a managing director of the World Bank in 2018. Based on the efforts she portrayed, she was appointed to be part of Twitter’s board of directors. Before these positions, she was the first Nigerian female Minister at the Ministry of Finance.
The story of this prominent woman is taken from the interview she had been having with Hayley Adams Fitzatrick at VOA on ‘Our Voices’ Program, special edition.
The basic principle of African Motherism is the mother’s natural sympathy. Naturally mothers are sympathetic, give affectionate love, care, peace, safety and dreams all good to their offspring, the family and the nation at large.
Motherhood, as Acholonu stressed it clearly, is; “the mother is someone who is committed to the survival and maintenance of mother earth.” African women and men should care for their continent and the universe at large is the implication of her say. In that process, caring starts from the vulnerable and disadvantaged groups like women. Echoing the women’s inclusion is the responsibility of the two sexes.
Ghazi Okanjo spoke on the international stage about Africa. “I tell you, businesspeople in the audience. If you are not invested in Africa, then you will be missing one of the most important emerging opportunities in the world.”
The journalist asked the woman the reason for her words. Here is her reply. “You should use your positions to advance women and it took me some time to realize. I have always been interested in how I can help. What can I do to materially change the position of women? When I was at the World Bank I was looking at it from a policy level. But when I became a finance minister the first time, I was doing a good job professionally. Doing the debt relief for my country that you know a 30 billion USD cut out in debt.” She was caring for the benefit and relief of her country. She won it through effective jobs and commitments. That is what the theory needed African women to be.
Spirituality of African women is also the focused concept of the theory. In line with this idea, Ghazi was trying to recall God. This is also seen in her words. “I realized my God you know you have an instrument. Instead of talking about the problem and asking about it, I can do something and I could do it.” Since she was optimistic in helping others, she was sure that God will help her back since he is there for good deeds.
The leader has shown a remarkable effort in the country since she was optimistic and a hard worker. She was also in a severe tension on how to improve the lives of women particularly. As the theory highlighted sympathy needs to be exercised after understanding the given context. With this logic, Ghazi was thinking of a mechanism to help Nigerian women. The solution she thought was taking action smartly.
She knows one thing; her country’s president was very supportive of women. She said, “I said to myself, to him and to my colleague ministers that they would be volunteers to get additional results that would improve the lives of women. They would get extra budget. Mr. President would you support me on that? He said yes. The Ministry of Health wanted to do additional works that would benefit women suffering from fistula… the Minister of Communication and Technology helped me train women with skills and technologies and others too.”
She practically shares the problem as mothers do biologically. In addition to that she was helping women economically. Here is the evidence.
At the government level, there was a ‘you win’ initiative. It was about to call people below 40 to present their business plan for loan procedures. It was only 17% of females who applied for the program. Ghazi was asked why women are not equally participating. Referring to her exploration regarding the causes, she said that there were many challenges that women were passing through. Challenges like poor access to information, scarcity in computers and others. She was committed to solve the problems and bring up females to the initiative. She succeeded. “We carried out one program, and we got 2,000 women to get benefited; who created an average of six jobs for enterprise. So it can be done,” she said,
The leader rebuilds the structure for the inclusion and fairness of the program. Because of the new structure and her patience, women were addressed and it was possible to exhibit effective results. This is what an African woman needs to do for the betterment of the continent and to ensure sustainable development. Here, the rebuilding was successful since it was done for good.
Policies, procedures and working organizational cultures could be there as structures in a given office. But the efficacy and sympathy of the woman and even the man can play a greater role in taking a commitment for solving barriers that block women’s inclusion and participation in every sector.
The other point that the African Motherism raised is understanding and cooperation of men and women. African men, though the patriarchy leveled them at the top, are not enmities of African women. They need women for meaningful association. There are things that women can do more smartly than men and vice versa. With this principle, Ghazi did understand and make cooperative jobs between men and women.
The following is the proof. “African women are a variant brain area so finding the specific programs and methods to support them is difficult because it is not easy for them to access skills … they sometimes need the expertise and the skills to get their business to the next level… Successful women sometimes do not know how to manage success…We thought that peer to peer, you could look at business men and women who have already succeeded in and bring them together so they can form a kind of mentorship.”
Ghazi was finally asked for the advice she could have for prospective women leaders in the continent. “The advice I have for them is not to go back to the narrow vision; but to dream big. Go to the big vision of what your country can be and not just your country; but what the continent can be. If things don’t work and you know; act positively not destructively. You need to act to make your country better.”
The journalist was eager to know what mistakes that the leader believed not to be repeated by the coming leaders. Ghazi said, “They should rise above self. Remember the continent started with a lot of visionary leaders who opened up the doors in the 1960th and 70th and we are so proud and then something happened in between and we lost it… Africa can be strong and integrated again. Strongly seizing the technology challenge; and we have bright young people who can even make this work for us.”
The journalist gave a closing remark by verbalizing the gist of their talk as, “change doesn’t happen through passivity or complaints, but only through action.”
The lesson to be taken is thinking beyond self. Beyond individual interest, ethnic origin, religious root, and other classes, the woman and even man have the big picture in mind. Ghazi was saying Africa throughout her conversation. She thought widely and acted at the country level. Women are naturally more sympathetic than men. Thus, this nature can be used as an opportunity to calm down our current situation.
Generally, in Ethiopia, we have a female president and a system which has opened the door to women and girls comparatively. There are female leaders on the stage to play their role beyond being role models in their positions. They need to consider and ask for women inclusion at every stage and be committed to pay prices for the improvement of gender equality. They should use their chair for the ratification and implementation of policies and be confident enough in rebuilding structures that advance females.
BY MEKDES TAYE (PhD)
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 25 JUNE 2024
