A Critical Survey of the Resuscitation, Activation, and Adaptation of Traditional African Female Political Institutions to the Exigencies of Modern Politics in the 1990s: The Case of the Takumbeng Female Societ y in Cameroon Sussana Yene Awasom
Senior LecturerCEFAM,
Buea, Republic of Cameroon.
Executive Secretary, Ngemba Womens Born-house Forum,
Buea Cameroon CODESRIA 10 th General Assembly, Kampala, Uganda, 8-12 December 2002 Introduction In the wake of the Beijing Conference on Women Rights, the old debate on the reality or myth of the marginalization of African women in politics since pre-colonial times resurfaced. Even where indigenous female political organizations existed, played important political roles, and had been highlighted by anthropologists who were struggling to understand traditional socio-political organization of African societies ( cf Henn 1978; Guyer 1984; Nkwi 1985; Ritzenthaler 1960; Wipper 1982; Kalb 1985), there is still the stubborn refusal among chauvinist academic circles that African women really matter or ever mattered. Attempts at re-evaluating their roles are interpreted as simple romanticization. Some opinions even hold that women activism in modern times is often teleguided by men and are therefore a disguise instrument of male manipulation. According to Konde (1991) an old male strategy in African politics is the usage of women for the political empowerment of men. The objective of this strategy has always been the same; the methods of its application have change according to circumstances to meet the exigency of the moment. In pre-colonial Cameroon, for example, when men exchanged women in marriage, the women provided their fathers and husbands with social, economic, and military links into other lineages and clans. The alliances that were created from exchanging women, the wealth that was accumulated in bride wealth payment and the work performed by women, and the political prestige and military strength derived from them, accrued to the benefit of men. It was the men who were the partners in these relationships; the women were the pawns, the means to those ends. | |
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