Gender Inequality: An Alien Practice to African Cultural Settlement

Abstract

: This study investigates the roots of gender inequalities in contemporary African lives. The study has surveyed the pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial gender relations in the continent. The study points that during the pre-colonial era there was equilibrium in accessing privileges and chances between men and women, such equal balance was defined by division of labor and specialization. In the colonial phase, however, colonialists favored men and infused the concept of Victorian women in all colonial projects; subsequently, the patriarchal system started to have its hold on African lives. Consequently, the modern African communities have entered into an independence era while incorporating the colonial patriarchal structures into their modern communities. Surprisingly, researchers on the topic under discussion continuously find African cultures’ guilt as they still offer patronage to such inequalities as it was in the pre-colonial epoch. Henceforth, its obliteration is essential in a long walk to gender equalities on the continent. On the contrary, this study points that labeling African culture as the enemy of gender equalities is a miss location of the problem source as the problem started from the colonial epoch and therefore these inequalities are the continuation of the legacies of patriarchy structures imposed in Africa by colonizers.