AFRICAN CULTURES AS ENEMY OF GENDER EQUALITY

When I hear people ask men, organizations and even government to
 give women a chance to get involved in issues that concerns them,
 I simply empathize with them because that only prove their
 ignorance of the history of  gender inequality in Africa.

In the beginning, African cultures does not allow a woman to be 
seen or heard. She was absolutely an object of domestic use in
 accordance to the dictates of the man that possesses her. The 
woman's worth was mainly valued by her height of domestic 
expertise and the sexual ecstasy that she can perform.

Today, the global communities are asking for an equality of gender 
while people in  my community still ask for little things. When a 
woman loose her husband to death, she is not permitted to 
remarry no matter her age and the duration of the marriage.

For those of them that did not have any children, this African 
culture is depriving them of having the privileged of getting 
remarried and having children. Ironically, this culture permits 
them to become mistresses and concubines. Truth is that 
they can never bear the name of another man except that 
of the late husband.

Advocating gender equality in Africa will be fighting the 
cultures and traditions that  has kept us as one continent. 
An average African man irrespective of education, 
exposure and character-mix still places a limit to the 
extent a woman can excel in society.

Therefore, time has come for the world to hear us out. 
A womans place has gone beyond domestic chores 
and sexual  identity to standing tall amongst her equals 
in other continents of the world to say no to female 
genital mutilation, no to female battery and domestic 
violence against women, no to African cultures and 
traditions that fights and limits women, no to gender 
inequality and a big YES!!!! to female inclusion to 
sustainable development in Africa.