There are some memories that have formed the building blocks to some of my core values as a feminist even now.
In one of them, my mother had come back from a trip to South Africa and she gave me Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s biography to read. She gave me and asked me why more often than not, women did the back breaking freedom work in most independence movements but men often received credit for it.
For those unaware, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was a South African women’s rights and anti apartheid campaigner, politician and wife of Nelson Mandela.
She was a prominent figure in the fight for the freedom of South Africans from apartheid and she organised protests, marches and awareness on how apartheid in particular affected not only South African women, but also the entire Southern African region.
I would argue that she was the backbone of the entire liberation struggle of Southern Africa. What is interesting is how she was pushed into the background upon the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.
Fast forward almost eight years later from when my mother gave me Ms. Madikizela-Mandela’a biography to read and I was on the receiving end of rape threats, character assasination and death threats.
My offence? I told Nigerian women that it was not logical to give a male centric fight like ENDSARS that much energy especially using resources that were hard to see as women and as feminists.
Again: Almost five years post ENDSARS and not a single quarter goes by without women mentioning that they regret not listening to me. For some, it is the realisation that the men they fought side by side with during ENDSARS continue to malign women’s rights and for some others the regret comes each time prominent feminist women in ENDSARS are branded as thieves and liars.
Now at the back of my mind when I was criticising women’s role in ENDSARS, I was thinking of Madikizela-Mandela and the erasure ot women from the core memory of a nation’s active consciousness.
Asides the fact that I did not think it logical to go all out for a cause that simply would not have gained ground if it was mostly women affected (see: #SayHerNameNigeria and the lack of amplification), I was also thinking of how more often than not, when women engage in protests with men and go all out, it is not guaranteed that their efforts would stick when history is told.
If anything, historians tend to be averse to documenting women’s efforts during revolutions and protests in their entirety. And why is that?
Why is it that when discussing women independence activists and anti colonialists in Nigeria, there seems to be only space for a few women?
In addition to celebrating the exploits of women like Margaret Ekpo, Nwanyeruwa and Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, why don’t we actively document women politicians like Mary Nzimiro and Hajia Gambo Sawaba?
Furthermore why is it that in mainstream African feminist thought and history, we tend to mimic Western talking points?
For instance, why is it that Nigerian feminist women can trace feminism using the American metrics of first, second and third wave but cannot point to Nigerian women’s rights campaigners like Charlotte Obasa who was a major activist fighting for the education of girls?
What fuels the lack of attention and collective amnesia in matters pertaining to African feminist history and documentation?
Speaking with Doyin, a Nigerian writer and feminist, she says that women are not documented because our efforts are not seen as worthy of being recognised.
In her words: “Women’s contributions are generally dismissed from home to church, work, and independence movements. Everything is reduced to mere domestic labour— “the innate” and divine gift—which is not something special.
Mukoma Wa Ngugi mentioned how his father and his works would never be where they were today without the sacrifice of his mother. The woman who glued them all together. This is true because after the day’s struggle, you are not bothered about the welfare of your family. You come home to eat, nag, sleep with your wife, pass the day’s aggression on her, wake up another day, and be an activist.”
She went on to say: “My recent discovery is the wives of the Ogoni9. Nigeria is such a loser ass country because even these men aren’t given enough recognition, how do they want to fully tell the stories of their wives?
It is why I wish more women document: take that picture, write something on a piece of paper; add the date and your signature, write that description to the money you send make e show for the receipt, and record life basically. You’re not sure if anyone will tell your story for you. That’s even if they see your story worth telling, but only you know your struggles and how much they mean to you.”
More women need to learn the art of self documentation. When you record your wins and journey to becoming, it is a way of telling yourself that your story matters.
Even more, women’s stories as a whole matter and should not be studied as an afterthought but rather as full expressions of humanity.
Angel Nduka-Nwosu is a writer, journalist and editor. She moonlights occasionally as a podcaster on As Angel Was Sayin’. Catch her on all socials @asangelwassayin.