A Stolen Legacy: The Matrilineality of Pre-Colonial African Society
“At the very dawn of religion, God was a woman. Do you remember?’- Merlin Stone
The underlying principles of patriarchy are separation and control. The fundamental decisions affecting the lives of colonized people were made and implemented by the colonial rulers in pursuit of interests that were often defined in a distant metropolis. The phrase ‘feminization of poverty’ was conceptualized by Diane Pearce (1976) and suggests that women tend to be poorer than men. In South Africa, the feminization and racialisation of poverty is a direct result of brutal, exploitative colonial and apartheid economic systems.
Apartheid in particular denied African and Coloured women economic opportunities and they were therefore forced into low wages or low status careers or ‘pink collar jobs’. Pink collar jobs are careers in teaching, nursing and administration which are often not well-paid professions and in my personal definition I add women who work in the domestic service. What is worse is that in the agricultural sector, women’s labour often went unremunerated. It was not always like this. In pre-colonial times women were economic powerhouses in Africa.
Ancient Africans had a deep-seated respect for women, Finch in the book Echoes of the Old Darkland explains that early man did not know the link between sex and birth. Therefore, it was believed that new life was created by the woman, the mother alone. It was perceived that all life in nature emerged from women alone. When the first concept of God was developed, the female served as the model of the Supreme Being.
It is not known exactly when the role of the male in procreation was discovered, but this discovery did not enhance the status of men. Their status only became elevated when the necessity of men became clear in war and conquest. In ancient Egypt and Kush, the importance of the mother was seen in the fact that the children took their surname from the mother. The mother controlled both the household and the fields. In Kush, the Queen Mother had the right to choose the next Pharaoh.
Prior to Islamic conquest of sub-Saharan Africa in the 12th and 13th centuries, the system of succession to the throne was matrilineal. Matrilineality refers not only to tracing one’s lineage through maternal ancestry, it can also refer to a civil system in which one inherits property through the female line. Cheikh Anta Diop in his book Pre-colonial Black Africa explained that in the African custom of matrilineal succession, very strict rules were observed. The heir of the throne was not the king’s son but the son of the King’s first-born sister (the king’s nephew). It was said: You can never be sure who the father of the child is; but of the mother you can always be sure.
This view African societies used to ensure that conference of power and titles of leadership were reckoned through the mother’s lines. This matriarchal foundation of African society meant that respect for women was woven into the very fabric of society. African social organization was fundamentally built around the matriclan, wherein one’s identity, inheritance, wealth, and politics are all determined. All matriclan founders were female, but men traditionally held leadership positions within the society. These inherited roles, however, are passed down matrilineally — meaning through a man’s mothers and sisters (and their children). Women remained indispensable to the reproduction of communities in matrilineal societies for their bloodlines defined the transmission of both office and wealth.
Women were the major food producers and thus not only had ready access to land but also had authority on how the land was to be used and cultivated. The value of women’s productive labour in producing and processing food established and maintained their rights in the domestic and other spheres. Lobola gave women a certain amount of economic independence and clout. In the past, African women retained a measure of control over their lobola which economically empowered them.
The erosion of the status of women occurred gradually but was significantly exacerbated and hastened by foreign invasions, particularly Islam then later European colonialism. Africans and non-Africans alike, assume that the current status of women in Africa is reflective of their status in ‘traditional African societies’. This is wrong.
What is correct is that missionary activities and the desire of European missionaries to re-create African families into monogamous and nuclear units was possibly the biggest contributor to the side lining of women’s earning power and their ability to claim the proceeds of their labour. Even the development of legal systems under colonialism guaranteed that women were at a disadvantage, as “customary” laws were often established based on male testimony alone. This gave men especially elite men, advantages over women in issues of marriage and divorce.
The colonial production system which excluded women from the cash economy was imported by missionaries and the colonial wage economy was essentially a male one. Gender biased educational system introduced by missionaries was a critical determinant of persistent gender inequality in Africa. During colonial times women lost power and economic autonomy with the arrival of cash crops and women’s exclusion from the global marketplace. Even further, men and international commerce benefited because they were able to rely to some extent on women’s unremunerated labour.
In Pre-colonial Africa women’s basic dominance in agricultural production meant that “female labour was necessary labour — the labour from which surplus could be derived” Christine Saidi (2010). Let me be clear it was woman who developed the practice of purposeful cultivation and responsible for food production. There is also strong linguistic and archaeological evidence to point to women’s strong social and political authority across Africa
Indications are that avenues for female political representation were only closed off during the colonial period. Patriarchal alliances struck between various colonial administrations and African chiefs and elders resulted in the systematisation and codification of patriarchy across African societies. Women’s precolonial political activity was generally disregarded by the colonial authorities, who turned exclusively to men when they established local political offices. In many parts of Africa, women were members of associations run by and for women, which gave women the final say in disputes over markets or agriculture. The colonial agents, nearly always men, ignored that reality.
In the past, African societies had a dual sex political system which allowed for substantial female representation and involvement in governance. In the book Black Africa, Cheikh Anta Diop (1987) explains bicameralism, a type of governance our ancestors used to rule their people. Before Africa came under the dominance of any foreign powers, women had a position of influence in society. In African bicameralism women participated in the running of public affairs within the framework of a women’s assembly. This assembly sat separately to the man’s assembly but the two shared influence and power. The resistance against foreign invasion and occupation of West African nations such as Dahomey (Benin) and the Yorubas in Nigeria is said to be a result of the women’s assembly meeting at night. African bicameralism allowed the blossoming of both males and females and allowed the full use of both the feminine and masculine mind.
Bicameralism is an ancient example of African democracy that put full to use the human resources of society in a manner that supported and encouraged everyone. It was Winnie Mandela’s contention that women should rise up to the challenge their marginalization in male-dominated society by declaring that “nothing about us without us” and proceed to swell the ranks of all social and political structures.
Ivor Wilks, describes the 16th century history as the “era of great ancestresses” characterized by egalitarian social structures. According to C. Magbaily Fyle (1999) although men dominated politics in Africa in the pre-colonial period there were a quite a few women who played an active role in politics and government. As mentioned earlier held by the queen mother and queen sister was important politically and afforded them much power and authority. Africa is a large territory and while women were not subservient to men, how they used their power and authority was not symmetrical across the continent. Among the Sotho of South Africa, daughters of sub-rulers were heads of women regiments. During Sigidi ka Senzangakhona (aka Shaka) reign his Aunt Mkabayi and Queen Mother Nandi were put in charge of military kraals and given power to govern while the Emperor was on campaign. In Niger and Chad, women led migrations, formed cities and conquered kingdoms such as Queen Amina of Katsina (Songhai people). In the Yoruba political culture, there was the Iyalode who was a member of the Alafin’s council. This was the judiciary body in Yoruba. The Iyalode was a female representative whose was responsible for women issues and their spokeswoman at the Alafin’s meetings. In Sierra Leone among the Mende and Sherbro people by the 19th century women could be heads of towns and sub-regions.
Where women were the primary agricultural workers such as in planting cultures, polygyny was valued and men married many wives. Marriage involved very little material transaction, and women are valued as producers and reproducers. Polygyny as a system of family formation was about the consolidation of human capital a wealth creation. Wealth-increasing polygyny is often non sororal, which means that the co-wives are not sisters. It occurs in societies in which there is an economic stratification among men. The wealthier males have more wives and there is not a limit to the number of wives a man can have, as long as he can support them. In this case, each wife is an independent economic unit. In the majority of the situations the wives have their own houses and take care of their own gardens.
The Swati, of eSwatini practice a very particular type of sororate wealth-increasing polygyny. Marriage is a political institution and women possess economic, social and reproductive power. In the economic realm the women have their own house, their own garden, and grow their own food. Within the social realm, the power Swati women hold includes the custom of lobola, the use of women to form alliances, the possibility that some women may become queen in this society, and the fact that senior wives have privileges. Swati polygynous women have reproductive power because women are valued if they have many children.
In common homesteads, after the new bride provides service to her mother-in-law, she is given her own individual sleeping, cooking, and storage hut. These are usually her private places so they are closed off from the public. A bride is also presented with her own plot of land from the family garden. Here she is permitted to grow food and cultivate her garden. Sometimes a bride is even given cattle to use. In this she is a semi-independent and economic unit. At her own place a woman leads a private life with her children.
Swati women have social power because lobola is involved in their marriages. Marriage is a complex arrangement that involves a payment lobola to the parents of the bride. Because of the expense of lobola, usually only people of very high social standing can afford to practice polygyny eSwatini. Generally, the lobola is in the form of cattle, and can only be returned under certain conditions. It is also sometimes used to resolve disputes between a husband and wife during the marriage. Also, women have social power because a Swazi marriage is basically the aligning of two families instead of two people and the women who ensures the alliance is often very valued.
The African concept of “rights in persons” and “wealth in people” placed premium on women’s labour and procreation. Colonial powers understood this and thus the most important project of colonialism was to destroy the African family structure as this is the most important economic and political institution.
Ultimately the intersection between the colonial economic structures and gender-biased education systems shaped by patriarchal assumptions of European colonial administrators and missionaries enabled African chiefs and male elders to orchestrate a social coup. Therefore, referring to the second-class citizen status of African women today as ‘traditional’ is erroneous and must be rejected for what it is. Even what we understand to be our customary law was used by the colonizers to cement as ‘tradition’ the subordination of women.
