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Letters & Opinions

Going back to the old and proven ways

Response to ‘Decolonising African Feminism’

Godfrey Kahangi

2010-09-09, Issue 495

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/66816

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‘Thank you for this insightful article, writes Godfrey Kahangi. ‘It is time to be African. Colonisation de-cultured Africans and Africa, but the solutions to our problems should not be sourced from the western world, but necessitate a 'looking back' to the pre-colonial era.’

Thank you for this insightful article. It is time to be African. Colonisation de-cultured Africans and Africa, but the solutions to our problems should not be sourced from the western world, but necessitate a 'looking back' to the pre-colonial era.

This is necessary for all western impositions on Africa like democracy, human rights, social grace, beauty concepts, business practice, governance and communication.

I experienced some of the conflict resolution methods you highlighted. My aunt was abused by her husband and she came to my home (my dad was the only educated head of family in the urban area) for 3 months. Hat in hand, her husband came and there were a series of family meetings that must have solved the issue, since she went back to her husband about 3 months later.   

We have also adopted the legal mindset of the western world, which assumes, wrongly, that the legal arena is where such disputes are resolved. In Uganda, there is the organization called FIDA that looks after women's relational problems. They have been blamed for always leading their clients to seek divorce. They have also been assumed not to understand the local marriage conditions as there are none who have gone through marriage. This is an example of an NGO that may have digressed from the African way of conflict resolution in marriage. 

Am glad that this article highlights a going back to the old and proven ways that have maintained marital harmony within cultures.

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