From Competition to Complementarity:
Gender Reconstruction in Contemporary Africa

Eunice Karanja Kamaara1

Introduction

One of the major forms of violence recognized globally is gender-based violence. It affects both men and women cutting across age, religion, class, educational and economic status, culture, and ethnicity. In most cases, this form of violence occurs within the family unit, the institution regarded as the major source of love, care and security for individuals. Often, gender-based violence is meted against women, including girl-children. Having been recognized as a major form of violation of human rights, and in view of its effects such as death and morbidity, gender-based violence has found its way into development agenda at all levels. It has also become an issue of international concern.

In 1993, the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna came up with the UN Resolution 48/104; Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women. In the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994, the Fourth World Conference held in Beijing in 1995, and the 49th World Health Assembly held in May 1996, among others, violence against women was considered a critical area of concern. Since, other major developments have taken place with the launching of regional campaigns against gender violence by such organizations as the United Nations Women’s Fund (UNIFEM) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Gender-based violence continues unabated throughout the world. In Kenya, one of the developing countries of the world, gender violence seems to be on the increase. Between 1995 and 1998, the Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya (FIDA-Kenya) reported that the number of women killed by their husbands increased by 71%. The daily press, both electronic and print, reports many cases of gender-based violence on daily basis. In December 2003 more than twenty cases of defilement of children below age 10 were reported in the media, four of them critically injured. Many other cases of various forms of gender violence go unreported.

This paper is limited to analyzing some causes of increasing gender-based violence against women. This is not because violence against men is not of concern but, for want of space, and it seems like violence against women is more prevalent than violence against men though there is no documentary evidence to confirm this. This writer insists that gender violence must be addressed not in terms of sex, but in terms of humanity. Violence against men on the basis of gender is no less evil against humanity than violence against women. This is a human rights perspective. This paper is also of theological concern. God created human beings as male and female for a purpose. It is envisaged that clear understanding of this purpose is critical in controlling gender-based violence. Any approach that does not consider this purpose of the sexes may not only fail but may be counterproductive as many contemporary gender approaches have been.

Gender Violence in Africa

A model of gender relations, basically characterized by male dominance and female subordination, prevails not just in Africa but also all over the world. This dominant male sexual model is also referred to as the fertility-oriented model. The model is derived from traditional African cultures, Christianity, and modernity all together combined. It recognizes fertility as the single major determining factor in man-woman relationships. Within this model, a woman does not exist as a sexual being with her own right or for her own sake. According to Benzeri Kisembo and et al:

In Africa, this model of gender relations is found among all ethnicities though it differs from group to group, and from one region to another in terms of intensity. The model exerts social pressure and expectations on individuals to behave in a certain way in relating to members of the opposite sex.

The main characteristic of the fertility-oriented model is male dominance especially in sexual encounters. In their attempts to fit into the socio-cultural definitions of masculinity, some men resort to physical violence against women, especially their wives. Wife-battering, one of the commonest forms of physical violence against women is administered “to maintain women in a dependent and submissive state”.3 Among many peoples in Africa, wife-beating is culturally acceptable and is sometimes considered “a normal way of life and even a sign of love”.4 Thus, a man may feel compelled to beat his wife if only to fulfill socio-cultural expectations.

Gender violence in its physical form is not limited to wife-battering. Men in authority such as fathers, brothers, uncles, and significant others are culturally expected to physically violate women to bring them to submission or to punish them. For example, a girl who was found not to be a virgin at initiation would be beaten by her brothers for exposing the family to shame and so would be a girl who was considered disrespectful to men in any way.

Another form of gender violence common in Africa is sexual violence. This comes in form of rape - both in and outside marriage - and denial of women’s sexual needs. Some men express their power over women through sexual violence. Again, this behavior is culturally determined. It is understood that “women cannot demand sex in marriage but have to submit to their husbands’ demands…the sexual act being considered only for man’s satisfaction”.5 Sexual promiscuity among men is also common in Africa. Culturally, macho men are expected to be monogamous or unfaithful in monogamous marriages. In some traditional societies, pre-marriage education was actually designed to encourage men to be sexually mobile.6 In spite of changing cultural values, sexual promiscuity by men is not acceptable but it is still tolerated while sexual experience is still expected of men. This amounts to sexual violence against women especially in this era of the incurable HIV/AIDS.

Closely related to sexual violence is female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice that continues to date in many African societies. FGM is part of the female initiation process, a process best understood as preparation for womanhood and housewifery. The experience is supposed to “teach the girls how to behave towards men and how to control their sexual desires”.7 The rites performed over the initiation process clearly indicate that the process serves as a conditioner of male and female behavior and the attitudes of the sexes to one another throughout their whole lives. The instructions that girls received over initiation on marital relations included how to fulfill their husbands’ sexual needs and at the same time suppressing their own; how to be attractive to their husbands; and how to bring up children.8 While circumcision validated men’s power and gave them sexual rights, FGM diminishes female power and sexual activities. Within this double moral standard, male needs are met at the expense of female needs.

Women in Africa are not expected to assertively object to physical or sexual violence from their husbands, brothers, fathers, uncles, or significant others because the cultural definitions of femininity indicate that they should be submissive, tolerant, long-suffering, and patient. It has been established that one of the major factors contributing to high prevalence of sexual activity among the youth is girls’ inability to assertively say “no’ to male sexual advances, whether the males are their age-mates or older men.

From Gender Competitiveness to Gender Complementarity

The contemporary African situation experiences a high rate of growth and development of gender programs in all sectors of life: education, health, industry/trade, entrepreneurship, environment, shelter, and social welfare, etc. In Kenya, for example, there are over five hundred gender and gender-related organizations geared towards empowerment of women. Most of these programs are directly geared towards gender empowerment through enhanced qualitative political, economic, social, and religious participation of women in public life. It would be expected that with so much activity on gender empowerment, gender violence would be reduced. Paradoxically, gender violence especially against women has been on the increase. This section seeks to explain this paradox and to propose a redefinition of power for effective gender reconstruction in Africa.

Among the major activities of gender programs in Africa are gender activism, civic gender education and economic empowerment of women. These activities have had a number of effects, some of which have been counterproductive leading to violence against women. To begin with, through gender awareness programs, both men and women have come to realize that gender is a social construct rather than a natural attribute. Thus it can be reconstructed or modified to suit changing times. Consequently, women especially have been convinced to challenge male dominance and female subordination. In response, realizing that their positions of power and dominance can actually be reconstructed, men have realized the need to aggressively protect the status quo. Often, this has led to increased gender violence.

Gender programs, which are geared towards economic empowerment of women, have supported women to take up traditional male gender roles. So has modernization especially through formal education and breakdown of traditional economies. Unfortunately, there are no programs supporting men to take up traditional male roles. The result is that women end up taking nearly all roles, at least at the family level. According to Margarethe Silberschmidt, because of this men are losing social value and self-worth as they increasingly begin to feel irrelevant.9 To compensate for this loss men become violent.

Gender programs have led to competition between and women. The concept of gender inequality is itself a presumption of competition. Naturally, men who hold the gender power respond with rage, hostility, and aggression. This implies that the approaches adopted by gender programs at the moment contribute to gender violence resulting from the negative effects. This means that the programs are counterproductive in the sense that they work against the very objectives that they set out to achieve. This indicates the need to review current gender approaches to make them human friendly. As it is, women are empowered at the expense of men. Since there are no competitive efforts in the struggle for human rights and justice, the end result is that not even women end up benefiting. The result has been a loser-loser situation.

This scenario calls for a redefinition of power, reconstruction of gender, and review of gender approaches from competitiveness to complementarity. From a theological and natural perspective men and women are different for complementary purposes. Indeed the cooperation of men and women is critical to the basic instinct of human survival, perpetuation, and development. A reconstruction of gender towards complementarity recognizes the need to encompass a wider experiential base which produces a whole, necessary for sustainable human development. Gender complementarity then has to be understood as a societal need rather than women’s need as it would be for the benefit of both men and women. The fact that what are conventionally labeled as masculine and feminine (social attributes) are found in every man and woman and the inability for men and women to operate biologically independent of one another indicates that if we are to exploit human resources to the full, we must stress gender complementarity and discard any traits of gender competitiveness.

Conclusion

This paper presents the perceived relationship between gender and violence in Africa. It indicates that the fertility oriented model of gender relations prevails in contemporary Africa. In this model, male dominance and female subordination, which are the major characteristics, lead to gender violence. The paper also presents the relationship between current gender approaches and increased gender-based violence. The basic argument propounded is that these approaches seek to empower women at the expense of men. This leads to gender competitiveness and violence.

For sustainable human development, the writer proposes a move from gender competitiveness to gender complementarity, where men and women are treated as equal partners. This calls for a redefinition of power so that a man is not defined in terms of masculinity as traditionally defined but as demanded by individual family situations. For example, if the woman in a family is the basic breadwinner, the man of the house should be empowered to transgress the traditional definitions of masculinity. Social systems should be put in place to support men to take up traditionally female roles in the same way that women are encouraged to take up traditionally male roles.

Theologically and biologically, it is clear that men and women complement one another to make up the image of God and to preserve humanity. Similarly, it should be understood that social justice, peace, and harmony may only be realized in a situation where the sexes work together to complement one another.

NOTES:

1 Dr. Eunice Karanja Kamaara holds a Ph. D. in Christian ethics and is a senior lecturer and researcher in religion at Moi University in Kenya.
2 Benzeri Kisembo, Laurenti Magesa and Alward Shorter, African Christian Marriage, (London and Dublin: Geoffrey Chapman, 1977), 97.
3 ECA-WIDNET, (ed.) Violence Against Women: Trainers Manual (Nairobi: Paulines Publications, 1997), 15.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid, 23.
6 See for example: (i) an account of traditional male initiation in Mathew Njoroge Kabetu, Kirira kia Ugikuyu ( Kikuyu Customa nd Tradition) Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau, 1966 pp. 22-48 and also, (ii) an account of traditional female initiation rite in John S. Mbiti, African Rreligions and Philosophy London: Heinemann, 1969, 127-131.
7 John S. Mbiti, African religion and Philosophy, 127.
8 F. Bryk, Voodoo Eros: Ethnological Studies in sex- Life of theAfrican Aaborigines, (New York: United Guild, 1964), 150.
9 Margarethe Siberschmidt, “Have Men Become the Weaker Sex: Changing Life Situations in Kisii District, Kenya” in Journal of Modern African Studies,1992; 30(20: 237-53.