West African Societies and Women

I really enjoyed reading/learning about West African society in chapter 3. It’s not surprising that the Europeans often justified their actions/mentality of the African slave trade by adhering to the misconception that Africans didn’t have a “real” or somehow valid culture. To them the Africans were considered “primitive”, backward, non-advanced societally. Hence, through European eyes at the time, stripping Africans from their land and roots was deemed perfectly acceptable. Yet what’s so interesting is how alive and complex many West African cultures actually were. The book examines collectively a handful of the larger groups: the Ashanti, Dahomeans, Mossi, and the Yoruba (although there were clearly many, many other cultures as well, each with their own unique characteristics and signatures). Of particular interest to me was the level of political power women had in some of these African societies. The book describes how the position of “mothers” was used as the male official’s sidekick and in some societies; the queen mother was responsible for nominating the king. This type of power, although women didn’t have the highest positions of power, they, none the less, possessed a remarkable level of influence on political activity. For being a perceived “primitive” society, many African cultures seem to have been considerably ahead of their time. And certainly ahead of European culture’s treatment/allowance of women as political figures or having political roles of any sort. A woman in Europe at this time would likely not have had the same rights afforded to her as a woman from Africa in this context.