Unarguably, no nation can truly develop or achieve peak performance if it ignores, disparage or treat with levity its females either as girls, ladies, women or mothers. Evidence about in ancient and modern history that those nations that have immensely succeeded at a number of concerns are mostly those who have institutionalized the role of women in its affairs. Women like Rosa Park, Emily Edison, Pierre Claire, Queen Amina, Inikpi Ayegba, Mother Theresa and a lot more are very few examples of such women.
Put succinctly, no struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men. There are two powers in the world: one is the sword, the other is the pen. There is great competition and rivalry between the two. There is a third power stronger than both, that of woman.
As Muhammed Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan said, “Women without a doubt, have always been a part of every community and have contributed greatly towards the development of every nation.” While women previously worked mostly behind the scenes as a result of cultural and traditional values, the societies are evolving and literarily forced to acknowledge and accept women as an integral part of all societies. Never before has it been more important that African women from all works of life make a move and take a firm decision to not only engage but also lead initiatives that will dimension the nuances and ultimately determine speed, size and shape of the paradigm they desire: Our future as women, people and citizens of the world rest on this.
As mentioned earlier, women like Queen Amina of Zaria from the Northern part of Nigeria have showed clearly what African women are capable of doing if they put their minds to it, not forgetting how during the Algerian “fight for independence” in the 1962, women fought alongside their male counterparts and created for themselves not just respect but also a fresh perspective of themselves. Normally women have been viewed as the weaker vessel and that is really laughable, given the God given capabilities and potentials waiting to be tapped and exploited. African women without any doubt can venture into practically any and every structure of world activities and most importantly now in order to be able to give a new dimension of what the world would look like.
One of the most important ways women can engage the world is through their homes. This singular statement is bound to bring an unusual murmuring and uncomfortable feeling among the hearts of women, but this is not an avocation of anti feminism or a way of relegating women as belonging only to the kitchen. The home is only one of the million of ways women can bring the much desired change in the world when you consider two things: up to 70% of decisions made at home are by women and almost 100% of men either belong to a home or a woman.
A woman has always been the most powerful (the challenge is more with the lack of realization) unit of the family and every nation is a collection of families and the world is a collection of nations. A woman has been given the responsibility of bringing-up the future, she has the capacity and ‘authority’ to change the world, to influence, and to motivate. Any African woman will always know how to implement the values and morals she wants implemented on her family members and this is one gift that could never be thrown away. For whatever became a tree started as a seed, the family is the seed that forms the world African women can create a new paradigm by consciously implementing the right seed of values and moral growth in their basic families keeping in mind that this is only the beginning.
The economic sector can under no circumstances be neglected if a nation is concerned about its growth. As a matter of fact, one of the ways a country’s progress is measured is through the Gross Domestic Product which focuses on the economic aspect of a country. women have always been a major catalyst for economic growth and development: women account for up to 70% of agricultural output in many parts of Africa.
African women can consciously and deliberately bring a new dimension of Africa by their taking advantage of their involvement in virtually all stages of the value-change of the ecosystem which cannot be streamlined only to the regular nine to five working hours, but would involve innovation and entrepreneurship.
Women are naturally blessed with a special eyes for observation: we observe, most times we ignore and continue with the status quo, but this is where entrepreneurship and innovation comes to play. When African women notice a situation that can be solved with the use of economic initiative and actually make a move, for example in a society where she notices a need for a thing and creates a market for it, her business initiative should kick in and this would not only provide a solution to the problem but also would have added to her contribution to the nation’s economy thereby facilitating national development and creating a new standard for the nation. As Hillary Clinton stated; “when a woman participates in the economy, everyone benefits.”
Acquiring skills should not be ignored either in the quest of creating a new paradigm for African nations. An empowered woman is an empowered nation. African women can talk all year about changing the world, but if they make no attempt to deliberately or consciously empower themselves, then it’s all just talk. It all comes down to keeping an open heart towards learning how things are done and how they are supposed to be done. Women need to roll up their sleeves and do what must be done, most times women are dependent on the men to find them worthy of empowerment before this step is taken and this should not be so, when someone is not brave enough to start alone, most times she finds no one to back her up. African women can change the status quo by first making the decision of changing and improving themselves then everything will follow.
Leadership: Everyone’s favourite topic regarding women, a topic of controversy. There has been a general misconception that a woman is incapable of holding leadership position due to various reasons and one of which is her weakness and inability to properly make decisions. This is a great misconception indeed, and one of the reasons why current leadership models are failing can be attributed to the complete leaving out of feminine aspects in them. African Women can engage the world and create a new direction for African nations by actively participating in leadership. And as Sheryl Sandberg puts it, “we need women at all levels including the top, to change the dynamic, reshape the conversation, to make sure women’s voices are heard and heeded, not overlooked and ignored.”
An African woman by all rights is a composition of potentials: stronger than anyone could ever imagine, however, it is by conscious efforts that they can decide to unleash those potentials to impact the people around them and the world at large. But to achieve that, the African woman has to first and foremost decide to make a change and then become the change she wants to be by creating a path and model that works for them and leads to a better world at large. As Harriet Beecher Stowe puts it, “women are the real architects of society.”
– Fatima Ojochide Abdullahi
