RADICAL FEMINISM AND THE AFRICAN REALITY: FROM GENDER WAR TO MENISM

Abstract This paper sets out to test the relevance of radical feminism in Africa. Despite the noble goals of feminism to emancipate and empower women, radical feminism considers men to be the enemies of women and therefore seeks the overthrow of men as a goal for all women. Given that this undesirable wave of feminism does not take into account the communal realities of Africa, this paper deconstructs the myth of using western feminism to “open the eyes” of African women by arguing that African women do not need to fight the men because both African men and women have a common enemy in neocolonialism which is by far a more dangerous obstacle to the emancipation of women than men. This paper frowns at the gender war heralded by radical feminism which now necessitates a reaction from men. Since the empowerment of radical feminists is not only destructive to the African social order but to the feminists themselves, I opine that African men need even more empowerment than radical feminists so as to fight the more urgent and nobler war against neocolonialism for its results are beneficial to both African men and women. Therefore, this paper projects “menism” as a needed masculine response to radical feminism for the safeguard of African brotherhood, familyhood, and as a tool for development. Keywords feminismmenismempowermentemancipationneocolonialism