In this book, Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí explores how Western colonisation enforced a gender binary on the Yoruba people. In pre-colonial Yorubaland, language made few distinctions between “men” and “women”, focusing instead on age for social roles. Inclusion in lineage, through birth or marriage, demonstrated that biology did not determine role exclusion.
Yoruba culture values experiential knowledge and oral traditions, combining tonal language with storytelling. In contrast, Western culture focuses on visual representation, creating social roles based on traits like skin colour and physical ability—a concept Oyěwùmí calls “body reasoning”—which establishes a hierarchy favouring certain bodies.
Academic feminism often misapplies gender and patriarchy to African contexts, where they were not originally present, undermining its potential as a global revolutionary movement. This misalignment reflects colonial influences and exposes Western thought’s inability to offer viable alternatives to capitalism, limiting our understanding of humanity.
British colonisation in Yorubaland reduced women’s power to that of housewives and increased male authority. Written accounts replaced oral traditions, and gender-neutral divine figures were gendered as male. Oyěwùmí’s work critiques the gender binary’s influences, making it vital for those seeking to decolonise their understanding of gender and biology.
Found here: https://amzn.to/4gfufhe
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