[A]frican womanism, despite its pretensions to seeking cooperation or its advocacy for
interdependency between men and women, uses a model of conscientisation of women that
is foreign to Africa, and runs the risks of obscurantism, vulgarism, inauthenticity, and
irrelevance.
21
African feminism is, however, embedded within the African custom and part and
parcel of the African society and identifiable with the African person in his or her
own right. It can, therefore, easily be distinguished from the Western forms of
feminism by understanding how African men and women relate to land and utilize
the soil. The relationship between an African person and the land is in many ways
similar to his or her relationship with the soil because there is no significant
difference between land and soil within the African domain. It is essentially the
same relationship a mother has with her children, hence, the analogy of motherism in
regard to the relationship between an African and land or soil. In the case of Uganda,
the Runyakitara word, ‘eitaka’, means either land or soil, the same applies to the
Luganda word, ‘etaaka’. Contemporary African feminist attack the ideology of
patriarchy and its modus operandi in terms of allocation of, or denial of land rights
[and soil rights] to women and men, and citizens and non-citizens.
22 The radical
feminism perspective encourages a very liberal usage of the term patriarchy to apply
to virtually any form of male domination.
23 Socialist feminism is mainly restricted to
analyzing the relationships between patriarchy and class under capitalism.
24 Under
the capitalist modal of classification, femininity denotes the weak—the women,
while masculinity denotes the strong and decision-makers—the men, hence the
socio-legal stratum of society.
25
In reality, African feminism attack of ideological of patriarchy conception goes
well beyond the male/female divide. It also penetrates the feminine stratum which is
equally classified it into the elderly, the mothers, the daughters, the in-laws, the
illiterate and the elite and attempts to remodel it into a more accommodative
structure.
26 In regard to land tenurial systems and hence land and soil rights in
Uganda, sectionalization of society elevates all the male gender over all the female
gender; and citizens over non-citizens. It equally elevates the sectionalized patriarchal families of the fathers over those over the mothers.
27
In that regard, it creates a hierarchy of the landed, and the landless, the latter
having limited access to soil rights.
28 Limited access to soil rights renders the whole
concept of sustainable development untenable within the patriarchal African setting.
Owners of the land and hence entrenched soil rights are not necessarily the ones that
21 Mwale (2002).
22 Chopra and Mülle (2016).
23 Kandiyoti (1988).
24 Ibid.
25 Valledor-Lukey (2012).
26 Busingye (2017).
27 Busingye (2017).
28 Gingrich (1999).
138
G. Busingye
interdependency between men and women, uses a model of conscientisation of women that
is foreign to Africa, and runs the risks of obscurantism, vulgarism, inauthenticity, and
irrelevance.
21
African feminism is, however, embedded within the African custom and part and
parcel of the African society and identifiable with the African person in his or her
own right. It can, therefore, easily be distinguished from the Western forms of
feminism by understanding how African men and women relate to land and utilize
the soil. The relationship between an African person and the land is in many ways
similar to his or her relationship with the soil because there is no significant
difference between land and soil within the African domain. It is essentially the
same relationship a mother has with her children, hence, the analogy of motherism in
regard to the relationship between an African and land or soil. In the case of Uganda,
the Runyakitara word, ‘eitaka’, means either land or soil, the same applies to the
Luganda word, ‘etaaka’. Contemporary African feminist attack the ideology of
patriarchy and its modus operandi in terms of allocation of, or denial of land rights
[and soil rights] to women and men, and citizens and non-citizens.
22 The radical
feminism perspective encourages a very liberal usage of the term patriarchy to apply
to virtually any form of male domination.
23 Socialist feminism is mainly restricted to
analyzing the relationships between patriarchy and class under capitalism.
24 Under
the capitalist modal of classification, femininity denotes the weak—the women,
while masculinity denotes the strong and decision-makers—the men, hence the
socio-legal stratum of society.
25
In reality, African feminism attack of ideological of patriarchy conception goes
well beyond the male/female divide. It also penetrates the feminine stratum which is
equally classified it into the elderly, the mothers, the daughters, the in-laws, the
illiterate and the elite and attempts to remodel it into a more accommodative
structure.
26 In regard to land tenurial systems and hence land and soil rights in
Uganda, sectionalization of society elevates all the male gender over all the female
gender; and citizens over non-citizens. It equally elevates the sectionalized patriarchal families of the fathers over those over the mothers.
27
In that regard, it creates a hierarchy of the landed, and the landless, the latter
having limited access to soil rights.
28 Limited access to soil rights renders the whole
concept of sustainable development untenable within the patriarchal African setting.
Owners of the land and hence entrenched soil rights are not necessarily the ones that
21 Mwale (2002).
22 Chopra and Mülle (2016).
23 Kandiyoti (1988).
24 Ibid.
25 Valledor-Lukey (2012).
26 Busingye (2017).
27 Busingye (2017).
28 Gingrich (1999).
138
G. Busingye