Exploring the Silences and Omissions in International Human Rights around African Women (original) (raw)

Mainstream writings on African women tend to portray African women as confused, powerless and unable to determine for themselves the changes needed and the means to construct them. While African men were singled out as builders of societies that are male dominated and anti-women, African women are construed as oppressed, wretched and in need of deliverance; in creating this homogenous downtrodden mass, differences of age, class, rank, kinship affiliation, marital status and seniority are ignored. This article is set out to show that this exclusive negativity is misplaced. African women have played active role in the development of theories some of which have not been credited to them; thus, the article will highlight two major contributions of African women which the international community have not acknowledged as African women’s contributions to international human rights.