MATRIARCHY is a social system where women in certain communities oversee everything from political, economics and broader social structures.
Psychologically, Elizabeth Welsh the author of Encyclopedia of psychology and religion 10th edition wrote that the term MATRIARCHY can be explained in 3 ways;
Gynecocracy: these are non human population which are centered around alpha females. Typical examples are; ants, bees, elephants,spotted hyenas and in some lower plants which are asexual. These kind of population are considered matriarchal because females lead their everyday life.
Matrilineal; socities which practice matrilinearity traces each individual through their maternal ancestry and an individual inherits properly through female's family line. In Africa there are civil systems which practice matrilinearity like; The seer tribe, Aawambo and Nubians.
Matrifocality; refers to centrality of women especially mothers. Houses or soceities which are matrifocality consist one or more adult women and their children without the presence of fathers. For instance the Umoja tribe is a "true-blue no man's land" which makes it a matrifocal society.
Women were and are still revered for their ability to bear children. If you unearth in Africa's epic history, the pages are teeming with goddesses and female warriors like Asantewaa queen Mother of Ejisu who fought against British occupation in Ghana. For so many years some Africans were matriarchal and they prospered. However, an oppressive form of colonial Christianity was introduced in Africa. Colonialists replaced millennia of prosperous matriarch with the patriarchy.
Though some matriarchal societies were transformed into patriarchy due to colonisation, others resisted and kept their sovereignity. Here are some matriarchal African societies that resisted patriarchy and others born due to colonisation.
Umoja tribe
Look at those priceless smiles on their faces!!
Umoja is a village located in the grassland of Samburu in Northern Kenya. The village is guarded by a thorn fence and men are not allowed. The word Umoja means one in Swahili.
The village started as a sanctuary of 15 women who were raped by British soldiers, their husbands accused these women of bringing dishonor to their families and kicked them out. Most women who fled to Umoja land mainly escape the Samburu culture which practices genital mutilation, sexaul assault, rape domestic violence and child marriage.
Today, in Umoja there are roughly 50 women and 200 children. When the boys who were brought by their fleeing mothers while still young, they have to leave the village when they turn 18 years.
The Umoja people have created their own economy to be able to earn a regular income to take care of their basic needs. They run a campsite for Safari tourists who come to visit that particular village. Also, they make colourful beaded necklaces, Bangles and anklets. The money earned is given to the village's matriarch who then allocates the amount for food to each family based on the number of children per homestead. Also they save up money do their daughters who are ready to join highschool and college education.
You might think these women are in isolation but, truth is , they go out in neighboring villages, markets and schools for business and education and they have managed to build a safe haven where they can lead a life of respect.
However, the critics have been raised by some Kenyans saying that women can't live in a single sex society that some women sneak out to meet men, as if they are prisoners.
AKAN
The Akan society is a meta-ethnicity (many ethnics) matriclan/matrilinear society. The Akan people dominates Ivory coast and Ghana regions of west Africa. Akan people have been around since the 15th century and continued to grow. This society is just normal like other African societies; led by mostly men and having many religions as well as ethnics. What makes it matriarchal is that it is fundamentally built around Matrilinearity. Everyone's identity, inheritance and wealth are all determined by their family ancestress.
NUBIANS
This is a matrifocal society located in northern Sudan . In ancient Nubia, women played an important role as goddess, queens and warriors. They worshiped ISIS who was the wife of OSIRIS and they had an unusually high number of queens. Nowadays, NUBIANS have a low number of men which makes them a matrifocal society. Civil wars are said to be responsible for the absence of men in Nubia.
This article was written in order to shed some light on how women were dominative in our ancient world mainly Africa. I can't say openly that I'm against patriarchy because it's the only system I know, the only system my Ma and Grandma know. Seeing how women are treated as objects and having to suffer abandonment, divorce, abuse, harassment, economic hardship and social diminishment in work and public made me open a chapter in history where once women were goddesses, queens and warriors in the world. To my vain, there is little documentation of Matriarch in Africa which makes me wonder how much we lost to colonisation. The patriarchy system makes us feel like outcasts. Women are raped, the society turns a blind eye on it. A woman can't wear an outfit of her choice without raising arguments. We live in a society where governments don't utter a word on female genital mutilation and early marriages but will jail women who bleached their skin, women who wore "indecently" or a woman who is simply trying to shape her curves. The patriarchy system can do better than this but they [leaders, law enforcements,...] Are obsessed with punishing women and making them feel invalid.
We can acknowledge where we've been, before, i mean after colonisation we were denied the access to knowledge, civilisation and decision making. So, we want the educated and high profile women to stand up and stop the patriarchy from less privilege-ing women and denying freedom to their bodies.
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