The Effects of French Colonialism in West Africa: Patriarchy and Women

The Scramble for Africa, initiated by King Leopold II of Belgium, took place in the late 19th century into the early 20th century. European countries sought more economic, political, and social control, and saw an opening to do so in Africa. European colonization of Africa persisted until the 1950s and 1960s, however, the colonial legacy endures today. While both African men and women faced harsh oppression from European colonizers, women experienced greater marginalization, which has influenced their inferior social position today. Prior to European colonization, women held leadership positions, had basic rights, access to resources, and a considerable degree of autonomy. However, with the advent of European colonization in Africa, the Western patriarchal mentality constructed social structures and laws that served to marginalize women - limiting their basic rights and leaving them with little to no autonomy and political power.

While every colonizing nation has left an immense colonial footprint on modern African societies and their perceptions of women, this paper will focus on the French colonial administration and its colonies in West Africa. French history is fraught with patriarchal actions, values, laws, traditions, etc. One doesn’t need to look much further than the French national motto, “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité,” and in English, “Liberty, Egality, Fraternity,” to see the emphasis put on the male’s elevated position in society. This patriarchal attitude manifested in French colonial endeavours in Africa as well. While the marginalization of women permeated all facets of colonial life in West Africa, this paper will focus on how patriarchal tendencies of French colonial rule manifested in the educational realm and through the commercialization of land and agriculture. In the end, however, this paper will discuss how women were integral forces and voices in condemning French colonial rule, offering a glimmer of hope in a patriarchal world tarnished by colonialism.

The French colonial administration “designed and implemented its policy of education to suit colonial imperatives” and was used as “an instrument to...shape the future of colonized societies.” Unlike other colonial powers, the French colonial administration was directly and entirely in charge of developing the education policy for their colonies. A primary component of the French colonial policy of education was assimilation. The philosophy of assimilation was essentially used to “produce colonized Africans who would think and behave like the French without the same freedom and equality.” Consistent with the idea of assimilation, the French understanding of gender roles was also imposed upon their colonies and reflected in their education system - women should remain in the private domain, la femme au foyer, while men should remain in the public domain.

As noted in an article entitled, “Women's Educational Experience under Colonialism: Toward a Diachronic Model,” at the beginning of their colonization efforts, French colonial administrators in Senegal left female education in control of the missionaries, who imposed patriarchal, Christian beliefs unto the women, and centered their focus and efforts on male education. For example, the notorious French colonizer, Louis Faidherbe, founded an elite all-boys school called, “Ecole des fils des chefs” (School for the sons of chiefs) in Senegal, and did not create a school for the daughters of chiefs. This example further emphasizes the discrepancies in female and male education in West Africa. Women’s education wasn’t even considered a concern in West Africa until the 20th century, and it was only in 1931 that a report by the Superior Council on Education began discussing female education. Thus in response to this concern, the French colonial administration proposed the “école de maison indigène (school for the native household) for women. The curriculum of these schools focused on teaching European notions of hygiene and child care to future mothers.” These schools only further ingrained the French and Western ideal that women should remain in the private domain, and influenced future attitudes towards women’s education and inferior social position in West Africa.

In addition to excluding women from attaining equal education to men, the French colonial administration oppressed women in the economic sphere as well through the commercialization of land - a landmark of European colonialism in Africa. In pre-colonial Africa, “land was not a commodity to be individually owned, bought and sold...but Rather, the lineage was the landholding unit, and all members of the family, male and female, had rights of usage.” In French colonies, land registration acts were introduced between 1904 and 1906, and these legislative measures “provided the legal framework within which the French expropriated and exploited land and its resources in their West African colonies.”

While this legislation was detrimental to landowners, women and men alike, the policy disproportionately affected women. Farmland previously controlled by women was transferred to male ownership, or otherwise, women were often stripped of their land by French administrators who did not recognize their right to own land. Further, since the French administrators were seemingly unfamiliar with the notion that women, too, could be independent landowners, women who requested to register their land were often “sent home fetch their husbands or fathers to register the claims in their place.” In addition to the commercialization of land, the French colonial administration also established commercialized agriculture. This contributed to the loss of women's economic autonomy because “as families moved from subsistence agriculture to commercial agriculture...men were more prone to do the farming unlike before.” Due to the patriarchal conception that men should have ownership rights to the land and should be the ones farming the land, women were subjected to more vulnerable economic statuses, thus perpetuating a cycle of female inferiority in colonial West Africa.

Although women were almost entirely excluded from the French social, political, and economic colonial structures, women in West Africa had a voice and they were going to be heard. Female-led movements in West Africa emerged during the struggle against colonialism: supporting anti-colonial discussions, organizing mass protests, and resisting French colonial rule. For example, in 1932, women in Dahomey (today part of Benin) held a revolt against French tax policies. And in 1933, women in Togo also held a tax revolt, bringing together a crowd of around four thousand people, eighty percent of whom were female. Powerful female leaders spearheading such protests and movements defied Western gender norms, voiced their concerns, and protested against French colonial rule. Women like, Tourou Sylla, “a renowned anti-colonial, anti-aristocratic, and anti-patriarchal activist from Guinea, was assigned the task of mobilizing women in conservative Futa Jallon.” Or like queen mother, “Yaa Asantewaa of Edweso, who is renowned for having challenged colonial rule.” Even though the French colonial legacy of patriarchy still endures in West Africa today, West African women proved resilient, and will surely prove their resiliency just as much and just as powerfully today.

European colonialism is undeniably a dark period of history that many European countries choose to seldom discuss. The roots of colonialism remain deeply ingrained in the everyday life of all Africans - whether that be through infrastructure, a persistent cycle of underdevelopment, and as discussed in this paper, the marginalization of women. The patriarchal norms of French society permeated their colonies in West Africa, and can be explicitly viewed in their education policies and the commercialization of land and agriculture. Fortunately, powerful and passionate female leaders and female-led movements defied the patriarchal mindset, expressing their anti-colonial sentiments. And as more women in West Africa take on leadership positions and defy ‘gender norms,’ there is a hopeful future for the eradication of patriarchy.

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