Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies (2003) ISSN: 1530-5686 IMAGES OF 'MOTHERHOOD' –AFRICAN AND NORDIC PERSPECTIVES

Signe Arnfred

Truly to liberate women means to change thinking itself.

—Adrienne Rich 1976: Of Woman Born.

The papers in this and the following issues of JENdA are selected papers from a conference on Images of 'Motherhood' – African and Nordic Perspectives. The conference took place in Dakar at the Ile de Gorée in mid- February 2003. It was organized as part of the activities of the Sexuality, Gender and Society in Africa research programme at the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala (www.nai.uu.se), in collaboration with the Department of Religious Studies, Uppsala University, and the Department of History, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar. 'Nordic' in this context refers to the Nordic countries: Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, whose governments finance the Nordic Africa Institute. This conference was made possible by an extra grant from SIDA, the Swedish government development agency.

The conference focused on conceptual issues, taking a lead from Amina Mama's key note address at the Women's Worlds 2002 congress in Kampala July last year: "Every practice is informed by theory; every theory is born of practice" (Mama 2002). This is to say that lines of thinking and lines of action are closely interlinked. For example, given that `motherhood' remains invisible in feminist theories, feminist politics in relation to `motherhood' are likely suffer, while conversely new lines of thinking regarding `motherhood' may open up new avenues for action. For a long time the notion of 'motherhood' and related issues have been grossly under-theorized in feminist discourse, even as socio-economic situations of mothers in the North as well as in the South are becoming increasingly unbearable. The number of single parents, most of them mothers, is increasing all over the world. This is a situation, which calls for feminist responses. In the same speech, Amina Mama noted that, "Feminism, once put through a postcolonial lens, offers a radically subversive agenda that goes against the grain of all imperial interests, as well as against the grain of mainstream national and Africa regional interests" (Mama 2002. 4).

In her classic work Of Woman Born (1976), Adrienne Rich states that "patriarchy could not survive without motherhood and heterosexuality in their institutional forms; therefore they are treated as axioms, as 'nature' itself, and not open to question..." (1976: 43). Over the years, the axiom of heterosexuality has been challenged and extensively criticized in feminist theory. But there has been far less critique of the axiom of 'motherhood.' 'Motherhood' is almost invisible in feminist texts, even though mothering plays a prominent role in women's lives in the North and in the South. Attempts are being made in the name of gender equality, to replace 'motherhood' with 'parenthood' and to pull in men as responsible partners. But why must the tasks of mothers be effaced? Why are the contradictions of modern motherhood, namely young mothers being torn between demands at work and demands from children, not being analyzed in feminist theory? Why are systematic gender inequalities in this context not being challenged? In Sweden half of the cabinet ministers are women, as are 40% of members of parliament. The official discourse on gender equality is highly developed – but inequalities persist in most women's day-to-day lives. Health problems for women are on the increase, and the problems of stress for families with young children are not solved by official equality discourses.

Some of the most profound re-thinking in feminist contexts on 'motherhood' actually derives from African scholars. This was a major reason for organizing a conference on Images of 'Motherhood' so as to compare the African and Nordic perspectives. Western feminists with roots in the Second Wave of the women's movement have generally defined themselves in opposition to mother-identified women of previous generations. For them, work, politics and sexuality have been seen as more theoretically challenging than concerns about motherhood. In Africa, by contrast, feminists have held a different position. They do not see the issue of motherhood as theoretically irrelevant. This very difference between African and Western women scholars partly explains why there is a certain reservation toward the term 'feminist' in African contexts.

Contemporary African women scholars are members of societies where, in the not-so- distant past and even today, mothers were, and are still held in high regard. This honored social position of mothers is reflected in the thinking of feminist scholars like Ifi Amadiume and Oyèrónke Oyéwùmí. This African feminist theoretical work was part of the inspiration for this conference. It offered the necessary comparative scope within which to create a dialogue between African and Nordic scholars. The underlying goal of the dialogue is to further feminist thinking and discourse on 'motherhood', and to so do with inspiration of scholarship rooted in African realities. At the conference this line of scholarship was represented in keynote addresses by Niara Sudarkasa, formerly of Lincoln University, Molara Ogundipe of the University of Arkansas, and Nkiru Nzegwu of Binghamton University.

The papers presented at the conference dealt with a variety of issues and concerns, from questions of Mariology in Christian religious traditions, to the experience of a young African mother who moved from a black to a white neighbourhood in South Africa; and from issues of worship of a saintly (Cheikh Ahmadu Bamba's) mother in Senegalese Islam, to the ways in which stereotype images of African mothers are used in campaigns against immigrants in France.

The first important issue that came to the fore was is the wife/mother distinction. This of course is a conceptual distinction – in real life things are mixed up in various ways. The point of this particular distinction is to show that whereas 'wifehood' is connected to marriage, `motherhood' is not necessarily so. Patriarchal society, however, has only legitimized `motherhood' when the mother was also a wife (cf the issue of `illegitimate children'). But, as pointed out by Rich, "the patriarchal institution of 'motherhood' is not 'the human condition' any more than rape, prostitution, and slavery are" (Rich 1976: 34).

Furthermore, in many Africa languages, the term translated as 'wife', in actual fact is a genderless term, meaning `outsider to the lineage'. If 'wives' are subordinated – as is frequently the case – this subordination is linked to the position as outsiders to the lineage, not to sex/gender per se. In patrilineal contexts the women who are daughters of the lineage will often have different (and more privileged) positions, compared to the women who join the lineage as a wives... In matrilineal contexts, the in-married strangers to the lineage will be men, sharing the subordinate position of in-married women in patrilineal settings. In the language of the Makhuwa, for example, in northern Mozambique, the term for a person who in European terms would be a 'father', literally translates into male stranger married into the lineage. Whereas 'wifehood' in many African contexts indicate subordination, the position of 'mother' is central and respected, in all societies be they patrilineal or matrilineal.

Another recurrent theme in the discussion, somehow connected to the wife/mother debate, focused on different conditions for (and conceptions of) 'motherhood' and `mothering' in black vs. white communities in South Africa. Modern motherhood is contradictory per se, since wage work demands and children's needs pull mothers/parents in different directions. In white South African communities (as often in the North) motherhood is individualized, and despite the interest in overall gender equality, there are unequal social expectations for mothers and fathers. In these settings, motherhood more often than not is ridden with guilt. In black communities co-mothering is much more the norm, making motherhood easier by softening the contradictions; here motherhood may even be perceived as a resource.

In all of the papers that approached the issues from a historical perspective, the patriarchalizing influences in Africa of colonization, state and religion (Christianity and Islam) were invariably pointed out. Interesting parallels were shown in the developments of the words for 'mother' in countries as diverse as Finland and Madagascar. In both places the old words for 'mother' also have other meanings as well, like for example "a trunk with ramifications." In Finland, however, this old word for 'mother' fell into disuse, and even turned into a pejorative term, along with the rise of the Lutheran reformation (in the 16th and 17th centuries). This discussion pointed to an important field of study: different editions of Christianity vis a vis women's positions as mothers, and the role of the Protestant church in making wifehood a prerequisite for motherhood, and in subjecting wives and mothers to the authority of the state.

Several papers pointed to the importance of inventing and using concepts, which bridge or dissolved dichotomies. The public/private (or public/domestic) dichotomy has been devastating to women and to mothers, hiding women and 'motherhood' away in the 'private' sphere, thus diminishing its importance. The conceptual pair 'production/reproduction' follows similar dichotomous lines, giving 'production' priority and downgrading 'reproduction'; production is seen as work, creation, transcendence, while reproduction is connected to nature and immanence. Patricia Hill Collin's term—motherwork is a good example of a concept which dissolves and overcomes this dichhotomy, insisting on defining what mothers do as 'work' as well. Another example of overcoming dichotomies which was brought into the discussion was Adrienne Rich's concept of corporeal thinking, dissolving the classical Cartesian mind/body dichotomy.

One aim of the conference was to contribute to the development of a theoretically insightful and politically focused language for analysing 'motherhood' as institution. Several participants, however, also talked about the need for discourses exploring 'motherhood' as personal and social experience. All approaches are needed in studies of cross-cultural patterns of 'motherhood' in order to be able to influence "development" trends, and to contribute to strategies as women struggle for social transformation toward justice and equity.

References

Mama, Amina. 2002: Gains and Challenges: Linking Theory and Practice. www.gwsafrica.org/knowledge/mama

Rich, Adrienne. 1976: Of Woman Born. Motherhood as Experience and Institution. London: Virago.

© Copyright 2003 Africa Resource Center, Inc.

Citation Format

Signe Arnfred. (2003). IMAGES OF 'MOTHERHOOD' – AFRICAN AND NORDIC PERSPECTIVES. Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies: Issue 4.