Colonialism In Nigeria

Nigeria Colonialization and gender relationship This section critically analyze gender relationship in three eras in Nigeria which are the pre-colonial, the colonial and the post-colonial times.

The Precolonial Gender relationship in Nigeria

In the pre-colonial era, Nigerians, typical of many Africans, lived in communities in their traditional settings and roles. In these communities both men and women work together for the socio-economic and political development of their families and the communities. There were no term referred to as house wives as it is commonly used now because both men and women participated actively taking roles as much as they could without a clear demarcation of roles in the society (Ako-

The colonial incursion which came in 1884 brought a lot of changes to many Nigerian traditions and practices in terms of religions, political arrangements, education and gender relations (ref). The incursion of the British colonist had significance effect on existing power relationship described above. It stripped women off the roles and power they had before the colonization. The British colonists isolated her women from socio-economic and political activities in Britain and other western countries. Many years later women in the west, fought much for suffrage and representations (Fawcett,,). The feminism waves in the US and the founding of feminism were as a result of women marginalization and male dominance of female from politics and economic activities (ref). But in Nigeria and other African communities as shown in the section above, African women fully participated in community building and developments. The British colonizers target was to take control of the countries after the Berlin scrambling for Africa (ref). Many wars were fought with the locals and more advanced weapons were used to dislodge and institute the British system of governance in all the regions. Women were removed from public and political domain and confined them solely to their homes. Men became stooge of the colonizers and they were introduced to western education for ease of

It presents males as the most significant and dominant figure and policies and discourse are constructed around masculinity (ref). The entire system is patriarchy with male dominant rule over female psychologically, emotionally, financially, violence and other means (hooks, 2004). Toughness, anger, rage became an acceptable social behaviors for men which shapes their lives to demonstrate power over women (Johnson 2005). This subsequently entrenches gender inequality in African