The book, Culture, Gender, Work: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, vividly paints a picture of how culture plays a central and dominant role in politics, the economy and every facet of societal life and development. Culture is the pivot and everything else revolves around it, according to the book, which is a collection of papers written by Regina Amadi – Njoku and presented at different forums across the world during the course of her work life as a top diplomat.
Amadi-Njoku, in the book, clearly shows the inter-twinned nature of the three key concepts, culture, gender and work. She also leaves her views, thoughts and recommendations on how these three can effectively be managed in order for Africa to get back on to the path of sustainable development. The continent, in her view, had ran a good ship before colonisation and handled the gender and work aspects particularly well. She is of the view that a lot of stuff ought to be borrowed from the past, dusted, brushed up and used in modern Africa. Though some of these papers were written as far back as 1986, some 35 years ago, the views expressed by Regina are still as relevant today as they were when she first articulated them.
What does she hope to achieve through the book? What is her dream world like? She says: “My vision is a world in which culture-driven biases, abuses, inequities, and violence are eliminated. I want a world where meaningful gender partnership is established between men and women in all societies, a partnership that ensures all segments of the population, men, women and youth, participate on equal footing in development. My concern is the human being –especially women and youth – and job creation because everybody needs a decent income-generating job to survive and thrive. It doesn’t matter where you work. For the fisherman, his canoe is his office; a palm wine tapper, his office is the tree; a woman trader, her shop…”
The above statement easily points the reader in the direction the book will take them.
The first part of the book entitled: ‘THE WORLD FROM REGINA’S LENS,’ expresses her thoughts on the relationship between the past and the thematic areas of the book; Culture, Gender and Work. In this part, she looks at various world development trends like the end of colonial rule, the post-colonial era, globalisation and de-globalisation. She posits that globalisation has led to the blurring of national borders, leaving two sets of people: the winners who amass mind boggling wealth through vast non- employment generating opportunities offered by global market and technological innovations and the losers who feel cheated and exploited through unfair labour and socio-economic policies that leave them haplessly and hopelessly trapped in the enervating cracks of unemployment, slave labour, poverty, conflicts, and diseases.
She notes that Africa, which is incidentally among the losers, should as a matter of urgency, restructure her development agenda, integrating positive cultural attributes and practices into modern governance in order to access the dividends of globalisation and mitigate its ills.
This section of the book deals extensively and exclusively on role of culture in the development of Africa. After a thorough examination of where rain began to beat Africa, the book lays the blame squarely on a mis-match between the people’s culture/mindset and what was forced on them by colonialism. Africa had to jettison ways of life and living that totally agreed with their environment and instincts and pick alien ways that left her people stranded on the global development stage. Regina insists that Africa must go back to its roots. A tree cannot grow without its roots firmly clutching the ground and so it is that, in Regina’s views, Africa will not progress without a marriage of its culture and modern governance.
She opines that three areas of African tradition which have impacted on its development are; perception of and attitude toward land, time and gender and insists that “the difference between Western and African perception of and attitudes in these areas have constrained Africa’s efficient management of sectors like agriculture and women’s integration into economic process.”
Of course, it goes without saying that failure to effectively manage these sectors will keep Africa at the feet of the North (Europe). Regina makes a strong case for Africa’s leaders to approach development on two planes- through the central government and through village and cultural organisations. She further recommends to African leaders “an administration based on transparency and popular participation as found in the efficient management of village affairs and cultural organisations.
In this section, Regina laments the unfortunate gender inequality that exits in the African continent and insists also, and rightly so, that Africa’s development lies in the hands of both its men and women.
While acknowledging and welcoming the fact that gender equality concerns are now seen as being critical to development, and being promoted as such, Regina makes the point that African governments and the international community in their efforts to foster development in the continent have failed to take into cognisance the interplay of culture and gender and its consequences on development. The result is that they have not been able to achieve much success in designing policies and programmes that maximise participation of grassroots populations, especially the women.
She advocates a synergy of linkages between women networks of the educated and uneducated, those in the formal and informal sector and those in the urban and rural areas. This, she says, will not only restore ‘gender balance’ in African development, but also accelerate an equitable integration of women in both the public and private sectors and at the formal and informal levels.
In the fourth section that dealt with work, Regina identifies male-biased gender paradigm and the resultant patriarchal family governance as major threat to women work-life balance. She points also to gender blind or unfriendly workplace as a major reason why women exit early from the workplace and prefer establishing their own businesses.
She sounds a note of caution to women here: ‘A woman should realise that nature may have programmed her to be a reproducer, a producer, a nurturer, a caregiver, an entrepreneur, and a manager! However, she should not programme herself to be a superwoman executor for the programme of all the people in her life. Even though her culture and environment may prompt her to believe that is possible, she CAN’T do it all! What she can do is devise actions that will enable her cope with multiple responsibilities which, if properly carried out, can afford her a tremendous sense of accomplishment, happiness, and peace of mind.”
She harps on the need for the development of a social security system that will benefit both the formal and informal sectors taking into cognisance the specificity of the African continent and its culture as well as the fact that women operate mostly at the informal sector and are often not covered by any formal safety net.
Culture, Gender, Work in Africa: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, is simply a timeless piece of work that will remain relevant for students of development, African leaders and campaigners for gender equality and equity for years to come.
As the African continent struggles to find its feet on the global stage, its leaders will do well to avail themselves of the truths espoused by Regina in this well written, easy to understand book.
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Madunagu is a journalist