Dr Eyiwumi Olayinka is a lecturer in the Department of European Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan; she recently published her poetry collection, Behind the Curtains, which focuses on women’s development, and in this interview with Adewale Oshodi, the wife of the immediate past vice chancellor of the premier university, Professor Idowu Abel Olayinka, shares her reason for fighting the cause of women and why she sees herself as a feminist. Excerpts:
Your poetry collection, Behind the Curtains, focuses on issues affecting the womenfolk in the society, but what message are you actually trying to pass across?
The message in Behind the Curtains is loud and clear. You and I know that there have been issues surrounding oppression and subjugation of women, not only in Africa, but across the globe. Even our Western sisters cannot boast of a society that is 100 per cent egalitarian. For instance, the last time I checked, data from research showed that fewer women are still found in the world of work in Europe and America. In terms of happiness, though there is no universal measurement for happiness and therefore subjective, women in the US are said to attain lower level of happiness than men. In politics, as egalitarian as the United States claim to be, a woman is yet to emerge as president of that country. By providence in the last US elections, the Democrats succeeded in breaking the jinx and glass ceiling when Kamala Harris emerged as the first female vice president.
What I am emphasising is that women are still oppressed across the globe, though at varying degrees. In the Maldives, a South Asian country for example, women in the academia are reported to work harder than men. Regardless of this fact, more men occupy higher positions than women. The same is the trend in academia in Europe and America. In Sub-Saharan Africa, where there are still major challenges in the educational sector in spite of the tremendous progress made in closing gender parity index, a World Bank 2012 report confirmed that the gap in educational disadvantage of girls relative to boys increases through each succeeding level of education. So, you will agree with me that gender disparity cuts across the globe.
Therefore, I will sum up my message in Behind the Curtains from different perspectives. The first is what I term claustrophobic essentialisation of women. This is because the space you occupy domestically and publicly determines the amount of power you generate. The amount of power you generate is a currency that dictates who you are, who you become and how you are treated in the society. Space, from time immemorial, is the arena where power, knowledge and ability to influence are starkly revealed, acquired and utilised.
The bedroom is another type of space where women are expected to have sex and experience it as a delight and not duty. Unfortunately, many women are said to experience claustrophobic constraints in there. In Buchi Emecheta’s Nnu Ego and Second Class Citizen for instance, she depicts how the bedroom could be a place of horror for women if it is not properly constructed to meet female sexual needs. The body and mind need to be in sync such that there is sexual concordance.
Bringing in the issue of female gender mutilation (FGM), which, in my view, is another way of curtailing the amount of space a woman has for agency will not be out of place.
In politics and private organisations too, the concept of claustrophobic essentialisation of women applies. Now, you would wonder why. My point is that during political campaigns, you see women being used for campaigns. They go as far as putting on custom-made clothes to show their affiliation with whatever party they belong to. Most often, these women help men to win elections, but once male politicians are elected into lush offices, the women who campaigned and voted for them are pushed out of the scene. They are hardly remembered and obliterated from the scene of powerplay. This accounts for why there is gross under-representation of women in politics, even where matters that concern women are discussed.
Some of the poems were penned as far back as 2011, is there any reason it took you so long to publish the collection?
I write when I’m inspired. In most cases, my inspiration comes in the dead of the night when my mind is quiet. I also receive inspiration when I’m in the bathroom. I dated them because I like to keep the dates they were written. As we speak, I’m already preparing another collection of poems which I have titled, Ironies. When I have enough to be published as a collection, I’ll publish them. Also, I’m working on a novel which is also centred on women’s condition. I started it in 2020. I’m also writing two plays on COVID-19, one in French and the other in English. They are more of humour but with penchant for exposing the deleterious effects of Africans tendencies to be white-man’s product-crazy to the extent of turning ourselves into dead meat. So, I would say that is just my style – to take my time to get inspired and write when inspired to do so.
Did any personal experience or something experienced by a close relative or associate influence any of the poems?
There’s what you call the author’s mind. When an author writes, s/he writes out of experience or by observing happenings around her/him. An author isn’t constrained to write out of personal experience. Even when a writer writes fictions, the fictions s/he writes are not necessarily fictitious but are a representation of human activities in one’s environment. Overtime, I have observed the pitiable conditions of majority of African women in real life, in novels and in the media as well as what we seem to have missed because we chose to deviate from our culture to imbibe the white man’s culture. Like I said earlier, African women are oppressed not because our original culture dictates it. It was the white man who introduced patriarchal system of governance to Africa. African women were not historically excluded from the arenas of power and other areas of social and economic functions. African women occupied key positions that allowed male and female to complement each other. In West Africa for instance, women were active participants in the making of their own histories by playing significant roles in their societies’ religious, political, social, and economic processes and activities. They had and exhibited authority in key areas of governance. Women had the spiritual, social, political and economic power and oversight, they had the right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience.
Will you consider yourself a feminist despite the fact that a section of the society has come to see it in the negative light, especially in the area of fighting for equality between both sexes?
I’m a feminist to the core. I support women’s cause. But in general, I want to fight oppression from my own little corner in whatever form it presents itself, either oppression of women by men or oppression of men by women. A feminist as you must know is not a man hater, she is rather to be seen as someone, a man or a woman, who passionately seeks to advance the cause of women, advocate for their equality with man while also not neglecting the welfare of men in all spheres because the two genders must be seen to be operating at the same frequency for the overall good of all.
A school of thought believes creating special opportunities for women, like reserving specific number of positions for women in politics, etc, does not create a level-playing ground for males who are also after such opportunities, what is your view about this?
My own take about level playing ground is whoever is qualified to fill a position, let her/him fill it. Putting the round peg in the round hole is what can correct the anomalies we have in organisations, especially in the civil service. It is also then that we can discover the strengths of women in all ramifications. All positions should be made open to be contested for by both female and male. By the time we do this, we will find out that more women are more emotionally, educationally and socially qualified to occupy those positions. What women need is the opportunity to have a fair playing ground to compete with men. The result will be amazing. That is my own understanding of equality. In my thinking, women are not being given the same opportunities as men because men fear that women are equally good. The thing then is not to give women that chance to prove themselves.
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