Shifting Gender Roles in Colonial Nigeria: A Narrative Exploration

1. Our White Fathers: Patriarchy and Shifting Gender Roles in Colonial Nigeria, 1900-1961 Senior Thesis Presented to Dr. Li on December 2nd, 2014

2. What, When, & Why • Frame & Terminology • Constructs • Gender, Patriarchy Narrative • Colonial, Post-Colonial • Thesis • Three Societies • Black Women • Black Men • White Women • Connection • Disconnect • Conclusion

3. The White Man’s Burden “Take up the White Man's burden, The savage wars of peace-- Fill full the mouth of Famine And bid the sickness cease; And when your goal is nearest The end for others sought, Watch sloth and heathen Folly Bring all your hopes to nought.”

4. Some Definitions Construct: “an idea or theory containing various conceptual elements, typically one considered to be subjective and not based on empirical evidence.” • A vehicle to maintain Imperial validity

5. Imperial Constructs Colony - “Dual Mandate” • Mutually Beneficial Empire- “White Man’s Burden” • Bring Modernity Patriarchy- “Metaphor of the Family” • Father as Civilizer

6. Imperial Constructs Gender: • European Binary-- Separate, not Equal • Public/Private, Political/Domestic • “the range of characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between, masculinity and femininity”

7. Nigerian Gender Roles

8. How We Remember Narrative: • Human beings tend to understand events when organized as a coherent story or “narrative” explaining how we believe the event was generated. • Historiography is an analysis of our “historical narrative” • (e.g. How & why colonialism happened)

9. Colonial Narratives Colonial - Bringing Civilization Post-Colonial- Africa Under-developed Gender & Colonialism - Women, Agency

10. So What? Even though Nigerian men and women had unique gender norms before the colonial era, • they were altered by their contact with British colonialism. However, Nigerian gender norms are not alone • European women experienced the constraints of white patriarchy alongside them.

11. And How? Through outlining these three societies, we find they share many similarities, • their agency despite the limitations of patriarchy • their dissimilarity to the common narrative

12. Prevailing Narrative Black Women - • Hyper Sexualized • Victimized • Tokenized • “Doubly Colonized” Sources - • Literature • Film • Memoirs • Historiography

14. Nigerian Women • Pre-Colonial • Politics & Market • Colonial • Uprisings, Strikes • Post-Colonial • Loss of Power Sources • Chuku • Jeffries-Johnson • Johnson-Odim

15. Feminine Power

16. Prevailing Narrative Black Men - • Objectified • Commodified • Feminized Sources - • Colonial Histories • Science • Film & Literature • Anti-Colonial Text • Fanon, Memmi

18. Nigerian Men • Pre-Colonial • Power Shared • Colonial • Solidify Power • Post-Independence • New Patriarchy Sources - • Amadiume • Gender Roles • Lindsay • “Breadwinner” • Nationalism

19. Masculinity Cemented

20. Prevailing Narrative White Women - • Idle, Lazy, Exploitive • White Reserves • Miscegenation • Risk of Assault • “Mother” Figure Sources - • Literature • Colonial • & Anti-Colonial • Film • Colonial Histories

22. British Women in Nigeria In England - • “White Woman’s Burden” • Path to Suffrage In Nigeria - • Hospitals • Schools Sources - • Callaway • Active Participants • Memoirs • Fear of “Drunken White Men,” not Africans

23. Essential & Influential

24. Connecting the Framework Nigerian Men, Nigerian Women, & British Women Intersect • Defined by Framework of Patriarchal Authority • Lived within “White Man’s World” of Colonial Nigeria

25. Disconnecting the Narrative • Nigerian Women • Public, Economic, & Political Agents • Nigerian Men • Strengthened & Consolidated • British Women in Nigeria • Essential & Influential

26. Conclusions • Despite interest in “Gender & Colonialism” • Academia perpetuates narrative of difference • Three societies connected • Limitations of Patriarchy • Agency despite those limitations

27. Thank You!