Are Kenya’s literary feminists too militant?

Three generations of women. Grandmother, mother and daughter.

Margaret A Ogola’s The River and The Source is one of the best novels in Kenya to study and present the social and cultural occurrences in a society undergoing a slow but gradual change.

From the culture bound yet undeniably strong matriarch Akoko, to the high heel wearing, career-chasing grand-daughters, this novel did more for the struggle for the emancipation of women in Kenya than it is credited for.

The River and The Source was and is still celebrated as one of the greatest novels in Kenya to ever look at the position of women in our society from a point that not only challenged the existing norms but also from a point that did not mind breaking those norms.

For most people, the story, set in Luoland was representative of the place of women in the 19th and 20th century.

FOUGHT FOR WOMEN

Margaret Ogola espoused feministic views.

Just as Francis Imbuga in his play Aminata and Grace Ogot in The Strange Bride. They questioned. They attacked. They over-turned.

They created an environment where they fought for women respectably and presented alternatives in ways that gave bearers of the status quo little room to dismiss them.

Add to that list, female writers like Wanjiku Kabira and Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye.

These women knew what they were up against and how to go about breaking their foe down.

One can say they achieved reasonable results. Plus, whether or not, they were going against the grain, they had the respect of the public.

OUT OF PLACE

Into the 21st century and it is hard not to pity those who walk around the streets of Nairobi calling themselves feminists. Be they lawyers, journalists, academicians, performing artistes, or police officers.

Okay, the police part maybe a little out of place.

First off, it has been a while since any novel or play that captured the essence of being a woman in Kenya in the 21st century hit the shelves.

And that is not because the contemporary female writers in Kenya are not writing; they are. The only problem is they have failed to capture womanhood in Kenya in the 21st century.

When they write, they are tracking the scent of their mothers (Muthoni Garland), or mourning the loss of childhood innocence as they transit from childhood to young adulthood (Okwiri Oduor).

Others would rather go after HIV/Aids (Moraa Gitaa) than face up to the challenges of womanhood in Kenya today or go historical ghost hunting (Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor).

The let down by women writers has opened up space for female television programme script writers, female film script writers, female radio presenters, female lawyers, female newspaper columnists and female singers to take charge of the gynocritic’s role that the female writers have absconded.

The results have been disastrous to say the least.

A form of aggressive and abrasive feminist group has come up that lacks the insight and sense of direction needed to drive up a national agenda.

Say what you will, but driving the feminist agenda topless or full body nude does not strike one as an intelligent approach.

Neither does the combative and vicious approach that radio and the ‘feminist’ lawyers have taken.

Feminism is not a chicken fighting session where cackling and heckling can be used to measure the amount of effect one’s actions have.

Stupidly merchandising your lady parts does little in convincing the world that you are free and with the choice to do whatever you want with your body.

The truth is that it lowers your worth in the eyes of those whose respect you would want to obtain. Or perhaps, respect and self-esteem are not part of the 21st century feminist movement.

WRONG MOVES

Today’s feminists are not respected — they give women a bad name and in numerous ways take back the gains made by the feminists of the yester years.

It is no wonder that female writers are a little bit coy — they probably do not want to be profiled the same way as radio hosts with lewd diction and the manners of a pig in the name of feminism and being free and able to choose.

The future is less hostile to women. In fact, it is more of a friend to women. What with the laws and the affirmative actions and gender sensitive everything?

This maybe so, but the militant and vacuous feminists around town are making the wrong moves in the name of the movement.