The role of women in colonial resistance in Africa: A Study of Asante and Dahomey in West Africa

Abstract

In comparison to the kind of cooperative opposition experienced by the indigenous, European resistance during the partitioning of Africa after the Berlin Conference in 1884–1885 was underrated. The people's reality can effectively explain the many ontological gender roles in African society. The Dahomey Kingdom, which is now located in Benin, and the Asante Kingdom, which is now located in Ghana, are discussed in this paper as playing a gender binary role in colonial resistance in West Africa. The debate therefore focused on the ways in which feminism and gender norms interacted in the African social order. The theoretical framework was based on a regional conceptual idea of “Bomutwen’’ reality. The primary data source was archival information, which was supplemented by storytelling based on indigenous research techniques. Approaches to analysis include social constructionist and interpretivism. The study found that women played significant roles in resistance in the Dahomey and Asante Kingdoms, both directly and indirectly. The study concluded that because men dominate society's leadership but jointly own it with their offspring, gender discrimination is an alien concept in both communities.