As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve learned a hand full about the politics, demographics, and economy of a few different countries from a couple of my employees who are international students. I have heard and could guess from the stories that most Malian groups are patrilineal, and residence tends to be patrilocal. Polygyny is legal, and couples have the option of choosing between monogamy and polygyny when they enter into a civil marriage. I’ve heard so many stories on how relationships between half-siblings with different mothers are more tense and competitive. One of co-workers told me a story how her father’s third wife attacked the second wife because the husband chose the wrong house to sleep at. Speaking of relationships, there’s three different forms of marriage: traditional, civil, and Muslim.
Traditional is when the groom’s family transfers gifts or money to the bride’s family. In the cities, most couples see the ideal marriage as one that has been legitimized traditionally, civilly, and religiously. Civil marriage is especially popular among wage workers, for without official sanction by the state, wives and children will not be entitled to social welfare benefits such as pensions. In the rural areas and to some extent in the urban areas, marriages are arranged which is the Muslim form. This practice reflects the importance of establishing alliances between families over individual preferences. The first years of marriage are difficult for women, a woman’s position within the household tends to improve over time. Age and children tend to increase a woman’s status. Women’s status in Mali seem to be similar to the women in the US.
Women are less represented than men in the more profitable sectors of the economy. Rural women have a much heavier workload and reduced access to health care than city women. Depending upon her location, her education, her class, and her relationship with her husband a woman may suffer women’s circumcision and/or discriminatory inheritance practices. In many Malian farming communities both women and men are actively involved in agricultural activities. Women are responsible for taking care of many household chores and working in the fields of their husband’s extended family. Once women reach menopause they retire from work in the fields and redirect their efforts in the cultivation of their own fields. Women are also very active in trade activities. Post-menopausal women are freer to engage more extensively in trade activities than are women of child-bearing age. Women’s access to market participation tends to be limited to economic activities which are rarely profitable, compared to the business in which men engage.
From a few readings and personal stories, I’ve notice domestic violence seems to be the norm. According to a study by Care Mali and Promundo, men and women both reported witnessing violence by a man against their mother during their childhood. The results were extremely shocking to me. 63% of men and 41.3% of women interviewed agreed with the statement “There are times when a woman deserves to be beaten”; 41% of female respondents reported having experienced physical violence during their lifetime, while 34.9% of male respondents reported having used physical violence against a female partner during their lifetime. These statistics is not too different from the United States, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have experienced some form of physical violence by an intimate partner.2
Before during my research, I ignorantly always assumed African countries homophobic and transphobic since they’re misogynistic. However, I found some interesting things that kind of made me happy. In Mali, the Dogon tribe maintains that the perfect human being is androgynous. The tribe worships ancestral spirits, Nommo, who are described as androgynous, intersex, and mystical creatures, and whom are also referred to as “the Teachers”. In an uncircumcised penis, the foreskin is representative of femininity, while the clitoris is considered to represent masculinity. The existence of intersex spiritual gods pathed the way for the acceptance of transgender behaviors for other African tribes.
Being an ally for the LBGTQ+ community, learning about this made me ecstatic, however, being a woman, I am still angry. In Mali, women are still suffering. Women’s health is negatively being impacted. This is due to several thing such as: severely affected by poor health and sanitation; child marriage and female genital mutilation; and very high fertility rate. Mali’s being on the world’s poorest countries has led to them having a very high maternal and infant mortality rate, which is extremely sad. So on top of being discriminated against, they are also dying which is not right nor fair.
Work Cited
- Slegh, Henny, et al. “Men, Gender Equality and Gender Relations in Mali.” Findings from the International Men and Gender Equality Survey, CARE IMAGES Mali, May 2013, www.care.org/sites/default/files/documents/CARE-IMAGES-Mali-Summary-Report-FINAL.pdf.
- The Nations Leading Grassroots Voice on Domestic Violence. Accessed July 10, 2019. https://ncadv.org/statistics.2
- Collins, Shanna. “The Splendor of Gender Non-Conformity In Africa – Shanna Collins.” Medium, Medium, 10 Oct. 2017, medium.com/@janelane_62637/the-splendor-of-gender-non-conformity-in-africa-f894ff5706e1.
Interesting! If you look into it more a lot of indigenous people traditionally have a high regard for people who are not what we would call cisgendered, and African indigenous people are no exception. I should also point out that homophobia and misogyny are not typical traits of African nations, it is a result of colonization and high rates of poverty. Some states and grassroots organizations have developed different ways of dealing with these issues through neoliberal economic development, community participation action networks, or returning to traditional ways.