AFRICAN FEMINISM: SOME CRITICAL CONSIDERATIONS 1 AFRICAN FEMINISM: SOME CRITICAL CONSIDERATIONS Adeolu Oluwseyi Oyekan Lagos State University, Nigeria Feminism has continued to advance and open new frontiers, maintaining a dominant status in the genre of issues in the political and academic arena over the last few decades. This growth in status has opened an array of perspectives from which the feminine condition can be more aptly appraised and improved. One such perspective is African feminism. In examining the idea of African feminism, this paper analyses the reasons advanced for its uniqueness. While it concedes that there are peculiar conditions in Africa which raise unique challenges for the feminine gender, it questions the basis for anchoring the idea of African feminism on them. The paper submits that if the peculiarity of experiences is the basis for demarcation, the heterogeneous nature of the continent renders such an idea a non-starter. It further tries to show that the challenges that differentiate the African female from her counterparts elsewhere are not gender-engendered, but are rather products of the totality of the peculiar African experience, especially in the postcolonial era. INTRODUCTION Theorizing feminism may appear, at first glance, an easy task to undertake, since it is familiar knowledge that the issues involved revolve around the liberation and empowerment of women. But a critical examination of trends and perspectives in feminist discourses reveals the multidimensional nature of the subject matter that carries differences in orientations. These differences, right at the core of the feminist challenge and the means of resolving them, make a basic difference in the theoretical approach inevitable. One reason is the shifting epochs in the feminist struggle, partly owing to gains made in the past and the dynamics of a world rapidly changing as a result of advances in science and technology, new ways of doing politics, economic and environmental changes, and the effects of globalization. These rapid changes mean that feminine approaches need to be constantly reviewed in order to meet with contemporary realities. Still, it would seem that the changes that have come along with the epochal shifts have acquired a life of their own, thereby dividing further the lines of differences among feminist scholars. In this paper, the concern is with African feminism. Over the last couple of years, some black and African scholars have argued for the need to look at the plight of the female folk Φιλοσοφια Φιλοσοφια Φιλοσοφια Φιλοσοφια Φιλοσοφια Volume 15, 1:2014 African Feminism (ok) Final.pmd 12/6/2013, 11:05 PM 1