McCracken 1

Through the analysis of the oral histories of African women, a common challenge

women strived to overcome was the education problem that existed throughout Africa.

These oral histories are not to be used to form stereotype or generalizations about all

African women, but fighting for education was prevalent in the self truths of the

interviewed women. Moreover, across each of these examined and analyzed oral histories,

education was a common thread to which these women dreamed, strived and fought for in

their daily lives. Many different factors in each other these women’s lives played a role in

the push and pull factors for this type of activism. For example, many of these histories

were set during or following colonialism, during which student activism, women’s

activism and nationalism were prevalent. Also, during colonialism was the apartheid

which brought poverty to many family lineages that were not within the white majority.

Furthermore, through the analysis of many individual oral histories, across the continent

African women strive and place importance upon the education of their children as the tool

to success.

Oral histories in Africa derived from the lack of written histories by authentic

African historians that existed in most African societies. Most existing documented

African history was written from the outsider’s perspective; that of an intruding white

male. This was typically known as oral tradition research. Therefore, historians turned to

oral history, though which Africans were interviewed about their own personal past, in

order to find a collaborative history of the entire continent. Oral history leaves room for

skepticism and critical acclaims to the validity of the history told. As stated in African

Words, African Voices: Critical Practices in Oral History;

 McCracken 2

“African history – as opposed to oral tradition research – mean adding an “African

voice” or another perspective to archival histories, it was also, by late 1980s and

early 1990s, a way to access a more true, more accurate, and more authentic

colonial experience than that which could be teased out of the writing of white male

administrators and their official reports1”

Over time and debate of the validity of this type of history, a conclusion was brought forth

to use both “oral traditions” and “African voices” although they exist worlds apart. The

assumption was shared and proclaimed that the history of a largely illiterate society could

be best captured through the analysis of the older written test, through that of the African

voice2.

Although the analysis of oral history provides a legitimate alternative to the written

oral histories that existed, complications during collection of these oral histories existed.

For example, the amount of agency given to the African to present themselves or their

passions in a certain manner was a largely debated complication. In We Only Come Here

to Struggle, Berida states that “maybe if my husband sees how he looks here he will

change his ways”3. Berida had ulterior motive s to the information that she presented and

the way she presented it as well. Throughout the book Berida refers to her husband’s

drinking problem, and openly states that she wishes it would change. Her ulterior motive

of attempting to show her husband how he treats her through her oral history could

potentially leave out other valuable information.

1
White, Luisa, and Miescher, Stephan F. and Cohen, David William. African Words, African Voices: Critical
Practices in Oral History. Indianaopolis: Indiana University Press, 1997, pg 15.
2
White, Luisa, and Miescher, Stephan F. and Cohen, David William. African Words, African Voices:
Indianaopolis: Indiana University Press, 1997. 66
3
White, Luisa, and Miescher, Stephan F. and Cohen, David William. African Words, African Voices:
Indianaopolis: Indiana University Press, 1997, pg 1.
 McCracken 3

Not only are life histories memory in action but they are also a “configuring of

perspectives in action”. Narrators and authors of these African history texts combine

different episodes in order of time sequence, social relations and the self. Moreover,

“assumptions about historical causality inform episodes and sequences, suggesting which

episodes are included and elaborated, how events are related, what forces and incidents are

influential, and how individuals figure in larger social historical currents4”.

Narrators also participate in the editing of these oral histories. This often includes

deleting repetitions, false starts, side marks and exclamations made by others present,

along with ordering events thematically and/or chronologically. The process of editing is

widely criticized, as oral histories can be altered in order to fit the context which the

narrator is searching for. Issues of translation can also be central when narrating an oral

history. When a conversation is translated one or more times, specific details, along with

the precise chosen diction can be lost. This can be caused by the lack or equivalent words

between languages or mis-interpretations by interpreters. Attention needs to be paid to how

the information is collected; the process of movement from production to analysis5.

Through the effect use of this analysis, one can find a common thread in the oral

histories of the women interviewed. The concern over the effectiveness of education was

widespread, as education was viewed as a key to success as a minority during colonialism.

As stated in TANU Women:Gender and Culture in the Making of Tanganyikan

Nationalism, 1955-1965, “what the ‘aspring African’ needed in order to advance was a

better-educated wife, since her ‘backwardness’ was one of his ‘greatest handicaps; and ‘a
4
White, Luisa, and Miescher, Stephan F. and Cohen, David William. African Words, African Voices:
Indianaopolis: Indiana University Press, 1997, pg 142.
5
White, Luisa, and Miescher, Stephan F. and Cohen, David William. African Words, African Voices:
Indianaopolis: Indiana University Press, 1997, pg 128.
 McCracken 4

major challenge for both the educationalist and the social worker’”. However, the

education spoke of here and throughout the majority of colonialism was the “female

education” in which women learned the roles of the white woman. With the apartheid

present, blacks were the minority and whites were the majority, and thus the black needed

to learn the more natural and successful ways of the white women; sewing, simple

domestic science, child welfare and cooking6.

In all different parts of Africa, education was viewed as a key component to attain

whichever battle was being fought by those within the country. In Tanganyika, as

described through the narration of Susan Geiger, education was used as a tool to promote

nationalism. Female activists and nationalists such as Bi Halima and Halima Hamisi

brought higher levels of education to their party in order to ban together as a nation to

overcome the apartheid and colonialism7. They were able to use their education to help the

illiterate, or nearly illiterate activist understand politics and the ways of activism. Bi and

Halima both were able to successfully participate as leading activists with their education.

Another activist in Tanganyika was Bi Mashavu, who “echoed a concern for

education expressed by many other women, and an awareness of how she and other

women, most especially Muslims, had been denied schooling under colonialism”. This

denial further fueled the nationalistic actions and views that these women in the

community held. They strived and promised to rectify the problem of denied education

with the achievement of education. Bi was also aware that education brought women

closer to paid employment, but never guaranteed it8.

6
Geiger, Susan. TANU Women: Gender and Culture in the Making of Tanganyikan Nationalism, 1955-1965.
Portsmouth, IN: Heinemann, 1997. pg 39-40.
7
Geiger, Susan. TANU Women. Portsmouth, NI, pg 74-75
8
Geiger, Susan. TANU Women. Portsmouth, NI, pg. 82.
 McCracken 5

An additional form of activism was found in South Africa, as depicted in Profiles in

Diversity: Women in the New South Africa, whereas black female students rebelled against

the apartheid by choosing majors that were only offered at white institutions. Zora

Odendaal stated that “the way you got a permit to study at a ‘white’ university was to

choose a course of subject that was not available [at the coloured university]9”. Thus, in

order to obtain a higher education during the apartheid, women used education as a key

component to achieve the education needed to gain success as a minority in their own

home. This was achieved through manipulating the educational system through the request

of a subject with the awareness that it was only offered at a white university, in order to

intentionally be admitted to a higher educational institute. As previously mentioned, black

became the minority in their own countries because of colonialism, and used education in

order to further themselves in their own homeland.

Not only did students use education to further their activism battles, but women did

as well. Female activists in TANU Women push for equality in education for both men

and women. It states the viewpoint of the women as; “in education, one shouldn’t say this

is only for me and this is for women” and “she should know what’s good and what’s bad”.

Furthermore they believed that God created men and women the same and therefore they

should be eligible for the same quality of education. Also, they believed that there were

times and situations in which one gender would be brighter than the other, but there are

situations when women are brighter, and that in itself shouldn’t be overlooked10.

9
Romero, Patricia. Profiles in Diversity: Women in the New South Africa. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State
University, 1998, pg 64.
10
Geiger, Susan. TANU Women. Portsmouth, NI, pg 96
 McCracken 6

A specific woman who played a role, with her husband, in pushing the envelope for

better education is Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. She was a political activist, fighter for

women’s rights, and a teacher; along with being a wife and a mother. Funmilayo and her

husband were a part of the West African Students Union (WASU), which not only strove

for a better quality of education, but also was a nationalistic group against colonialism11.

Following her husband’s death, Funmilayo “undertook to establish a large and diverse

educational complex through a series of personal investments, partnerships and mergers”12.

She built an establishment called Thomas Hall as the home for her new school. Within

seven more years, she also opened a grammar school with the named Reverend Ransome-

Kuti Memorial Grammar School to honor her husband’s dedication to changing the

education system found in Nigeria. Each of her schools gradually grew and “by 1970 the

Reverend Ransome-Kuti Memorial Grammar School encompassed twelve classrooms,

chemistry and biology laboratories, a library, and six apartments for staff quarters”13.

Moreover, Funmilayo’s dedication to the education system, even after the loss of her

husband, depicts the view of most other oral histories analyzed, that with the education,

success can be obtained. Funmilayo had the opportunity to be educated at a young age,

and not only became a teacher, but also a nationalist and pushed to help others in society

also become education, and therefore have an opportunity to become successful. She is

able to represent a form of the idealistic outcome to which the other women speak of,

although she is not mentioned as such an idol.

11
Johnson, Cheryl, and MBA, Nina Emma. For Women and the Nation: Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti of Nigeria.
Chicago, IL: University of Illinois, 1997, pg 126.
12
Johnson, Cheryl, and MBA, Nina Emma. For Women and the Nation, pg 158.
13
Johnson, Cheryl, and MBA, Nina Emma. For Women and the Nation, pg 159.
 McCracken 7

Women, especially black women, viewed education as a key component to end the

impoverishment that plagued their family lineage. Mothers continuously worked until they

would barely stand, with stood emotional and physical pain, and continued in the labor

force far beyond their prime in order to ensure the quality of education they believe to

ensure this type of success. Schools during the apartheid and colonialism require students

to wear uniforms and provide themselves with both the clothing and the supplies to even

being to participate in their educational journey. This created costs that were quite

overwhelming, especially to households headed by women, which was frequent in Africa

considering the amount of children born to African mothers. In the oral history of Carol

Nkumanda, she states that;

“One educator indicated that, despite the hardships, parents will have to continue to

supplement their children from home – even thought many of the parents are not

educated and have few skills they can market, were there sufficient jobs available

for them14”

She continues to speak of the problems associated with the lack of education because of

poverty and lack of funding for schooling, and she states that boys get into gangs and some

girls turn to prostitution. Thus, she associates poverty level with the lack of education

found in the people of her community. Carol also believes that if unemployment rates

decreased, the educational system would improve in South Africa as well and with this,

“everyone can have a quality life”15.

14
Romero, Patricia. Profiles in Diversity. East Lansing, MI, pg 94.
15
Romero, Patricia. Profiles in Diversity. East Lansing, MI, pg. 94.
 McCracken 8

This same ideology existed in the oral history of Berida, located in an entirely

separate region of Africa, in Kenya. Berida states that she had many goals in mind when

earning her living in a market in Nairobi. She wished to buy her sons land, to afford their

education fees, and provide for them wholly, in order to grant them the feeling of success

in which she lacks. Her husband wastes away any sort of monetary value that she brings

into the household, where she is the bread-winner, with his alcoholic tendencies. Based on

this situation, Berida has an extra constraint on earning a steady living, besides that of the

unstable market. However, she also realizes the strength in family in during the search and

battle for success, which is found through the attainment of education. Berida states,

“When I think about what I have accomplished, I know that I have done my best for my

family. I have put effort into whatever I do. I have worked very hard16.

Berida also not only speaks to formal education but also that of a practical,

common education in society. She is the leader of the market, and this was earned through

her successes as a businesswoman. This was attained through the learned and acquired

knowledge of the economy and society which her market serves. This type of education,

however, isn’t enough for her children, but isn’t something that her husband has

accomplished. He makes foolish decisions with money in her eyes, by wasting it on

alcohol. Thus, in a slight way, Berida uses education for her ulterior motives of sharing

her oral history, as aforementioned; to allow her husband to see himself from a different

light. However, her emphasis is placed quite strongly upon the need for education of her

16
White, Luisa, and Miescher, Stephan F. and Cohen, David William: Indianaopolis: Indiana University
Press, 1997pg 113
 McCracken 9

children, rather than the lack of her husband, but she also does not neglect to allow the

reader to know of her husband’s shortcomings17.

In South Africa, education was viewed as the end to unemployment in the area in

which Dungi Cynthia Merivate lived in. She, like many other profiled mothers, is single

and supporting the education of her children with only one income. She states that;

“I know we must improve the quality of education for all of our black children.

Without education, they have no skills. With no skills, they can have no jobs. And,

with no jobs, they practice the crime and violence that typifies this country today18”

Thus, not only does it aid in the lowering of unemployment and poverty, but is also

preventative to keep South Africa’s future out of crime and violence that exists without the

country during her lifetime. This oral account also reinstates the use of education a tool to

promote nationalistic ideals, hence the focus upon the ‘black children’ and not all children

in a more generalized sense.

Within the Nsukka division in Nigeria, women had the same sort of revelation

about education as the key to success; “Nsukka women began to recognize that Western

education held the key to economic and political advancement in the new colonial order”19.

However, the Nsukka women used the Catholic Church, which was ever prominent during

colonialism, in order to attain an education for their children. These schools provided

“opportunities for education in vocations that were considered male, like carpentry and

painting”20. This type of education left women’s educational programs lagging behind that
17
White, Luisa, and Miescher, Stephan F. and Cohen, David William: Indianaopolis: Indiana University
Press, 1997pg, 113-114
18
Romero, Patricia. Profiles in Diversity. East Lansing, MI, pg 123.
19
Achebe, Nwando. Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings: Female Power and Authority in Nothern
Igoboland, 1900-1960. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2005, pg 87.
20
Achebe, Nwando. Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2005, pg 87.
 McCracken 10

of males, and thus placing women behind men in terms of opportunities towards achieving

a successful lifestyle. Jobs within schools like this fueled women activists during this time

period, as the entire Western education removes gendered differences which were crucial

to African culture, and the success of African females.

Another female leader, Mamphela Ramphele, from South Africa, grew up in a

household where education was present to have the utmost importance. Ramphele, in her

own autobiography, discusses that both of her parents were educators, and had gone

through a beneficial educational experience and wished to grant their children with the

same opportunities. Both of her parents ended up as very successful educators, working

together within a school, and her father became the principal. He always taught them

outside of the Bantu education, which was described by many different oral narratives as

‘backwards’ and ‘useless’21.

Ramphele, with her valuable education, became an activist at the right hand of

Steve Biko. She, along with Fumilayo, represents well known women who utilized their

education for activism and the education of other’s about the problems in their national

societies. The success exemplifies the outcome for which the majority of the rest of the

women are striving for.

In conclusion, through the analysis of numerous oral histories from across the

African continent, women viewed education as the stepping stone to achieving success and

overcome the hurdle that life placed in front of them. Whether the hurdle was colonialism,

poverty or family struggles, and whether the women stumbled into female or student

21
Ramphele, Mamphela. Across Boundaries . New York: NYC, 1996, pg 17-21.
 McCracken 11

activism, education was the key to overcoming the hurdle or challenge at hand. Without

generalizing, these women represent their own personal truths, to which they experienced

and education was simply a common goal between all of these interview, miraculous,

African women.