The gender roles are strong in rural Benin and the division is visible without an utterance of a single word from the locals. Except for an occasional young lad here and there looking to make an easy coin, nearly every vendor at the Saturday market and the main street of Grand Popo is female. The women often carry small children on their backs and as the kids grow up they take some of the tasks related to shopkeeping on the side of attending to their school work. The literacy rate of Benin is 47 % but even a 5-year-old here will give you a correct amount of change back after you buy something from their table.

Besides sales and raising children, women take on many other activities such as laundry, cooking, cleaning, sewing, pottery and making salt. But what do men do? A lot. Nearly every zem driver is a male, even though merely having a motorbike counts as having a driving license here. The plantations too are worked by men who have developed a special homemade watering system, making sure that every tomato can produce fruits for the ladies to sell on the Saturday market. The fishing business is also a man’s world, starting from the boats which are built as a group activity. When it’s time to ring the bell and drag the fishing line from the sea, groups of young men collect to pull the rope. The work is hard and takes several hours, but so is the reward.      

The work is divided but in the relationships, men still get the upper hand. A Beninese man is allowed to have up to three wives and traditionally women ought to obey their husband. This creates interesting tensions in the multicultural marriages between Finns and Beninese. Finnish women marrying local men tell stories about biting their tongues at family gatherings to prevent public humiliation of their spouses. On the other hand, Beninese visiting Finland report a sense of utter confusion when they see men folding laundry and washing the dishes.

Just like in many other places around the world, in the small town of Grand Popo too, the traditional gender roles are being challenged. The alliance of women named “Gnonnou Tchite” meaning “Women rise” has taken it as a task to improve the position of women in the families by helping women to start their businesses and earn their own money. The power dynamic in the relationship is then gradually diminished and with less reliance on their spouse to provide, women obtain the freedom to make their own choices. The radical ideas of Gnonnou Tchite have elicited a backlash and it has been branded as an anti-men movement. I find it a relief of some kind, that even in the middle of rural Benin, women have an option to choose something else besides taking on the assigned role of a housewife.

Cheers, 
Anna

Letters from West Africa

Day 14. Gender