Piece writte by Iniabasi Bassey Asuquo
Dear friend, its with a heavy heart that I bring this to
your notice.
I’ve seen this posted on IG and Facebook with
insinuations that somehow this change in Twitter Bio
by 2016 US Democratic Presidential Hopeful, Senator &
Ex-First Lady Hillary Clinton was by the promoting of Chimmamanda Adichie, feminist and globally
celebrated novelist.
For many pro-feminists or should I say fans of Adichie,
this is some sort of a victory.
But frankly speaking, i am miffed by the thought that
of all things to change in the fabric of foreign policy, international interactions, it is prompting a politician to
change her bio that makes the ovation for the Nsukka
trained Novelist so loud.
But what really was the bone of contention? That
former US President Bill Clinton’s bio didn’t start with
Husband but his wife Hillary’s starts with Wife. Mind you, this couple got married exactly 2 years before
Chimamanda was born and they have through thick
and thin- been married since. Madam Adichie or
should I say Chimamanda Esege (that’s her husband’s
surname which she won’t use perhaps because hers
is more popular) on meeting Mrs Clinton chose to query why she had to use “Wife” first in her bio – of all
the great openers she could have employed.
Now, Clinton has remixed her bio and people are
clapping – perhaps with the mindset that a black
woman could change a powerful woman’s mind and
that’s an achievement. Sad. That bondage/Slavery subservient mentality of
White over Black superiority spreads even to
generations of unslaved Africans!
Unfortunately, I don’t see anything getting better from
the change in Hillary’s bio, as a matter of fact, I think
she made it worse. If it was just the positioning of the term “Wife” that was the problem, now the position of
“Mom” first after her newly added Political
Introduction, after which comes “Wife” should actually
be the actual bone of contention for the likes of
Adichie in her quest for Female Emancipation.
She (Chimamanda) comes from a country & continent that says if you’re not a mother (I.e. You can’t bear
children), then you are not a real wife or even a
woman. It says, the proof of your feminine gender is
your ability to convince or for some – even have a
miscarriage to fit in. I know people close to me who
went through societal rejection based on delay in conception – it has pit pressure on couples, destroyed
marriages, driven women to do unimaginable things,
and for some even death by suicide all in a bid to be
called a “Mom” – just to prove a point and gain respect
and notice – irrespective of how the child came.
So in other words, in our society,”Mom” validates your womanity even before maturity or marriage. “Wife”
used to be the sign of womanhood or maturity, but i
guess the new wave of Equality and Radical Feminism
has changed that with a lot of young females joining
the bandwagon – utilizing any avenue necessary to
expose their inadequacies and tag it as Feminism, a concept most don’t understand. That’s probably why it
is fashionable to get pregnant first as proof of your
fertility before marriage rites are performed – and
parents are leading in this new trend.
So, here’s me saying, bio or no bio – international
platforms which can be used to forward the case for your country or Africa should be used strategically &
not to score cheap populist points. I shudder to
imagine a celebrated International figure like actress
Angelina Jolie asking Clinton such a question! Pull up
Ex-First Lady Michelle Obama’s twitter bio and after
her introduction comes “Wife, Mother”…… If that doesn’t smack of mis-timed, misplaced and
misfired priority for an icebreaker, I don’t know what
else is.
There are many issues worth global traction that
could draw support from the popular sitting Senator
from New York that could make good conversation starters like The Political Future of Nigeria without
women in it, Trafficking in Slaves, the current practice
of Female Circumcision, Rape, FGM, Disability in female
Political representation etc or at best – draw sympathy
from the consent kidnappings of school girls in the
North and elicit immediate action, these would have carried more weight especially coming from a
celebrated writer such as herself.
The position of “Wife” in Clinton’s bio (which helped
her score strategic and weighty political points during
the Presidential Elections that pointed to her respect
for family and her role as a supportive wife despite her intimidating political resume) won’t change
anything for Nigerians in global perception, so stop
praising wasted strategic opportunities.
This is no victory.
