Ways in which culture has corrected gender inequality in Africa

Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2012), a Nigerian author and feminist.

When it comes to poverty and gender in Sub-Saharan Africa, the discussions often focus on how dominant cultural practices impact women and how women are denied their rights due to these practices. There are many cultural practices in Africa that do not serve the interests of women. These range from genital mutilations, to early marriages, to disproportionate labor in the field and in households and inability to own the land, to mention but a few. The discussion, however, rarely touches upon the role poverty plays in these cultures and how it affects relationships between men and women.