To Be a Strong Woman In a Third World Country in 2017

“The woman who does not require validation from anyone is the most feared individual on the planet.” – Mohadesa Najumi

Hi my name is Nwando, website I’m a strong woman living in a third world country and I don’t require validation from anyone. I have massive dreams for my life and I spend my days working towards making my dreams my reality, I work towards the creation of my life without much explanation or fear of judgment. I just do and for this simple reason I am misunderstood. My mother often says I’ve seen too much of the world to just settle for the ordinary and in many ways she’s right. I struggle with settling. 

“Women have been taught that, for us, the earth is flat, and that if we venture out, we will fall off the edge.” ~Andrea Dworkin

President of Nigeria

When you’re born and raised in a place where the president believes the woman belongs in the kitchen, that really tells you all you need to know about my sweet country. Women are conditioned from birth to be domesticated and submissive and men are taught to be entitled, demanding and authoritative from a young age. Most women grow up believing they were trained solely so they can find and grab an eligible bachelor so go through life with this strong desire to keep a man so they can finally achieve status in society. Men grow up being reminded that they are dominant and must always be ‘men’ about situations in order not to show weakness. Growing up we are taught to act ‘acceptable’ around our fathers, to cook, clean and care for our brothers while they scream at football on NTA (tv station) as they reach out for the small stout we have placed for them on the side stools, it is demanded that we dress decently and come out to serve guests when the family hosts dinner, walk politely and speak calmly, tie bows and ribbons on Sunday’s and sit in front at church, to be educated but not have too much education so that men are not threatened, to have a traditional job but be content in mediocrity so you don’t intimidate men, to look, speak and walk in a certain way so that you’re not misunderstood by neighbors and family friends that are waiting to see how you turn out, to live a good life so that people will not laugh at our parents.

“Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, “She doesn’t have what it takes.” They will say, “Women don’t have what it takes.” ~Clare Boothe Luce

It does not matter how liberal, intellectual or successful you are, if you don’t fit into the laid down rules of how women should be according to tradition then you are wild. You must dress a certain way, act in a particular way, work in certain industries that are perceived as acceptable, get married at a certain age (preferably 25), then move out of your father’s house into your husband’s house so people can respect you, have children almost immediately so that people will not think you’re loose (preferably a boy first). A strong independent ambitious woman is not one that is readily accepted or recognized; you might as well be a mad woman. If you’re fortunate or unfortunate enough to be a strong woman, then you must have broken the chain of control, oppression and endless lists of what you ‘should’ be and what you ‘shouldn’t’ be and you can’t be apologetic for who you are. God forbid that you’re a successful woman in your 30’s that is still single and seemingly happy (your happiness will be seen as a mask to shadow your certainly depressing life). I’m almost 30, I live on my own, work for myself and drive my own car so I’m an enigma to most people that think my ‘eyes have torn’ and are shocked that my parents ‘allowed’ me to live by myself. A woman at a very popular bar recently turned me away because I was part of a group of girls with no man in sight; how dare we have our own money to buy our own drinks? As women we are not viewed as individuals on our own right but instead we have to be under a family system to be recognized and respected, somebody’s daughter or somebody’s wife, moving from father’s last name to husband’s last name.

“Don’t shut yourself up in a bandbox because you are a woman, but understand what is going on, and educate yourself to take your part in the world’s work, for it all affects you and yours.” ~Louisa May Alcott

The Market in Nigeria (source unknown)

If you’re a woman that lives, breathes, dresses up, drives a car and walk down the street in Nigeria then at one point or another, you will be called an Ashewo. Ashewo a.k.a Prostitute is a person that engages in sexual intercourse for money. I’ve been called an ashewo for having colored hair, for wearing a dress, for being single, for living abroad, for going to the market; I’ve been called an ashewo by so-called educated elders (especially older yoruba women), by police officers, by men that don’t understand why I won’t succumb to their woos (the irony), by women that think surely I must be a ‘kept’ woman. Know this – when people don’t understand how you’ve achieved what you’ve achieved, they will fill in the blanks with whatever they choose to and there’s not much one can do about that. I’ve been conditioned to accept people’s opinions of me without the strong desire to ‘prove’ them wrong; believe what you must. We also live in a society where strong women are chastised for having ‘too much’ ambition and wanting to ‘be like’ men because ambition and success is by tradition a man’s trait and not the culturally accepted norm for the woman.

“The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, “It’s a girl.” ~Shirley Chisholm

Culture is a way of life and as such culture is fluid, it changes with eras. The modern day woman is strong and ambitious but she is also soft in love and happy to care for hers. I can be wildly successful and hopelessly in love, own a thriving business and run a very warm home. I don’t believe in a world where it has to be one or the other. I don’t have to be anti-men to be pro-women. Today I’m preaching acceptance. Accept the women in your life as they are. Men need to stop comparing women to their mothers; time has changed, get with the era. Don’t try to change me into a woman that wants to be a kept woman and don’t try to change a woman that wants to be kept into an overachiever. We are who we are. I’m a strong woman living in a third world country in 2017 and I make no apologies for who I am.

Love x Light,

N.

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