Blog 4: What Freedom?

Freedom

/ˈfriːdəm/

noun

1. The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants.

Fanon: the way to destroy native society and its culture is through women

Colonialism has always sought control, control of land, of economic benefit, of foreign society and its people. Franz Fanon through writing Algeria unveiled introduces us to colonial attempts of control of society through women. Fanon discusses how the French administration aimed to disintegrate the way of life of Algeria by targetting Algerian women and their wearing of the veil. The veil bothered the French then as it does now for various reasons, one of them Fanon elaborates is that when the women wear the veil they are hidden, their physical features, their body, their beauty is not visible to anyone who passes by, it is only visible to those the women, and their religion, deem permissible. This choice that the women wearing the veil held gave them a sense of freedom. They covered their bodies and their faces in public where they were free to observe and act in their own wishes while the men were unable to observe and view the women at will- women saw without being seen. According to Fanon, the French administration came to view the veil as a symbol of choice, inevitably some semblance of freedom. The French proceeded on the crackdown of the Algerian women and their veil to destroy the norms of society and to create access into the private sphere. 

Kenyatta: the way to reinstate native society and its culture is through women

On the other hand, Kenyatta introduces us to the way indigenous people respond to colonial attempts of control and their entrenchment of its culture through its women. Kenyatta writes about the ritual of clitoridectomy in Gikuyu culture and how important it became to the survival of its past, present and future. Clitoridectomy was not only a practice which affected the bodies of the women but also became a ritual in which the whole society participated.

At the end, it is women who are the victim.

In both these instances, it is society which is constructing a specific, linear reality for women. Algerian women were taught to take off their veil to mirror western ideals and standards of propriety and Gikuyu women went through immense pain and a violation of their bodies to take their rightful place in society. Women are not given their right to choice, to act, to speak and to think as they wish. Fanon and Kenyatta are reflective of this fact as neither of their texts detail how women viewed these rituals, how it affected them, what their perspective was on the practices and rituals taken place on their bodies. If society repeatedly structures its honour, its progression on the bodies of women, it strips away any semblance of individuality for women to take their place in the world as separate entities. What kind of freedom is this?