Aoua Keita and the Nascent Women's Movement in the French Soudan

Abstract

An intriguing, if little known, autobiography, Femme d'Afrique by Aoua Kéita (1975), is a valuable social document which allows us to reconstruct women's response to the independence movement in the French Soudan (now Mali). This response took the form of a nascent women's movement which emerged under the sponsorship of the Union Soudanaise du Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (USRDA), an anticolonialist political party. Aoua Kéita's career as a pioneering midwife and political militant in the USRDA from 1931 to 1968 spanned the transition from colonial rule to independence in Mali (Morgenthau 1964; Foltz 1965). Until recently, women were rarely included in scholarly discussions of African reactions to colonial rule. With few exceptions (Kanogo 1987; Ba 1989; Musisi 1991), most studies now available on the topic have been written by non-Africans and reflect the assumptions of western feminism (Riviére 1968; Dobert 1970; Van Allen 1974; Denzer 1976, 1981; Urdang 1979,1984; Rogers 1980; Geiger 1982, 1987; Johnson 1982; Mba 1982; O'Barr 1984; Wipper 1985; Cromwell 1986; Presley 1991). As an account by an African woman of the movement for independence in the French Soudan, Femme d'Afrique provides a welcome counterweight to discourse about third-world women by first-world women (Barthel 1975; Robertson 1984; Hay 1988; Staudt 1989).

Women's Movements and Constitution Making after Civil Unrest and Conflict in Africa: The Cases of Kenya and Somalia

“…Although women were present in some of the early constitution writing exercises, these constitutions did not result in the kind of language and provisions we are seeing today. Interestingly, women had been involved in constitution-making efforts in several African countries, such as Kenya, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, at the time of independence (Turrittin 1993, 63). In fact, when women were excluded from the Sierra Leonean process, they were outraged, and the Sierra Leone Women's Movement petitioned to be included, arguing that the government had deliberately ignored half the population and that the constitution needed to protect women's rights (Denzer 1987, 450).…”

Of Rumors and Transfers: The Short Life of Western-Educated Women's Associations in French Sudan (1955-1960)

“…6 Despite their participatory efforts and emancipatory goals, women's independent organizations had a very short existence in Sudan. 7 As the prospect of Mali's independence began to materialize, the US-RDA leadership, convinced that only they could represent people's interests and ambitions, hardened their position and dissolved all independent organizations (Simonis 1995;Ba Konaré 1991, 1993, 1999Diop 1999Diop , 2007. They believed that women's independent organizations (and all interest-specific organizations) were potentially divisive and as such were obstacles to the territory's increased autonomy.…”

“… Namissa Touré, Segou personal communication 1994. 6 E.g., Sira Diop in Rencontres africaines 17/1959 Rokiatou Sow, personal communication, 1994; Ba Konaré (1991, 1993; de Jorio (1997);Schmidt (2005).7 Women's organizations and their leaders were experiencing a similar fate in the region; for Senegal seeSow Dia (1995) andCissé (2009). Women were more integrated in Sekou Touré's Guinea, but they were mostly represented in the lower echelons of the party infrastructure (seePauthier 2018 andSchmidt 2005).…”

“… See Gologo (1960); AouaThiero personal communication 2005; Ba Konaré (1991, 1993. For Guinea, seeSchmidt (2005).…”

“…The organization will become the Inter syndicat des femmes travailleuses in 1958(Diop 1999: 57; Keita 2014: 340-41;Turrittin 1993).15 Djemanguelé also published a journal by the same name. Its first issue can be found at the Bibliothèque nationale de France.…”