The African story cannot not be complete without the unique story of African women. Going through the length and breadth of the African continent, it is not uncommon to see women engage in tedious and challenging jobs or profession such as farming, fishing, carpentry, cobbling, and bricklaying which are mainly male dominant.
This cannot be far from the fact that the African culture encourages the African woman to play key role in the upkeep of the family.
It is even common to find a woman being the bread winner of the home, among some ethnic groups while the man literally does nothing.
I witnessed this first hand somewhere in Abia state, Nigeria. I meet this woman returning from her farm pushing a bicycle with some heavy load. I accosted her and had a chat with her. I questioned why she took this responsibility upon herself, which should ideally be done by her husband. I was shocked at her response. She said: “here, we take care of our husbands. He only help when he feels there is need.” To me, this sounds absurd, but this is part of her culture.
African women are naturally disposed to taking challenging jobs or responsibilities in a bid to complement the effort of her husband and make the family self-sufficient. This might not be unconnected with the high poverty and limited resources available. This is a rear virtue common to only African women.
So, while on a voyage to discover some of the challenging professions engaged in by most African women, I found these industrious women defying all odds to do bricklaying – a supposedly man’s profession. See a previous post on the #PrideOfTheAfricanWoman
Check-out the photos below:
Join the conversation by sharing your opinion on our new series on: #PrideOfTheAfricanWoman. Drop your thoughts in the comments box below
