Toyin Falola at 60 Conference: “Genderizing TF, No. 1”:

[Bridget Dr. Teboh]

Toyin Falola at 60 Conference: “Genderizing TF, No. 1”:

By

 

Bridget A. Teboh, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of History

University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth

 

This is in two-part. In Part 1 of my submission, I posed a question:  Is Falola a feminist, a womanist, or just a sensitive smart  man trying to shy away from what men call the “woman palaver,” and keep the peace between genders? You be the judge of that. All I can in a two-part analysis is the following:

 

 

Professor Toyin Falola (aka, TF)  has trained many students and mentored many more scholars both male and female in academia. They come from all over the globe to attend the annual conference that he convenes in Austin, and he encourages them, guides them as they prepare and produce original publishable articles—a really tedious task—but one that he embraces happily as a service to the community of African scholars. Select conference papers are published in volumes drawing only the best from the pool of essays presented. TF is a case study on how men and women, or powerful people and the powerless can cooperate. He embodies a blue print in understanding clearly how the weak and the strong could act in concert for the greater good of academia or African studies.

 

A long time ago, TF noted that “women and girls are disproportionately disadvantaged,” in all sectors of life in Africa, especially literacy (in R. Olaniyan 1982, p. 113). Luckily, things have improved for the better, thanks to widespread education throughout the continent. During the colonial era, African women started entering the wage labor force, a pattern that continued after independence due to increased access to education, thus changing forever the African landscape and the fabric of society. However, women’s rights have been severely abused and denied in many countries. Most of women’s work is considered unpaid labor, part of their duties as mothers or wives, and for that reason women do the most work in society but get the least payment for it. Elsewhere we have argued that “this has led to the ’feminization of poverty‘ as many women in Africa and around the world live in poverty in spite of long hours spent working. The difference between paid and unpaid labor is the deciding factor in women’s labor woes and economic challenges today.” Falola and Teboh, Power of Gender, the Gender of Power…” 2013, p. 3.

 

However, the power structures in place in Africa, as elsewhere, have not changed that much. Due to cultural practices, gender roles, and patriarchy in many African societies, the representation of African women by many scholars has been mostly negative. Women are still marginalized, still the poorest of the poor, and still a minority in government. At a time when it was not fashionable to talk about gender equality or parity Falola was not afraid to take on the challenge. In fact, that was one of the key solutions he suggested to solving Africa’s underdevelopment problems, because “both human and natural resources, however few, have to be fully exploited…people have to be trained and effectively mobilized.” (1982, p. 124).

 

Out of the eleven Africa Conferences at The University of Texas at Austin convened by Professor Toyin Falola, four have focused on women and gender related issues. It is, therefore, not a surprise that at these conferences, women are always among those honored. In the last four years, for example, Professor Ann Albuyeh from Puerto Rico, Joni Jones, Omi Osun, UT-Austin, Aderonke Adesanya of the University of Ibadan. and Bessi Soremekum of IUPI have all been honored with outstanding awards for research and/or excellence.

 

Additionally, Toyin Falola authored and edited books with several women scholars such as Professors Bridget Teboh, Bessie House, Aderonke Adesanya, Barbara Harlow, Pat Williams, Solimar Otero, Bessi Soremekun and Dr. Nana Amponsah.

 

Falola’s works on women are represented by the very rich   collections of essays that are the result of a conference in 2010 at the University of Texas at Austin, under the theme, “Gender and Sexualities in Africa.” The main objective of the conference was to provide a forum for scholarly and stimulating exchanges among professionals interested in not only women’s issues but also the intersection of gender, power, and sexuality in Africa. The resulting volumes include, The Power of Gender and the Gender of Power: Women’s Labor, Rights, and Responsibilities in Africa; Women, Gender, And Sexualities in Africa (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2013);Women’s Roles in Sub-Saharan Africa; and The Women’s War of 1929: A History of Anti-Colonial Resistance in Eastern Nigeria (co-author) (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2011).

 

The above works and endeavors show Falola’s dedication to humanity and African women’s causes. Significantly, these works subvert conventional boundaries of scholarship about gender, and are a departure from the old tendency to focus primarily on female spaces as separate from larger social, political, and economic matrices. These works emphasize the inter-disciplinarity that is required to engage the multifaceted reality of gender in Africa and African studies.  Falola’s scholarly works and mentoring capacities are thus a testament on how to be a good teacher and an excellent community leader. He inspires us and he is not afraid to take on multiple challenges. Without a doubt

Toyin Falola has been genderized. Don’t you agree?

.

                       

 

 

[La Vonda R. Staples]

I like your work.  It exhibits life, feeling, and it even has a lyrical 'bounce' to it.  But I would argue the point that Dr. Falola is indeed not genderized and I would use the same points you have made to prove the contrary.  In my mind, to become genderized, is to respond to events, persons, ideologies within the paradigm of gender or to operate from a vantage point of generally accepted place.  If an individual, in this case Dr. Falola, proceeds forward without broadcasting his feelings towards or away from gender, then he has reached a level where he is operating and responding to talent without regard for the sex of the academic, student, etc.  He has thrown off gender in whatever manner he was first inculcated.  To be genderized is perhaps one of the first lessons we are taught at home.  Boys do this, girls can't do that, boys are not as good as girls as this, that and the other thing.  Additionally, even if this teaching is not verbalized, any child can look around a room at an event such as Christmas or other cultural gathering and be able to draw conclusions which become, in far too many of us, as solid as concrete and just as binding.  

Therefore, Dr. Falola has evidently gone through a process of self-actualization (see James Baldwin for the best essays on this topic, in my opinion) of writing and researching without the yoke of gender.  He does not write as a man.  He writes as a searching soul who presents the fruit of his labours.  

I'd like to discuss this point or subject of genderization more.  As you can clearly see, at so early a moment on this morning, it has turned my grey matter completely and totally to "on"  

Thank you and I wish you all manners of success in your career.  I have an open and honest feeling of good will towards any scholar with such an engaging style of academic writing. 

La Vonda R. Staples

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La Vonda R. Staples, Writer

BA Psychology 2005 and MA European History 2009

www.lavondastaples.com

“If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.”

 

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, This Child Will Be Great; Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President.

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Very beautiful-

particularly-

'He writes as a searching soul who presents the fruit of his labours.'  

Superb summation-

 'In my mind, to become genderized, is to respond to events, persons, ideologies within the paradigm of gender or to operate from a vantage point of generally accepted place.  If an individual, in this case Dr. Falola, proceeds forward without broadcasting his feelings towards or away from gender, then he has reached a level where he is operating and responding to talent without regard for the sex of the academic, student, etc.  He has thrown off gender in whatever manner he was first inculcated.  To be genderized is perhaps one of the first lessons we are taught at home.  Boys do this, girls can't do that, boys are not as good as girls as this, that and the other thing.  Additionally, even if this teaching is not verbalized, any child can look around a room at an event such as Christmas or other cultural gathering and be able to draw conclusions which become, in far too many of us, as solid as concrete and just as binding. '

La Vonda...it seems you are reaching a new level of precision, logical acuity and penetrative insight in your writing.

This piece of yours is priceless.

I would love to get off my butt and make money from the wonderful submissions on this group while publishing them for the world to see.

They must not be allowed to descend purely into the archives, accessible as those are on multiple platforms,including the automatic uploading of all posts to the group's blog. 

I wonder how that is done. 

That style of thinking and action, creatively relating knowledge to economic opportunity, is my aspiration as a scholar/ business man which I aspire to be.

Somebody has to do the work and financial incentive is a vital spur to effort.

What about those who contributed the texts in the first place?

Does one not need their permission?

What about the group's owner?

Does he not need to be consulted?

One could share the proceeds with charity so as to satisfy the fact that the text was created by others.

Would people not be a little queasy, if excited,about such an economic venture?

Is it not more realistic to present it as a fait accompli in order to bypass challenges, noble as it would be to get permission first?

Anyway, thanks La Vonda, for that gem.

One could make a book chapter out of Toyin Falola celebrations on this group.

Your contribution is so provocatively rich for me.

thanks

toyin