There are Kenyan women who believe that getting married to an American man, especially a white Anglo Saxon man will solve all their fears of Kenyan Male chauvinism. They argue that Kenyan men are the way they are because they grew up in a home where the man, their father, was a male chauvinist pig. They conclude that this environment is responsible for Kenyan men, their husbands, being tough, un-caring, aggressive, alcoholics, and macho to the point of blindness. They conclude that the philosophy of Kufa Kiume is inherited: Passed on from one generation of male chauvinists to another!
My sisters are tough hard working successful women who have a lot of say in their homes. I said women because they run their homes like my mother. I have never gone to their homes and gotten served dinner, lunch, or a cup of Kenyan chai by my brother in laws! Yet my father who was a “male chauvinist” pastor in all definitions brought them up.
What is a male chauvinist? Feminists have added the word pig to the male chauvinist word as a means of disgust and to put a negative spin to the word male chauvinist. The term within a feminist definition refers to men who degrade women. Who manipulate and down play any role women can play in society. If we follow the conclusion arrived at by Feminists, we will disqualify Jesus of Nazareth who chose only male disciples. In fact Paul the apostle has been under fire by feminist groups, especially women clergy, for suggesting that women should neither be priests (pastors) or elders. That their work should be limited to deacon ministry. It is here the Catholic Church established the role of women as nuns.
While attending a church service at fourth Presbyterian Church on Michigan Avenue, in Chicago, (a grandeur church building with a great choir, a place every East African in Chicago area should visit once for a Sunday morning service. They have this great pipe organ towering up above the pulpit played by a professional pipe organist! Great stuff), a woman pastor was preaching that day and she suggested that Paul’s argument for pastors and elders as men was culturally irrelevant. She down graded the letters of Paul that seemed not to support women pastors: Feminist theory at its best!
What is interesting in America however is the state of manhood. The black American male complains that their women keep them on a leash. They buy them cell phones to keep calling them every minute! The white American men complain that they have to inform their wives on every decision they make. The popular word is, “Got to check with my wife.” But this is not what Kenyan women admire. What they like is the idea that the American male cooks, cleans, changes diapers, and washes dishes. Yes, and that they say ‘I love you’ every minute even while sleeping!
The America male friends I have, and I have had many, from the student to very rich males, desire the Kenyan state of things. They would like a woman, who would cook, clean, pick their dirty socks from the hallway, without complaining! Feed the children, change the diapers and not be asked where they were or had to tell their wives every thing every minute. The Kenyan men cannot imagine having to call their wives every minute on the way home. They want to stop at Kengeres or Wambugu’s joint to calm their senses with tusker and or Nyama choma, or kienyenji kuku.
My take is this; a man is a man no matter how you look at it. God created Adam first and gave him authority over the earth. The story in Genesis has nothing to do with male chauvinism. It has to do with divine imperatives within order and authority. In fact man was not punished by God because of Eve. He was punished because he failed to preserve the GOOD on his own behalf and thus on behalf of his wife and humanity. “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Gen: 3: 16ff
Note that the earth was not cursed because of Eve. Rather, the burden was put on Adam. Male chauvinism, meaning a man as authority and distinct from a woman, is divinely instituted. What the feminists and Kenyan women should be complaining about is Sexism: The idea that women do not have the same intellectual capacity as men, which is false. A man must be allowed to be a man! No wonder American men feel oppressed and depressed by their system. As to the Kenyan man, my father was a man, but he cooked and preserved his authority with providence and grace!
Teddy Njoroge Kamau (PhD) SYR Radio/TV, Director International Desk. IMANISHA. Listen to TNK on 91.1 ATG Radio Kenya. Fridays 5pm EST. UFAHAMU
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