GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Supposedly, as children grow from infants to young adults, they tend to steadily appreciate the social segregation which places them among either boys or girls. Consequently they will begin to ask questions such as; what does the division between the sexes mean to people in different places and times, and how are biological distinctions made symbolically and socially relevant? It appears people such as the Yoruba ethnic nation tend to naturalize differences between boys and girls, men and women; however the dimensions of such acculturation amongst various ethnic groups can be said to be culture specific.

It would appear natural and mild to say that in different societies such as in Africa, there are ancient as well as generationally transferred and culturally assimilated stipulations as regards to the roles of boys and girls, men and women in each society are expected to play. For instance, in a nomadic Fulani community, boys grow up to learn that their place would be to herd the family livestock, sometimes hunt for game, and assist in securing the family holdings, while girls fetch firewood from nearby woods, water from streams and springs, milk the cow, assist their mothers and older women in cooking and most domestic chores. This routine goes on and on till marriage comes along and young men becomes husbands and heads of their nuclear families. People in various societies live according to the norms stipulated by their own society and less according to their individual aspirations. Traditional African culture is not fair to women, one can argue that the focal point of this supposition is that African societal norms dictates that a woman's place is in the background or worse still in the kitchen. In contemporary Nigeria, this has not changed much as man’s place is still at the fore front of the various economic, political, industrial, social, commercial sectors and in general handling of the material needs of his family. In the traditional African society, both male and female, young and adult were playing their different roles towards social harmony and progress but the female roles are considered to be inferior to that of her male counterpart thereby making her inherently subject to and dependent on the man. Albeit, it is important to note that women’s roles though different to those of men, are not inferior to them. 

QUOTE OF THE DAY:  "A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform" - Diane Mariechild