In the company of "Useless Women,": The Fierce Urgency of an Intersectional African Feminist Advocacy (1)

“Maybe I am a useless woman after all,” I thought to myself. 2-3 years ago. I began to embrace the word "useless woman" as a positive commentary. I lean towards it because of my understanding of how "demonizing and vilifying" labeling can actually be a compliment when examined through an oppositional gaze. Professor Ebenezer Obadare, in reference to four women who challenged the hegemonic visuality (a.l.a. Mirzoeff) of Pentecostal pastors, defines a useless woman as a woman who dared to breach the boundary of socio-cultural expectations, roles, and limits. A useless woman is one “who acts in contravention of the norm[s] undergirding gender and social relations” and one “who breaks ranks, the socially insolent one who, having refused to act in conformity to her expected role” (Obadare 2023, 98).

Going by this definition, it occurs to me that women’s history could be read as the history of useless women. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, who stood firm against both colonial and postcolonial predatory patriarchal politics. The government refused to renew her passport based on the claim that she was a communist and was under surveillance for much of her life. Denying her passport was a way to also limit her growing global presence on the international stage. Her death in the hands of unknown soldiers who push her from a two-story building should remind us that predatory patriarchy does not shield women who remain unbowed and unmoved. The book "For Women and the Nation: Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti of Nigeria" by Cherly Johnson-Odim and Nina Mba chronicles her pain, trials, travails, and triumphs and that of a nation that only honored her in retrospect and not when she was living. Today they named a train station in her honor even when the state was complicit in her death.

When "useless woman" means:

Lending my voice to national issues even when my take may be unpopular. You can count me in!

Promoting and protecting sexual and reproductive rights, mark me present

Calling out professional bullies, sexual harassment, and predatory behavior, and refusing to shrink and cower to bullies in learning and workspaces put my name on the top!

Fighting for children to have a great learning space and environment that does not pollute their innocence, I will be the vice president of contemporary useless women.

Being an ally of minorities across race, gender, disability, and sexuality, I am a registered member.

Living with impeccable integrity in public service, like Dr. Obi Ezekwesili, our Madam Due Process. I am a subscriber.

If being a useless woman means calling out predators like Baba Ijesha, as actress Iyabo Ojo and many women and a few men did, you can count on me as a faithful, due-paying member.

Where are the useless women who will demand justice for Ochanya?