The Human Project

All over the world, women have been marginalized in virtually every sector. Particularly, in Africa, we are confronted with the sad reality of dominant masculinity and barbaric norms where women are nearly shut out of the political, economic, family and traditional systems; basic education for the girl child is considered a waste, talk more of higher education. I am yet to see a female head a classical traditional African system; traditional leadership is clearly earmarked for men and men only. This challenge of women relegation has persisted even in this era where education has been internationally recognized as a human right. The damage caused by the failure to realize that women make up about 50 percent of the African population (see World Bank data) has thrown Africa into multiple crisis economically, politically and otherwise. The earlier it is realized that empowering women through quality higher education is empowering the social, economic and family values of the African societ...

  In September, we talked about a religious/traditional practice that infringes on the rights of children- THE ALMAJIRI SYSTEM. Do you think the Almajiri system is bad for us? Well, wait until you meet the reeeeaaal rock star- THE CORPSE WATER RITUAL! In this 21 st century, some communities still force widows of dead men to drink water from washed corpses of the deceased in order to prove their innocence. In other words, if the family of the deceased has reason to believe that the widow had a hand in his death (and they always have a reason to believe so), they initiate the ritual. What is that? About 4 months ago, a 34 year old widow, Chioma Asomugha from Anambra state, raised the alarm that her in-laws were trying to force her to drink water used in bathing her dead husband’s corpse. You can read the story here . Thankfully, she resisted them. So, in case you think this barbaric practice doesn’t happen anymore, this is 2021 and human beings are still practicing it. Where is ...