Ndeye Fatou Kane

Ndèye Fatou Kane (born 23 November 1986 in Dakar) is a Senegalese novelist, essayist, sociologist, and feminist. She is the granddaughter of the renowned Senegalese writer Cheikh Hamidou Kane. She studied transport and international logistics before turning to literature and gender studies. Kane is the author of the novel Le Malheur de vivre (2014), the feminist essay Vous avez dit féministe? (2018), and several other works on women's rights and African feminism.

Quotes

• Africa is a continent with diverse political, historical, and cultural experiences, and therefore with equally varied feminist realities. I will limit myself more specifically to West Africa and Senegal, where I live and conduct most of my research. That being said, it is a fact: in all African nations, women have played a major role; they have actively participated in liberation struggles and movements for social change, even if most have never identified as feminists in the Western sense. Cheikh Anta Diop, in *The Cultural Unity of Black Africa*, states that African societies were essentially matriarchal: women held political, economic, and also religious power. In the Lebou societies of Senegal, one of the traditional fishing societies, they are the ones who make the decisions. When the French arrived in Senegal in 1855 to colonize it, the first force of resistance they encountered was a woman, Queen Mother Ndaté Yalla Mboj, who ruled the Waalo kingdom. In those days, women were trained in the arts of war and prepared to take over the defense of the country in the absence of men. The Senegalese rulers of the Wolof kingdoms bore the title of "Brack," and their mothers or sisters were called "Linguères." They could succeed them, and some even led their own armies. They were warriors, much like the Amazons of the ancient kingdom of Dahomey . And indeed, stories of female warriors, queens, and clan chiefs abound across the continent.
  • response to the question 'Does the term "feminist" have any meaning in Africa?'

• With the evolution of societies, the importation of monotheistic religions, particularly Islam, and colonization, power shifted to men. Today, this matriarchal system still exists to some extent in certain societies, such as among the Tuareg and the Bamileke of western Cameroon. There, rulers are still descended from the maternal line, through matrilineal descent.
  • response to the question 'Then came colonization and the arrival of the so-called revealed religions…'

• It was African societies that gave them this power. But I have a problem with the terms "queens" and "warriors," because it implies that they possess a masculine side. We always have to bring their masculine side to the forefront in order to better accept them. Yet, they can be both feminine and strong. I'm thinking of Aline Sitoé Diatta, a heroine of the anti-colonial resistance in Casamance, Senegal. People said she was like a man, that she trained like men. I have the impression that in order to be accepted, and to have their great achievements recognized, they must constantly be compared to men.
  • response to the question 'How do you explain that the continent has had so many powerful women, "queens", "warriors", etc., often described as "bloodthirsty", "wicked"...'

• There are differences, even if some causes overlap. In Senegal, women became increasingly visible in the post-independence years, the 1960s and 70s. This period is called the golden age of feminism, as it saw the emergence of the first feminist women, such as Marie-Angélique Savané, Awa Sarr, and Fatou Sow. Their struggles focused on women's empowerment and keeping girls in school. In other countries, the focus was on the possibility of working or voting. The causes are numerous and varied, but the goal is the same: to see women freer and more emancipated.
  • response to the question 'Should we differentiate between the struggles that these "feminists" are waging across the continent?

• These aren't the same objectives. European women are at least fifty years ahead, even if they're still fighting today. Here, we have everything to do. We can't fight the same battles today. If a woman is raped in Paris, of course I stand in solidarity, but I still think we have urgent needs in terms of education, schools, basic rights, and so on. On these issues, Western women are already far more advanced than we are.
  • response to the question 'Do you think that the struggles of a "black" woman, or an African woman, are the same as those of a European, an American, or an Asian woman?'

• They were courageous. Beauvoir doesn't share the same background or culture as African women, but she is an essential figure. She came from a bourgeois family, deeply rooted in its traditions; she studied, she was a woman who wrote. It wasn't easy for her. It took a great deal of courage, and I admire that, although I don't share all her views, particularly on femininity or marriage.
  • response to the question 'But what do Simone de Beauvoir, Mariama Bâ, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie have in common?'