My Ecofeminism Journey (Part 1)

I first learnt about Feminism before I encountered Ecofeminism. Ecofeminism was a feminist theory and movement I stumbled on by chance.

This chance meeting which I would describe as quite on my part deliberate has been an enlightening one.

In my undergraduate days at the University of Lagos, I began to take feminism classes from year two. Feminism for me, was more and still is about creating equal opportunities for both genders to excel in their chosen endeavours. To own a place in the scheme of things and to have a voice where decisions are made. 

I think my earliest realisation of being a feminist began way back in secondary school. I did not want girls to be treated as inferior and was always quick to question and defend another girl. 

My idea of feminism for the female person also means accountability. 

I believe that a woman should be able to hold her responsible for her own decisions, to learn from them and become a better person.

In year three, my study on feminism delved into sensitive topics on rape, abortion, choice, culture to mention a few. The study of feminism in this year was a cocktail of many over flogged issues that I wanted more by the end of that session. I felt strongly there were topics affecting women and the greater portion of the society that feminists were not speaking of.

On rape, it was to me no longer news, that consent is key for sex to occur, and that when consent ( i.e a Yes) is not given and sex happens. A female person has been violated.

I knew culture to be a barrier to many women from emancipating from traditional modesty norms and stereotypes which clogged their wheel of progress. 

I learnt early from history, that even in some societies, where women were allowed to dream, they were not allowed to dream too much. Maybe just a little to be comfortable, but never too much to be ambitious. If a woman dreamnt too much and had many goals to achieve she would be termed greedy.

Abortion and choice were topics I had also formed an opinion on. Why did anyone think they had a right to any woman's body, to make decisions for her? A woman's body is her body and first property. She is in a better position than anyone to decide if she wants to keep a baby that endangers her life. She should be knowledgeable enough to know that pregnancy from rape does not in anyway stop her from achieving her dreams.

 I believed and still believe a woman's life is largely a product of her own decisions.

In all of this, I knew I wanted to hear about a part of feminism no one was talking about or some part of feminist struggles few people were taking seriously. Then at the beginning of my final year, the opportunity to begin our long essays arrived. I searched Feminism books for unbeaten topics and read articles to find unexplored areas. 

This research will have me bump into Ecofeminism on a Google search of the many movements of feminism. This was the gold, the core I searched and had found. Ecofeminism was and is relatable. Ecofeminism sees the many connections that affect the development of the woman and the growth of the environment. 

Ecofeminism is the topic feminists were not really looking at. Ecofeminism became the future waiting for feminists and environmentalists to seat at a table to make informed decisions on...

To be Continued.

© 2020 Francisca Ogechi Okwulehie