By Shirley Ardener
An excerpt from “Sexual Insult and Female Militancy.” In Shirley Ardener (ed.), 1975. Perceiving Women. London; Malaby Press, pp. 29-53
This article attempts to examine certain manifestations of female militancy in Africa, not only for their own interest, but also to see whether they can throw any light upon the completely independent modern women’s liberation movements with which we are now familiar in the West. The African ethnographical material, which is set out first, refers mainly to the Bakweri, the Balong and the Kom of West Cameroon. Besides oral reports collected from Cameroonians about traditional behaviour and on particular occurrences, for the Bakweri there is additional relevant documentation from Court records.
The Bakweri
The Bakweri live on the slopes and around the base of the Cameroon Mountain, which is a volcano of some 13,500 feet lying on the west coast of Africa. They are the largest autochthonous population in the area, numbering near 20,000 persons. They speak a Bantu language, and they distinguish a category which they label titi ikoli which is relevant to our discussion of female militancy.
It is difficult to give a precise translation of the expression. Bakweri explain it in different ways: titi ikoli is ‘beautiful’; titi ikoli means something valuable ‘as if one married a woman for £1,000’; yet, ‘the word refers to an insult’. As we shall see, it is possible to speak of the ‘native law of titi ikoli’ and of things being ‘of the nature of titi ikoli’. The expression falls into two parts: ikoli has the independent meaning of’ thousand’. Titi said to be a childish word for the female vulva, although the normal term for this is ndondo. It is sometimes used to refer to young girls. Everyone is said to ‘know the implications in [combination] titi ikoli’ and usually mention of the expression brings forth embarrassed laughter. It comprehends the following associations: ‘a woman’s under parts (the genitals, anus, and buttocks), and the insult of these; and ‘women‘s secrets' and the revealing of these. At the same time it is associated with certain types of mandatory female sanctions which follow upon such insult.
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