Women and Culture of Violence and Abuse in Yoruba Land in the Context of Luke 13:8-16

Abstract

In most of the cultures in the world, women are considered to be inferior to men. African culture, Yoruba in particular, though diverse, is not an exception. Women are wives and mothers. They do the cooking, the mending, the sewing and the washing. They take care of the men and are subordinate to male authority. They are largely excluded from high status occupations and from positions of power. The most basic division of labour appears to be founded on sex or gender. Clearly women are biologically different from men; but gender roles in most societies are a product of culture rather than biology. The division of labour on the basis of sex supported and justified by a value system which gender roles as normal, natural, right and proper. In every society, a higher value is placed on culture than on nature. This paper is aimed at identifying gender violence and abuse, social cultural factors which continue to act against the principles of social justice and equality despite all the national and international initiatives on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. The paper adopted Black feminism as it affects the female in general. It then suggests that man and woman are created in the image of God and no one is inferior to the other. The work concludes by showing the world that violence, abuse and marginalizing women in the society is a crime against humanity and both male and female should rise up to fight it as a crime against gender or violence against women.