‘A woman’s place is in the kitchen’ is a European proverb, says Seun Kuti

Seun Kuti, Nigerian musician and son of Fela Kuti, the late Afrobeat singer, has blamed westerners for the social vices of female subjugation and jungle justice still prevalent in the continent.

In a video shared on Twitter, the gifted songwriter justified his claim by saying that “a woman’s place is in the kitchen’ is a European proverb” and that no “African language has the equivalent.”

It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had in 2016 stirred up outrage among Nigerians on social media when he said Aisha, his wife, belonged in his kitchen and “the other room”, apparently a euphemism for the bedroom.

“I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but my wife belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room,” Buhari had said.

But Seun, in this video clip, claimed that much of the vices for which Africans and Nigerians are known for came with Europe’s colonial exploits.

“It seems just so easy to make us be anything the western world want’s us to be. They say we’re male sovereignists, we hate our women. All without historical backing,” the singer said.

“That ‘a woman’s place in the kitchen’ is a European proverb. No African language has the equivalent. We didn’t know about subjugating women until the white men came to teach us.

“When they brought their missionary schools to Africa, they had to separate schools into that of boys and girls with what could be learned in both of the schools being distinct.

“Africans didn’t know about the subjugation of any group. If some persons were of bad influence on society, we ostracized them. That’s why there was no prison in Africa.

“On the issue of street violence lynchings and burning of humans, Who taught us how to burn people? They’ll tell you about Mary Slessor who stopped the killing of twins while they themselves were young girls in England and our own country, as witches.

“They claim to have civilized us by stopping a little tribe in the bush from killing twins as if it was the whole of Africa that upheld the practice at the time. ”

" 'A woman's place is in the kitchen' is a European proverb…" – Seun Kuti pic.twitter.com/z7Qd5FbyWV

— Slay-Papa O. (@TweetAtAustin) April 27, 2019

Like his late father, Seun Kuti is renowned for his opinionatedness with regard to topical issues in the Nigerian and African soio-political space.