This is the second of a four-part series commemorating International Women’s Day 2018 written by Charles O. Anyiam-Osigwe and Michael Igaga.
THE CAPACITIES OF THE WOMAN AND WOMANHOOD
In the view of the Sage Philosopher Chief Emmanuel Onyechere Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe, the feminine principle (the woman) is the creative potency of divinity. In Christian cosmology, Jesus Christ the Son of God is, to a large extent, identified as God in material expression as well. That God Himself came of a woman not affected by a man is a fundamental expression of the creative potency of the woman in the octave of being.
THE WOMAN AS A POTENT FORCE IN PEACE BUILDING
It is within the bounds of the limitless resource of womanhood that we need to appraise the woman in the context of peace building. We note that peace building does not necessarily come with crises situations. Peace building comes with the pre-emptive initiative that truncate the evolvement of crises situations, particularly as it bears on wars and other forms of destructive conflicts.
In appraising the capacities of the woman in this respect, we draw from Anyiam-Osigwe’s appraisal of the expressive definition of the component of divinity. In the view of Anyiam-Osigwe, the masculine principle is the aggressive, expressive manifestation of the divine being. On the other hand, the feminine principle is subtle, latent and meek in expression. A theorist on this subject avers that men go to peace talks with guns. It is the other way for the woman. The woman goes to peace talk with meekness, frankness and a spirit that tolerates and reconciles, drawing from the language and arsenals of peace rather than war. This is a fundamental attribute of womanhood that we must recognise in properly situating the woman in playing her leading role in our advancement towards a better world order.
While the man often positions himself as the head of the family and makes the decisions in the family, with the attributes of meekness and subtlety, in most cases, the woman actually determines the cause of events particularly at the point of serious dilemma and when the red sea stares with onerous calamity. Put more succinctly, if you desire the most difficult favour from a man, use his wife. If you go through the wife, you will get the impossible with a lot of respect from the man. Even at the level of governance, the place of the woman’s opinion in the trajectory of government decisions remains fundamental.
Resolution 1325 on women and peace and security adopted by the UN Security Council on 31 October 2000 recognises the uniqueness of women as vessels of peace and peace building in our fractured world. The enforcement of the resolution in various supportive, supervisory and monitoring initiatives affirms the commitment of the global community to effectively utilise the attributive genius of womanhood in achieving a better world order.
Charles O. Anyiam-Osigwe is the Co-ordinator General of the Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe Foundation and Michael Igaga is the Administrative Secretary of the Foundation.