The Philosophical and Ethical Implications of Friedrich Nietzsches Moral Philosophy on the Post-Colonial Kenyan Woman

Abstract

This thesis tries to relate the philosophical ideas of Nietzsche to the historical background and cultural situation of women in Kenya. This ethic challenges the popular view of women as an abstract category, a view that has often obscured the nature and origin of the problems faced by women blaming the victims. This study was provoked by the realization that since 1963, there have been few any philosophical works in Kenya dealing specifically with women. The existing corpus of literature therefore tended to present a rather simplified and frozen picture of the nature and contradictions of women's exploitation, oppression and marginalization. Anthropological and sociological literature proved perceptive but they often lacked a philosophical dimension. The purpose of the study was therefore to discover whether particular attitudes served to perpetrate oppression and thereby defined the context within which men and women negotiated their individual identities and relationships with one another. Further the study sought to discover whether women in Kenya had been subjected to a variety of influences that induced the traits they exhibited. It was the purpose of the study to investigate whether the categories of sex differences had prevented the full development of human potentials and a richer culture, a culture rich in contrasting achieve this end the central hypothesis was that women are the main obstacles in the amelioration of their socio-economic restraints. The study was divided into five chapters. Chapter one was an introductory to the whole study. It provided the theoretical framework for the entire research. Chapter two provided an exposition of Nietzsche's moral philosophy and its fundamental tenets. Chapter three was a review of the condition of Kenyan women with particular emphasis on the question of sex roles. Chapter four focussed on whether Nietzsche's philosophy had adequately addressed the situation of women in Kenya. It also reviewed the ethical implications of this philosophy. The last chapter summarized the study and gave suggestions and recommendations on how to proceed in the analysis of the women question in Kenya today. We adopted an analytical conceptual method. We organized and conducted the study within specific historical perspectives. Our primary source was the library where we relied mainly on published and unpublished works including government policy papers, journals, newspapers, seminar papers, conference papers and some relevant books. Despite three main problems namely, inadequate literature, hostility and unenthusiasm exhibited by male interviewees and the death of one of my main supervisors, the study established that what has contributed to the marginalization of women in Kenya is much more varied and complex and cannot be looked at only against the background of women being their own impediment to the quest for liberation. Other crucial factors which cannot be overlooked include poverty, religious fundamentalism, neo-colonialism and class domination, poor governance and lack of political will, the mass media, lack of consistency in maintaining the momentum of the struggle, lack of meaningful political involvement in national political process, inadequate education, structural and institutional barriers and women-child exploitation. Kenyan history has proved that institutional differences inevitably lead to inequality and alienation. Therefore the study recommended that future research should contribute to a process of building a new self-image and societal image of women based on an egalitarian and liberation ethic. Lastly a complete bibliography was provided.