<![CDATA[Western feminist theory has long been structured around the critique of patriarchy and the binary opposition of male and female. However, African feminist scholars have argued that this binary framework is inadequate for understanding gender relations in African societies, where pre-colonial gender systems were often characterised by complementarity rather than hierarchy. This paper examines the concept of gender complementarity in African feminist thought, drawing on the work of Ifi Amadiume, Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí, and Nkiru Nzegwu. It argues that the Western feminist insistence on a universal patriarchy has functioned as a form of epistemic violence, erasing the distinctive features of African gender systems and imposing an alien analytical framework. The paper proposes an epistemology of complementarity that recognises the fluidity and context-dependence of gender relations in African societies while remaining attentive to the real inequalities that women experience. It contributes to the decolonisation of feminist philosophy by centring African intellectual traditions as sources of theoretical innovation rather than as objects of Western analysis.]]>
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