2023, Vol. 5, Issue 10, Part A

This paper aims to show how the power of the Senufo woman in Ferkessedougou has evolved, in a society where the phallocracy did not seem to allow women the slightest possibility to decide or to undertake. The methodology adopted is based on an ethnographic approach combining participant observation and individual or group interviews with 37 respondents.

The results show that power in Senufo society is yet fundamentally phallocratic but in certain circumstances, it can also be female. The study shows that behind the apparent dictatorship of men, popular statements and stereotypes, women have room for manoeuvre thanks to the institution of the female poro, which assigns them some duties to which they devote themselves. The results reveal that women are present in almost all spheres of socio-political activities. At first sight, women are always at the back of the queue, but on closer inspection, they are at the beginning, middle and end of every action in Senufo-Niarafolo society. Now, due to changes in their society and especially the dynamics of market gardening, it is increasingly the know-how and charisma of women that gives them autonomy and fulfilment. More often the major decisions in some extreme cases, in the village as well as in urban areas, paradoxically fall to women.