Once a woman becomes a mother among the Bijagos in Guinea-Bissau, she is given the maximum respect and gets immense prestige.
And being a women-controlled society, the birth of a female is especially significant, given that she would grow up to become a major figure in the organization of family and village life.
Today, the archipelago is inhabited by about 33,000 people living in a lush, fertile, and rich natural environment with power in the hands of women.
Consisting of small villages where houses are largely made of mud and straw, women are the owners of these homes, and they even constructed them. An island based on a subsistence economy, inhabitants own farms and grow vegetables, rice, and cashews, and women have economic autonomy, organizing labor and even working more than
men.
Even though men fish, collect sap and fruit of palm trees, and clean and burn the fields for the planting of rice, they are “sometimes treated as children who are exempt from multiple responsibilities and allowed to enjoy more leisure and pleasure time,” said an article in mmstudies.com.
Generally, Bijago women are in charge of the housework; they cultivate small gardens and grow rice, process palm oil, cut straw to cover houses while educating their children and taking care of the village temple.
Apart from managing the economy and social wellbeing, women also choose their husbands and decide when they want a divorce.
Even at ceremonies, women are in charge of everything, from cooking, playing music, dancing to serving drinks to the men. Having an animistic religion and believing in reincarnation, most of their ceremonies come with a lot of rituals and mysticism, and women are in charge of relations with the spirit world as the society is led by priestesses who are chosen from mate
rnal clans.
