Labelling people is never easy and always borders on meaningless generalizations. To group all African women under one definition is comparable to offering one definition for all women. But before all that, it’s important to learn the most common characteristics of an African woman first for a smooth sailing dating experience.
For some, the term refers to any woman born in Africa. For others, it refers to black women no matter where they’re from. Simply speaking, I’d say a person who is birthed in Africa and has feminine features is an African woman. Also, one can be an African woman by heritage, for instance, the black women born outside Africa but to African parents. For instance, being African is different from being black. So, Black is a synonym for being African American. The lived realities and culture of women who are black and who are African may appear similar but can differ in many ways. Then, being African is defined by our lived realities. And when we add the challenge of being a woman biologically, it’s a lot!
African women are undeniably grounded in the world around them. They’re as resilient as they come, passionate, inspirational, and patient. Don’t let this steely resolve lead you astray though; the African woman’s just as capable of unimaginable empathy and tenderness as she is of fiery determination. This accommodating and approachable nature, combined with intuitiveness and innovation, often allows her to succeed no matter the odds. African women reach further and recover faster.
You’ll find them sailing along the catwalks of Milan, sauntering along Wall Street’s sidewalks, lighting up the silver screen in Hollywood, fighting poachers in the wilderness, or breaking ground on the oil fields of Houston. One need think only of the achievements of Africa’s most influential daughters like Graça Machel, Wangari Maathai, and Nadine Gordimer to see the qualities inherent in all African women, regardless of race, colour or circumstance.
This March, the question of what it means to be an African woman has been on my mind, that is, our peculiarities. In an attempt to find answers, I decided to interview a woman who embodies these peculiarities with boldness and grace. My mother. It was a conversation between mother and daughter; however, I knew there are other African and Black women who need to read this.
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Every nationality has its own unique culture and ways on how they live their life that makes them stand out from others. You reading this article means that you’re in for a mission.
Key Characteristics
Beauty
African women are just one of the most beautiful ladies who walk the Earth. We know for a fact that their physical features are to-die-for. Though these aren’t the only thing that makes them attractive. There are also other things that make them beautiful and one of a kind.
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Hardworking Nature
It’s a common misconception that African women in online dating sites are only looking for men who can support them financially. They either study at universities or take care of the family and do household chores while being employed at the same time. Women aren’t the only ones who are hard working.
Religious Beliefs
Apparently, the top nationalities which consider religion to be most important are dominated by African countries. Based on this statistic, Africans put importance when it comes to their religions and beliefs. Though this does not mean that all African nationals are religious. African women fight battles for their families; both physically and spiritually.
Language Proficiency
According to Babbel.com, English is the third most spoken language in the world. Meeting African women won’t be hard for anyone especially for those who also speak English.
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Respect for Marriage and Relationships
When you’re starting to look for a more serious relationship, you’ll want to find matches that are also looking for the exact same thing as yours which is either a long-term relationship or marriage. A thing about women who grew up in an African society is that they were taught a great deal on religion which made them have strong beliefs and respect towards marriage and relationships.
Fashion and Femininity
In my opinion, the best part of being a woman is experiencing motherhood. The ability to have children is an opportunity and blessing in itself! As for the worst parts of being a woman, PMS (premenstrual syndrome) is high up on this list. Thank God for medicine which helps manage it. I like to call it ‘fabulosity’. Particularly expressed through fashion - in the variety of styles, patterns, and outfits available for women to experiment and play with. Fashion, for me, is a means of being feminine and assertive. It is a play with power and art.
Intuition, Patience, and Resilience
Also, and this might be a stereotype, having that sixth sense we all call “intuition”, which I believe is the power of women. The ability to sense things before they happen. Maybe it comes from the ability to be still and listen deeply. It’s not a trait all women possess but it’s still present in many. In addition to that is patience and resilience.
Overcoming Challenges
As a woman, I definitely had to work twice as hard to get to where I am. There were decisions that I made that went against the grain. For example, deciding not to use my ex-husband’s name when I started working. Choosing not to practice law when that was what everyone was doing. Choosing to wear kitenge instead of suits when that was the norm. Choosing to get divorced. When I did those, it was borderline scandalous. But now women are allowed to make these decisions for themselves without as much scandal surrounding it.
Perhaps, it’s just in my nature to be stubborn. Kitenge is an East African cotton fabric printed in various colours and distinctive patterns. Regardless of who you are or what position you are in, as a woman you will always be engaged in this fight. The push back doesn’t diminish the more a woman accomplishes, arguably sometimes it grows. When you go against the grain and the norm, there can be a lot of backlash but you can get used to it.
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Attractiveness Preferences in African Culture
Little is known about mate choice preferences outside Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic societies, even though these Western populations may be particularly unrepresentative of human populations. To our knowledge, this is the first study to test which facial cues contribute to African perceptions of African female attractiveness and also the first study to test the combined role of facial adiposity, skin colour (lightness, yellowness and redness), skin homogeneity and youthfulness in the facial attractiveness preferences of any population.
Results show that youthfulness, skin colour, skin homogeneity and facial adiposity significantly and independently predict attractiveness in female African faces. Younger, thinner women with a lighter, yellower skin colour and a more homogenous skin tone are considered more attractive.
Facial attractiveness plays a crucial role in human mating success and explains more variance in overall attractiveness than bodily attractiveness. Past research in WEIRD populations identified various facial cues related to female facial attractiveness: symmetry, averageness, femininity, youthfulness, skin condition and facial adiposity (or “facial fatness”).
Despite a plethora of studies on the role of these facial cues in attractiveness in WEIRD populations (e.g. [5]-[9]), no previous study has (to our knowledge) tested the role of any of these facial features in African perceptions of African female attractiveness.
Skin Tone Preferences
Pale skinned women are considered more attractive than darker skinned women in a wide range of cultures, including the African-American population. Despite this, some studies find that skin tanning is considered attractive in European and American societies, presumably because it serves as a status symbol. A lighter skin colour might serve as an indicator of fertility, as skin darkens with age, as well as in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle and during pregnancy.
Recent findings indicate that skin measuring higher on the CIELab b* colour axis, which indicates a yellower skin tone, increases men’s facial attractiveness in African and European populations. Enhanced yellowness in human skin has primarily been attributed to an increase in carotenoids. These are yellow and red skin pigments obtained from fruit and vegetables that are deposited in the skin.
European and African participants increase skin colour along the CIELab a* colour axis (which produces a slightly redder skin tone) to make European and African faces appear healthier. A slightly redder skin tone serves as a cue to increased skin blood perfusion and oxygenation.
Homogenous (smooth) skin-particularly a homogenous skin colour distribution-positively contributes to European attractiveness judgements of shape standardised female faces and cropped female skin images, but not unmanipulated female faces.
Youthfulness
Men generally prefer to marry younger women and judge younger looking female faces as significantly more fertile and attractive. Youthfulness serves as a valuable cue to fecundity in sexually mature women because women have a relatively small ‘reproductive window’ compared to men who stay fertile throughout most of their adult lifespan.
Study on Facial Attractiveness
The aim of this study is to test the combined role of facial adiposity, skin colour, skin homogeneity and youthfulness-four facial features previously found to affect attractiveness in WEIRD populations- in African attractiveness judgements of unmanipulated African female faces. To our knowledge, this is the first study to test the relationship between these facial features and female attractiveness in a native African population. In addition, most studies test the relationship between individual facial cues and attractiveness in isolation (for review see [5]; but see [15] for notable exception), despite the fact that observers have access to multiple facial cues simultaneously.
The overall models significantly predicted attractiveness and explained 42% of the variance in attractiveness judgements (Table 2). Skin colour, facial adiposity, age and skin heterogeneity significantly predicted female facial attractiveness, while facial adiposity2 did not (Table 2). Younger, thinner women with higher values for the skin colour component (lighter, yellower and redder skin colour) and lower values for the skin heterogeneity component (more homogenous skin) were considered significantly more attractive than their counterparts (Figure 1).
| Variable | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Attractiveness | - | ||||||
| 2. Age | - | ||||||
| 3. Facial Adiposity | - | ||||||
| 4. CIELab L* | - | ||||||
| 5. CIELab a* | - | ||||||
| 6. CIELab b* | - | ||||||
| 7. Skin Heterogeneity | - |
Irresistible Characteristics of African Women
African woman, amazing being. Congratulations to you if you have ever been called “A true African woman” as a way of describing your personality. What makes up this phrase to describe any woman is far beyond her beauty. It’s to tell of how a woman is able to blend up strength, discipline and humility.
African women have what it takes to make you feel like a man in all ramifications. Most African men who grew to the point of maturity in Africa before migrating to the western world and are now married to women from other continents can tell you so well of what they are missing.
An African woman has some outstanding characteristics that makes her irresistible. Among them all is the dark or chocolate skin with a black eye ball. Also their beautiful hair. They can use their hair as they like. They can use it for unlimited styles to make them have a new and different look each day.
African Women Are Religious
Africa is the most religious continent according to WASHINGTON (RNS) Researchers. “On a continent-wide basis, sub-Saharan Africa comes out as the most religious place on Earth,” said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which released the study Thursday (April 15). (Source).
In Africa, women are more religious than men. In any religious gathering you may find yourself in Africa, be rest assured that women will take like 65 to 70 percent of the members. This population can go as high as 90-95% in some gatherings.
An African woman don’t just participate in religious activities for participating sake. Ask her why she is so religious, she will tell you it is because of her children and husband.
Effective Parenting Style
As tough as a man may seems to be in an average African family settings, women are in most cases active when it comes to child upbringing in Africa.
Among all characteristics of an average African woman, this part is so amazing. African women can prove to you that they are two edged sword. One side is friendly and another is tough. An African woman can defend her children even when they are at fault in the public, and scold them in the secret. This same woman can handle her children like strangers.
African woman has different ways of building a child, and one of them apart from beating is eye contact communication. This approach is appropriately use when she is outside with her child or they have a visitor in their house. An African woman can tell you ‘Greet the visitor very well’, ‘Don’t you know you should get the visitor a cup of water?’ ‘Excuse us, we have something to discuss’, ‘Don’t collect that money from the visitor’ etc. with eye contact.
Eye contact approach is so interesting that you both communicate without a word and everyone will be happy at last. You want to see the other side of an African mother when giving you the eye contact? You just pretend as if you did not understand. She will make you understand using the worst approach when the visitor is no more with you.
The coding and the decoding part of mother and child in Africa with the eye contact is an experience you will love. It is so amazing and interesting. If the coding and the decoding go so smoothly, the home will be at peace that day. If otherwise, the child should know he is into something bigger than him intermediately the visitor stepped out.
As strange as this could be to western world man or woman, this is what makes the well cultured and disciplined nature you see in Africans. African children complain of all these approaches of being disciplined by mothers too, but we are always happy we got the training from them whenever we are of age in life.
Attractive Look (Curvy and Sexy)
African women have the most attractive look. When it comes to where you can ever see amazing women that you cannot but just look more than twice while you get lost in thought, Africa is naturally blessed with them.
African women are known to have this exceptional beauty feature that makes them look so attractive to any man. There is no other continent that can provide you with such an amazing figure like in Africa.
Well Cultured (Respectful)
African women are well cultured. One of the few things a woman can do to get into any man throughout the universe is ‘To respect’. Man by nature love it when they are honoured and valued as men and not when they are being taken for granted.
Even in the western world where there seems to be gender equality, men still value and cherish it when they get respect from their woman. Laura Doyle shared her experience to tell her readers what men want in a relationship and the first of five is respect. You will not want to joke with this as a man no matter where you live on the planet earth.
How do you respect a man to make him happy? Be mindful of how you talk to him in open places. Learn how to consider his opinion on matters of your home. Let him feel the vibes that he is the head.
As this is a general want of all men in the world, African men are blessed to naturally get this from their women. The idea of being a respectful continent is natural for African women. The upbringing of an African child also helps to make it so easy for them to have this trait any man wants from his woman.
We cannot but accept the fact that integration of ‘civilization’ is really affecting African culture in some areas which are leading factors to the high rate of divorce.
Despite this, when still placed side by side with other continents, you can only have this heartwarming feature from an African woman.
