by Signe Arnfred
Abstract
This article discusses different ways of conceptualising gender including a critique of dominant Western/European gender concepts in terms of male dominance/female subordination. It takes off from the author’s experience in northern Mozambique in the early 1980s, where local women refused to acknowledge proclaimed advantages of the newly independent Mozambican state’s move from ‘tradition’ to ‘modernity’. Key points of contestation were the traditional rituals of initiation, denounced by Frelimo and the National Women’s Organisation (OMM) as women-oppressive, but passionately defended by local women. In attempts to understand this apparent contradiction, the article subsequently presents decolonial perspectives on gender and power, questioning usual valorisations of ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’. Doing so, it draws on African and Latin American feminist conceptualisations. In the final sections – in a move to historicise and de-universalise dominant gender conceptualisations – the article traces the very specific European/Western roots of presumed universally valid ‘modern’ gender concepts, also showing how these lines of thought are reflected in the work of Simone de Beauvoir and embedded in international development discourse. The resulting model of ‘gender equality feminism’ is denounced as ‘colonial feminism’. The conclusion sums up limitations of presumed ‘modernity’ while pointing to potentials for women in re-interpretations of so-called ‘tradition’.
Keywords: Tradition/modernity, rituals of initiation, decolonial theory, enlightenment thinking, the international development regime
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01_FA2025_Vol6.2-TGD_Feature-Article_Arnfred_7-11-25