Globally, the African continent has the largest percentage of workers in informal employment. Based on data collected in 2016 by Bonnet et al. (2019: 10), 89% of workers in the sub-region work in informal employment.The figure is higher for women than it is for men, standing at 92% and 86% respectively.Workers in informal employment are…
Author: Akosua K. Darkwah
African Women Workers in a Changing World
By Akosua K. Darkwah This special issue on African women workers in a changing world discusses several themes that have long been the concern of feminist scholars with an interest in women’s work: transnational capitalism and its implications for women’s productive activities, the debilitating impact of land tenure arrangements in Africa on women’s productive and…
A Female Inventor Ahead of her Time – Akosua K. Darkwah speaks with Veronica Bekoe
African scientists have responded to the pandemic by developing a range of largely low-tech innovations to either ease testing/treatment or assist with adherence to the containment measures imposed by various states. In Dakar, Senegal, students built a multifunctional robot that helped caregivers treat patients while minimising the risk of infections; in Nigeria, another student built…
Addressing the Needs of People with Disability During the COVID-19 Pandemic – Akosua K. Darkwah speaks with Comfort Mussa
The World Health Organization estimates that 15% of the world’s population has a disability of one form or the other (WHO, 2021). With a population of approximately 1,390,000,000 people on the African continent (Worldometer, n.d.), this translates to 220,000,000 or roughly the entire population of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. Life for Africa’s citizens with…
Women’s Organising in Nigeria During the COVID-19 Pandemic – Akosua K. Darkwah speaks with Azeenarh Mohammed, Buky Williams and Chitra Nagarajan
African women have long organised for different purposes and so it has been with the pandemic. In different parts of the continent, women have come together to address different problems thrown up by the pandemic. One of the major fallouts has been gender-based violence (GBV). Across the globe, the incidence of GBV has risen in…
African Women’s Lives in the Time of a Pandemic
By Akosua K. Darkwah This issue of Feminist Africa reflects on both the impact of COVID-19 on African women and African women’s responses to the pandemic. As a continent, Africa has endured decades of economic, political and social crises. Since the colonial period, the continent has been a primary commodity producer, supplying the world with…