By Charmaine Pereira and Dzodzi Tsikata This issue of Feminist Africa marks the successful transition of the journal from its birthplace, the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, across the continent to the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana, Accra. After a three-year gap, Feminist Africa has…
Category: Archive
Feminist Africa, Volume 2, Issue 1 (2021): Extractivism, Resistance, Alternatives
By Charmaine Pereira and Dzodzi Tsikata This issue of Feminist Africa marks the successful transition of the journal from its birthplace, the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, across the continent to the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana, Accra. After a three-year gap, Feminist Africa has…
Negotiating Gender Equity in the Global South: The Politics of Domestic Violence Policy by Sohela Nazneen, Sam Hickey, Eleni Sifaki, eds.
By Shireen Hassim Three decades have passed since dramatic changes in authoritarian societies – the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of one-party and military regimes in Africa and Latin America – generated feminist interest in formal political institutions.A substantial body of literature in the social sciences began to seriously address the question of…
Women and the War on Boko Haram: Wives, Weapons, Witnesses by Hilary Matfess
By Títílope F. Ajàyí Women and the War on Boko Haram is a bold and coherent effort to decolonise victim narratives about women’s roles in, and experiences of, the conflict in Nigeria’s northeast. Before this book, although there had been a growing focuson women as perpetrators and enablers of violence by scholars like Freedom Onuoha,…
Contextualising Extractivism in Africa
By Charmaine Pereira and Dzodzi Tsikata AbstractThis article contextualises the phenomenon of extractivism in Africa, exploring the extent to which the different meanings of extractivism in the literature contribute to an understanding of its gendered character. We argue that extractivism is embedded in the changing dynamics of contemporary capitalism and configured differently in diverse social…
Reclaiming Our Land and Labour: Women’s Resistance to Extractivist Agriculture in South-eastern Ghana
By Gertrude Dzifa Torvikey AbstractNeoliberal development projects have invaded multiple spaces. In rural areas, women’s livelihood activities are targets for interventions in the name of poverty reduction and this is often conveyed through commercial agricultural production schemes. These initiatives have become the source of tension between householdbased production and capitalist production systems. This qualitative research…
“Cinderellas” of Our Mozambique Wish to Speak: A Feminist Perspective on Extractivism
By Teresa Cunha and Isabel Casimiro All in uniform. Some in army uniforms, others in administrator uniforms. (Pepetela, 2018) AbstractMozambique is currently undergoing an intense cycle of extractive activities, with most of the generated benefits being transferred to international corporations and local elites. This has given rise to extreme inequality, the emergence ofviolent conflicts, the…
“Walking into Slavery with Our Eyes Open” – the Space for Resisting Genetically Modified Crops in Nigeria
By Charmaine Pereira AbstractThis study focuses on genetic modification of cowpea, a food crop grown predominantly by poor men and women in Nigeria and an important source of protein for the poor. The official justification for genetic modification is that itpromotes resistance to the Maruca insect, which is said to be capable of destroying up…
Towards Building Feminist Economies of Life
By Donna Andrews Living in CrisisThis anthropocene1 era with its accompanying avarice has significantly contributed to the destruction of the ecological integrity of our planet. Mainstream neoliberal economics valorises economic growth and fosters the super exploitation of minerals, metals and nature by transnational corporations. Its associated policies severely undermine social and economic protection, with dire…
Tribute: Hajiya Bilkisu Yusuf and Her ‘Jihad’ of the Heart (December 1952–September 2015)
Born December 2, 1952 in Kano, Hajiya Bilkisu Yusuf passed away on the 24th of September 2015, in the process of performing the Holy Pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. In the years between, she accomplished so much that it would be foolhardy to attempt to capture even the essence of her many achievements in one short…