Death is an unavoidable component of human life, an ever-present reality that, paradoxically, is increasingly avoided. In circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic, when governments’ political communication regulated mourning processes, women were affected in particular ways because they are typically the carriers and choreographers of funeral rites; during the pandemic, they developed a form of “silent mourning.”
Category: Feature
Harnessing Yorùbá Care Concepts of Ìtọ́jú, Ìkẹ́, and Ìgẹ́as Ethics of Holism
To address the paucity of African feminist ethical theory, it asks: how do ìtọ́jú, ìkẹ́, and ìgẹ̀ pan out in various care contexts such as ikẹ́ọmọdé (child care), ikẹ́arúgbó (care for the aged), ìkẹ́ òbí (parental care), ìtọ́jú aláìsàn (care for the sick), ìtọ́jú agbèegbè (environmental care), ìgẹ̀ ọkọ (care for the husband), ìgẹ̀ àgbàlagbà (care for the elderly), and so forth? Ìtọ́jú encompasses simple care or nurture.
African Feminist Ethics of Co-creation: Researching Women’s Peacemaking in the Democratic Republic of Congo
During my interactions with the interviewees, they questioned me about my life as they assessed whether to share their hidden narratives, long invisibilised in academic and governmental archives.
Feminisms that Feed Us: African Feminist Ethics, Everyday Resistance, and the Futures of Development
Exploring how women collectively resist alienation entails identifying contextual practices of resistance rooted in shared histories, cultures, and values which African feminisms emphasise. By attending to the material and kinship economies that sustain life, I position grassroots women’s organising as a crucial site for reimagining futures.
Of Place and Space: Towards a Phenomenological Foundation for African Feminist Ethics
Given that phenomenology deals with subjective experiences, I argue that a phenomenological approach, rooted in the lived experiences of African women, offers a unique and valuable perspective on ethical issues relevant to their lives.
“Here, I Am His Mother”: Unqueering Gender Relations and Identities through African Kinship Etymologies
he theorisation of exploitative and dangerous systems such as patriarchy or colonialism has long been energised by the complex and evolving connections among gender, violence, and power. Research and activism that acknowledge such connections point to ways in which these systems often create normalised conditions of vulnerability, especially for people gendered within the “feminine.” Such theorisation has arisen most influentially in political work within civil societies that prioritises narratives of “abuse against women” as a starting point for redress, resistance, and revolution. The overwhelming focus on such abuses in African contexts has remained, however, on domestic violence and sexual assault. In the past decade, the focus has also increasingly include
Expanding Gender Analysis: The Rise of Breadwinner Femininity in Urban Northern Tanzania
he theorisation of exploitative and dangerous systems such as patriarchy or colonialism has long been energised by the complex and evolving connections among gender, violence, and power. Research and activism that acknowledge such connections point to ways in which these systems often create normalised conditions of vulnerability, especially for people gendered within the “feminine.” Such theorisation has arisen most influentially in political work within civil societies that prioritises narratives of “abuse against women” as a starting point for redress, resistance, and revolution. The overwhelming focus on such abuses in African contexts has remained, however, on domestic violence and sexual assault. In the past decade, the focus has also increasingly include
Gender as a Development Tool: Depoliticisation, Crisis Discourse, and Academic Constraints
he theorisation of exploitative and dangerous systems such as patriarchy or colonialism has long been energised by the complex and evolving connections among gender, violence, and power. Research and activism that acknowledge such connections point to ways in which these systems often create normalised conditions of vulnerability, especially for people gendered within the “feminine.” Such theorisation has arisen most influentially in political work within civil societies that prioritises narratives of “abuse against women” as a starting point for redress, resistance, and revolution. The overwhelming focus on such abuses in African contexts has remained, however, on domestic violence and sexual assault. In the past decade, the focus has also increasingly include
Reconceptualising Gender: Critical Investigations into Assumptions of ‘Modernity’
he theorisation of exploitative and dangerous systems such as patriarchy or colonialism has long been energised by the complex and evolving connections among gender, violence, and power. Research and activism that acknowledge such connections point to ways in which these systems often create normalised conditions of vulnerability, especially for people gendered within the “feminine.” Such theorisation has arisen most influentially in political work within civil societies that prioritises narratives of “abuse against women” as a starting point for redress, resistance, and revolution. The overwhelming focus on such abuses in African contexts has remained, however, on domestic violence and sexual assault. In the past decade, the focus has also increasingly include
Studying Political Violence with Ugandan Women: A Feminist Methodological Exploration
Our focus is on the messages conveyed by acts of violence that target women and feminised subjects, which constitute a system of communication of power and subordination with structural ramifications in society. The overall aim of the research is to unravel the meanings of gendered acts of violence in terms of existing power relations in these countries and as understood by a range of interlocutors, including survivors, activists, researchers, and government officials. Our investigation of the dynamics of acts of GBV has involved deeper feminist reflections on the politics of research and power relations.