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
Category: Feature
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.
Building Feminist Knowledges through Everyday Conversations: Using ‘Reflective Conversations’ as Research Methodology
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.
Transition Like an Egyptian: Investigating Transgender Experiences with Violence in Egypt
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.
Messages of Gender-Based Violence: Reflections on the Politics of the Methodology of Conversations
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.
Towards a living archive of Pan-African Feminist Popular Education
The first section examines conceptions of popular education, exploring conceptual contestations and practical challenges. We identify four periods in Africa’s popular education development, and these periods have distinct characteristics ranging from oppositional, to supportive, co-opted, and critical. This historical overview enables us to historicise the emergence of feminist popular education, which was in response to blind spots identified by popular education feminists and pan-African feminists. Drawing from these critiques, we advocate a pan-African feminist approach to popular education. To that end, we make several key interventions in feminist popular education literature.
Pan-African Feminist Popular Education
Our intention is to contribute to the documentation of both historical and contemporary practices of pan-African feminist popular education. The issue is inspired by long-standing, often undocumented, practices of popular education in Pan-African and Feminist movements.The contributions in this issue actively engage African women on questions of power, patriarchy, pan-Africanism, class consciousness, and women’s rights and dignity in Africa.
Feminist Pan-Africanism and NEPU Women’s Education in Northern Nigeria, 1951-1979
The formation of NEPU in 1951 was a watershed moment in the history of feminist struggle for education for women in Northern Nigeria. Before this moment, women in the region were denied education as most married early (New Nigeria Newspaper 1968). Gambo Sawaba, the leader of NEPU Women’s Wing, advocated for the emancipation of women through education, going as far as appealing to the military government in 1968 to support a law that would compel parents to allow their girls to further their education at university level (New Nigerian Newspaper 1968).
The Colonial State and Postcolonial Feminist Predicaments
by Lyn Ossome Abstract It has been observed that the task of imagining and building African feminism as a community of theory and praxis “is very hard work.” Alongside this, it could be argued that a decolonial approach to African feminism is even harder work. This is, in part, because colonial knowledges are built upon…
Domestic Workers as Instruments of Accumulation : Unpacking Objectifying Discourses within Uganda’s Extra-territorialisation of Gendered and Racialised Labour
by Leah Eryenyu Abstract This paper analyses the instrumentalisation of gendered and racialised labour by considering the linguistic-discursive dimensions of discourses produced in newspapers about Ugandan domestic workers seeking work in the Gulf States. It explores the concept of objectification and how it creates grounds for the commodification not just of women’s labour power, but…