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.
Category: Feature
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…
African Feminisms as Method: A Methodology for African Feminisms in the Digital Age
by Nanjala Nyabola Abstract “African Feminisms” is the collective label given to the various approaches to demanding equality for African women in the face of the unique oppressions and restrictions they endure because they are African and women. This essay argues that African feminisms exist in the plural because women on the continent experience a…
Accounting for Class and Feminist Political Economy: Questions Emanating from Ghana’s Market PPPs
by Gertrude Dzifa Torvikey and Sylvia Ohene Marfo Abstract Capital, through neoliberal development, is finding spaces in the informal economy, which was traditionally unattractive for capital investment. Recently, Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Ghana have surged given the increasing sovereign debt and economic crisis. Drawing on qualitative methods, and framed within a feminist political economy perspective,…
Overview of Public-Private Partnerships in Sub-Saharan Africa: Emerging Risks and Narratives
by Sue Godt Abstract Powerful global actors including international finance institutions, multilaterals and funders promote neoliberal policies across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), prioritising public-private partnerships (PPPs). Assumptions are that private sector resources will solve public sector deficiencies and ensure effective and efficient development and service delivery. SSA governments are creating required PPP-enabling environments to attract such…
Public-Private Partnerships, Gender Equality, and Women’s Rights in Sierra Leone: A Focus on Addax Bioenergy
by Hussainatu J. Abdullah Abstract This article argues that public-private partnerships (PPPs) as a vehicle for financing public infrastructure are antithetical to long-term social development, including women’s rights and gender equality, because of their profit-oriented focus. A case study of Addax Bioenergy Sierra Leone (ABSL) illustrates this point. ABSL is a partnership between the Sierra…
A Gendered Approach to Public-Private Partnerships in University Student Housing Provision – The Case of South Africa
by Hlengiwe Ndlovu and Nedson Pophiwa Abstract Student housing is a booming business in many African countries as evidenced by the growing rental property market for students in neighbourhoods sur- rounding campuses of tertiary institutions.This paper casts a light on the need to rethink gender-fair public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the context of student housing, which…