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: Feminist Africa 2024, Volume 5, Issue 2 (2024) “Rethinking African Feminisms in the ‘New’ Normal
Feminist Africa 2024, Volume 5, Issue 2 (2024) “Rethinking African Feminisms in the ‘New’ Normal”
Introduction: Shedding the old Since the turn of the century, the world has changed radically, making it unrecog- nisable to activists who came of age in the 20th century.Yuval Harari’s provocative book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, lays out current global historical, political, technological, religious, and ecological crises plus numerous other issues of interest….
Editorial: Rethinking African Feminisms in the “New” Normal
by Sylvia Tamale Introduction: Shedding the old Since the turn of the century, the world has changed radically, making it unrecog- nisable to activists who came of age in the 20th century.Yuval Harari’s provocative book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, lays out current global historical, political, technological, religious, and ecological crises plus numerous other…
Africa’s Natural Resources amid Old and New Imperial Relations: What Implications for Gender Justice?
by Charmaine Pereira Abstract This article highlights the significance of imperial relations in shaping competing transnational interests in Africa as a site for land and natural resource extraction. Accounts of China leading the scramble for land and other natural resources in African countries obscure the dominance of the US and European countries in such extraction….
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…
Feminisms in the Digital Age Feminism and the Digital Era: Challenges and Opportunities in Africa
by Nkem Agunwa 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…
Centering Emission Rights Expropriation and the Role of Unpaid Women’s Labour: Rethinking Climate Justice from an African Feminist Perspective
By Natacha Bruna The implementation of market-based top-down climate mitigation policies is resulting in the expropriation of emission rights of non-polluters while fuelling accumulation by powerful actors. Redirecting political energy from African feminism to alternative non-extractivist climate solutions requires the recognition of the role of women’s unpaid reproductive labour in enabling the production and extraction…
This Land: Intergenerational Conversations about Women, Agriculture and Climate Change in Zimbabwe
Chido Nyaruwata speaks with Martha Gorimani Abstract Chido Nyaruwata speaks with Martha Gorimani, who owns a medium-sized farm in Mashonaland East Province in Zimbabwe. Chido spent three days at Martha’s farm in May 2023 and two days at Martha’s childhood home in Manicaland Province in October 2023. The conversation piece is a compilation of their…