Subversion of Cultural Disparities against African Women: a Feminist critical analysis of Malatji’s short fiction

It is axiomatic that African women have been compromised by patriarchy for centuries, with culture used as a subterfuge. This paper, therefore, strives to subvert existing cultural adversities meted out against African women for African development. These unsavoury patriarchal tendencies are used to subjugate women by stifling their potential to make a meaningful contribution to Africa’s growth. The paper is, furthermore, based on a critical analysis of the dilemmas of women in Malatji’s short fiction from her text Love Interrupted (2012). It is underscored by African Feminism which is a transformative theory that seeks to popularise the emancipation of women from socio-cultural deprivation. directed by the qualitative research approach. Purposive sampling was employed to select the short stories from other short stories by the same author, and textually analyse them. The paper recommends that for Africa to flourish, she should empower women for equal participation in socio-cultural engagements.

Construction of rape culture amongst the Shona indigenous religion and culture: Perspectives from African feminist cultural hermeneutics

Rape culture is reportedly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. Culture, patriarchy, poverty and religion continue to sustain rape culture. The notions of the objectification of women’s bodies amongst the Shona people are causatives for rape culture within diverse cultural institutions. Africans reasonably uphold marriage with high esteem; unfortunately, the marriage institution is also susceptible to becoming a source of abuse, coercion, and is often used as a tool for controlling women. Some of the entrenched marital rituals embody diverse detrimental and contentious practices, which deprive girls and women their autonomous rights, particularly their sexual and reproductive rights. This research article interrogates numerous aspects within the Shona indigenous religion and culture, which precipitate the construction of rape culture. The study uses African feminism as a theoretical framework. It utilises African feminist cultural hermeneutics to interrogate rape culture amongst the Shona people. The research study is qualitative with a conceptual analysis paradigm. It concludes by proposing the need for tapping into some life-giving and gender inclusive principles within the Shona indigenous religion and culture to be utilised as tools for eradicating rape culture.Contribution: Utilising the African feminist cultural hermeneutical framework, the article interrogated several factors precipitating rape culture amongst the Shona people. It foregrounded that women bear the brunt of burden of rape culture. It concludes by proposing the need for tapping into some positive Shona indigenous traditions as tools for curbing rape culture.

Patriarchal Usurpation of the Modjadji Dynasty: A Gender-critical Reading of the History and Reign of the Modjadji Rain Queens

The setting of the Modjadji dynasty is on the one hand in a South African democratic space with an appraisal of women’s rights, and on the other hand in a rural traditionalist setting where women have a designated place under patriarchy. How the queens navigate their rule, in circumstances where the modern and traditional seek to occupy the same space, requires a gender-critical reading. Questions about their ability to autonomously dispense their duties as queens and exercise freedom over their livelihoods in a culture that emanates from a patriarchal rule, inform the core objectives in this article. Diverging from the western form of feminism, which has been suspected of universalising challenges faced by women like Vashti and Esther, to African feminism that is more context-based, helps in unearthing patriarchal traits directly affecting African women. The intention is not to discredit one form of feminism or the other, but to explore how such a fusion can help in the emancipation of women, as this is the goal of African feminism.

Living on the Margin:

This article uncovers the hidden stepdaughter’s odyssey to Black African Feminism against the backdrop of Kigandan subservient womanhood and Euro-Canadian racism. The first section recounts early childhood experiences of an othered stepchild, followed by teenage anti-misogynist resistance to structural second-class citizenship in a majoritized boy’s school. Subsequent sections narratively capture the lived experiences of transitioning to racialized and subjugated Black womanhood in Germany and Canada, and the becoming of a proud Black African Anti-racist Feminist. Using personal photographs in the narratives makes the experience more present while the Luganda proverbs call forth the uniqueness of an African experience. This article uncovers different strategies of how a young Black African female combats multiple layers of Kigandan cultural subordination and systemic racism in order to excel as a professional immigration consultant and emerging anti-racism and Black feminism scholar.

Online Activism Against Gender-Based Violence: How African Feminism is Using Twitter for Progress

The chief goal of African feminism has been to better African women’s dire conditions in a mainly patriarchal society. Over the last five years however, the tide appears to be turning as feminists across the continent make greater use of online platforms to work change. This paper discusses the ways in which African women are using Twitter to protest against the abusive conditions women face including early and forced marriages, domestic abuse, abduction, sexual assault, slavery and other forms of genderbased violence. Through the lens of three hashtag campaigns (#BringBackOurGirls, #JusticeforNoura and #JusticeForOchanya), the paper examines the impact of twittering on African gender activism. Through Critical Discussion Analysis of selected tweets three key narratives emerged, constructed by the online activists who took part in the campaigns: Solidarity in Feminist Sisterhood; Gender Equality; and A Call for Justice. The tweets are analysed under these themes showing that the meanings constructed by the activists helped advance the African feminist cause. The paper concludes with the lessons to be drawn from the campaigns, which show social media’s scope for advancing the goals of African feminism.

Feminist Voices From Africa

This chapter is an extension of intersectionality and post-modernist theories of feminism introduced in Chapter 8, now giving special focus to the African continent. The chapter argues that the African female is not only vastly different from the Western female (given the different socio-economic, political, and cultural structures), but also very different from each other as determined by contextual differences within the continent. The chapter starts from the angle that although Africa might have passed through almost similar history of slavery, colonialism, and neo-colonialism, the continent is very diverse. To talk of an ‘African feminism' can be seen as essentialising Africa and suggesting that all women living in Africa face the same problems. Thus, Africa cannot be treated as a single entity. Hence, instead of settling for the term “African feminism,” this chapter opted for “Feminist Voices from Africa” as the title.

Defining African Feminism(s) While #BeingFemaleinNigeria

In 2015, a reading group in Abuja, Nigeria, started the hashtag #BeingFemaleinNigeria, which received widespread attention. Within the confines of 140 characters, Nigerian women and men shared stories of gender inequality, sexism and misogyny in the country. Using feminist critical discourse analysis, this article unpacks the tweets under the #BeingFemaleinNigeria hashtag, and teases out what they tell us about gender inequality in Nigeria, and the ambitions for emancipation. This article takes the stance that African feminism(s) exist, that empirical study of lived experiences of African women should define it, and not perspectives that reject and argue that feminism comes from the other. Therefore, this empirical research contributes to scholarship that seeks to define the characteristics of African feminism(s), particularly as the field is criticised for being over-theorised.