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This
presentation reviews the recent historical conjuncture
as one that has seen the structural gains of local women’s
movements in Africa countered by a complex resurgence
of global and local patriarchal forces, most obviously
manifest in the international resurgence of militarism.
It is argued that the changes in feminist praxis in African
contexts can be understood as reflecting women’s
differentiated responses to the contradictions of the
current historical conjuncture. Feminist scholars seeking
to maintain the link between theory and practice face
multiple challenges as a result of the nexus between gender
politics and international development. The most salient
of these arise from the tension between the liberal strategy
of entering mainstream institutions and networks, and
the radical politics that emanate from feminist analyses
of local conditions. Feminists in African contexts therefore
face the intense challenges of developing innovative intellectual,
pedagogical and institutional strategies, despite their
weak organisational bases.
The transformative capacity of feminist studies in Africa’s
tertiary educational institutions is explored, with due attention
to the location of gender studies in higher education institutions
which have consistently been required to contribute to national
development, often in technocratic and ill-conceived ways. It
is argued that the efficacy of feminist studies as a transformative
field of scholarship depends on the capacity of African feminist
thinkers to navigate the increasingly fraught intersection between
local demands and global development imperatives. Africa’s
variegated social, cultural and political crises challenge feminist
thinkers to develop a sophisticated understanding of the complex
interconnections between the micro-politics of everyday life
and the macro-economic politics of global development doctrines.
Addressing this challenge requires that radical conceptualisations
of identity, sexuality and culture be brought to bear on the
theorisation of gender and underdevelopment, and the instigation
of innovative paradigms and strategies. |
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