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.
Top16.0 Introduction
Africa cannot be treated as a single entity. To talk of an ‘African feminism’ can be seen as essentialising Africa and suggesting that all women living in Africa face the same problems. Hence, instead of settling for the term African Feminism, this chapter opted for Feminist Voices from Africa, as title for the chapter. To illustrate this argument, women from the Maghreb countries of Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Morocco tend to face different problems from women south of the Sahara. Feminism in Morocco, and issues that relate to Arab women, is accordingly very different from that of black African feminists.
In some quarters, feminism in Africa has been dismissed as an imperialist machination to confuse innocent African women and cause unnecessary conflict. This is not true. In fact, feminism in Africa draws much of its inspiration from historical, anthropological, and political evidence of African women's leadership, of women's mobilisations, and of dynamic and disparate gender relations in the continent more than from any so called misguided external influences. The conditions giving rise to feminism in Africa include the history of colonial rule and imperialism, women's involvement in nationalist struggles, and other social movements. Contemporary manifestations of feminist consciousness owe much to the particular and persistent harshness of the conditions under which most African women still live, conditions that are widely being attributed to economic and political regimes. Therefore, feminist ideals of equity and resistance to all forms of domination are indigenous to Africa and have propelled women’s social action for centuries.
It is also important to note that African feminism has been divided around issues of sexuality. They are sharply divided, with the bulk of the majority resistant to challenging heterosexism and homophobia in their praxis against patriarchy. Only a few radical African feminists address heteronormativity, while a much smaller corpus of individual queer African feminists incorporate non-essentialist fluid and dynamic understandings of gender that digress the fixed binary opposition of men and women, male and female.
While it may be hard to discern a unified and coherent feminist movement in many African countries given the complexity of gender politics and the disparate influences of the state, local, and international development agencies and diverse women's movements, it is clear that African women have been able to come together as a powerful force at key historical moments in various countries.
A wide spectrum of feminisms in Africa calls for a full length book. As such, a chapter like this one cannot cover all the regional feminisms in the continent. Although there are some generalisations for the whole continent, main focus shall be on southern African and west African voices. The objectives of the chapter are to discuss the criticisms of mainstream feminism by African feminists and distinguish between the various feminisms in Africa. The chapter traces the historical evolution of feminism in Africa; explores some evolutionary and regional feminist movements in Africa; and distinguishes between a variety of feminisms in Africa, namely southern African voices, womanism, stiwanism, motherism, nego-feminism, femalism and snail-sense feminism.