Ada Uzoamaka Azodo (ed.): African Feminisms in the Global Arena

Summary

African feminism in recent times has taken a backseat in the global discourse of feminisms. The feminist spirit has always dwelled in Africa as history is replete with stories of African women and female groups from precolonial and colonial to contemporary times embodying and enacting protest and resistance to patriarchal and colonial hegemonies. The Aba women's riot of 1929, the Niger Delta women's protest against ecological degradation in the Delta and oil industrialists, Wangari Maathai's Green Belt Movement, and the political activism of Fumilayo Ransome Kuti in the 1950s are just a few examples that ground the struggle against female oppression as core to the African spirit, thereby negating the notion that feminism is a co-opted concept from the West, alien to Africa. African feminism, as can be gleaned from these examples, grows from the ground up, building upon African cultural impetus, realities and worldview. The essays in this collection not only trace the genealogy of feminist movement and thought in the continent, but also foreground feminist ideals of equity and resistance to diverse forms of domination as being indigenous to Africa.

African Feminisms in the Global Arena is a collection of twelve essays divided into three sections: ‘Indigenous Feminisms’, ‘Hierarchies, Patriarchies and Power’, and ‘Feminisms and Race’. The four essays of the first section postulate feminist frameworks that take cognizance of Africa's cultural past even as African women navigate the patriarchal present. Unique feminist perspectives are offered through di-feminism, snail-sense feminism, focu-feminism and negro-feminism. These theories decolonize feminist knowledge and establish that any feminist approach removed from African cultural and indigenous knowledge is inadequate to fit the heterogenous demands of African women within the peculiarities of African society. By putting these theories in conversation with each other, African feminisms offer a vibrant expansion of the global feminist horizon on issues of marginalization.

In the section titled ‘Hierarchies, Patriarchies and Power’, the authors grapple with asymmetrical power relations through the critical analysis of cultural texts such as plays, an autobiography, novels, and case studies from Africa. Of significance is the interrogation of inter-female hostility, an idea that is often neglected in some feminist discourse.