Abstract
Much African gender research draws extensively on the discipline of anthropology, and the predominant emphasis in many gender initiatives on the continent remains technocratic and narrowly developmentalist. Alternatives to traditional anthropological and technicist methods and ideas have been developed by feminist scholars in a variety of fields. In historical research from the late 80s, for example, Fatima Mernissi (1988) and Bonlanle Awe (1991) explored the need for “herstory” in African historiography, with their comprehensive accounts of women’s agency and subordination transcending the limitations of insular anthropology and developmentalism. Developing these themes in more recent work, Cheryl Johnson-Odim and Nina Mba in For Women and the Nation (1997) link the texture of historical process to a Nigerian woman’s life narrative in order to approach issues of gender and development from a holistic and humanist point of view.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Acholonu, C. 1995. Motherism: the Afrocentric Alternative to Feminism. Owerri, Nigeria: Afa Publications.
Amadiume, I. 1997. Reinventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion and Culture. London: Zed.
Arnold, S. 1990. Culture and Development in Africa. Trenton NJ: Africa World Press.
Awe, B. 1991. “Writing Women into History: The Nigerian Experience.” Offen, K. et al. eds. Writing Women’s History: International Perspectives. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Boserup, E. 1970. Women’s Role in Development. London: Allen and Unwin.
Gaidzanwa, R. 1992. “Bourgeois Theories of Gender and Feminism and their Shortcomings with Reference to Southern African Countries” Meena, R. ed. Gender in Southern Africa: Conceptual and Theoretical Issues. Harare: SAPES Books.
Gordon, A. 1996. Transforming Capitalism and Patriarchy: Gender and Development in Africa. London: Lynne Reiner.
hooks, b. 1994. Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representation. New York: Routledge.
Johnson-Odim, C. and Mba, N. 1997. For Women and the Nation: Fnimilayo Ransome-Kuti of Nigeria. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Karam, A. 1998. Women, Islamisms and the State: Contemporary Feminisms in Egypt. London: MacMillan.
Lazreg, M. 1994. The Eloquence of Silence: Algerian Women in Question. NY and London: Routledge.
Mama, A. 1996. “Women’s Studies and Studies of Women in Africa During the Nineties.” Dakar: CODESRIA.
McFadden, Patricia. 2001. “Cultural Practice as Gendered Exclusion: Experiences from Southern Africa” in Discussing Women’s Empowerment: Theory and Practice. SIDA Studies no. 3.
Meena, R. Introduction in Meena, R. ed. Gender in Southern Africa: Conceptual and Theoretical Issues. Harare: SAPES Books.
Mernissi, F. 1988a. “Women in Muslim History: Traditional Perspectives and New Strategies.”
Mikell, G. 1997. African Feminism: The Politics of Survival in Sub-Saharan Africa. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Mukurasi, L. 1991. Post Abolished: One Woman’s Struggle for Employment Rights. London: Women’s Press.
Nasta, 1991. Motherlands: Black Women’s Writing from Africa, the Caribbean and South Asia. London: Women’s Press.
Ngaiza and Koda. 1991. The Unsung Heroines: Women’s Life Histories from Tanzania. Dar-es-Salaam. Research and Documentation Project.
Nnaemeka, ed. 1997. The Politics of (M)othering: Womanhood, Identity, and Resistance in African Literature.
Ogunyemi, C. 1984. “Womanism: The Dynamics of the Contemporary Black Female Novel in English.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 11, 1.
Tamale, S. 1999. When Hens Begin to Crow: Gender and Parliamentary Politics in Uganda. Kampala: Fountain Publishers.
Tripp, A. 2000. Women and Politics in Uganda. Oxford: James Currey; Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press; Kampala: Fountain Publishers.
Tsikata, D. 1997. “Gender Equality and the State in Ghana.” Imam, A. et al. Engendering African Social Science. Dakar: CODESRIA.
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2005 Oyèrónké Oyěwùmí
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lewis, D. (2005). African Gender Research and Postcoloniality: Legacies and Challenges. In: Oyěwùmí, O. (eds) African Gender Studies A Reader. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-09009-6_21
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-09009-6_21
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-4039-6283-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-09009-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)