Decolonising Empowerment in Africa: Illustration as a Tool

Abstract

One of the most critical tasks we have as political scientists is to find ways to communicate the social phenomena we observe, and we do this through the process of conceptualisation. The process of capturing social meaning is imprecise, subjective, power laden, and often problematic. This chapter therefore explores the idea of decolonising the conceptualisation process within International Relations as it allows more voices to emerge in the construction and use of concepts.

The first section explores the concept of ‘empowerment’ within Western academia and how knowledge of and narratives surrounding concepts has been developed. The second section outlines a participatory illustration tool which has been developed to assist in the facilitation of strong narratives around concepts and ultimately identify more holistic and culturally relevant understandings around the concept of ‘empowerment’. After detailing the tool itself, the final section will explore the conceptual construction of ‘empowerment’ in relation to the cases of Kenya and Morocco. We conclude with a discussion about the complication and challenging of dominant discourses around ‘empowerment’ as a neoliberal construction.

Classroom Activities

Classroom Exercise 1

Use an abbreviated version of the CCD method to explore the plural understandings of empowerment within the classroom.

Objective: To understand how individual experiences, beliefs, and knowledge can shape diverse understandings of a concept within and among a community.

• 1. Ask students to draw what an empowered woman looks like in their community (however they define ‘community’, acknowledging that students may have different understandings of what that means). Ask students probing questions:

  • What does her physical appearance look like?

  • What does her family look like?

  • What do her assets look like?

  • What does she do for work?

  • What does she do for fun? What does her social life and networks look like?

  • What are her roles and responsibilities in the community, her workplace, her family?

  • Is there any other component that we have not already discussed that makes this woman empowered? If so, draw that now.

  • Of all the things that you have drawn here, what are the three most important in determining that this woman is empowered in the context of your community.

• 2. Now students will pair with another classmate in order to share what they drew and to compare their illustrations. Consider these questions as they compare:

  • Describe the ‘community’ setting that this empowered woman is meant to represent?

  • What were the three most important factors in determining each woman’s empowerment?

  • What is similar between your drawings? Discuss why you think these similarities exist in your drawings.

  • What is different between your drawings? Discuss why you think these differences exist in your drawings.

  • Was anything surprising in your partner’s drawings? Discuss why this was surprising to you.

• 3. Now return together as a class and have partner groups report to the class what they illustrated, and what they learned from their partner’s illustrations. Develop a list of similar and differing indicators of empowerment. Discuss why these similarities and differences exist within the classroom community.

• 4. Discuss how plurality in concept formation exists in real-life contexts. What are some instances where the concepts we use in International Relations do not always represent local interpretations of the concept? What is the potential effect of this? What is the potential harm of this? Do scholars and practitioners within International Relations have a responsibility to acknowledge and incorporate local knowledge into the concepts and the policies that emerge from them?

Classroom Activity 2

Learning to critically analyse the roots and implications of concepts within IR.

Objective: To critically engage with prominent concepts within IR, and to understand how to form more effective concepts that speak to diverse experiences and foster an ontological pluralism within the discipline.

• 1. In small groups, students brainstorm components that produce effective concepts within IR. The class then comes together to share those components as a class. Students thendiscuss and deliberate over which components are required for effective conceptualisation within IR.

• 2. As a class or in small groups, students explore and discuss examples of well-defined and poorly defined concepts. What makes such concepts effective or not? What is their explanatory power in diverse contexts?

• 3. Instructor will identify a concept prominent in IR (e.g., democracy, nationalism, cooperation, terrorism). Students will (individually or in small groups) analyse this concept by (a) identifying critical attributes of the concept, (b) researching the way that scholars define this concept, (c) identifying normative assumptions associated with the concept, and (d) creating their own definition of the concept.

• 4. Students will come together to share and discuss their findings as a class, comparing their conceptual definitions with other groups.

• 5. End class with discussion about the ways that language perpetuates colonial legacies in our world today. Discuss the ways in which concepts are created and utilised can either promote or breakdown colonial legacies. Finally, as a class, discuss ways to remedy the potential harm that may come from such colonial legacies within concepts used by IR.