Abstract
This chapter shows that the continuity in women and girls’ roles in war is the denial of their contribution to direct combat. It shows that women and girls’ varied roles have been central in the economic and sociopolitical systems that have sustained war efforts in Africa. Examining the evolution of the participation and theorization of women and girls in war allows us to understand the evolving ideologies, tactics, space(s), and the social life of war and its aftermath. The roles of African women and girls in war and conflict, especially after the Cold War, have provided abundant examples of the ways in which war efforts rely on ideas of femininity and masculinity that are simultaneously reproduced, reconfigured, and ruptured in the social and political economy of war. They have been central in challenging established ideas about the places where war happens and those participating in it. African experiences of war have made visible the blurring of homefront, battlefront, combatants, and noncombatants. It is shown that the now accepted discourse of women, peace, and security is evidence of the successful excavation and nuanced theorization of women and girls’ roles by activists and feminist scholars.
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Magadla, S. (2021). Theorizing African Women and Girls in Combat: From National Liberation to the War on Terrorism. In: Yacob-Haliso, O., Falola, T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of African Women's Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28099-4_86
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