AFR 331 - African Feminisms

In this course, we examine African feminisms as both a theoretical account and an activist praxis that considers how gendered differences are grounded in the complex realities of African women’s everyday experiences. Through explorations of how African women have used their diverse experiences to produce knowledge and challenge oppressive systems both in African and the world, writ-large, this course focuses on anti-colonial discourse, development, grassroots activism, and intellectual scholarship that advocates for gender equity and the liberation and autonomy of African people. Some of the core questions that guide this class are: what are African feminisms? What conditions created the need for different types of gendered responses from African women? How are the varied feminisms across Africa uniquely different from one another and from feminisms elaborated based on Western women? 

Through readings that centralize the scholarship of African feminists, we explore topics such as race, gender, and sexuality, class politics, the tensions of rural-urban/ traditional-modern dichotomies in Africa, transnational feminisms, reproductive justice, sexual violence, homophobia, heteronormativity, and the historicity and cultural specificity of the subordinations that African women adopt, negotiate, and/or resist. We will examine these concerns through a critical reading of a wide range of texts-from memoir, policy case studies, ethnography, novels, essays, and cultural criticism and sociopolitical analyses.

Satisfies Africana Sttudies major Social Thought and Institutions track requirement.
Satisfies Gender and Sexuality Studies major and minor requirement.
Satisfies Theory requirement, or elective requirement of Sociology major.
Satisfies Social-Scientific Thought Ways of Knowing requirement.
Satisfies Justice, Equality and Community requirement.