African Gender Studies: A Reader

by Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí (Editor)

This is the first comprehensive reader that brings African experiences to bear on the ongoing global discussions of women, gender, and society. Bringing together the essential writing on this topic from the last 25 years, these essays discuss gender in Africa from a multi-disciplinary perspective.

Genres: Feminism, Gender, Gender Studies, Nonfiction, LGBT, African Literature, Theory

447 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2005

About the author

Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí is a Nigerian gender scholar and full professor of sociology at Stony Brook University. She acquired her bachelor's degree at the University of Ibadan in Ibadan, Nigeria and went on to pursue her graduate degree in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley Her 1997 monograph, The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses, offers a postcolonial feminist critique of Western dominance in African studies.

Reviews

[Jo]

Very mixed feelings. Took me over a month to read.

Essay 1

-interesting points about biology, sex & gender that critique social constructionism while being anti-bioessentialism

-ignores reproduction as a form of labour

-agreed that: gender is sex (not trans exclusive), gender is sexed, sex is gendered and gender doesn't exist the same way in other countries

-Feels a little bit like denying gendered oppression in Nigeria & promoting moving back to tribes where those who reproduce still have double the labour even if more equal.

Essay 2

-Talks more about reproductive labour while talking about power structures pre-colonialism and the way power was given.

-Didn't touch a lot on the gendered aspect of power but was interesting

Essay 3

-Very interesting and intersectional

-Until it compared plastic surgery to FGM in a way that wasn't expanded (I am anti-plastic surgery)

Essay 4

-Defends the veil. Downplays religious misogyny.

-Misinterprets Sheila Rowbotham painting her as a blatant racist when I have read the original text used and it had nuance, was anti-colonialism in Algeria, criticized white feminists.

-Good critique of the words 'women of colour' that i feel will age well.

Essay 5

-Insteresting but falls flat. If home=woman and she owns the home but cannot go to the bush she is still subordinated.

-the woman has power over children and home but the man still holds social power over women outside the house

Essay 6

- Intriguing look at Yoruba gender pre-colonialism

Essay 7

-Helped me understand previous topics

Essay 8

DRC Suku people
-Intriguing look at DRC Suku people and their relationship with gender which is very different from Yoruba.

Essay 9

Kenya's Female Husbands
-My favourite essay so far, very eye opening to read as a lesbian

Essay 10

- Interesting

Essay 11

-Intriguing: shows the extent of huge gaps in documented women's history in Africa

Essay 12

Senegalese Women
- Learnt how even just not speaking the colonizers language can be an act of resistance

Essay 13

-Eye opening and ecofeminist piece called 'Sexuality And The Colonial Novel'

Essay 14

-Intriguing pov & personal experience of what west african women want and need

Essay 15

-Facts I didn't know about Ghanian women and the newspapers

Essay 16

-Perfect, about definitions of women and womanhood

Essay 17

-Essay on colonialism & globalization.

-Learnt a lot about research and ways economics are used to oppress africa.

Essay 18

The Yum women of Cameroon

-community work as way to eradicate poverty and as a means of female solidarity

Essay 19 Kwame Appiah

-Epilogue of a book about how current (ish) power dynamics work in Asante / Ashanti people of modern day Ghana


Essay 20

-Helped me understand essay 19 was literally the worst guy to learn about matrilinity from

Essay 21

-About colonialism in gender studies through othering, only funding certain views, downplaying misogyny, funding progressive law but not social progression.

Essay 22

-Okay until last few paragraphs, fgm as political tool, banning without educating and understanding cultural reasons and fighting them.

-Lost me at saying it was about celebrating coming of knowledge and power but maybe I'm ignorant.