Rethinking Africa: Indigenous women re-interpret Southern African pasts

by Bernedette Muthien, June Bam

This book critically opens new pathways for de-colonial scholarship andthe reclamation of indigenous self-definition by women scholars.Indigenous peoples around the world are often socially egalitarian andgender equal, matricentric, matrifocal, matrilineal, less violent, beyondheteronormative, ecologically sensitive, and with feminine or two-genderdeities or spirits, and more. Bernedette Muthien has contributed toseveral publications over the years, while June Bam has made numerouskey contributions in the field of rethinking and rewriting the African pastmore generally.In this book, indigenous women write their own herstory, define theirown contemporary cultural and socio-economic conditions, and ideatefuture visions based on their lived realities. All chapters herstoricise theaccepted ‘histories’ and theories of how we have come to understandthe African past, how to problematise and rethink that discourse, andprovide new and different herstorical lenses, philosophies, epistemologies,methodologies and interpretations.In a first of its kind in Africa and the world, this collection of essays iswritten by, with and for indigenous southern African women frommatricentric societies.

Genres: History

234 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 23, 2021

Reviews

[nikita · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I started reading this in February and then stopped and just started reading it again as I moved into another phase of my studies. The ideas of epistemicide and rematriation of knowledge seem particularly relevant to my life right now as a student in the social sciences. This book is super super dense but puts into words so many thoughts and feelings I have never been able to convey.