Extrait de la couverture : " This book celebrates the successes in African struggles for gender equality and draws attention to the challenges facing the edification of gender studies, women's rights and entitlements. It brings together contributions by seasoned gender specialists who draw empirical evidence from several African countries - Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania and South Africa - to critically discuss various experiencies in setting up gender and women's studies programmes, feminist and gender activism, gender identities, social protest, gender and culture in indigenous films, continiuties and discontiniuties in conception of gender, same-sex relationship, customary law, and gendered discourse patterns."

Throughout Africa, growing numbers of women are coming together and making their voices heard, mobilising around causes ranging from democracy and land rights to campaigns against domestic violence. In Tanzania and Tunisia, women have made major gains in their struggle for equal political rights, and in Sierra Leone and Liberia women have been at the forefront of efforts to promote peace and reconciliation. While some of these movements have been influenced by international feminism and external donors, increasingly it is African women who are shaping the global struggle for women’s rights. Bringing together African authors who themselves are part of the activist groups, this collection represents the only comprehensive and up-to-date overview of women’s movements in contemporary Africa. Drawing on case studies and fresh empirical material from across the continent, the authors challenge the prevailing assumption that notions of women’s rights have trickled down from the global north to the south, showing instead that these movements have been shaped by above all the unique experiences and concerns of the local women involved.

Throughout Africa, growing numbers of women are coming together and making their voices heard, mobilising around causes ranging from democracy and land rights to campaigns against domestic violence. In Tanzania and Tunisia, women have made major gains in their struggle for equal political rights, and in Sierra Leone and Liberia women have been at the forefront of efforts to promote peace and reconciliation. While some of these movements have been influenced by international feminism and external donors, increasingly it is African women who are shaping the global struggle for women's rights. Bringing together African authors who themselves are part of the activist groups, this collection represents the only comprehensive and up-to-date overview of women's movements in contemporary Africa. Drawing on case studies and fresh empirical material from across the continent, the authors challenge the prevailing assumption that notions of women's rights have trickled down from the global north to the south, showing instead that these movements have been shaped by above all the unique experiences and concerns of the local women involved.

This book brings together conceptual debates based on case studies on the nature of state-building, youth, and gender in Africa. It offers contemporary and interdisciplinary analyses on the role of protests as an alternative route for citizens to challenge the ballot box as the only legitimate means of ensuring freedom. Drawing on case studies from six African countries, the contributors draw on specific political moments in their respective countries to offer insights into how the state/society social contract is contested through informal channels, and how political power functions to counteract citizen’s voices. Pursuing an interdisciplinary approach, they offer a different way of thinking about state-building, gender, and structural change that goes beyond the system-based approaches that dominate scholarship on democratization and political systems. In effect, it provides a basis for organizers and social movements to consider how to build solidarity beyond influencing government institutions.

Transatlantic Feminisms is an interdisciplinary collection of original feminist research on women’s lives in Africa and the African diaspora. Demonstrating the power and value of transcontinental connections and exchanges between feminist thinkers, this unique collection of fifteen essays addresses the need for global perspectives on gender, ethnicity, race and class. Examining diverse topics and questions in contemporary feminist research, the authors describe and analyze women’s lives in a host of vibrant, compelling locations. There are essays exploring women’s political activism in Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Santo Domingo, Jamaica and Tanzania. Other essays explore representation and creativity in Brazil, Nigeria, and Miami. While one essay examines African women as conflicted immigrants in France, another recounts the experiences of Haitian women trying to survive in the Dominican Republic. Core themes of the book include the evolution of black feminism; black feminist political leadership; the politics of identity and representation; and struggles for agency and survival. These themes are interwoven throughout the volume and illuminate different geographic and cultural experiences, yet very similar oppressive forces and forms of resistance.

An indispensable overview of women's activism and political struggles in contemporary Africa, and the ways in which the continent's women are shaping the struggle for women's rights internationally.

Gender is one of the most productive, dynamic, and vibrant areas of Africanist research today. This volume looks at Africa now that gender has come into play to consider how the continent, its people, and the term itself have changed.