This book considers how the establishment and/or improvement of gender equality impacts on the social, economic, religious, cultural, environmental and political developments of human societies in Africa and its Diaspora. An interdisciplinary team of contributors examine the role of gender in development against the background of Africa’s convoluted and arduous history of state formation, slavery, colonialism, post-independence, nation-building and poverty. Each chapter highlights and stimulates further discussion on the struggles that many African and African Diaspora societies grapple with in the perplexing issue of gender and development - concentrating on gains that have been made and the challenges yet to be surmounted.

"This volume builds on and extends current discussions of the construction of gendered identities and the networks through which men and women engage diaspora. It considers the movement of people and ideas between the Caribbean and the Nigerian hinterland. The contributions examine Africa in the Caribbean imaginary, the way in which gender ideologies inform Caribbean men's and women's theoretical or real-life engagement with the continent, and the interactions and experiences of Caribbean travelers in Africa and Europe. The contributions are linked as well through empire, discussing different parts of the British Empire and allowing for the comparative examination of colonial policies and practices."--Back cover.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of illustrations -- Notes on contributors -- Preface -- Introduction: gendering knowledge in Africa and the African Diaspora -- PART I (Re- )writing gender in African and African Diaspora history -- 1 The Bantu Matrilineal Belt: reframing African women's history -- 2 REMAPping the African Diaspora: place, gender and negotiation in Arabian slavery -- 3 Communicating feminist ethics in the age of New Media in Africa -- PART II Gender, migration and identity -- 4 Transnational feminist solidarity, Black German women and the politics of belonging -- 5 Beyond disability: the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and female heroism in Manu Herbstein's Ama -- 6 Reverse migration of Africans in the Diaspora: foregrounding a woman's quest for her roots in Tess Akaeke Onwueme's Legacies -- PART III Gender, subjection and power -- 7 Queens in flight: Fela Kuti's Afrobeat Queens and the performance of "Black" feminist Diasporas -- 8 Women and tfu in Wimbum Community, Cameroon -- 9 Women's agency and peacebuilding in Nigeria's Jos crises -- 10 Contesting the notions of "thugs and welfare queens": combating Black derision and death -- 11 Culture of silence and gender development in Nigeria -- 12 Emasculation, social humiliation and psychological castration in Irene's More than Dancing -- Index

Gender, Migration and Development in Africa: Igbo Women in the Diaspora and Community Development in Southeastern Nigeria provides a unique approach to the study of the role of Igbo women in the diaspora to community development in Igboland. Utilizing primary sources, specifically, migration stories of women and the groups they form in the United States and other parts of the world, the book highlights the dynamism in the zeal to give back to their communities of origin in Igboland. The book seeks to affirm the propensity of Igbo women to evolve through personal efforts and formation of social groups to extend humanitarian services to underprivileged individuals and societies in Igboland. Through several community development programs, they have provided needed medical and educational supplies, hospital equipment, supplies and sponsored several medical missions in different parts of the Igboland. This book further counters the previously understudied role of women in development. Through a comprehensive documentation of the various programs and projects completed by the groups and individual charities, readers and policy makers will be inspired to appreciate the efforts of the various groups and extend needed support and assistance to the groups. The findings in the book reveal the increasing shift from the brain drain concept to brain circulation and networking within the Igbo women community. They are positively utilizing the skills and resources acquired from their host communities to engage in the development processes through remittances and social development projects. The study reinforces the trends and ideas that the improvement of African societies may well depend on the contributions of Africans outside the continent, especially women.

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.

There has been much recent celebration of the success of African 'civil society' in forging global connections through an ever-growing diaspora. Against the background of such celebrations, this innovative book sheds light on the diasporic networks - 'home associations' - whose economic contributions are being used to develop home. Despite these networks being part of the flow of migrants' resources back to Africa that now outweighs official development assistance, the relationship between the flow of capital and social and political change are still poorly understood. Looking in particular at Cameroon and Tanzania, the authors examine the networks of migrants that have been created by making 'home associations' international. They argue that claims in favour of enlarging 'civil society' in Africa must be placed in the broader context of the political economy of migration and wider debates concerning ethnicity and belonging. They demonstrate both that diasporic development is distinct from mainstream development, and that it is an uneven historical process in which some 'homes' are better placed to take advantage of global connections than others. In doing so, the book engages critically with the current enthusiasm among policy-makers for treating the African diaspora as an untapped resource for combating poverty. Its focus on diasporic networks, rather than private remittances, reveals the particular successes and challenges diasporas face in acting as a group, not least in mobilising members of the diaspora to fulfill obligations to home.

This volume, which gathers prominent scholars, feminists, womanists, and creative writers from Africa and the African Diaspora, engages with candor and vigor issues and conflicts in feminism and black women studies - feminism and womanism debates, sisterhood and power struggles, research and documentation questions, elite and grassroots women relationship, urban and rural dichotomy, African and the African Diaspora relationship. Focusing on the pluralism of feminisms, these essays address the conflict between indigenous African feminisms and the radicalism of variants of Western feminism with their emphasis on sexuality and seeming oppositions to motherhood. They collectively argue that the African environment specifically should provide the context for any meaningful analysis of feminisms on the continent. The volume weaves theoretical questions, personal and collective engagements into a complex tapestry that spans Africa and the African Diaspora - from women organizing for change in South Africa and women's insurgency against colonialism in Nigeria to the problems of doing research on women in Uganda and building of a sisterhood in Memphis, Tennessee.