Caroline Faria
Syllabus in development
Gendering African nationalism
“You are our mothers, life companions, our comrades
in struggle and because of this fact you should by right
affirm yourselves as equal partners in the joyful
victory feasts of the revolution.”
Thomas Sankara, 03/1987
“[Gender equality] is not practiced and it will not be
practiced. Since our independence [the constitution]
gives women rights with one hand and takes them
away with another”
Sonia Asis Malik, 10/2006.
Lecturer at Ahfad University for Women
“All nationalisms are gendered all are invented, and all
are dangerous”
Anne McClintock, 1991
The statements above touch on women’s complex relationship to nationalism. Women have
been brought into and actively participated in nationalist efforts in a myriad of ways across
the continent and beyond; as icons or symbols of the new nation, as bearers of culture and
tradition, as reproducers of the nation’s next generation, and as part of the territory over
which nationalist endeavors are fought. Though too commonly written out of revolutionary
histories, many women have also participated actively in nationalist resistance efforts and in
post-independence transitions. In parallel men have been positioned as defenders and heroes
of the nation, duty-bound to protect the nation’s “womenandchildren” (Enloe 1990) and the
project of nationalism itself has been critiqued by feminist theorists as patriarchal, hierarchal,
and a masculinist signature of modernity. These are some of the ways in which we can argue
that nationalism itself is gendered.
Rather than a natural, inevitable and immemorial in this course we will explore the ways in
which the Nation and nationalisms are produced through social, cultural and politicaleconomic shifts in both colonial and post-colonial eras. In particular we will pay attention to
the ways in which nationalism is distinctly gendered, relying upon particular renderings of
masculinity and femininity and the bodies of men and women in varied ways. In our
reflections we will consider the possibilities for feminist nationalisms, and the ways in which
nationalist efforts have been both liberatory and oppressive. In our discussions we will
explore the following questions:
How have colonial rulers used indigenous African as well as ‘settler’ women and women’s bodies to maintain
order and control? What are some examples of women’s resistance to colonialism? In what ways have women
been written out of, and into the colonial and post colonial nationalist effort? How have women and men been
positioned differently in nationalist efforts? How is responsibility as new citizens of the nation gendered?
What are impacts of nationalist movements on women’s rights movements and of women’s activism on
nationalism? What happens to women’s liberation after the revolution? What are the opportunities and
constraints of a nationalist feminism?
Our focus here will be case studies and literatures from the African continent though we will
situate these nationalist projects within broader socio-political, cultural and economic shifts
occurring in Europe, the Caribbean and elsewhere. Moreover we will seek to make
connections between the gendering of nationalism in Africa and in other places around the
world.
Key themes:
1. Foundations: Postcolonial and Feminist theories of the Nation
2. Gender and Empire: Colonial Regulation and Resistance
3. Women and Nationalist Resistance
4. Performing (for) the Nation: Women and the power of nationalist symbolism
5. Gendering the Nation-State: Women in politics, the military…
6. Contemporary struggles: Women’s Liberation after the revolution?
7. Beyond the nation? Visions for a transnational feminism?
1. Foundations: Postcolonial and Feminist theories of the Nation
Postcolonial reflections
Bhabha, H. (1990) ‘Introduction: Narrating the Nation’ and ‘DissemiNation: time, narrative,
and the margins of the modern nation’ in Bhabha, H. (ed) Nation and Narration
Routledge: London and New York pp.1-7, 291-322
Chatterjee, P. ‘The Thematic and the Problematic’ in Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World:
A Derivative Discourse University of Minnesota Press pp.36-53
Chatterjee, P. (1993) in The Nation and Its Fragments; Colonial and Postcolonial Histories Princeton:
Princeton University Press (extracts)
Anderson, B. (1983) ‘The Origins of National Consciousness’ and ‘Official nationalism and
Imperialism’ Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
Verso: London and New York pp.37-46, 83-112
Feminist Reflections
Mayer, T. (2000) ‘Gender Ironies of Nationalism: Setting the stage’ in Mayer, T. (eds)
Gender Ironies of Nationalism: Sexing the Nation Routledge: London and New
York pp. 1-24
Yuval-Davis, Y. (1997) ‘Theorising Gender and Nation’ in Gender and Nation Sage
Publications: Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore pp 1-21
Alarcon, N., Kaplan, C., Moallem, M. (eds) ‘Introduction: Between Women and Nation’ in
in Kaplan, C., Alarcon, N. and Moallem, M. (eds) Between woman and Nation:
Nationalisms, Transnational Feminisms and the State Duke University Press: Durham and
London pp. 1- 16
Jayawardena, K (1986) Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World Zed Books (extracts)
2. Gender, Race and Empire: Colonial Regulation and Resistance
Stoler, A (1995) ‘Colonial Studies and the History of Sexuality’ Race and the Education of Desire:
Foucault’s History of Sexuality and the Colonial Order of Things Duke University Press pp.
1-18
Hungwe, C. (2006) ‘Putting them in their place: ‘respectable” and “unrespectable” women in
Zimbabwean gender struggles Feminist Africa (6): 33-47
McClintock, A. (1995) ‘”Massa” and the Maids: Power and Desire in the Imperial
Metropolis’ and ‘The Scandal of Hybridity: Black Women’s Resistance and Narrative
Ambiguity’ Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest Routledge
pp. 75-132, pp.299-328
Young, R. (1995) ‘White Power, White Desire: The Political Economy of Miscegenation’ and
‘Colonialism and the Desiring Machine’Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and
Race London and New York: Routledge pp. 142-158, 159-182
Chuku, G. ‘Navigating the Colonial Terrain through Protest Movements: A discourse on the
Nigeria Women’s Motives’ Power And Nationalism In Modern Africa: Essays in Honor of
Don Ohadike pp. 169-186
Mama, A. (1996) ‘Sheroes and Villains: Conceptualizing Colonial and Contemporary
Violence Against Women in Africa’ Alexander, J., Mohanty, CT. (eds) Feminist
Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democraic Futures Taylor and Francis pp. 46-62
3. Women and Nationalist Resistance
Sankara, T. (2007) Women’s Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle Pathfinder Press; 2nd
edition [focus on the transcription of his speech here]
Fanon, F. (1965) ‘Algeria Unveiled’ A Dying Colonialism Grove Press p.35-64
Dubey, M. (1998) The "True Lie" of the Nation: Fanon and Feminism Differences Vol. 10
(Spring)
Okafor, C. (2008) Militant Femininity in Southern African Poetry: A discussion of selected
poems by Micere Mugo and Gladys Thomas in Falola, T (eds) Power And Nationalism
In Modern Africa: Essays in Honor of Don Ohadike Carolina Academic Press pp.431
Geisler, G. (2004) ‘Women’s Participation in Nationalist Movements’ and ‘Liberation
struggles: the case of the South African Women’s Movement’ in Women and the
Remaking of Politics in Southern Africa: Negotiating Autonomy, Incorporation and
Representation Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet,pp. 39-63, 64-87
Geiger, S. (1997) ‘Activists and Political Mobilization’ (and a selection of writings on onetwo of the activists described in detail) TANU Women: Gender and Culture in the
Making of Tanganyikan Nationalism, 1955-1965 (Social History of Africa Series)
Heinemann Press
Ranchod-Nilsson, S. (2000) ‘(Gender) Struggles for the Nation: Power, Agency and
Representation in Zimbabwe Women, States and Nationalism: At Home in the Nation? pp.
1-17
4. Performing (for) the Nation: Women in African Nationalist Discourse
Yuval-Davis, N. (1997) ‘Women and the Biological Reproduction of the Nation’ and
‘Cultural Reproduction and Gender Relations’ in Gender and Nation Sage
Publications: Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore pp. 26-67
McClintock, A. (1991) “No Longer in a Future Heaven”: Women and Nationalism in South
Africa Transition No. 51, pp. 104-123
Moran, M. (1996) ‘Carrying the Queen: Identity and Nationalism in a Liberian Queen Rally’
in Ballerino, C., Wilk, R., and Stoeltje, B. (eds) Beauty Queens on the Global Stage:
gender, Contests and Power Routledge: New York and London pp. 147-160
Eyoh, D. (1998) ‘Social realist Cinema and Representations of Power in African Nationalist
Discourse’ Research in African Literatures Vol. 29(2) pp. 112-127
Brink, E. (1990) ‘Manmade Women: gender, Class and the Ideology of the Volksmoeder’
Walker, C. (ed) Women and Gender in South Africa to 1945 London: James Currey, Cape
Town: David Phillip pp. 273-292
5. Gendering the Nation-State: Citizenship, militarism, and party politics
Okech, A. (2007) ‘In conversation: ”As a woman[in politics], you have to work twice as hard
as the average man”: Zukiswa Mqolomba speaks to Awino Okech’ Feminist Africa
9:105-112
Hale, S. (1997) ‘Part 3: The Wing and the Patriarch: The Sudanese Communist Party and the
Women’s Union’, ‘Islamism and the Women Activists of the National Islamic
Front’ and ‘Culture and Transformation: Concluding Remarks’ in Gender Politics in
Sudan: Islamism, Socialism and the State Westview Press pp. 151-254
Yuval-Davis, N. (1997) ‘Citizenship and Difference’ and ‘Gendered Militaries, Gendered
Wars’ Gender and Nation Sage: London pp. 68-92, 93-116
McFadden, P. (2005) ‘Becoming postcolonial: African Women Changing the Meaning of
Citizenship’ Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism Vol. 6(1) pp 1-22
Toktas, S. (2002) ‘Nationalism, Militarism and Gender Politics: Women in the Military’
Minerva: Quarterly Report on Women and the Military, Vol. 20
Enloe, C. (2000) Maneuvers: The international Politics of militarizing Women’s Lives
University of California Press (extracts from)
Racioppi, L. and O’Sullivan See, K. (2000) ‘Engendering Nation and National Identity’
Women, States and Nationalism: At Home in the Nation? Routledge pp. 18-34
7. Contemporary struggles: Women’s Liberation after the revolution?
Film viewing: ‘Pray the Devil Back to Hell’ on Liberian women’s movements for peace
Dangarembga, T (1989) Nervous Conditions: A Novel Emeryville, Calif.: Seal Press, c2004
Geisler , G. ‘Struggling on all fronts’ in Women and the Remaking of Politics in Southern Africa:
Negotiating Autonomy, Incorporation and Representation
Marcus, G. ‘"A feminism of our own": South Africa - past, present and future: the nexus
between feminism and nationalism’
Imam, A.M. The Dynamics of WINning: An Analysis of Women in Nigeria (WIN) pp. 280307
Chadya, JM (2003) ‘Mother Politics: Anti Colonial Nationalism and the Woman Question in
Africa’ Journal of Women's History Vol.15(3) Fall pp. 153-157
Beyond the nation? Visions for a transnational approach?
Tripp, AM. (2005) ‘Regional Networking as Transnational Feminism: African Experiences’
Feminist Africa (4)
Mikell, G. (1995) ‘African Feminism; Toward a New Politics of Representation’ Feminist
Studies Vol. 21(2) pp. 405-424
Basu, A. (2005) ‘Transnational Feminism Revisited’ Feminist Africa 5:90-94
Ranchod-Nilsson, S., Tetreault, M. (2000) ‘Gender and Nationalism: Moving Beyond
Fragmented Conversations’ Women, States and Nationalism: At Home in the Nation?
pp.168-185
Mohanty, C.M. (2006) ‘Cartographies of Struggle: Third World Women and the Politics of
Feminism’ in Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing theory, Practicing Solidarity pp. 4384
Grewal, I. and Kaplan, C. (1994)‘Introduction: Transnational Feminist Practices and
Questions of postmodernity’ in Grewal, I. and Kaplan, C. (eds) Scattered Hegemonies:
Postmodernity and Transnational Feminist Practices University of Minnesota Press:
Minneapolis, London pp. 1-33
Yuval-Davis, N. (1997) ‘Women, Ethnicity and Empowerment: Towards Transversal
politics’ in Gender and Nation Sage Publications: Los Angeles, London, New Delhi,
Singapore pp. 26-67