Decolonial Feminist Epistemologies: Learning from Africa

Abstract

The paper takes a point of departure in the author’s experience working in the early 1980s as an employee of the Mozambican National Women’s Organization, the OMM, and later as a feminist researcher in Mozambique. Informed by writings by among others African scholars Ifi Amadiume, Oyèrónké Oyéwùmí and Nkiru Nzegwu, the author establishes a profound critique of the standard conceptions of gender in terms of male dominance/female subordination, which informs the ideas of gender equality as promoted by the UN, the World Bank and development organizations. The roots of Western gender thinking are traced back to early capitalism, colonialism, witch hunts and modernity thinking – here following Marxist feminists Maria Mies and Silvia Federici – after which the paper introduces ‘the coloniality of gender’ as decolonial critique and discusses African feminist epistemologies, with a focus of motherhood and on dual-sex thinking, also connecting to the African philosophy of ubuntu. The paper points to African decolonial feminist writings as a rich resource, providing ideas and concepts for feminist and anti-capitalist political struggle in Africa and beyond.