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what does it mean to do feminist research in African contexts?

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Feminist Review

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Notes

  1. By 2000 the term transformation was already in everyday parlance in South Africa, so this was relatively ‘neutral’ terminology. We preferred the word ‘strengthening’ to ‘capacity-building’ as it better conveyed our respect for the historical capacities and resourcefulness that is generally erased in development discourse.

  2. The work of Molyneaux (1998) initially carried out in reference to Nicaragua, and its later development by Shireen Hassim (2007) in reference to South Africa have informed this discussion.

  3. Recognized as an accredited scholarly periodical by the South African Ministry of Education since 2002, FA is in its 14th issue and its 8th year of publication.

  4. A collaborative project carried out by the AGI with the support of the Association of African Universities.

  5. In fact, the activist objectives were not fully achieved because the funders chose to discontinue support for the project once the initial research phase was completed, so it was left to the AGI to publish summary findings in Feminist Africa, and some of the individual researchers were able to contribute their expertise in an ad hoc individual manner.

  6. This project was later developed into a film designed to be used as an activist resource by women's movements in the region – The Witches of Gambaga, 2010, directed by Yaba Badoe, Fadoa Films.

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Acknowledgements

This paper was presented as part of Feminist Review's Conference celebrating 30 years of the journal. The ‘Feminist Theory & Activism in Global Perspective’ Conference was held at SOAS, The University of London, on September 26, 2009.

With thanks to the Feminist Review Editorial Collective for useful editorial feedback on the initial version, and to Margo Okazawa-Rey for many productive discussions on feminist principles in diverse contexts.

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  1. Amina Mama
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Mama, A. what does it mean to do feminist research in African contexts?. Fem Rev 98 (Suppl 1), e4–e20 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/fr.2011.22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/fr.2011.22

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