The "subalternity" of women in social movements and African politics

Abstract

In the postcolonial moment, women in African politics continue to be sidelined as the political space is structured by patriarchy which encourages a masculinist politics. This has not always been the case in the continent. Many precolonial communities did not bear the gender divisions such as have become evident under colonial and postcolonial dispensations. Today, under the colonial capitalist logic, a new kind of patriarchy structures the civil society and political space engendering the dominance of men even in churches where women are in the majority. This chapter uses archival and historical research in analyzing the sub-alternization of women in African politics, historicizing the arc of patriarchy, the "representation" of women, and struggles of feminist politics. The case studies include Zimbabwe's anticolonial heroines, Queen Lozikeyi of the Ndebele and Prophetess Nehanda of the Shona people, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma's ill-fated attempt to lead the ANC and South Africa, the feminist politics at Tahrir Square in Egypt and Solomon Mahlangu house assemblies at Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the Fees Must Fall protests. These case studies do not exhaust the shape and form of feminist politics in Africa but are illustrative.