Internal and external crises Africa's feminism: Learning from oral narratives

Abstract

African feminisms are marked by contradictions, controversies and ambivalences, all of which point to a seething crisis in the practice of theorisation. This article explores two challenges facing African feminisms today. One is an internal challenge on the issue of location and positionality (who speaks for who and from where) and the other is an external challenge addressing western imperialism with respect to knowledge  production (who owns what and by what means). The second part of this article examines selected women’s oral narratives as they offer possibilities for the  re-theorisation of African feminisms to resolve some of the tensions and contradictions that characterise ideological viewpoints as well as for the resistance of imperialist practices that threaten the legitimacy of African epistemologies.

Key words: African feminisms, African women, feminist arrogance, feminist humility, location and positionality, western imperialism