African feminist academia: towards a militant enterprise for feminist scholarship in Africa

Abstract

Although African government policies are notably tolerant and active in catering for
issues of gender agency with the help of gender sensitive donors, the age of austerity
seems to be gradually creeping in on feminist academia in Africa. Redundancy is
amongst the causes of the threat to feminist academia at various institutions in Africa.
There has since been a turn towards an African feminism in African feminist academia
as a way to avoid redundancy which is apparently associated with mainstream feminist
studies. The study is keen on validating the hypothesis that African feminist academia
can resist the age of austerity by turning to Afro-centric feminism in African
scholarship. We have used the University of Zimbabwe as a case study to ascertain the
levels to which the institution has been affected by the age of austerity and the methods
that the gender studies practitioners in various departments at the university have
devised to keep gender studies running. The study further assesses the changes in
syllabi and feminist post-graduate research at the institution and weigh them against
the possibility of an Afro-centred approach. Qualitative and quantitative methods is
employed as Lecturers and post-graduate researchers in Gender from various
disciplines (Arts, Social Studies and Law) comprise the focus group for the study.

Keywords: African Feminism, Scholarship, University of Zimbabwe, Gender, Austerity,
Academia