Paper short abstract:

Through a qualitative research approach by engaging semi-structured in-depth interviews, this study investigates how the formal (economic and political) and informal (cultural) institutions in rural contexts within which women are embedded, influence their entrepreneurial participation in Western Kenya.

Paper long abstract:

This research investigates how formal and informal institutional factors influence rural female entrepreneurs in Western Kenya. Research affirms that entrepreneurship is institutionally embedded. These institutions are formal and informal, and they define the "rules of the game" that sets boundaries for entrepreneurship. Precisely, the formal institutions are political and economic-related rules and regulations which controls the access to opportunity fields for entrepreneurship. While informal institutions contain uncodified societal norms and attitudes that determine the collective and individual perception of entrepreneurship. Despite this, previous studies on women's entrepreneurship have adopted an individualist approach. These have largely focused on the influence of women's psychological and individual-related factors on their own entrepreneurial activity but underestimate the influence of the underlying institutional factors.

Few studies have investigated the impact of formal and informal institutions on women's entrepreneurship, but the majority of those that do are conducted in western contexts. Yet, these studies do not present the institutional context-specific peculiarities operative in non-western contexts. As such, there is paucity of research from non-western contexts particularly developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa. It is on this account that this study seek to investigate how formal and informal institutions influence rural female entrepreneurs in Vihiga County, Western Kenya. Previous studies in Kenya have concentrated on urban settings leaving the rural settings under-researched. This is despite the fact that women constitute 50.3% of Kenya's national population and 73.94% of women reside in the rural peripheries where they continue to shoulder the burden of the country's poverty.

Paper short abstract:

The Manjuandades are props of union to generate feminine force and modes of survival. However, they structure much more because they generate the true identity of Guinean women.

Paper long abstract:

African societies, and more specifically the ones of West Africa, traditionally organize knowledge through oral practices. Men and women have been sustaining this tradition in order to guarantee the continuity of power, as well as of their ancestry. In other words, to preserve and defend their identity. In line with this tradition, women have created manjuandade, which refers a specifically feminine practice where women who share the same age and similar histories help each other in order to strengthen the social ties between them and understand which social aspects are more relevant to them in order to be stronger actors within the Guinean society. I aim at analyzing manjuandades as a form of social representation in Guinea-Bissau and as a social phenomenon where different female groups find their representation and express their identity.

In the present paper, I also intend to discuss the role of older women and their dialogue with the young generations through the analysis of traditional songs, with the aim of perceiving their shared tradition and mutual influences. Traditional songs represent an ancient tradition, deeply respected within the Guinean modern society. They also offer interesting readings of the female figure in the urban and daily context of Bissau. Therefore, my intention is also to examine how the younger women are influenced by the older ones by observing how traditional songs are used by the movement of mandjuandade.

Paper short abstract:

On March 14, 2018, Black councillor and activist Marielle Franco was brutally murdered. This paper is written from the perspective of black activism in Brazil, based on Marielle's history. The aim is to discuss the role of black people in the Brazilian context and the racial awareness movements.

Paper long abstract:

On March 14, 2018, Black councillor and feminist activist Marielle Franco was brutally murdered in Rio de Janeiro. Marielle became known for embracing the struggle for Black women and lesbians, besides exposing violence in poor communities and the lack of public security. Marielle was committed to this struggle by the time she was shot four times in her head. The crime against Marielle uncovers promiscuous relations among police, milícias and politicians, who are supposedly involved with the councillor's assassination. Furthermore, there was a remarkable wave of fake news spread on social media to demean Marielle's image by accusing her of being involved with organized crime and drug trafficking.

This paper is written from the perspective of black activism in Brazil, based on Marielle's history. The aim is to discuss the role of black people in the Brazilian contemporary context, underpinned by a historical reclaiming in order to understand the racial awareness movements.The paper will also analyze the main fake news used to downgrade the councillor's image. The issue which motivates the research involves Marielle's activism on black issues as an instrument to answer about the existence of a racial gap in Brazil, which could be masked by the democratic discourse. The paper will be based on authors who discuss racial issues in Brazil, from the classics (Skidmore, 1976, Fernandes, 1989; Freire, 1993) to contemporary (Ferreira, 2002; Lima, 2004; Santos, 2009). The content analysis methodology (Bardin, 2011) will be used to analyze fake news.

Paper short abstract:

In the islands of Guinea-Bissau, the Bijagó ethnic group remains faithful to its animist tradition; within this ancestral culture same-sex relationships between women stand defiant of the static concepts of identity white colonialism tried to impose

Paper long abstract:

Over the past decades, the first generations of post-colonial Africans have shown extreme reluctance in discussing same-sex relationships. Rather, the negotiation of new African identities has remained tied to concepts of sexuality informed by old colonial standards of Christian morality.

To the exception of male polygamy (polygyny), a broad spectrum of other non-monogamous and/or non-static or non-heteronormative identities and relationship models are either seen with contempt by westernized elites and not acknowledged by mainstream discourses or are repressed, out-casted, persecuted and punished as un-African, this being particularly true for same-sex relationships. In fact, though, the opposite is true: fluid identities and same-sex practices are deeply rooted within African traditional cultures.

Anchored on unprecedented field work done over the past three years in the remote and hard to access Bijagó archipelago of Guinea-Bissau, "Câmara - Female same-sex relationships in the Bijagó tradition" is primarily based on interviews conducted with men and women belonging to different generations and social strata living in the island of Formosa, where the ancestral animist tradition of the Bijagó people is still predominant.

In this tradition, articulated in close interdependence with nature and its cycles, women do not entertain the concept of what the western canon would perceive as life-long heteronormative monogamous relationships. Often, throughout adolescence as well as later, as elders, girls and women establish same-sex relationships, normally - though not necessarily - within their own age group. In creole, they call each other "câmara" - from the Portuguese "camarada" (comrade).

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines through oral history interviews, the accomplishments of Itsekiri women who began their careers in the 1960s. By evaluating to what extent their western education played a role in how they navigated and excelled in Nigerian society, despite being from a minority ethnic group.

Paper long abstract:

These women's lives are interesting in their own right but this project is looking beyond a simply descriptive retelling of their professional accomplishments. This project draws on many different strands of historiography including gender and sexuality in Africa, oral history, colonial history and the role of western education in Nigerian and Itsekiri history. For the Itsekiri in particular there is a sense of pride associated with western education. In the Warri Kingdom, one the earliest instances of the pursuit of a western education by a Nigerian was by a Itsekiri prince in 1600. Prince Domingos ascended to the throne as Olu Atuwatse I, he was a seventeenth century graduate of the University of Coimbra. As a prince, he received a theological education in Portugal and returned to the Warri kingdom with a Portuguese noble woman as his wife Maria Pereira. He also brought with him two silver crowns gifted by the King of Portugal. This legacy lives on through the high proportion of western-educated Itsekiri in proportion to their population size. This project will take a biographical approach and central to this paper is the oral history interviews. What these interviews reveal is the importance of family and kinship ties to the Itsekiri people. This paper forms part of my master's dissertation and is a work-in progress.

Paper short abstract:

This paper traces the evolution of batuku from an oral tradition to a musical genre, explores how batuku performances establish a link between tradition and modernity and discusses how female performers challenge well-established social patterns on stage and beyond.

Paper long abstract:

Batuku is a genre at the crossroads of oral literature, music and dance, probably brought to Cape Verde in the 15th century with enslaved people taken from West Africa. It is usually performed by a group of women sitting in a semi-circle with rolled-up cloths or small drums held between their thighs, on which they beat contrasting rhythmic patterns, creating a polyrhythmic texture. Batuku songs are sung in Kriolu, the Cape Verdean language. They cover a wide range of topics and are structured in the call-and-response style commonly found in traditional African music. This paper examines the roles played by batuku both under Portuguese rule as well as in the postcolonial period. The 21st century has brought a significant shift in the way batuku is performed and perceived, both locally and outside of the archipelago. The paper discusses this shift as it relates to issues of positioning, identity, female agency and empowerment and outlines how batuku performers reinvent tradition whilst innovating and heavily standardizing their performances. Focusing on the last decades, this paper aims at showing the impact of local and global processes on an oral tradition, which as a new genre and as a commodity is increasingly aiming at a globalized market.

Paper short abstract:

In this paper, we will analyze the work of Vera Duarte. Her literary writing refracts the various roles that Cape Verdean women play in contemporaneity, as well as their contribution to the construction of a world of freedom, equality and dignity. We aim to demonstrate that the new feminism reflects new Cape Verdean perspectives.

Paper long abstract:

Since the post-independence of Cape Verde, writers have proposed other views on the social roles of women: these views are represented by Fátima Bettencourt, Dina Salústio, Ondina Ferreira, Vera Duarte and other Creole personalities.

In this paper, we will analyze the work of Vera Duarte. Her literary writing refracts the various roles that Cape Verdean women play in contemporaneity, as well as their contribution to the construction of a world of freedom, equality and dignity.

The option of "A Reinvenção do Mar" (2018), poetry combined in verse and prose, is due to the presence of texts selected by the author who, in an antagonic reading, emphasizes and praises Creole women, Cape Verde and caboverdianidade in different perspectives.

We'll show that the new feminism of this poet reflects new views and perspectives towards daily life in Cape Verde, as well as a critical inventory of the dramas and emotional conflicts experienced by the feminist "I" in her literary writing.

Furthermore, we'll approach the speeches "Democracia e Direitos Humanos" (1992) e "La Charte Africaine et Les Droits des Femmes Africaines" (1995), given by Vera Duarte, bearing in mind their interiorization of meanings in the poetic writing of Vera Duarte.

To support this research, we'll recall the work of some scholars: M. Bakhtin, José Vicente Lopes, Amílcar Cabral, Arnaldo França, José Luís Hopffer Almada, Stuart Hall and others.

Some pictorial images will be projected, with the aim of giving greater visibility and voice to this research.

Paper short abstract:

The present work aims at offering a closer look into Eva Rap Diva's work in the building of a career as a successful rapper and activist in order to discuss the difficulties, as well as the good results, of female entrepreneurship in today's music industry.

Paper long abstract:

Having started as an MC in Lisbon in the early 2000s at a very young age, Eva Rap Diva soon earned the respect of both the hip hop community and the public thanks to her freestyling skills and her feisty rhymes. Still in Portugal, she quickly managed to build a strong following on Youtube. She soon started to build up her writing skills and was featured in several albums and mixtapes such as Praticamente by Sam the Kid, a mixtape Incendiários or another mixtape by DJ Cruzfader, among others. She also started a long-lasting friendship and cooperation with rapper Capicua, with whom she still frequently works (Porcas, Feias e Más; Guerrilha Cor de Rosa). In 2009, Eva moves back to Angola, her homeland, where she starts working as a fulltime rapper and radio speaker. Her first solo album, "Rainha Ginga do Rap" is released in 2014, followed by "Eva" in 2018. In her works, she often criticizes hegemonic masculinity, calling for gender equality. Today, Eva is considered the "Queen" of Angolan rap. The present work aims at offering a closer look into Eva Rap Diva's work in the building of a career as a successful rapper and activist in order to discuss the difficulties, as well as the good results, of female entrepreneurship.