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- Convenors:
-
Emmanuelle Bouilly
(Université Paris 1)
Ophélie Rillon (CEMAf - Paris 1)
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- Chairs:
-
Signe Arnfred
(Roskilde University)
Jean Allman (Washington University )
- Location:
- C4.01
- Start time:
- 28 June, 2013 at
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
This panel aims to explore international/transnational dimensions of African militancy and mobilizations through women's experiences.
Long Abstract:
Social movement studies in Africa have recently contributed to the understanding of African connections to the world but without analyzing the specific role of women and gender in this process. This panel aims to explore international/transnational dimensions of African militancy and mobilizations through women's experiences. The discussion intends to study both the international trajectories of African women and their participation in transnational movements. How do women committed in feminine or mixed mobilizations lay within and move at the international scale? The focus on individual and familial biographies will illustrate the role of sex and gender on different stages of the internationalization process and careers. For instance, how does gender constitute a resource or a constraint? Do female socialization, networks and capital facilitate the access to internationalisation? How do women cope with gendered assignations (couple, family, domesticate work) during their careers? The panel will also encompass how African women participate in the transnationalisation of movements. How do they contribute to the circulations of ideologies (such as feminism and non-specific related women issues as Pan-Africanism, workers' internationalism, anti-imperialism, or anti-globalism) and activist know-how or practices? How do they re-invent or reinterpret it? Finally, the effects of the transnationalisation both on private life and movements will be considered: for example, the effects of the sexual division of labour. The panel welcomes papers offering an in-depth historiographic, ethnographical or theoretical analysis dealing with either political, associative, religious movements or trade-unions in sub-Saharan and North Africa.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
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Paper long abstract:
fsf Les interrogations contemporaines, qu'elles soient faites sous l'angle de l'histoire des femmes ou, plus récemment, du genre, ont poussé à réévaluer le rôle des femmes dans le passé, notamment leur participation aux modalités nouvelles du politique : partis, syndicats et diverses associations, mais aussi contributions dans la presse ou au système éducatif. Ces implications militantes s'insèrent d'emblée dans des réseaux internationaux, soit à titre individuel par des trajectoires personnelles, soit officiellement par l'adhésion à des organismes internationaux.
La réflexion, revisitant des études antérieures, est appliquée particulièrement au cas de la colonie de Sierra Leone où émergent des personnalités fortes, telles Adélaïde Smith Casely Hayford (1868-1960) ou, d'une autre génération, Agatha Constance Cummings-John (1918-2000), parallèlement à des femmes moins connues participant aux débats du temps. Les deux débats organisés dans le cadre de l'école des Méthodistes pour les filles (WESLEYAN FEMALE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION), respectivement sur l'éducation pour les filles (Is High Class Education for Women of any advantage in Africa?) en 1882 et sur la réforme municipale et les modalités du suffrage (Would a Municipality for Freetown prove more beneficial to the community than the present system of government? en 1892 serviront de base à la contribution.
Les cas du Nigéria ou du Sénégal pourront être pris en contre-point
Paper short abstract:
Cette communication analyse les liens entre des femmes d'Afrique occidentale française et les organisations féminines internationales après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, en particulier la Fédération démocratique internationale des femmes, fondée à Paris en 1945.
Paper long abstract:
L'historiographie s'intéresse depuis quelques années à la recomposition du militantisme international et aux liens entre féminisme et impérialisme dans les années 1950. Cette communication analyse les relations qu'ont pu entretenir des femmes du Sénégal et du Soudan français, entre autres, avec les organisations féminines internationales, et notamment avec la Fédération démocratique internationale des femmes, créée en 1945 à Paris. Les archives disponibles à Dakar, des témoignages publiés ainsi que les archives des organisations elles-mêmes permettent d'examiner cette articulation entre mobilisations politiques locales et insertion internationale. On examinera la désignation des déléguées africaines qui participèrent aux Congrès internationaux, et la circulation de Françaises, le plus souvent membres du PCF ou du MRP, qui parcourent l'Afrique de l'Ouest à des fins d'enquête ou de propagande. De quelle manière les Africaines se sont-elles « connectées » aux mots d'ordre internationaux ? Quelles ont été leurs revendications et leurs liens avec les féministes européennes ou américaines, mais aussi avec les femmes d'Asie, d'Amérique latine ou du reste de l'Afrique ? Peut-on parler de convergences des luttes, dans un contexte de tensions entre les Africaines elles-mêmes, entre les différents courants du féminisme, et de domination coloniale toujours présente pour un certain nombre de pays ? Il s'agit d'étudier à la fois les circulations de ces femmes, leurs réseaux et leurs revendications afin de restituer à l'histoire des mouvements internationaux toute leur complexité.
Paper short abstract:
Through retracing the history of the international involvement of several South Sudanese women in Sudan’s peace process, this article reflects on the different roles of women’s involvement in peace efforts, from women’s perspectives to that of the international community and of armed groups.
Paper long abstract:
This paper traces the history of several South Sudanese women and their international involvement in advocating for peace and the defense of human rights in the South. In doing so, this paper highlights different types of engagement through their participation to international conferences and workshops, through the creation of non-governmental organizations abroad, through lobbying and ultimately through their association to the peace talks.
Furthermore, this paper also shows that this international involvement of a few women followed a particular timeline that was connected to an increasingly favorable international context, both for these women and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). Their international engagement and visibility thus replied to both local and international needs. It provided the SPLA with more international respectability and the internationally-led peace process with gains of apparent legitimacy.
Therefore, contrary to these women's discourse of non-partisan peace efforts and that of the international community promoting women's role as peacemakers, this international involvement was hardly neutral. Rather, due to the high social backgrounds of these women and their links to armed groups, their international engagement functioned as a social and political stepping-stone for access to government positions in the post- war context. Their international involvement therefore contributed to the consolidation of social classes in South Sudan that were restructured during the war, and distinguished them from "ordinary" women who remained in South Sudan during the war.
Paper short abstract:
Compares the personal, professional and institutional experiences of and consequences for two female Maasai activists (and their NGOs) of their different histories of involvement with national and international feminist organizations in Tanzania.
Paper long abstract:
The feminist movement has "gone global" in that its demand for women's "empowerment" has been adopted and institutionalized by an array of people, organizations, and funding agencies - from the UN GEAR office to African NGOs like the Tanzania Gender Networking Project. In this paper, I explore the consequences of the power, privilege and politics of transnational feminism through the experiences of two female Maasai activists (Ndinini Kimesera Sikar and Maanda Ngoitiko) and their respective NGOs (Maasai Women's Development Organization [MWEDO] and Pastoralist Women's Council [PWC]) in Tanzania. Ndinini's and Maanda's relationships with national and international feminist organizations, ideas, and leaders have been shaped by their distinct personal pathways, reflecting differences of class, education, work, politics and geography. Their dissimilar life stories have in turn informed the agendas, policies and practices of MWEDO and PWC. Although both organizations share a common objective to empower Maasai women, especially through education and income-generating activities, they diverge in terms of their structure, style, and strategies. Moreover, Ndinini and Maanda's involvement with national and international feminist organizations has produced both opportunities and challenges, and reworked the contours and content of their professional and private lives. The paper contributes to studies of gendered modes of activism and institution-building, gender and social movements, and ethnographies of feminisms. It draws on extended interviews with Ndinini and Maanda, participant-observation of their lives and organizations, and almost 30 years of research with Maasai men and women in Tanzania.
Paper short abstract:
Depuis la publication de ma première synthèse (1994), la recherche d'une part, mais aussi l'action et la visibilité des femmes, sinon les rapports de genre (toujours difficiles), ont fait des bonds impressionnants. Il s'agit de comprendre comment, et pourquoi.
Paper long abstract:
Je propose une communication sur les changements énormes des rapports de genre en Afrique subsaharienne depuis une génération, impliquant l'impact international de l'action féminine, au premier chef sur le plan inter-africain. Cela permettrait aussi de préciser les mutations depuis la parution de mon ouvrage "Les Africaines" (1994 - un bail !) en commentant la 2e édition complétée (La Découverte, sortie janvier 2013), en interrogeant aussi les raisons de la disparité des recherches entre historiennes anglophones,très actives, et le silence relatif (et problématique) des historiennes africaines francophones. L'évolution des rapports de genre ne suit pas le même timing.