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.