Paper short abstract:

African feminists criticize fixed dichotomous notions of gender, replacing these with gender defined by social relationships, not by bodies. In this context motherhood emerges as a key relationship. Based on research in matrilineal north Mozambique, these feminist epistemologies will be discussed.

Paper long abstract:

For decades African feminist scholars have raised critique of mainstream Western epistemologies regarding issues of gender (Amadiume 1987, 1997, Oyewumi 1997, Nzegwu 2006). Early critical voices were mainly Nigerian, increasingly however other voices are joining in. Significantly, what these feminist scholars do, is to criticize Western mainstream dichotomous, hierarchical, fixed conceptions of gender in terms of male dominance/female subordination, replacing such notions with ideas of gender as situational, not tied to bodies, but rather as defined by social positions and relationships. In this context motherhood – as a non-gendered relation between children and grown-ups – emerges as a key social relationship. All human beings were born by women and all have to be nurtured for 7-10 years by caring adults. This focus on motherhood gives rise to epistemologies different from and critical to Western modernity thinking, not just in terms of gender but also by its focus on relationships, rather than on singular individuals. Much African cultural knowledge is carried and transmitted by uMakhulu (Grandmother/Elder Mother in IsiXhosa).

In tracing what Amadiume calls “the missing matriarchal structure in African studies”, these African feminists dig out matrilineal relationships, embedded even in explicitly patrilineal societies - relationships which however emerge more clearly in matrilineal contexts. With a point of departure in research in matrilineal northern Mozambique, the paper will discuss some African contributions to decolonial feminist epistemologies.