African Women in War Zones: A Feminist Perspective

Dr. Amina Mama, University of California, Davis

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Duration: 47:31

The history of militarism and conflict in Africa is long and largely written as a history of men and masculinity that obscures their deeply gendered features and leads to a neglect of the implications for peace-building and democratization.  This presentation pursues a critical gender analysis to elucidate the gendered nature of conflict and peace-building, making reference to selected African examples.  What can we learn about the implications for genuine security and women’s rights in post-conflict situations?

Amina Mama, widely published feminist, researcher and scholar, has lived and worked in Nigeria, South Africa, Britain, the Netherlands and the USA. She spent 10 years (1999-2009) working across the African region to establish the University of Cape Town’s African Gender Institute as a continental resource dedicated to developing transformative scholarship bringing feminist theory and activism together, and is founding editor of the African journal of gender studies, Feminist Africa.  She authored Beyond the Masks: Race, Gender and Subjectivity (Routledge 1995), Women’s Studies and Studies of Women in Africa (CODESRIA Green Book, 1996), and co-edited Engendering African Social Sciences (CODESRIA 1997), before developing her interest in documentary film and co-producing ‘The Witches of Gambaga’ (Fadoa Films 2010).  She currently lives in Berkeley, working as Professor and Director of Women and Gender Studies at the University of California, Davis.

Published: Thursday, March 22, 2012