Neoliberal Feminism in Africa

Akinbobola, Yemisi

doi:10.3898/soun.71.04.2019

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Relatedly, the MeToo movement has been accused of being a neocolonial project bent 10 on westernizing and 'teaching' the rest of the world how to resist and combat sexual violence despite the existence of different struggles and realities in different contexts. Our results, like many other findings elsewhere [21,14,19,22] seem to suggest that locally-informed responses to sexual violence that fit the realities and needs of Zambian women would be more sustainable.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…It seemed to lack genuine emancipatory power for black women whose susceptibility to sexual violence was not only tied to their gender, but also because of their race and social class. This also meant that the movement seemed unaware that in Zambia, traditionally-mandated relationships between men and women were usually the only source of economic survival available to these women [14]. Men in Zambia have privileged control and access to wealth [14] such that without them (be they oppressive), women would be destitute.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This also meant that the movement seemed unaware that in Zambia, traditionally-mandated relationships between men and women were usually the only source of economic survival available to these women [14]. Men in Zambia have privileged control and access to wealth [14] such that without them (be they oppressive), women would be destitute. This is similar to findings from other studies [12,10,19,20] which argue that in most parts of Africa, the MeToo movement usually threatens the survival mechanisms of women without providing them with alternatives.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The tool helps to explicate the different ways society either accepts or rejects a new social phenomenon. The STR further indicates that in order to understand the impact, experience and relevance of a given social phenomenon (in our case the #MeToo movement), it is important to investigate local people's interpretation and characterization of this phenomenon [13,14,15]. Given the foregoing, we thus use this theory heuristically to guide our investigation, interpretation and presentation of findings.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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MeToo movement and sexual violence in women: A qualitative study from Zambia

Muzyamba¹

2020

Preprint

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BackgroundDespite the dominance of the #MeToo movement in the fight against sexual violence around the world, the experiences of most vulnerable women in countries like Zambia have been generally ignored in literature. Little is known about how useful this movement is to these women. Thus the aim of this study is to fill this gap by investigating the usefulness of the #MeToo movement as a tool for handling sexual violence among women in Zambia.MethodsThe study makes use of Focus Group Discussion. It involves a sample size of 80 participants. All participants had indicated that they had suffered sexual violence at least once in their lifetime. In the recruitment process, we ensured diversity in terms of age, marital status, employment status, ethnicity, and religious affiliation. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis.ResultsThere is no doubt that the MeToo movement is a useful catalysts for highlighting the severity of sexual violence and creating opportunities of redress in Zambia. However, currently its adoption and implementation seems to be blind to the ways privilege and subordination interact with race, gender, class, and other characteristics to sustain sexual violence. The movement also seems to pay little attention to the various ways the problematic patriarchal norms in Zambia are interwoven with women’s economic survival strategies.ConclusionOur findings suggest that rather than definitively establishing the MeToo movement as an incontestable good (as has been the case in most feminist literature) or as useless because it ignores economic and cultural realities as argued by its critics our findings instead demonstrate the diversity of how this movement is locally viewed by marginalized women in Zambia and also illustrates the nuance, complexity and multidimensionality of how the movement is characterized. In this regard, our findings speak to the folly of a ‘one-size-fits-all’ standardized universalization of the MeToo movement.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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MeToo movement and sexual violence in women: A qualitative study from Zambia

Muzyamba¹

2020

Preprint

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“…The movement is essentially seen as serving and mostly articulating western, middle class and white women's experiences of sexual violence and in the process ignoring historical accounts of black African women's systemic experiences with sexual violence (Ajayi, 2018). Experiences of sexual violence are often experienced and interpreted in context-specific ways; in most cases, they are inextricably linked to a victim's social network, networks of survival, cultural norms, history, and existing law enforcement institutions, factors which are context-specific (Akinbobola, 2019). Thus, scholars from this school of thought argue that a "one-size-fits-all" application of the MeToo movement is incapable of achieving its intended goals in non-western settings (Akinbobola, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MeToo and Sexual Violence Among Women in Zambia

Muzyamba

2021

Sex Abuse

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By using a qualitative study involving 80 participants, the aim of this study is to investigate the relevance of the MeToo movement as a tool for responding to sexual violence among women in Zambia. Our findings suggest that rather than definitively establishing the MeToo movement as an incontestable good or as useless because it ignores cultural realities as argued by its critics, our findings demonstrate the diversity of how this movement is locally viewed and also illustrates the complexity and multidimensionality of how it is characterized in Zambia. Our findings thus question the folly of a “one-size-fits-all” understanding and characterization of the MeToo movement. The study ends by providing suggestions about how to navigate this complexity.

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Making sense of girls empowerment in Sierra Leone: a conversation

et al. 2021

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This Testify article features a conversation about the emancipatory potentials and pitfalls of girls empowerment as practiced, experienced, and judged by Sierra Leonean activists. We – two scholars and four activists – discussed views on and experiences of girls empowerment approaches that have been interpreted in critical scholarly literature as a form of neoliberal responsibilization. Also within this critical literature, there is often the notion that these approaches may yet create openings for emancipatory agency and counter-conduct. However, it remains unclear whether this happens and to what extent. Our conversation centres activists’ views on the academic critique of girls empowerment and raises a number of questions, including: Why do many feminist activists in Sierra Leone embrace girls empowerment approaches? What do they see in them? How do they interpret and practice them? Where do they see potentials and pitfalls? And what is the role of donors?

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Neoliberal Feminism in Africa

Cited by 8 publications

References 2 publications

MeToo movement and sexual violence in women: A qualitative study from Zambia

MeToo movement and sexual violence in women: A qualitative study from Zambia

MeToo and Sexual Violence Among Women in Zambia

Making sense of girls empowerment in Sierra Leone: a conversation

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