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Cultivating Third Space thinking in ('African') feminism through the works of Nandipha Mntambo
Abstract
Nandipha Mntambo's wide corpus of art offers us exciting ways to think through and extend feminist themes. We dwell specifically on Mntambo's cowhide series, which is an ongoing meditation on, and subversion of different conceptions of subjectivity, the body and identity (common themes within feminist epistemologies). Her installations (re)present a mounted artistic contestation of the un-enunciated ways of viewing the ('African') female subject, pointing to non-dualistic revisions of the subject's conceptions. In this way, Mntambo gives materiality to the cultural theorist Homi Bhabha's conceptions of the Third Space, her works usher us into 'the beyond'-a space for contesting archaic dualism, a site of the re-imagined, and a way of (re)theorising the now. In this regard, it is our contention that Mntambo provides us with unexplored avenues to rethink and re-conceptualise some of the central themes of ('African') feminism. keywords subjectivity, Third Space, the body, 'African' feminism, Nandipha Mntambo
... Having been immersed amongst the research participants for more than half a year, the researcher (the first author) played a key role in the grounded-theory-based study by being both an 'insider' and an 'outsider'. This is a longstanding research strategy that reflects on the researcher's positionality (Merton, 1972) vis-à-vis that of the participants, which, in the context of feminist research, takes cognizance of embodied subjectivity (Simba & Davids, 2020). These epistemological parameters were complemented by observations made during transect walks across the irrigation scheme as the data generation process went on. ...
The physical and social environmental repercussions of large dam construction have pre-occupied development discourse for some time globally. Literature on dam projects focuses on the displacement of humans and wildlife from their natural habitats and the dam’s contribution to urban and industrial transformation. There is a dearth of literature on small dams and small-scale irrigation projects in communal areas. This article examines the status of Mushandike irrigation scheme, which was designed to transform the lives of rural people located in the semi-arid ecological region of southern Zimbabwe. We used ethnographic principles of data generation guided by a feminist theoretical framework to get to women farmers’ lived experiences. Mushandike small-scale irrigation scheme has been a ‘hydrology of hope’ for women farmers for many years. However, multifarious factors, both natural and human-induced, are turning it into a ‘hydrology of despair’. Although farming is still done from a business perspective, water stress due to an inefficient water and land allocation management system, linked to patriarchal ideological practices, has driven the irrigation scheme onto a difficult trajectory. The article recommends a paradigm shift in the irrigation scheme’s management to ensure that the original ethos – that irrigation farming is equivalent to formal employment – is re-adopted.
As scholars, we are trained and disciplined to build theory through telling particular stories of the people we research. Although these stories are often packaged as ‘science’, ‘research’ and ‘knowledge’, we ought to recognise that these stories are rooted within broader dynamics of power. Drawing on the work of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and other critical scholars, we seek to explore the dangers of a singular narrative, present in both public and academic feminist discourse, about Black men. In relation to feminist stories, it is particularly important to acknowledge that many of the stories that are told are rooted in a Western hegemony, measuring gender equality according to western ways of knowing and serving to legitimise neo-colonial forms of domination (Brenner, 2003 Brenner J (2003) ‘Transnational feminism and the struggle for global justice’, in New Politics, IX, 2, 1-11. [Google Scholar]). A western-centric, universalist feminism has resulted in a rigid understanding of hegemonic masculinity that is situated within a moralistic binary of victim and villain. In line with a desire to promote critical feminist scholarship beyond this binary, in this open forum article we examine the implications of popular movements such as the ##TheTotalShutdown and #MenAreTrash for boys, men and masculinities. As a conclusion we offer an invitation for further engagement around the possibilities of advancing a feminism that is committed to the promoting of positive masculinities rather than simply the surfacing of toxic masculinities.
This paper questions Oyeronke Oyewumi’s (1997) claim in her thought-provoking work, ‘The invention of women: Making an African sense of Western gender discourse,’ that gender in African societies is a colonial project. It interrogates Oyewumi’s project of contesting meanings that lack understandings and appreciation of history and culture. Using conceptual analysis and desk reviews interlaced with anecdotal snippets, the paper attempts a re-reading of Oyewumi interrogations of social relationships, linguistic differences and modes of knowing as well as their implications for meaning making and impact on conceptual creations in the West and in Africa. Drawing from the works of critics such as Said (1997/79), McFadden (1994), Dei (1994) and Scott (1992), the paper corroborates Oyewumi’s assertion that historical and cultural differences impinge on and shape meanings. It however cautions against an essentialized relativist position for its potential dangers. These dangers include the premature foreclosure of discourse, culturalization of gender, caricaturization of opposed views, romanticization of ethnic culture and the simplification of difference. It argues that the threat of
colonialism is real and that historically taking an essentialist position can deny benefits of cultural crossings and fertilization. Hence, it concludes with McFadden (1994) that writing must be responsible.
This article argues that, despite the great diversity in the uses of the term ‘empowerment’, it is possible to distinguish two basic approaches in conceptualising women’s empowerment. The first, identified here as ‘liberal empowerment’, regards women’s empowerment as an instrument for development priorities, be they the eradication of poverty or the building of democracy. Consistent with liberal ideals, the focus in this approach is on individual growth, but in an atomistic perspective - on the notion of the rational action of social actors based on individual interests. Moreover, it de-politicises the process of empowerment by taking ‘power’ out of the equation. In contrast, in the approach here termed ‘liberating empowerment’, power relations are the central issue. Women’s empowerment is regarded both on ‘intrinsic grounds’, as the process by which women gain self-determination, as well as an instrument for the eradication of patriarchy. This is, simultaneously, both instrumental for social transformation as well as an end in and of itself, as it entails women’s liberation from the chains of patriarchal domination. Such an approach is consistent with a focus on women’s organising, on collective action, though not disregarding the importance of the empowerment of women at an individual level. As shall be seen, this is the approach sustained by Latin American feminists, as evident in different projects and programmes implemented by feminists in the region.
This article argues that, despite great diversity in uses of the term 'empowerment', it is possible to distinguish two basic approaches. 'Liberal empowerment' regards women's empowerment as an instrument for development priorities, whether poverty eradication or the building of democracy. Consistent with liberal ideals, the focus is on individual growth from an atomistic perspective - the rational action of social actors based on individual interests. It de-politicises the empowerment process by taking 'power' out of the equation. In 'liberating empowerment', power relations are central, Women's empowerment is regarded as the process by which women gain self-determination, is an instrument for eradicating patriarchy and is instrumental for social transformation, entailing women's liberation from patriarchal domination. 'Liberating empowerment' is consistent with a focus on women's organising, on collective action, without disregarding the importance of women's empowerment individually. Sustained by Latin American feminists, this is evident in different projects and programmes implemented locally
This paper suggests a way of looking at postcolonial African identity as fluid, relational and always in flux. I explain this fluidity of identity by making a connection between Victor Turner's concept of liminality and Homi Bhabha's innovative formulation and application of the same idea in his text, The Location of Culture. The connection is important because, in espousing the vocabulary of liminality which gestures toward fluidity and allows particular spaces of meaning to emerge, both Turner and Bhabha are involved in what Stuart Hall calls ‘thinking at or beyond the limit’ (1996, 259), a thinking on the margins. I conclude the paper by arguing that it is this thinking on the margins that sheds light on African identity, especially as the continent gradually becomes part of the postmodern and globalized world.
The black abolitionist and freed slave, Sojourner Truth, spoke out at the Akron convention in 1851, and named her own toughness in a famous peroration against the notion of woman’s disqualifying frailty. She rested her case on her refrain ‘Ain’t I a woman?’ It’s my hope to persuade readers that a new Sojourner Truth might well — except for the catastrophic loss of grace in the wording — issue another plea: ‘Ain’t I a fluctuating identity?’ For both a concentration on and a refusal of the identity of ’women’ are essential to feminism. This its history makes plain.
Rethinking questions of identity, social agency and national affiliation, Bhabha provides a working, if controversial, theory of cultural hybridity - one that goes far beyond previous attempts by others. In The Location of Culture, he uses concepts such as mimicry, interstice, hybridity, and liminality to argue that cultural production is always most productive where it is most ambivalent. Speaking in a voice that combines intellectual ease with the belief that theory itself can contribute to practical political change, Bhabha has become one of the leading post-colonial theorists of this era.
The poor, powerless and pregnant African woman is development's favourite image. NGOs, donors and media have used it for decades. But does this image tell the whole complex story of African women's lives? Is material poverty the dominant factor defining the position and condition of the African woman? In this article, I challenge everyone to go beyond this image towards a deeper and more meaningful understanding of the realities of African women's lives. While those of us who are not necessarily poor, nor always powerless, nor invariably pregnant, might appear to have comparatively better lives than our sisters, we suffer under the same yoke of patriarchy and unequal power relations. From HIV and AIDS, to violence and denial of fights in the public sphere, the non-poor African has to fight not only for her rights but also for her own legitimacy at macro- and micro-levels. Delegitimised by donors and other actors, the non-poor woman often seeks legitimacy through telling the stories of others, who equally disown her as not really one of them. Development practitioners and policy-makers are challenged to engage with this "new" African woman.
The "woman question," this book asserts, is a Western one, and not a proper lens for viewing African society. A work that rethinks gender as a Western construction, The Invention of Women offers a new way of understanding both Yoruban and Western cultures. Author Oyeronke Oyewumi reveals an ideology of biological determinism at the heart of Western social categories--the idea that biology provides the rationale for organizing the social world. And yet, she writes, the concept of "woman," central to this ideology and to Western gender discourses, simply did not exist in Yorubaland, where the body was not the basis of social roles. Oyewumi traces the misapplication of Western, body-oriented concepts of gender through the history of gender discourses in Yoruba studies. Her analysis shows the paradoxical nature of two fundamental assumptions of feminist theory: that gender is socially constructed and that the subordination of women is universal. The Invention of Women demonstrates, to the contrary, that gender was not constructed in old Yoruba society, and that social organization was determined by relative age. A meticulous historical and epistemological account of an African culture on its own terms, this book makes a persuasive argument for a cultural, context-dependent interpretation of social reality. It calls for a reconception of gender discourse and the categories on which such study relies. More than that, the book lays bare the hidden assumptions in the ways these different cultures think. A truly comparative sociology of an African culture and the Western tradition, it will change the way African studies and gender studies proceed. "Oyewùmi's book is a departure from the majority of feminist writers on Africa. She goes further to show a society almost unintelligible using the common set of presumptions in feminist literature about how society is organized. Her indignation is real and forceful and her research and lucid presentation admirable." Modern African Studies "Oyewumi's work is an extremely interesting study that forces readers to rethink some of the accepted notions of colonialism." National Women's Studies Association Journal Oyeronke Oyewumi is assistant professor in the Department of Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara
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