Feminist Africa

African Women’s Lives in the Time of a Pandemic

Akosua K. Darkwah — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 15:59:04 +0000

This issue of Feminist Africa reflects on both the impact of COVID-19 on African
women and African women’s responses to the pandemic.

COVID-19 Recovery and Beyond: An African Feminist Vision for Macroeconomic System Change

Wangari Kinoti, Fatimah Kelleher — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 16:26:48 +0000

This article provides an analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on the lives of women
in Africa and the extent to which government policies designed to respond to the
social and economic shocks caused by the pandemic have addressed wider, persistent
gender inequalities. We argue that while there have been some laudable policy efforts
across the continent, they have not only been largely gender-blind, but have also
potentially deepened gender inequalities. We find that although some measures like
cash transfers, various forms of tax cuts and public employment schemes may have
benefited women, they did not take into account the more systemic and gendered
exclusionary factors, such as the ability to access payment infrastructure and digital
financial services, household care burdens and division of labour, access to decent
paid work and the dynamics of formal versus informal work. Containment measures
were implemented without much evidence for mitigation planning around increased
unpaid care and domestic workloads or escalations in gender-based violence. We
make the case for a rethink of the predominant economic models that have kept
Africa in a financial chokehold, severely limiting the ability of governments to
deliver on the social and economic rights of their people. Ultimately, we draw on
African feminist positions to recommend a set of policy directions that could form
the backbone for fundamental system change, which, as this pandemic has shown
us, is crucial for the economic health of the continent and the wellbeing of the
African people.

Negotiating Spaces, Exercising Agency and Managing Multiple Roles: The Lived Experiences of University of Ghana Women Academics under COVID-19

Mjiba Frehiwot, Deborah Atobrah, Irene Appeaning-Addo — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 16:49:13 +0000

This article interrogates the lived experiences of women academics at the University
of Ghana (UG) between March 2020 and March 2021. It highlights their emotions
and care decisions as they navigated through the multiple spheres of their lives –
physical, emotional, and financial – while meeting the challenges brought on by the
COVID-19 pandemic. It further interrogates the innovative ways female academics
handled the state and UG’s responses to COVID-19 protocols while endeavouring
to meet their career responsibilities amidst an increased familial, institutional, and
community care burden. We find that women academics at UG reported to have
worked under intense stress and strain to meet their family care obligations and
the demands of their jobs as three levels of mothering – biological, othermothering
and community mothering – dominated participants’ narratives of their pandemic
experiences. It is also observed that self-reported productivity levels, including
research and writing, dropped drastically for most women academics as demands
for care increased, and this lack of productivity resulted in anxiety. This is because
the women academics prioritised the safety of their families, communities, and the
University over their career progression during the lockdown. Moreover, the COVID-
19 restrictions limited extended family members from reducing the care burden
on women academics specifically during the lockdown. To deal with the anxiety
and stress, some women academics found respite in institutional and social level
networks. However, the women academics also acknowledged that working from
home was beneficial because they were able to combine their childcare responsibilities
with their academic work.

Gender Blind Spots in COVID-19 Containment and Mitigation Measures in Burkina Faso and Ghana

Akosua K. Darkwah, Dorte Thorsen, Madeleine Wayack Pambè — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 17:10:02 +0000

This article unpacks the gendered impacts of the containment and mitigation
measures adopted in many countries to deal with the pandemic. Based on detailed
data on the inclusivity of measures taken to contain the outbreak of COVID-19 in
Burkina Faso and Ghana and the mitigation measures implemented to soften the
fallout, the paper analyses the impact on women and girls. We argue that women
occupy important micro-economic places in both countries, as breadwinners in
families, and in informal trade, which accounts for a considerable proportion of
the economy. However, there was little state recognition of the ripple effects of
the closures of borders, markets and schools on them. The lack of recognition of
gender differences and of the ways in which gender intersects with economic and
regional inequalities was reinforced in the mitigation policies as well, undermining
the advancement of gender equity goals made prior to the pandemic.

A Tale of Two Worlds Amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic: Is A New More Just Economic Order Possible?

Leah Eryenyu — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 17:26:43 +0000

In July 2021, I got my second dose of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. And with
this act, I became an outlier—one of the few Africans, and even fewer Ugandans,
who were fully vaccinated.

A Female Inventor Ahead of her Time

Akosua K. Darkwah — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 17:49:35 +0000

African scientists have responded to the pandemic by developing a range of largely
low-tech innovations to either ease testing/treatment or assist with adherence to
the containment measures imposed by various states.

Addressing the Needs of People with Disability During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Akosua K. Darkwah — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 17:57:09 +0000

The World Health Organization estimates that 15% of the world’s population has a
disability of one form or the other (WHO, 2021). With a population of approximately
1,390,000,000 people on the African continent (Worldometer, n.d.), this translates
to 220,000,000 or roughly the entire population of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous
nation.

Women’s Organising in Nigeria During the COVID- 19 Pandemic

Akosua K. Darkwah — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

African women have long organised for different purposes and so it has been with
the pandemic. In different parts of the continent, women have come together to
address different problems thrown up by the pandemic.

Intimate Archives: Rethinking Gender in African Studies

Srila Roy, Caio Simões De Araújo — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 18:30:19 +0000

On 14 April 2021, the Governing Intimacies: Sexualities, Gender and Governance
in the Postcolonial World research project, convened by Associate Professor Srila
Roy at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, hosted a webinar
discussion between Oluwakemi M. Balogun (University of Oregon), Simidele
Dosekun (London School of Economics), and Jacqueline-Bethel Tchouta Mougoué
(University of Wisconsin) about their recently published books: Beauty Diplomacy:
Embodying an Emerging Nation (Balogun, 2020); Fashioning Postfeminism:
Spectacular Femininity and Transnational Culture (Dosekun, 2020), and Gender,
Separatist Politics and Embodied Nationalism in Cameroon (Mougoué, 2019).
The webinar was organised and hosted by Professor Srila Roy and Dr Caio Simões
De Araújo

Bouncing Back and Developing Elasticity During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Exploring Intergenerational Partnerships and Interventions Among Grassroots Women’s Organisations to Address COVID-19 Related Challenges in Rural Western Cape, South Africa

Vainola Makan, Wendy Pekeur — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 18:53:35 +0000

The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified pre-existing inequalities and social challenges
that have existed for many decades.

The Struggle Is Real: Fighting Sexual and Gender- Based Violence and Femicide Pandemic in the Time of COVID-19

Vicci Tallis, Tracy Jean-Pierre — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 19:07:03 +0000

The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified women’s multiple vulnerabilities.
The economy has reportedly lost about 3 million jobs since the start
of the lockdown.

The Response of the Women’s Fund Tanzania Trust During COVID-19

Shamillah Wilson — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 19:15:41 +0000

In the 21st century, the African continent faces complex questions of social, economic,
and political resilience.

A Magnifying Glass and A Fine-Tooth Comb: Understanding Girls’ and Young Women’s Sexual Vulnerability, by Mzikazi Nduna. Pretoria: CSA&G Press, Centre for Sexualities, AIDS and Gender, University of Pretoria, 2020.

Peace Kiguwa, Thobeka Nkomo — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 19:26:07 +0000

We come together in our shared interest and work in sexual and reproductive health
and rights (SRHR) to review a body of work that promises to cast a critical eye on
an old terrain of work and knowledge.

When the Light is Fire: Maasai Schoolgirls in Contemporary Kenya, by Heather D. Switzer. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2018.

Monique Kwachou — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 19:43:25 +0000

As per the old English adage, “Do not look a gift horse in the mouth,”, we have
been made to believe that questioning the value of something “intended for good”
is wrong.