African women's movements in the twentieth century: a hidden history

Abstract:This article begins by exploring the efforts of African women's movements from the 1990s onward to end violent civil conflicts and to insist on guarantees of gender equity in newly formed governments. It attempts to explain these recent successes first by examining the complex relationships between international women's movements and African women's groups from the Second World War onward, particularly from the era of the U.N. Decade for Women beginning in 1975. The article then turns to a broader problem: exploring the connections between contemporary women's activism and deeper currents in African history that link the precolonial period with the more recent past. By examining a variety of twentieth-century women's protests, it argues that cloaked in the language of political, economic, and environmental grievances, these movements also reflect a hidden history of women's influence as public healers, empowered not only to cure individuals, but also to mend broader relationships in the community.Resume: Cet article commence par explorer les efforts des mouvements des femmes africaines dans les annees 1990 pour mettre fin a des conflits civils violents et pour exiger des garanties d'equite entre les sexes dans les gouvernements nouvellement formes. Il tente d'expliquer leurs succes recents en examinant les relations complexes entre les mouvements feminins internationaux et les groupes des femmes africaines depuis la seconde guerre mondiale, en particulier depuis 1975, date ayant marque le debut de la "Decennie des femmes," initiee par les Nations Unies. L'article se tourne ensuite vers un probleme plus large: il explore les liens entre l'activisme des femmes contemporaines et les courants plus profonds de l'histoire africaine qui relient la periode precoloniale avec un passe plus recent. En examinant plusieurs types de manifestations menees par des mouvements feminins au XXeme siecle, cet article met en relief le fait qu'a travers le langage de leurs revendications politiques, economiques, et environnementales, ces mouvements laissent transparaitre l'histoire cachee de l'influence des femmes dans leur roles de guerisseuses publiques, ayant non seulement le pouvoir de guerir des individus, mais aussi de reparer des relations plus larges au sein de la communaute.Key Words: Women; empowerment; protest movements; healing; international women's movements; Nigeria; South Africa; KenyaEditors' note: An earlier version of this article was presented as the ASR Distinguished Lecture at the 56th annual meeting of the African Studies Association, November 2013, Baltimore, Maryland.IntroductionOn July 2, 1991, leaders of the African National Congress gathered in the coastal city of Durban for their first conference in South Africa after the country's liberation fighters were released from prison. On the second day of this historic gathering, women delegates generated passionate debate by proposing that in the future women make up 30 percent of the ANC Executive Committee. At the time, only three of thirty-five members were women. Many considered the proposal audacious, and it was dropped in favor of a more general resolution on affirmative action. But Nelson Mandela was correct when he declared, 'The ANC will never be the same" (quoted in Turok 1991:9). This "quota debate" represented the beginning of a new era in African women's politics and social movements. Within a decade, the push for democracy and growing international pressure to expand women's rights opened up a fresh landscape for women's empowerment across the continent.Few countries experienced change as breathtaking as South Africa did. In April 1994, mile-long lines stretched outside polling stations as black and white voters waited, often for more than six or seven hours, to cast ballots in the country's first democratic election. The political activist Albertina Sisulu told her daughter-in-law, "The excitement was unbelievable-going to jail, being forced to leave my children-it was all worth it to live to see this day" (2003:621). …