Akosua Adomako Ampofo

Women’s and Gender Studies in English-Speaking Sub-Saharan Africa A Review of Research in the Social Sciences

This article seeks to broaden understanding of issues and controversies addressed in social science research on women’s and gender studies by researchers and activists based in English-speaking sub-Saharan Africa. The topics covered were selected from those ratified by African women in the Africa Platform for Action in 1995 as well as from current debates on the politics of identity. The common feminist issues the authors identified were health; gender-based violence; sexuality, education, globalization and work; and politics, the state, and nongovernmental organizations. In addition, the authors address theoretical and methodological trends. All four coauthors are feminist sociologists: One scholar is based in an African academic institution, two are Africans based in U.S. academic institutions, and one is an African American based in a U.S. academic institution.

When men speak women listen': Gender Socialisation and Young Adolescents' Attitudes to Sexual and Reproductive Issues.

This paper discusses findings from separate focus group discussions among boys, girls, and parents in two communities in Ghana on the kinds of attitudes expressed with regard to specific gender roles and sexual and reproductive behaviour. The FGDs also point to some of the ways adolescents recognise sex role disparities in their own socialisation and that of other young people. The two communities reflect two lineage types, one matrilineal and the other patrilineal. The data show that with few exceptions patriarchal attitudes essentially prevail across age, sex and lineage type. The paper concludes by suggesting programmatic implications for strengthening the abilities of young males to be responsible in their sexual relations.

Researching African Women and Gender Studies: New Social Science Perspectives

Research on African women and gender studies has grown substantially to a position where African-centered gender theories and praxis contribute to theorizing on global feminist scholarship. Africanist scholars in this field have explored new areas such as transnational and multiracial feminisms, both of which address the complex and interlocking conditions that impact womens lives and produce oppression, opportunity and privilege. In addition, emergent African-centered research on women and gender explores those critical areas of research frequently addressed in the global North which have historically been ignored or marginalized in the African context such as family, work, social and political movements, sexuality, health, technology, migration, and popular culture. This article examines these developments in African gender studies scholarship and highlights the contributions that new research on understudied linguistic populations, masculinity, migration, political development and social movements and the virtual world are making to global feminist discourse.

Collective activism: The domestic violence bill becoming law in Ghana.

This article reflects on contemporary struggles for citizenship rights through an examination of civil societys advocacy for the passage of domestic violence legislation in Ghana. The National Coalition on Domestic Violence Legislation, established in 2003 specifically to push for the passage of the legislation, at various times worked closely with, and at other times independently of, or even in conflict with, the state. These processes and engagements point to the vibrancy of civil society and suggest the need for new analyses of social movements, political power and democracy that are rooted in Africas contemporary realities.

Changing representations of women in Ghanaian popular music: Marrying research and advocacy

This article maps the multiple methods used to bring scholar-activists, music producers and music consumers together in a conversation that culminated in the creation of three winning ‘empowering songs’ from the ‘Changing representations of women in popular music’ project. This project explores the gendered stereotypes of women in popular music, and seeks to contribute to reflection on, and creation of, alternative (empowering) narratives about women through song. The article discusses this marriage of research and advocacy and reflects on some of the outcomes from ‘corporate’ reflections – all of which generated a lot of passion about the tensions and possibilities around women’s representations and roles. The authors conclude that for research findings to have practical and policy value and legitimacy, what, how, when and where we communicate our messages is extremely important.

Women’s and Gender Studies in Ghana

Over the last half century the subject of gender and, in particular, women’s place in society has come of age in Ghanaian scholarly work. Accompanying this have been important contributions from civil society, including increased activism around particular issues such as gender-based violence and women’s economic citizenship. The question of “gender” has gained visibility, and even in popular culture the implications of the gendered architecture of our societies receives attention. While the last several decades have been interesting times for scholars in women and gender studies (WGS), there is currently no single essay that chronicles and analyzes the evolution of the discipline in Ghana. In this chapter, we draw the map of WGS in Ghana, albeit by no means an exhaustive map, reviewing trends in the content, epistemologies, and methodologies of the discipline. We pay attention to the relationship of WGS to “traditional” social science approaches, practices in the academy, as well as relationship to policy. We also analyze both anthropological and ethnographic studies which, though not necessarily cast in the framework of gender studies, nonetheless, provide important impetus for gender analyses, as well as contemporary works that overtly rely on feminist frameworks. Topics covered in these studies include politics and the state; work and livelihoods; religion; health; gender-based violence and in the last few decades, gender and development policy and practice; sexualities and bodily integrity; and women’s organizing. We conclude by suggesting how WGS have benefited from the social sciences, and what the social sciences might learn from the approaches, strategies, and practices of WGS in Ghana over the last 30 years.

Review: The Shape of Water? Women?s Activism? A View From Ghana

The title of the film is intriguing: The Shape of Water, for, of course, water has no shape of its own. The quotation on the cover from the famous American actress Susan Sarandon, also the narrator of the film, promised a great deal: ‘Kum-Kum Bhavnani has made a film about hope, not despair, about courage, not sentimentality’. This is true, for Bhavnani tackles issues around women’s activism head-on without any attempt to sanitize the ugly or render invisible the geo-politics. At the same time, the film also suggests that the promise of change in the circumstances of ordinary peoples’ lives through activism is not an idealistic one. This is a brave film that deals with important topics, and, in the process, allows us some tender openings into the everyday lives of ‘ordinary’ women. An added bonus is that from a purely aesthetic point of view, the images of the women are rich, vibrant and refreshing. The introductory image suggests that the central theme of the film is about positive change, reflected in the element of water, for, we are told:

Feminisms and Acculturation around the Globe

This article is a revision of the previous edition article by M.C. Lam, volume 15, pp. 10163–10169,

Review: Kum-Kum Bhavnani: The Shape of Water, USA: Kum-Kum Bhavnani Productions, 2006, 70 minutes:

Kum-Kum Bhavnani’s documentary takes viewers on a tour of the global south: the Amazon rainforest of Brazil; the villages of rural Senegal and the broadcast studios of Dakar; the choked streets of Ahmedabad; and the padi lands of Dehra Dun and Tehri in the Himalayan foothills. Bhavnani sets her sights on the courage, ingenuity, pragmatism, and conviction of women. In Senegal, women campaign against genital cutting. In Brazil, indigenous agriculturalists struggle to keep ranchers and logging companies from destroying their livelihoods and the forest itself. In Ahmedabad, SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association) begun as a women’s trade union, provides micro-credit, literacy training, and economic security to petty traders and small-scale entrepreneurs. In Jerusalem, Women In Black engages in street vigils and civil disobedience to protest at Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. In the Himalayan foothills, women rendered homeless and landless by a vast hydro-power development project have persisted in a prolonged Gandhian satyagraha (a collective protest involving fasting, singing, and non-violent witnessing). Water – never still, continually carving new channels, overflowing man made boundaries, capable of wearing down the hardest substances – is Bhavnani’s metaphor for global women’s activism. The Shape of Water portrays ordinary women (often joined by men) who have come together in pursuit of better lives. Bhavnani’s narrative contrasts with many other documentaries about the plight of ‘Third World’ women. In this film, neither foreign experts nor the local western-educated elite speak for the benighted poor. The poor are neither silent victims awaiting rescue nor museums of culture, hopelessly mired in ancestral traditions. Instead, they speak for themselves and they act on their own behalf. Mobilizing for social change and political resistance, they pragmatically bend traditions for their own ends. Khady Koita, a Senegalese mother, for example, discusses her change of heart regarding genital cutting: although she and her two older daughters have been cut, she has decided not to perform the operation on her youngest girl. Mariana, a village elder, has supported herself by performing cutting operations. Dressed in traditional garb and displaying traditional cutting implements and balms, she explains that she does this work to make a living. If she has other paid work, she will stop. The Shape of Water does not conceal the tensions and conflicting viewpoints that arise within the collective struggles it portrays. Nowhere is this more evident than in the difficult dialogues among members of Women In Black, a group that comprises