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The Politics of Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary African Contexts (2013 syllabus)

Transnational Feminisms Course, Summer 2013

Cape Town 22 July to 2 August 2013
Barnard College, African Gender Institute and Rutgers University

Note to Participants

The aim of this reading list is to provide you with some contexts— politics, theoretical, cultural, social, and historical. These readings include three set books and a set of essays. There is also a selection of suggested further readings and a set of links to music and websites that may be of interest. Some of these first readings concentrate on South Africa, for practical and obvious reasons but you will soon see how connected they are to neighboring countries and further afield.

Be adventurous in your reading. Go online. Go to the library. Follow up any question you have about the work you read. Do not be afraid of starting your own research of any names or issues that come up in your reading. This will help give you a great start to a course designed to be an exciting introduction to some of the key issues and debates underpinning the politics of gender and sexuality in contemporary African contexts.

Required books

  • Bernstein, Alison and Jacklyn Cock. Melting Pots and Rainbow Nations: Conversations about Difference and the United States and South Africa. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2001.
  • Christiansë, Yvette. Unconfessed. New York: Other Press, 2006.
  • Tamale, Sylvia. Ed. African Sexualities: A Reader. Cape Town: Pambazuka Press, 2011.

Pre-Arrival Videos

  • Cape Town (2012) A modest video introduction to Cape Town, thanks to YouTube.com: This gives you a sense of the city. And it even shows the road you will take coming from the airport in the first moments. There is a voice over that gives a set of introductory remarks. The video shows you one of the places that we will visit: the Old Slave Lodge. You will also see the BoKaap or Upper Cape, which is a national monument and not far from where you will be lodged.
  • Cape Town and Surroundings – South Africa Travel Channel  This is a professional, ‘touristy’ video that refers to Cape Town as a ‘she,’ but it also gives you good sense of the place to which you are going.
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTw59IdzG8I (unavailable) This video by journeyman.tv/BBC that gives the primarily masculine political overview of Robben Island, which you will also visit (weather permitting). The earlier history is covered in Unconfessed.

Essays/Articles

  • Abrahams, Yvette. ‘“Your Silence Will Not Protect You”: Silence, Voice and Power Moving Beyond Violence Towards Revolution in South Africa.’ Outliers: A Collection of Essays and Creative Work on Sexuality in Africa. No. 1: 30-45. http://www.irnweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Outliers-no.-1.pdf.
  • Bennett, Jane. ‘Subversion and Resistance: Activist Initiatives.’ African Sexualities: A Reader. Ed. Sylvia Tamale. Cape Town: Pambazuka Press, 2011: 77-100.
  • Daymond, M. J. Et al, ‘Introduction.’ Women Writing Africa: The Southern Region. Vol. 1. New York: The Feminist Press, 2003: 1-82.
  • Horn, Jessica. ‘A Night in Zanzibar—Life Story and Poem.’ African Sexualities: A Reader. Ed. Sylvia Tamale. Cape Town: Pambazuka Press, 2011: 184-186.
  • Lewis, Desiree. ‘Representing African Sexualities.’ African Sexualities: A Reader. Ed. Sylvia Tamale. Cape Town: Pambazuka Press, 2011: 199-216.
  • Massaquoi, Notisha. ‘The Continent as a Closet: The Making of an African Queery Theory.’ Outliers: A Collection of Essays and Creative Work on Sexuality in Africa. Vol 1: pp. 50-60. http://www.irnweb.org/wpcontent/uploads/2013/04/Outliers-no.-1.pdf.
  • Nyek, S. N. ‘Impossible Africans.’ Outliers: A Collection of Essays and Creative Work on Sexuality in Africa. No. 1:5-8. http://www.irnweb.org/wpcontent/uploads/2013/04/Outliers-no.-1.pdf.
  • Tamale, Sylvia. ‘Introduction.’ African Sexualities: A Reader. Cape Town: Pambazuka Press, 2011: 1-6.
  • _______. ‘Researching and Theorising Sexualities in Africa.’ African Sexualities: A Reader. Cape Town: Pambazuka Press: 2011, 11-36.
  • Nkabinde, Nkunzi Zandile. Black Bull, Ancestors and Me: My Life as a Lesbian Sangoma. Auckland Park: Fanele, 2008: 1-25, 77-95, 121-131.
  • Neema, Ghenim. ‘The Chess Game.’ Outliers: A Collection of Essays and Creative Work on Sexuality in Africa. No.2: 56-58. http://www.irnweb.org/wpcontent/uploads/2013/04/Outliers-no.-1.pdf.
  • Shaikh, Sa’diyya. ‘Morality, Justice and Gender: Reading Muslim Tradition on Reproductive Choices.’ African Sexualities: A Reader. Ed. Sylvia Tamale. Cape Town: Pambazuka Press, 2011: 340-358.

Suggested Further Readings

Anthology Excerpts

  • Lihamba, Aminata and Fulata L. Moyo, M. M. Mulokozi, Naomi L. Shitemi, and Saïda Yahya- Othman. Eds. ‘Introduction.’ Women Writing Africa: The Eastern Region. Vol. 3. New York: The Feminist Press, 2007: pp. 1-67.
  • Susan Arndt. ‘African Gender Trouble and African Womanism: An Interview with Chikwenye Ogunyemi, and Wanjira Muthoni.’ Signs. Vol. 25, No. 3 (Spring 2000): 709-726.
  • Sutherland-Addy, Esi and Aminata Diaw. ‘Introduction.’ Women Writing Africa: West Africa and the Sahel. Vol. 2. New York: The Feminist Press, 2005: 1-83.
  • Nowaira, Amira and Azza El Kholy, Marjorie Lightman, Zahia Smail Salhi, Fatima Sadiqi, Moha Ennaji, Nadia El Kholy and Sahar Hamouda. Eds. ‘Introduction.’ Women Writing Africa: The Northern Region. Vol. 4. New York: The Feminist Press, 2009: 1-59.

Reading—Essays/Articles

  • Graham, Lucy Valerie. ‘A Hidden Side to the Story’: Reading Rape in Recent South African Literature. Kunapipi: Journal of Post-Colonial Writing. Vol. 24, Nos. 1-2: 9-24.
  • Hay, Margaret Jean. ‘Queens, Prostitutes and Peasants: Historical Perspectives on African Women, 1971–1986.’ Canadian Journal of African Studies/Revue Canadienne des Etudes Africanes. Special Issue: Current Research on African Women. Vol. 22, No. 3. (1988): 431-447.
  • Ndebele, Njabulo. ‘Thinking of Brenda.’ Paper delivered at Grahamstown Arts Festival, Winter School, 2000. http:// www.music.org.za/ editorial.asp?ID=22&v=true.
  • Ogundipe-Leslie, Molara. ‘The Female Writer and Her Commitment.’ African Literature Today, Special Issue: Women in African Literature. Eds. Eldred Durosimi Jones et al: 5-13.
  • Samuelson, Meg. ‘The Rainbow Womb: Rape and Race in South African Fiction of the Transition.’ Kunapipi: Journal of Post-Colonial Writing. Vol. 24, Nos. 1-2: 88-100.
  • White, E. Frances. ‘The Dark Continent of Our Bodies: ‘Constructing Science, Race and Womanhood in the Nineteenth Century.’ The Dark Continent of Black Feminism and the Politics of Respectability. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996: 81-116.

Music

Chiwoniso

  • Rebel Woman. Cumbancha, 2008. CD.
  • Live at Afro-Pfingsten Festival 2007. http://www.cumbancha.com/chiwoniso/videos#video-chiwoniso-afro-pfingstenfestival-2007
  • Maraire, Chiwoniso. ‘Vanorapa.’ Vanorapa. Cumbancha, 2008.
  • _______. ‘Wandirisa.’ Recorded at Wezimbabwe. http://www.cumbancha.com/chiwoniso
  • ‘Chiwonisa Maraire and The Mbira @ Lula Thursday-2008 Small.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9FRlefaTCY
  • Maraire, Chiwoniso and Chris Christofferson. ‘Song for Leila Al Akbar.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lIbpYJk1Q

Brenda Fassie (Madonna of The Townships)

  • ‘Black President.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERnAy7Exzzw
  • ‘Too Late For Mama.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__bo-yUylLY
  • ‘Vuli Ndlela’ Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxOepJiw4K4&mode=related&search
  • ‘lala-kakuhle.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB-Z75jUX0Y&mode=related&search=
  • ‘Ama-gents.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrinswnda3Q&mode=related&search=
  • ‘Touch Somebody.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sE2xSSkqAc

Dobet Gnahoré

  • Gnahoré, Dobet. Na Afriki. Cumbancha, 2007. CD.

Freshly Ground

Yvonne Chaka Chaka

  • ‘I’m in love with the DJ.’ – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVnwQ4K7pQ4&mode=related&search=
  • ‘Mamaland.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkXzCGSoNGk&mode=related&search=
  • ‘Stimela.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQEyKmAW14&mode=related&search=

Karen Zoid

  • Afrikaners is Plesierig’/ ‘Afrikaners are Pleasant.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pxeOeQ0_ag

Useful Websites

  • Art South Africa: http://www.artsouthafrica.com
  • Black Contemporary Art: http://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com
  • Books Live: http://bookslive.co.za
  • Centre for the Book: http://www.nlsa.ac.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53&Itemid=41
  • Chimurenga Magazine: http://www.chimurenga.co.za
  • CODESRIA Gender Programme: http://www.codesria.org/spip.php?article252&lang=en
  • Goodman Gallery: http://www.goodman-gallery.com
  • Cumbancha. http://www.cumbancha.com
  • International Resource Network: http://www.irnweb.org
  • Kubatana.net: http://www.kubatana.net/html/sectors/wom010.asp
  • Little White Bakkie–eBooks from Africa: http://www.littlewhitebakkie.com
  • Mail & Guardian: http://mg.co.za
  • Out in Africa: http://www.oia.co.za
  • Pambazuka News. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/
  • Pan African Space Station: http://panafricanspacestation.org.za
  • South African Film: http://www.safilm.org.za
  • Stevenson Gallery: http://www.stevenson.info/index.html
  • Women’s Consortium of Nigeria: http://www.womenconsortiumofnigeria.org
  • Zanzibar International Film Festival: http://www.ziff.or.tz
  • Zimvibes: www.Zimvibes.com

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