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Copyright of Gender & Development is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Feminist political economy has illuminated the gendered dimensions of the globalisation of production. Whilst this literature provides essential insights on gendered exploitation in export-oriented industries, women's work in localised labour markets in the Global South remains underexplored. This paper seeks to address this gap by putting into dialogue three bodies of literature – feminist political economy of globalisation, political economy of development in southern Africa and the social reproduction of the everyday. It proposes an integrated conceptual framework to analyse women's working lives and applies it to northern Mozambique. It makes two key findings. First, the lives of those working in localised labour markets are shaped by global capitalism through extreme fragmentation of labour regimes forcing people into multiple precarious forms of work – a process that entails the appropriation of women's productive and reproductive labour. Second, the imperatives of social reproduction shape employment trajectories and expose differentiation among working women, seen for example through gendered constraints to mobility, care obligations and contributions to ceremonies. The implications are that the analysis of women's working lives needs to capture three key aspects: social differentiation among working women, temporal and spatial dynamics of the everyday and the centrality of the reproduction of the social. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to understand the negative connotations of amalungelo – women's rights – within the domain of African vernacular. We attempt to unpack the ways in which amalungelo are invalidated by neo-traditionalist discourse, and how the invalidation of amalungelo often occurs within the domains of African language and African traditions. We embrace a notion of African identity and culture to which we belong, and also unpack some of the contradictions this presents in the form of new traditionalisms (neo-traditionalism) that form and reform to justify patriarchy in modern Africa. Through conversation we search for a textured sense of the matricentric as offered by language and idiom, in the effort to further contribute to the ongoing work of building an African feminism. The paper sees itself as a non-linear exploration of ideas, with no pretentions to finding a concrete set of appropriate concepts for the ongoing search for women's equality in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic has differentially affected the productivity of researchers from different backgrounds and showcase the factors that are responsible for these inequalities. Data for this study were collected using an electronic questionnaire via Qualtrics, distributed to researchers across Africa. Three hundred and eleven Participants completed the questionnaire in August/September 2020. Our results show that although overall time spent working during COVID-19 has increased, this has not translated into enhanced levels of productivity. Researchers are spending about 22 hours per week extra working than before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Male researchers were able to spend more time on publications, patents, and consulting activities than their female counterparts.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persistent gender gaps characterise labour markets in many African countries. Utilising Eswatini's first three labour market surveys (conducted in 2007, 2010, and 2013), this paper provides first systematic evidence on the country's gender gaps in employment and earnings. We find that women have notably lower employment rates and earnings than men, even though the global financial crisis had a less negative impact on women than it had on men. Both unadjusted and unexplained gender earnings gaps are higher in self-employment than in wage employment. Tertiary education and urban location account for a large part of the gender earnings gap and mitigate high female propensity to self-employment. Our findings suggest that policies supporting female higher education and rural-urban mobility could reduce persistent inequalities in Eswatini's labour market outcomes as well as in other middle-income countries in southern Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory essay lays out the main themes of a special issue of Journal of Contemporary African Studies which brings together six empirically grounded papers by African social scientists of different disciplinary backgrounds. These works touch on various aspects of the social impact of religious innovation and competition in present day African Christianity. They represent the first fruits on the social science side of an interdisciplinary initiative that made 23 research grants for theologians and social scientists to study Christianity and social change in contemporary Africa. These articles focus on a variety of dynamics in contemporary African religion (mostly Christianity), including gender, health and healing, social media, entrepreneurship, and inter-religious borrowing and accommodation. The editors conclude that the research and learning reflected in this volume will enhance understanding of religion’s vital entanglement in contemporary African society. The articles reveal problematic ethical and psychological dynamics in some of these new movements, particularly among some of the neo-Pentecostal groups. Yet the authors are determined to go beyond perspectives that are overly fixated with African problems and victimisation. They are keen to explore opportunities for understanding African agency and African wellsprings of hope. The editors conclude that scholars of religion and religiosity in Africa need to invest new conceptual and methodological energy in researching what it means to be actively religious in Africa today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a gender analysis of the World Bank's recent Policy Research Report. It assesses the implications for women, and more widely for gender relations, of the World Bank's approach to land relations. The analysis focuses on two issues: the Report's promotion of formal rural credit and its assumption of the availability of women's agricultural labour. This paper challenges the notion of 'non-contractible labour', as well as the Report's use of the household as a unit of analysis and its underlying assumption of motivated family labour. It discusses the consequences for households of defaulting on rural loans and challenges the Report's attempts to link the promotion of credit markets and reliance on women's unpaid labour to poverty reduction. In light of this discussion, the paper argues that it continues to be important for advocates of women's rights in Africa to be attentive to land issues and in particular to respond to the World Bank's land agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ending intimate partner violence (IPV) and reducing gender inequalities are recognised as critical to “‘ending AIDS” by 2030. Amongst women, experiencing IPV has been shown to increase HIV acquisition, reduce women’s ability to use HIV prevention strategies and reduce adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART). In Southern and Eastern Africa there has recently been a significant push to strengthen programming around this through broad funding and programming streams. However, while gender inequality underpins IPV and HIV acquisition, in different contexts a variety of other factors intersect to shape this vulnerability. Using reflections focused on young women living in urban informal settlements and the Stepping Stones and Creating Futures intervention, this paper illustrates the need to understand the specific drivers of HIV and IPV in any given context and the need for interventions to prevent this. Any intervention needs to include three key components: 1) resonate with the lived realities of women they target; 2) tackle multiple factors shaping women’s vulnerability to IPV and HIV simultaneously; and 3) consider how best to work with men and boys to achieve improved outcomes for women. Such an approach, it is argued, resonating with the “slow research” movement, will yield better outcomes for interventions, but will also require a fundamental rethinking of how interventions to prevent IPV and HIV amongst women are conceptualised, with a greater emphasis on understanding the ways in which gender resonates in each context and how interventions can operate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose:We investigated how information resource diversification can enhance smallholder agricultural knowledge in Ghana. Design/Methodology/Approach:Study tools and methods were questionnaire survey (N = 200), focus group discussion (N = 1), in-depth interviews (N = 18) and field direct observation. Findings:This study shows there existed diversity of information resources in Hohoe. This diversity was, however, devoid of a broad integration process to enhance smallholder access to and use of agricultural information. We demonstrate that new information channels or sources cannot function independently, but rather through an integrated approach that relies on a human facet of extension. Practical Implications:We illustrate the need for integrated extension that includes interactive field modules such as basic cell phone decision guides that support smallholder construction of solutions for their circumstances. This process requires new sets of smallholder skills and holistic extension schemes that diversify information resources through incorporation and adaptation, rather than substitution. New information resources can only be gradually mainstreamed through integration with more familiar extension means. They need a human interface because smallholder householders did not require same types and/or amounts of information. Human interface is essential to ensure critical groups including women access and utilise agricultural information resources, but without entrenching unfair task allocations among smallholder householders. Originality/Value:This paper illustrates how extension can be strengthened through new approaches. However, new approaches such as use of basic cell phones cannot be standalone processes; they require a human interface and an integrated process. The article presents actual data collected from the Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Climate change, increasingly recognized as a hurdle to achieving sustainable development goals, has already begun impacting the lives and livelihoods of people around the world, including on the African continent. Vulnerability is a concept often employed in the context of climate change to identify risks and develop policy and adaptation measures that address current and projected impacts. However, it is situated in a broader social context, driven by factors such as land tenure and access, livelihood diversification, and empowerment, which single out historically marginalized groups like women. This paper applies a vulnerability framework to a case study of cocoa farming in the Central Region of Ghana, depicting not only the variety of factors contributing to climate change vulnerability but also different narratives on vulnerability that emerge based on a woman's relation to cocoa production itself. The paper conveys how homogeneous representations of women farmers and the technical focus of climate-orientated policy interventions may threaten to further marginalize the most vulnerable and exacerbate existing inequalities. This has implications for both climate change policy design and implementation, as well as the broader social development agenda that has bearing on vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In much of Africa, teenage sexualities are often understood through the optic of danger, violence and disease without much attention to love within relationship dynamics. There is a strong case to be made for the continued focus on African teenage sexualities within unequal relations of power. However, whilst focusing on the structural factors that expand sexually aggressive masculinities and limit teenage women's sexual agency, the expression of teenage love in the daily battle for power remains neglected. Drawing on an interview study of teenage Africans, aged 16–17 years, in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, the paper focuses on the micro-dynamics of love, sex and gender. Teenagers account of love highlights changing discourses and include relationships based on care, negotiation and agency showing potential for equality. Such constructions however sit in tension with teenage women's vulnerability in relation to the sexual economy and money, masculine power and gender hierarchies. Intervention programmes that address teenage sexuality must pay careful attention to how love matters in their conceptualisation of relationships and requires consideration of the social and economic context within which they are located. The challenge is to build on equality, address gender hierarchies and ideologies within relationships which create vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using nationally representative survey data from 34 countries, we assess the extent of intergenerational educational mobility for three-quarters of Africa's population, over four decades and by gender. We employ both transition probability matrices and regression-based estimates of intergenerational elasticities and correlation coefficients. We find that the educational status of parents is a strong determinant of their children's educational outcomes, but the strength of this link has diminished in Africa between 1960 and 1999, particularly since the 1980s. We also find that there are considerable differences between countries and by gender. Those in the Southern and Central African region and those with historical links to former British colonies experience relatively higher intergenerational mobility in education. Intergenerational educational mobility is less pronounced for daughters than for sons and mother's education is generally more strongly associated with children's educational attainment than fathers' education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social obstacles including colonisation, cultural inhibitions, and religious restrictions impact female participation in sports. In Nigeria, particularly, where urbanisation and women participation in football has increased, interest in studying women's football amid social obstacles continues to be important. Some of these obstacles included a British colonists’ edict prohibiting female football in the country. The edict stunted the growth of female football in the country. Today, religious prohibitions, along with several other obstacles, such as cultural inhibitions, in the northern part of the country, create additional fault lines in the game's development. Indeed, several of the obstacles are rife in women's football in Nigeria and deserving of academic investigation such as reported in this paper. The paper uses a critical discourse analysis of archived newspaper media to expose the struggle and resistance of female football from the mid-twentieth century to date. The analysis makes the female game's urban existence essential in understanding its development, resistance to obstacles, growth and advancement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper offers a socio-literary investigation of the East African Asian diasporic experience. To this end, it closely examines selected texts that offer insights into the complicated socio-cultural relationships at the interstices of the colonial histories of the Indian subcontinent, Africa and Europe. It also looks at how gendered participation is articulated from within the larger body of a collective history. Finally, the paper reviews steps taken by contemporary Asian-Africans to take stock of their shared past, as a part of larger political project for the recognition of a hitherto minoritised group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In 2003, the same year that the African Union (AU) officially recognised a role for the African diaspora in the future of continental Africa, it also adopted the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, a document which seeks to enhance women's human rights across the Union. These official actions by this body, representing the vision of a more unified Africa, marks a new stage in a history of interactions, conversations and collaborations between Africa and its diaspora, as well as a renewed commitment to gender equity on the continent. This paper examines the feminist tradition within Pan-Africanism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the developments in relation to gender equality with the emergence of the new women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The United Nations' Declaration of the Decade for Women heralded a new phase in the movement for gender equality in the world. These developments, however, are taking place within a context of neo-liberal globalisation, which has had many negative impacts on the peoples of the African diaspora. While it has contributed to the creation of some new millionaires of colour, it has also ruined the agricultural base of many economies, destroyed manufacturing (including indigenous crafts and production systems) and reduced the economic options open to most of our countries - unless they are oil and mineral-producing states. This article concludes with recommendations for greater South - South collaboration on issues of gender equality, including the production and dissemination of audio-visual materials to challenge the power of the globalised US media and its gendered images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the implications of ‘social difference’ for schooling in African contexts. It highlights theoretical and philosophical engagements with ‘difference’ that could help explore and search for viable educational options in Africa. The paper engages voices of university students interviewed in a longitudinal ethnographic research study on schooling done in Ghana. Issues and questions about knowledge production, identity development and representation in pluralistic schooling contexts are raised. Insights about local knowledges, individual agency and resistance as they relate to possibilities for rethinking schooling and education in Africa are also explored. The students' narratives reveal how dialogues about school and educators' practices about difference and diversity are [not] addressed with respect to the students' schooling. Lessons on the possibilities of inclusive schooling environments are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes work underway to enrich the present tools to measure women's empowerment -- particularly the Gender-related Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). The authors are developing an African Gender and Development Index (AGDI) on behalf of the Economic Commission for Africa, which is to be launched in 2004. The paper begins with a discussion of gender and power concepts, and then introduces a Women' s Empowerment Matrix as a tool to help link socio-cultural, religious, political, legal, and economic spheres. It then raises some of the difficulties related to the calculation of the GDI and GEM, which the authors are taking into account in the AGDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Care for AIDS orphans in southern Africa is frequently characterized as a “crisis”, where kin-based networks of care are thought to be on the edge of collapse. Yet these care networks, though strained by AIDS, are still the primary mechanisms for orphan care, in large part because of the essential role grandmothers play in responding to the needs of orphans. Ongoing demographic shifts as a result of HIV/AIDS and an increasingly feminized labor market continue to disrupt and alter networks of care for orphans and vulnerable children. This paper examines the emergence of a small but growing number of male caregivers who are responding to the needs of the extended family. While these men are still few in number, the strength of gendered ideologies of female care means that this group of men is socially, if not statistically significant. Men continue to be considered caregivers of last resort, but their care will close a small but growing gap that threatens to undermine kin-based networks of care in Lesotho and across the region. The adaptation of gender roles reinforces the strength and resilience of kinship networks even when working against deeply entrenched ideas about gendered division of domestic labor. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on fieldwork in Guangzhou, this paper documents the activities of a group of African women traders, highlighting their role in constituting globalisation from below or a counterhegemonic globalisation that emanates from China. It further builds on previous studies on women and development to show how neoliberal economic changes in Africa since the 1980s have forced African men into the traditionally feminine role of (informal) traders between Africa and China. Struggles for economic power between African women and men traders and representations of gender in such struggles as well as the construction of a hyper-masculine discourse in the Guangzhou context are analysed in discussing how women and men are engaged in a continual process of ‘making gender make sense’ outside of Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I use seeds in Malawi as both an analytical lens and an empirical focus of study to examine how food sovereignty is threatened or enhanced in a particular location and time. I argue that while food sovereignty was eroded for smallholders through neoliberal reforms to the agricultural system, community and kin practices help to maintain food sovereignty. The intersection of gender and class dynamics, combined with state policies, however, works to undermine food sovereignty for particular groups in northern Malawi. Historical processes of exclusion, dispossession and exploitation changed the division of labour and reduced time and land for diverse farming systems. State policies reduced knowledge and availability of preferred local varieties. While peasants, particularly women, have considerable knowledge of seed varieties, and seeds continue to be exchanged in agrarian communities, young women, tenant farmers, food insecure younger couples and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-affected families are particularly vulnerable to reduced food sovereignty, in part due to gender inequalities, unequal land distribution and social stigma. New efforts to strengthen food sovereignty need to build on community and kin relations, while addressing social inequalities. Understanding the struggles and relations linked to seeds helps us to understand ways in which food sovereignty is undermined or strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper explores motivational factors and barriers to sexual behaviour change among men receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART). Twenty in-depth interviews were undertaken with male patients enrolled at the African Medical and Research Foundation clinic in Africa's largest urban informal settlement, Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya. All participants experienced prolonged and severe illness prior to the initiation of ART. Fear of symptom relapse was the main trigger for sexual behaviour change. Partner reduction was reported as a first option for behaviour change since this decision could be made by the individual. Condom use was perceived as more difficult as it had to be negotiated with female partners. Cultural norms regarding expectations for reproduction and marriage were not supportive of sexual risk-reduction strategies. Thus, local sociocultural contexts of HIV-infected people must be incorporated into the contextual adaptation and design of ART programmes and services as they have an over-riding influence on sexual behaviour and programme effectiveness. Also, HIV-prevention interventions need to address both personal, micro- and macro-level factors of behaviour to encourage individuals to take on sexual risk-reduction strategies. In order to achieve the anticipated preventive effect of ART, these issues are important for the donor community and policy-makers, who are the major providers of ART programme support within weak health systems in sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Girls' enrolment in primary schools has achieved significant increase and parity with male enrolment in many countries in Africa since the 1960s. Some of these countries include Botswana, Namibia and Tanzania. However, in most Sub-Saharan African countries, female enrolment still lags behind male enrolment. This paper examines some of the reasons for the persistent gender gap between females and males in the three African countries of Ghana, Nigeria and Togo within the West Africa sub-region. It discusses gender relations, cultural practices such as early marriage, child slavery, and child fostering/trafficking, poverty and multiple household duties for girls as some of the contributing factors. It is argued that unless these cultural beliefs and attitudes are changed and mandatory measures such as holding parents accountable and responsible are put in place, gender parity and quality education for all, especially for females, will not be achieved in Africa. A number of additional strategies for improvement in school attendance and retention for females are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide changes in medical health care have raised a number of challenges for health care organisations. En addition to building and maintaining massive networks of patient information, cost analysis, managed care and physicians, they must also maintain responsiveness to the dynamic market conditions (Johns, 1997). According to Casebeer and Hannah (1998), the efforts of government to adjust the responsiveness and efficiency of their health care systems are evident across the globe. This paper focuses on the quality clement of the managerial service system dimension with specific reference to the satisfaction (congruence between expectations and perceptions of performance) of patients and the service responsiveness of hospital staff towards patients in public hospitals in South Africa. Real quality can only he achieved if all patients have access to and receive the same levels of service regardless of gender or race. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late twentieth century, HIV/AIDS-related global public health discourses in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) have been driving cultural change there. Cultural change refers to local critical consciousness about the value of the royalist state's traditionalist policies and projects that get branded as a 'Swazi Culture'. Using feminist discourse analysis of health policy documents, supplemented by ethnographic insights, this article shows how global health discourses addressing the epidemic are critical of traditionalism predominately on grounds that it creates harms and transmission risk in gender- and sexual-based violence and inequalities for women. This criticism echoes a longer history of external interrogations of local sociocultural practices, today including kingship, as a gendered problem for health, a move that simultaneously interrogates state traditionalism but, in turn, solidifies the state's own cultural reifications. More broadly, this case shows how gender and sexuality reshape relationships between nation-states, health systems, and culture in postcolonial Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether or not investments in African agriculture can generate quality employment at scale, avoid dispossessing local people of their land, promote diversified and sustainable livelihoods, and catalyse more vibrant local economies depends on what farming model is pursued. In this Forum, we build on recent scholarship by discussing the key findings of our recent studies in Ghana, Kenya and Zambia. We examined cases of three models of agricultural commercialisation, characterised by different sets of institutional arrangements that link land, labour and capital. The three models are: plantations or estates with on-farm processing; contract farming and outgrower schemes; and medium-scale commercial farming areas. Building on core debates in the critical agrarian studies literature, we identify commercial farming areas and contract farming as producing the most local economic linkages, and plantations/estates as producing more jobs, although these are of low quality and mostly casual. We point to the gender and generational dynamics emerging in the three models, which reflect the changing demand for family and wage labour. Models of agricultural commercialisation do not always deliver what is expected of them in part because local conditions play a critical role in the unfolding outcomes for land relations, labour regimes, livelihoods and local economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the Global North and South, there have been exciting engagements with the concept of the archive in recent decades. These debates are of both scholarly and political significance, especially when it comes to contemporary struggles for minority rights, belonging, and recognition. The overlapping fields of gender, sexuality, and queer studies have made major contributions to rethinking the archive - to raise new and important questions about gendered and sexualised intimacies, affect, memory, historical formations, activism and contemporary cultural practice. Contributing to this growing body of work, the present Special Issue: Intimate Archives: Interventions on Gender, Sexuality and Intimacy presents cutting-edge scholarship in African studies - working from various disciplinary standpoints - to occupy, engage and play with the archive as a politically urgent and intellectually productive theme. In this introduction, we underscore how the contributions to the volume mobilise the 'archive' as more than an institution or a place; it works as an underlying metaphor and a call for thorough contextualisation and a radical re-imagination of the historical experiences - the intimate historicity – of gendered and sexualised lives amidst societal and political change, from colonialism to liberation, from criminalisation of sexual 'deviance' to ongoing struggles for visibility and rights not only in Africa but in the broader Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a special issue focusing upon linkages between enslavement and marriage within African societies from the 1830s to the present day. The right to make decisions over marriage is one of the core powers which masters have historically exercised over individuals whom they enslaved. The exercise of this right had far-reaching ramifications for lived experiences of enslavement, with slaves – usually women and girls – being forced into conjugal relationships where their labour, sexuality and reproductive capacity were at the disposal of their husband/master. This article introduces two major themes that cut across the issue's contributions: direct connections and comparative analogies. The former refers to scenarios where marriage and enslavement directly intersected and overlapped, while the latter refers to claims that at least some African marriages were analogous to enslavement. Comparisons between marriage and slavery have been a recurring feature of African politics throughout the period considered here. They have also been frequently paired with moral denunciations and calls for change by actors as different as European colonial administrators and African victims-turned-activists. At the same time, the legitimizing cloak of marriage has been repeatedly used to deliberately obscure the continuing legacies of slavery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the impact of the gender gap in effective labor – defined as the combined effect of the gender gaps in labor force participation and education – on economic output per worker. The results indicate that the gender gap in effective labor has a negative effect on the economic output per worker in African countries. A 1 percent increase in the gender gap in effective labor leads to a reduction in output per worker by 0.43–0.49 percent in Africa overall, 0.29–0.50 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa, and 0.26–0.32 percent in a wider group of countries from Africa and Asia. The total annual economic losses due to gender gaps in effective labor could be as high as US$255 billion for the African region. Results confirm that Africa is missing its full growth potential because a sizeable portion of its growth reserve – women – is not fully utilized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dominant theoretical framework for analyzing migration in Africa rests on the assumption of cooperative intrahousehold decision making regarding the mobility of household members. This framework, applied to women's migration, overlooks the varied decision-making processes underlying their mobility, and obscures their ability to act as purposeful agents in making decisions about migration. Drawing on a study of women's rural–urban migration in Ghana, this article argues that women's migration decisions exist on a continuum defined by the presence or absence of intrahousehold contestation and the degree of agency exercised by the migrants themselves. Consequently, household models of migration may not always be the appropriate theoretical framework for the analysis of women's migration in this context. The findings presented have implications for economic analyses of women's migration and remittances, for our understanding of migrant women's capacity for agency, and for the design of effective policies to improve migration outcomes for women. HIGHLIGHTS The study directly elicits information from women about their migration decisions. Women's migration is the outcome of complex decision-making processes. The dichotomy between household and individual models of migration ignores these complexities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue of the South African Historical Journal reflects on the state of the field of pre-industrial history at the Cape of Good Hope. It is an opportunity to look back on the previous decade of research, identify accomplishments, and chart future directions. We note a significant historiographical shift from research that focused broadly on colonised peoples, particularly slaves and Khoesan, to emerging literatures that give equally careful attention to colonisers. This shift moves the field toward a more complete picture of colonial society; it accompanies a present period of political uncertainty. The growing body of scholarship on early colonial history is drawing more practitioners. The resulting exploration of new topics and the revision of existing interpretations are producing robust, methodologically diverse work, especially noteworthy for its interdisciplinarity. While this work increasingly situates the Cape in broader regional and global histories, even more intentional efforts are required in order to avoid parochialism. The transition from Dutch to British rule at the Cape also requires further scrutiny. These efforts have the ability to challenge existing periodisations and lead to a re-examination of the continuities before and after the mineral revolutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The theme of love has long been neglected in studies on African myths. The often-heard explanation is that African myths and folktales do not tell stories about love because they primarily express social interests and obligations while love – intended as both emotional imperative and biological drive – is an individual need and feeling. This latter definition relies on a very specific understanding of ‘love’: the Romantic love of 19th century European novels. This paper argues that when love means attraction, affection, passion, and necessity, it turns up as liaisons dangereuses in many African narratives. Love becomes a driving force that generates gender constructions by reinforcing the unity of the couple or by fuelling the struggle between partners. In the case of Kabyle narratives (Algeria), 1 [1] Kabylia is a mountainous area in the north-west of Algeria. Linguistically and culturally it is a rather homogeneous area: Kabyles are Muslim and speak Taqbaylit, one of the several local forms of Tamazight, the Berber language, spoken in Algeria, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Niger, and Tunisia. In Algeria approximately 20–25 percent of the population speaks Berber, while the majority of the population speaks Arabic, the official language. Islam was adopted in North Africa starting from the latter half of the seventh century. conceptualisations of love as well as the relationships between myths and folktales are explored by analyzing formula tales 2 [2] The genre usually translated into English as ‘folktale’ or ‘legend’ and in French as conte, conte merveilleux, or légende takes in Berber different names depending on the local language, for example tamacahuţ in Kabylia (Algeria) and tanfus in the Rif (Morocco). The presence of formulas of beginning and ending is characteristic, for example the expression macahu! (‘a story!’) which gives the name to this type of tale in Kabylia. I therefore use the denomination ‘formula tales’ (, pp. 104–118). and the only known collection of Kabyle Berber myths: those collected by Leo Frobenius, ethnologist and historian of religion, at the beginning of the 20th century and published in the first volume of his Volksmärchen der Kabylen in 1921. The discussion of the relationship between Kabyle myths and folktales touches upon a well-known interpretative problem in the study of religion: the articulation of myth and ritual with history as communities respond to sweeping social, political, and religious changes, such as the coming of Islam, colonization, decolonization, and globalization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article was developed from a paper presented at a seminar at the Africa Institute of South Africa in Pretoria in 2006 while the author was an Archie Mafeje Fellow. It argues the urgent need for the construction and consolidation of gender-inclusive democratic developmental states as central to grounding the concept of an African Renaissance, for an effective transformation of the human condition, and for ensuring that this renaissance does not become romanticised and meaningless. While the notion of developmental states has gained currency in recent years, very little, if at all, has been said about gender in relation to these debates - despite the United Nations warning that 'without engendering development, development itself is endangered.' In other words, formulating and implementing development policies with gender lenses are crucial for development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What explains the silencing, dismissal, disavowal, ridicule, and stigmatizing of care for individual animals observed in conservation discourses? We examine this question using a comparative case study of feral cat management in North America and lion conservation in southern Africa. We apply intersectionality to illustrate the ways in which hierarchies of scale (individual/population), knowledge (emotion/reason), and gender (feminine/masculine) marginalize concern for individual animals, with consequences for the lives of animals and those who care for them. We explore the embodiment of these intersecting hierarchies in two contrasting, yet entangled, figures – the othered Crazy Cat Lady and the privileged Trophy Hunter – which serve to illustrate how mainstream conservation discourses position care for animals as feminine and emotional, while privileging a very different human-animal relationship based in masculine, rational concern for species. Overall, we contribute to efforts in feminist more-than-human scholarship by: extending intersectional analysis to empirical cases of animal conservation and management where it has had limited application; applying intersectionality to manifestations of social power other than categories of identity by considering gender alongside hierarchies of scale and knowledge; and, examining both othered and privileged identity formation by employing a comparative case study approach. We conclude by highlighting alternate ontologies which hold promise for fostering more equitable, less hierarchical visions of multispecies flourishing which avow care for individual animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tens of thousands of young Ethiopian women have migrated from small towns and rural areas to work in the Hawassa Industrial Park (HIP), where working conditions and wages are far below their expectations. Low wages and a high cost of living mean that workers face severe challenges in meeting their basic needs for food and shelter that are necessary for reproducing their own labor. Attention to struggles over the reproduction of migrant women's labor at the HIP generates insights into the practices of the Ethiopian developmental state. The developmental state actively makes and reproduces cheap labor to attract international capital and support economic growth. The state protects international textile manufacturers from the burden of reproducing the labor that manufacturers rely on for profits. The case of the HIP is a necessary complement to recent scholarship on urban Africa that has focused overwhelmingly on the informal economy. The precarious nature of factory work leads some young women to search out stability with small scale, often informal, entrepreneurial work, a process that disrupts conventional narratives of economic development. The complex relationship between wage labor and self-employment suggests possibilities for pro-poor policies that go beyond reproducing labor for international manufacturers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do the local cultural politics of secrecy intersect with biomedical and institutionalised global health knowledge and management of HIV? This question was ethnographically researched during a home counselling and testing programme as it was initiated twice in a Kenyan community. The programme was informed by worldwide efforts to organise and control HIV so as to 'end AIDS'. We focused critical attention on the relationship between HIV testing and counselling and contend that local expertise in speaking about (or silencing) sexuality, intimacy and HIV intersected with the home counselling and testing campaign as an instrument in the co-production of local gender dynamics and power arrangements. We demonstrate how the home counselling and testing programme was put to use for local cultural projects aimed at (re)negotiating gender, sexuality, social roles, intimacy and power dynamics and, in consequence, produced uneven experiences with testing, treatment and AIDS-related health outcomes during a period of major social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapidly changing and divergent everyday realities on the African continent call for a more differentiated examination of the complex experiences and representations of men than is offered by the discourse on the 'crisis of masculinity', which depicts men as being criminal, violent, dominant, and irresponsible. By contrast, this introduction to the themed section 'Masculinities in Africa beyond Crisis: Complexity, Fluidity, and Intersectionality' aims to engage critically with the concept of hegemonic masculinity and argues that multiple images of masculinities co-exist in Africa and beyond. To comprehend new discourses and practices around masculinities, we must consider the question of how masculinities emerge. Discourses and practices relating to masculinities and manhood are situationally and relationally adopted, contested, transformed, and reconfigured. In this special issue, we closely analyse individual's daily efforts 'to be "good men", as well as "good at" being men' (Inhorn and Isidoros 2018, 2) in times of political, social, and economic transformations. We aim at examining how ideas and practices of masculinities shape individual and collective agency on social, economic, political, and cultural levels. Paying attention to the historical, geographical, and cultural diversities of masculinities in African countries, we discuss how images of masculinities evolve and become manifest in everyday life and analyse how these imaginations circulate within translocal and transnational spaces. We thereby pay close attention to how gender intersects with other identities, such as age, class, race, ethnicity, and sexuality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthy soils play a critical role in supporting agricultural productivity, climate change mitigation and resilience, and a range of ecosystem services. Degraded and poorly responsive soils cover large areas of Africa and represent the majority of poor farmers' fields in certain regions. While many technical options for soil improvement or restoration sit 'on the shelf', there are many sociocultural, institutional, economic, and policy barriers hindering their adoption at large scale. Gender inequality is deeply embedded in and reinforces these barriers, and represents a wicked problem requiring context – and culture-specific understandings and approaches. This study reviews relevant gender literature and proposes a conceptual framework to help illuminate important gender considerations for soil health management. The framework highlights how a range of separate and joint assets held by men and women in households, and the intrahousehold distribution of use, management, fructus, and alienation rights shape the management practices that contribute to, or undermine, soil health. These considerations are essential for identifying gender-based constraints, opportunities, and unintended consequences in promoting soil management technologies. Applying the framework, we make several recommendations for setting priorities for gender-soil health research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to examine gendered variations in determinants of depression and anxiety symptoms among African immigrants in the United States. Data were drawn from a cross-sectional survey of first and second-generation immigrants from African countries living in the United States (N = 409). Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression results revealed gendered differences in factors that influence depression and anxiety symptoms. Second-generation immigrants showed decreased depression and anxiety symptoms among men, while income and marital status showed significant effects on depression and anxiety symptoms for women. Loneliness and discrimination were found to negatively impact the mental health of both female and male immigrants. Additionally, we found that gender did not moderate the effects of loneliness on depression and anxiety symptoms. Findings highlight the need for practitioners to better understand the unique risk and protective factors affecting female and male African immigrants in their efforts to provide effective mental health services to members of this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Africa women are underrepresented in higher education (HE) agricultural programs, despite the fact that they make up half of the agricultural labor force. This article discusses the reasons for women's low enrollment in HE agricultural programs, focusing on socio-cultural norms and gendered perceptions of agriculture. Moving beyond access, it also explores the institutional culture and learning environment in HE agricultural programs. We argue that women often feel unsafe, uncomfortable, and isolated in these programs and that conservative socio-cultural norms, which discriminate against women in society and family life, also permeate institutions of HE. The data comes from a literature review, a Southern and Eastern Africa regional workshop, and focus groups and interviews conducted with faculty and students in South Sudan and Mozambique. We conclude with recommendations for increasing the number of women in agricultural programs and improving their experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the question of why does an African country that had more women queens and empresses throughout its history practically than any other African country have the oldest known women queens in Africa, and purports to be committed to gender equality end up undermining its own objectives. The article shows that the focus on integrationist paradigm, an approach which focuses on the participation of women in the existing development paradigm, undermined the transformative nature of gender policy because it does not conceptualize gender parity as an end by itself, but as an instrument for economic progress. Consequently, progress towards gender parity remains to be little-by-little despite the strong political commitment to gender equality. The article concludes that the transformative nature of gender policy has been endangered by emphasis on macroeconomic outcomes, macro-level conceptualization of gender issues, and the limited role of civil society in influencing policy decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Men's relatively low rates of HIV testing has been termed the 'HIV blind spot' and recently declared by UNAIDS as a top priority. This study uses data from five nationally representative Demographic and Health Surveys in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe to explore factors associated with men's lifetime HIV testing. Between 29.3% and 34.9% of men ages 15–49 in these countries had never tested for HIV and men who held accepting attitudes towards gender-based violence, who lacked HIV knowledge, and who held stigmatising views of HIV were more likely to report never testing for HIV. Findings are interpreted, including a discussion of the possible unintended consequences of current 90-90-90 targets on men's relatively low testing rates. The results point to possible intervention opportunities to increase HIV testing among men in high-HIV prevalence settings in Eastern and Southern Africa and emphasise the importance of changing men's perceptions related to stigma and gender norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African migration to Canada is a relatively new development. There is a dearth of literature on the mental health of this newer immigrant population, especially those from the conflict zones of Sub-Saharan Africa. Our exploratory study examined the experiences of African female survivors of conflict-related sexualized violence based on the insights of six community mental health professionals. Guided by interpretive inquiry, semi-structured interviews were analyzed thematically and interpreted in light of multicultural feminist and transnational perspectives. Findings highlight refugee women's resilience in the face of threats of social isolation and stigma. Their prioritization of assistance with practical needs, parenting, community/social supports, and education attainment in the context of counseling raises questions about agency and identity in understanding the relationships between female survivors, what they identify as important to their recovery, and their pathways to accessing mental health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the world, people in urban rather than rural areas are more likely to support gender equality. To explain this global trend, this article engages with geographically diverse literature and comparative rural-urban ethnographic research from Zambia. It argues that people living in interconnected, heterogeneous, densely populated areas are more likely to see women performing socially valued, masculine roles. Such exposure incrementally erodes gender ideologies, catalyzing a positive feedback loop and increasing flexibility in gender divisions of labor. Women in densely populated areas also tend to have greater access to health clinics and police and so are more able to control their fertility and secure external support against gender-based violence. The urban is not inevitably disruptive, though. Experiences of the urban are shaped by international and national policies, macroeconomic conditions, and individual circumstances. Through this comparative ethnography, this article contributes to literature on the drivers of change and continuity in gender ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role and representation of female filmmakers globally have been topics of discussion but have not been researched in depth to help garner significant change, especially in the South African film industry. The role of film festivals like the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) and Encounters help female filmmakers by giving them the platform to showcase their work as well as gain more recognition. However, the number of female filmmakers, and black female filmmakers in particular, are not recognised substantially at these festivals. South African box office reports also indicate that the film industry is dominated by white male directors and that not enough films are produced locally to meet up with the amount of international films that are screened at local cinemas, which is further indication that a gender and race discrepancy is prevalent. There is also the issue of female filmmakers being limited in the fiction film genre and as a result the film industry in South Africa and globally have more female filmmakers making non-fiction films than fiction films. This article will explore the issue of gender and race in the South African film industry, by focusing on the two biggest film festivals: DIFF and Encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Suicide ideation is a health issue affecting adolescents worldwide. There are significant variations in suicide ideation between countries and genders, which have not been fully explained. Research is especially lacking in countries outside Europe and North America. Gender equality has been shown to matter in other aspects of adolescent mental health, such as life satisfaction, but has not been researched in relation to suicide ideation at national level. Objective: To investigate how national gender inequality is related to self-reported suicide ideation among adolescents, and whether this association differs between boys and girls. Methods: This is a cross-national, cross-sectional study using individual survey data from the Global School-based Student Health Survey, a survey in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the South Pacific, developed and supported by among others the WHO and the CDC; connecting this to national data: the gender inequality index from the UNDP; controlling for GDP per capita and secondary school enrolment. The data was analysed using a multilevel logistic regression method and included 149,306 students from 37 countries. Results: Higher national gender inequality, as measured by the gender inequality index, was significantly associated with a higher likelihood of suicide ideation in both girls and boys (odds ratio: 1.38 p-value: 0.015), but for girls and both sexes this was only after adjusting for selection bias due to secondary school enrolment (as well as GDP/capita). Interaction models showed that this association was stronger in boys than in girls. Conclusions: National gender inequality seems to be associated with higher levels of suicide ideation among adolescents in mainly low- and middle-income countries, especially among boys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recipient communities often distribute humanitarian aid in unexpected ways that reveal critical power dynamics and relationships. This article examines a case involving ‘orphan kits’ distributed by the staff of an international non-governmental organization in Mozambican woodland communities. The kits contained food and school supplies allocated according to a strict gender distribution mandate, which was of secondary importance compared with local obligations tied to enduring matrilineal social relations. Families divided the kits among kin and allocated a portion of the kits to local leaders as tribute. The seemingly simple act of leaders placing orphans on a list can signify the future arrival of much-needed support while also sparking fears of disciplinary powers governing family structures, labor and culturally and politically oppositional lives. Rumors narrate the effects of particular list-making procedures, allowing families to observe, interpret and express ideas about coercive and productive power relations. Rumors took up kit contents such as sardine tins to catalyze debates about proper leadership and comportment of orphans and their families. The article illustrates how feminist geographers can treat rumor and liminal interventions seriously as constitutive of contested power relations rooted in eco-social spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Autonomy gives women the ability to negotiate safe sex and make decisions on their health. This study explores the gender stratification framework to understand the intertwined nature of HIV and women’s autonomy using the nationally representative Demographic Health Survey. It examines women’s autonomy and attitudes toward condom use for prevention of HIV/AIDS in four culturally diverse countries. Findings from the logistic regression indicate that labor force participation, individual autonomy, and decision making significantly increased the odds of always using a condom during sex in all countries. Promoting prevention policies highlighting women’s autonomy may contribute in reducing the spread of HIV infection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines African female education reform between the wars as a conjuncture of transnational philanthropic initiatives and state and missionary objectives on the ground. Through a comparative treatment of four schools in West, East and South-Central Africa, it shows that the search to recover and re-create the authentic African subject was a gendered process that aimed to critique one brand of colonialism (settler and industrial capitalism) by bolstering another (indirect rule). The schools at Achimota (Gold Coast), Kabete (Kenya), Hope Fountain (Southern Rhodesia) and Mbereshi (Northern Rhodesia) all idealised women’s traditional education as the key to offsetting the dangers of modernisation and preserving the integrity of the social body, and ‘adapted’ their curricula accordingly to their perception of women’s normative economic and social roles. However, the internal contradictions of this project stymied any possibility of implementing it in a cohesive way, and even its advocates and architects were often forced to admit the limits of tradition as a coherent logic or redemptive force. The gendered contours of adaptation, therefore, showed the potential of education to destabilise as much as to reinforce the shifting paradigms of the colonial project. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]