Africa's Progressive Future is Feminist: on the path towards new alliances for justice

African feminism is loud and assertive!

Contrary to the media's representation of African women as "victims", African feminists have been at the forefront all along when it came to standing up against oppression, exploitation and authoritarianism. In the context of decolonization struggles, women have made a decisive contribution to day-to-day resistance against racism and ideologies of white domination. But they also contributed as thought leaders to the development of a pan-African vision of a socially just and free society that treats both men and women with dignity.

In today's discourse on development, women are often perceived as a special "problem target group" that needs to be addressed with gender-sensitive policies. Such a technical curtailing of the emancipatory potential of the gender concept makes it easy to forget the powerful force of radical political women on the continent. Today, feminists in all parts of the continent are speaking out more and more openly and courageously against violence, homophobia, xenophobia, patriarchal power politics and the inaction of political elites. They are standing up against social and economic inequality, and advocate a life in freedom and dignity for the working classes.

They are finding new ways to question existing power and oppression structures: The impressive march for an end to violence against women in South Africa on 1 August 2018 is a very topical example of how women's movements were able to channel the existing anger and indignation about endemic abuse, forced marriage, rape and murder of women into a national and intersectional movement. Under the motto #TotalShutDown, thousands of people took to the streets united.

The continent needs new alliances

Concerns about the worldwide conservative backlash against women's rights and the gradual de-politization of feminist agendas on the one hand, and the emergence of a new generation of feminist activists on the continent on the other, gave rise in 2016 to the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung's increased gender policy activity in Africa. It began as a brainstorming conference on the sidelines of the international meeting of the "World Women's March" social movement in Maputo. The aim was to understand current agendas and struggles in the different regions and identify common challenges. The exchange of experiences was critical and insightful.

While women's movements in many countries very successfully organise collective resistance to violence, land grabbing and the destructive influences of large-scale economic projects on local communities, it is sometimes difficult to form larger political and strategic alliances with other movements. Particularly traditional mass movements such as political parties and trade unions can, however, be partners in strengthening one's own bargaining power and changing social structures. Sometimes there is a lack of spaces to share and develop feminist knowledge, to systematize experiences and to collectively develop concrete utopias for economic alternatives from a feminist perspective.

FES: connecting sisters!

As a social-democratic institution with close ties to the workers' movement, the FES recognised its role here in building bridges between the voices of strong women within and outside political institutions. The result: an Africa-wide feminist working and action group that brings together some 30 feminist academics, social activists and progressive women from trade unions and the political arena from 19 different African countries to establish so-called workshops of ideas. In these pan-African feminist laboratories, the group uses participatory methods (storytelling, bio-maps, collective projects) to jointly reflect on social and economic developments, feminist viewpoints, and democratic, citizen-oriented ways of organizing politics. The mission is: to sharpen one's senses in order to understand the struggles of the others in different contexts and the associated complexity and to strengthen women and their movement in solidarity in a very practical and intersectional way.

This is often easier said than done. In the beginning, there was a lot to do to deconstruct their own biases and stereotypes: "Academics just talk and do nothing.", "Social activists are donor darlings and have no mandate", "Trade unionists are as feminist as free trade is free". Intersectionality means first to question one's own limits of imagination, deep-seated convictions and possible negative experiences, and opening oneself up to alternative perspectives. Listening and learning is hard work. But it is worth it, because "united in diversity" enables us to develop a better understanding of complex realities and their inherent structural violence.

Feminism, understood in this active, collective, radical and transformative way, can create the essential links between important social struggles, thereby contributing to overcoming existing borders. In this way, it can also become possible to go beyond the often limited discussions about single issues and formal policies of representation and achieve substantial structural changes in the economic and political system.

The success of today's feminist struggles depends to a large extent on encouraging committed women in their resistance to exploitation and social injustice, and promoting collective alternatives. The Africa-wide feminist working and action group supported by the FES would like to play its part in this large-scale project.

More information on the FES's feminist work in Africa can be found on the website of FES Mozambique.