Gendering Knowledge in Africa and the African Diaspora Contesting History and Power

Gendering Knowledge in Africa and the African Diaspora addresses the question of to what extent the history of gender in Africa is appropriately inscribed in narratives of power, patriarchy, migration, identity and women and men’s subjection, emasculation and empowerment. The book weaves together compelling narratives about women, men and gender relations in Africa and the African Diaspora from multidisciplinary perspectives, with a view to advancing original ways of understanding these subjects. The chapters achieve three things: first, they deliberately target long-held but erroneous notions about patriarchy, power, gender, migration and masculinity in Africa and of the African Diaspora, vigorously contesting these, and debunking them; second, they unearth previously marginalized and little known his/herstories, depicting the dynamics of gender and power in places ranging from Angola to Arabia to America, and in different time periods, decidedly gendering the previously male-dominated discourse; and third, they ultimately aim to re-write the stories of women and gender relations in Africa and in the African Diaspora. As such,this workis an important read for scholars of African history, gender and the African Diaspora. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of African Studies, Diaspora Studies, Gender and History.

Introduction: Gendering Knowledge in Africa and the African Diaspora Part I: (Re-)Writing Gender in African and African Diaspora History1. The Bantu Matrilineal Belt: Reframing African Women’s History 2. REMAPping the African Diaspora: Place, Gender, and Negotiation in Arabian Slavery 3. Communicating Feminist Ethics in the Age of New Media in Africa Part II: Gender, Migration, and Identity4. Transnational Feminist Solidarity, Black German Women, and the Politics of Belonging 5. Beyond Disability: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Female Heroism in Manu Herbstein’s Ama 6. Reverse Migration of Africans in the Diaspora: Foregrounding a Woman’s Quest for her Roots in Tess Onwueme’s Legacies Part III: Gender, Subjection, and Power7. Queens in Flight: Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat Queens and the Performance of "Black" Feminist Diasporas 8. Women and Tfu in Wimbum Community, Cameroon 9. Contesting the Notions of "Thugs and Welfare Queens": Combating Black Derision and Death 10. Emasculation, Social Humiliation, and Psychological Castration in Irene’s More than Dancing

Professor Toyin Falola is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities, and a Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. Dr Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso is Senior Lecturer in Political Science at Babcock University in Nigeria.