Gender equality, Pan-Africanism and the diaspora

Abstract

ABSTRACT 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.