New directions for researching and writing African feminist histories

Abstract

The field of African feminism, particularly Nigerian women, and feminist history, is large and expansive, covering significant topics and innovative methods and sources; yet many areas remain unexplored. In this paper, I investigate the landmarks in scholarship on women and feminist history in Nigeria and make a case for new directions. Women and feminist histories in Nigeria have focused on deconstructing the category of “women” arguing that this category and its corresponding social and cultural characteristics are western inventions. More so, that gender and gender relations were fluid concepts that did not lead to exclusion based on anatomical sex. In addition, other scholars have examined social practices like marriage, bride-price, and child labour while others have attempted critical biographies of elite Lagos women and analyzed the gendered nature of colonialism. I argue that a new research agenda must go beyond these topics in search of themes, methods, and sources to explore untapped sources and rare methodologies to chart a new course in the scholarship on Nigerian women and feminism. Underexplored topics include but are not limited to fame and protest in the pre-colonial era, sexualities scholarship that goes beyond binaries, gender and the environment and technologies of power such as guns in precolonial Nigeria. In terms of sources, new frontiers need to mine orality and oral literature to recover the voices of non– educated women who are not part of Christian cosmopolitan networks, Muslim women whose exploits in women and feminist history have been silenced by excessive attention to Christian women. Literary sources like novels and poetry, and visual evidence from photography have not received critical attention in women and feminist histories of Nigeria. I argue that these new sources and topics will lead to an inclusive history that is mindful of power in the writing of history.