Nokoko – Institute of African Studies @ Carleton University’s Open-Access Journal

Submissions are invited for the fourth issue of the journal. The theme for this special issue is: 'Actualizing Women’s Rights and Gender Equality in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities'.

African women’s active organizing to fight for their rights and to contribute to the region’s development and democratization processes coupled with a supportive international development community, has resulted in notable progress in the area of gender-responsive policy formulation, legislative reforms, concomitant programme and project design, as well as participation in political and decision-making levels throughout the region. Yet, widespread poverty, conflicts and wars, environmental degradation, drought, food insecurity and the HIV/AIDS pandemic continue to have disproportionate impacts on women, particularly, rural women and the urban poor. Such persistent challenges are further exacerbated as the impact of the global financial crisis is being felt throughout the region.

What is the impact of this crisis and inevitable shifts in resource flow on women and their families? What are the implications for national economies and the funding of activities that promote women’s rights and gender equality? How are the plethora of African women’s organizations and networks responding to these emerging challenges? The resilience and resourcefulness of African women in times of crises is legendary. What are women’s own enduring and new survival and coping strategies at community level? How are new technologies facilitating women’s organizing within and across national borders? How far have national and sub-national level mechanisms incorporated lessons from women’s own efforts into planning and budgeting processes? What new techniques and tools are women using to ensure sustainability of successful efforts and avoid reversals amidst emerging global and national level challenges?

Women’s activism in Africa of course draws on rich histories in which women have played crucial roles in challenging colonialism and multiple forms of oppression. They were crucial, for example, in Bus boycotts and Sheebin strikes in South Africa, on miners’ strikes in Zambia and in the rail workers strikes of West Africa. Women also played important roles in resistance movements in several countries such as Angola and Mozambique as they had in Kenya with the Mau Mau rebellion. How is tradition informing present-day gender politics in Africa? How are traditions being re-written to occlude women’s struggles and their ability to exact political space?

The fourth issue of Nokoko hopes to explore these and related issues. Submissions are invited from researchers, activists, academics, and development practitioners. Young professionals from Africa and the Diaspora are particularly encouraged to submit papers that advance new perspectives and approaches.

Please send your papers to [email][email protected] by 14 September 2012.

For more information on Nokoko, please visit www2.carleton.ca/africanstudies/research/nokoko/.