Abosede George, Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies, shares a reflection on her Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality courses and Ugandan lawyer and sociologist Sylvia Tamale for #WomensHistoryMonth:
“In my classes we get to know African intellectuals, and we pay special attention to the work of African feminist intellectuals. One of my favorite scholar-activists to assign is the Ugandan lawyer and sociologist Sylvia Tamale, who has been a powerful voice for the civi...l and human rights of women and sexual minorities in Uganda. The quote [below] comes from her new book Decolonization and Afro-Feminism, which was published in 2020 by Daraja Press. In the book, she explores the urgency of decolonialism for African intellectual, political, economic, and moral liberation from the legacies of colonialism and coloniality that shaped the modern world. In my Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies seminar, we think deeply with scholars like Tamale about feminist political questions from African history and toward African futures.”
“The process of colonization erased, suppressed, and demonized all Indigenous non-Western knowledge systems. In particular, knowledge of women, of ‘peasants’ and working classes, and of the ‘pagans’ or earth-centered religion worshippers were all subjugated and criminalized. ... Decolonial liberation would, therefore, not just target the exploitative capitalist economic system but all systemic constructs and relations (based on race, sex, family, knowledge structures, able-ness, etc.).” —Sylvia Tamale, Decolonization and Afro-Feminism (Ottawa: Daraja Press, 2020), 28-29.