- Title
- Thirty years of Male Daughters, Female Husbands
- Creator
- Magadla, Siphokazi, Magoqwana, Babalwa, Motsemme, Nthabiseng
- Subject
- To be catalogued
- Date
- 2021
- Type
- text
- Type
- article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/298685
- Identifier
- vital:57727
- Identifier
- xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2021.1926442"
- Description
- This paper examines the legacy of Ifi Amadiume's Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society (1987) to African gender theorisation three decades after its publication. We argue that Amadiume's detailed ethnography of the Nnobi society provides an example of what can be achieved when African scholars centre local histories, languages, and kinship ties to provide contextualised understandings of sex and gender. In southern African societies, we assess the ways in which gender fluidity, drawing from local languages, age, seniority and lineage do not strictly fix sex to gender, thus providing possibilities for flexible gender structures that allow women to access institutions of power through the lineage as first daughters (umafungwashe) and wives, among others. We further examine the ways conservative patriarchal discourses continue distorting African cultures and traditions, thus undermining women's rights and access to social, cultural, economic and political power. We argue that current Eurocentric attempts that aim to delink sex and gender do not move us beyond the universalised binaries of gender and sex. Through revisiting local social and linguistic histories that practised gender fluidity and tolerance, we can also begin to challenge the conservative attitudes towards the LGBTQIA+ communities. Given the continued sexual and gender diversities that are being challenged daily in the African continent, it is timely that we revisit the historical meanings along with their contemporary implications for sexual citizenship and gendered power relations today.
- Format
- computer, online resource, application/pdf, 1 online resource (17 pages), pdf
- Publisher
- Taylor and Francis Online
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Journal of Contemporary African Studies, Magadla, S., Magoqwana, B. and Motsemme, N., 2021. Thirty years of Male Daughters, Female Husbands: revisiting Ifi Amadiume’s questions on gender, sex and political economy. Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 39(4), pp.517-533, Journal of Contemporary African Studies volume 39 number 4 p. 517 2021 1469-9397
- Rights
- Publisher
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Taylor and Francis Online Terms and Conditions Statement (https://www.tandfonline.com/terms-and-conditions)
- Rights
- Open Access
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Collections
Magadla, Siphokazi (Prof)
Gender Action Forum (GENACT)
RU Department of Political and International Studies
SDG 05. Gender Equality
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details | SOURCE1 | Thirty years of Male Daughters Female Husbands revisiting Ifi Amadiume s questions on gender sex and political economy.pdf | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |