The Social Imaginaries of Women's Peace Activism in Northern Uganda
Loading...
Date
2016
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Feminist Journal of Politics
Abstract
The metanarrative of global feminism is often constructed as a progressive and emancipatory movement emanating from the West and fostering radical politics elsewhere in the world. Such a view is not only ethnocentric but, critically, it fails to engage with the complex ways in which feminist politics travel and are evinced in specific localities. In this article, I seek to understand how marginalized women in the “Global South” – particularly in Africa – interpret, experience and negotiate feminist ideas to wield political power within the context of their social and moral worlds. I focus on women's organized resistance to violence and armed conflict, known as “women's peace activism.” Using a case study of a women's peace movement in Uganda mediated by an international feminist organization called Isis Women's International Cross-Cultural Exchange, I conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with a wide range of activists in the organization and in its network in postconflict areas in Northern Uganda. I argue that the feminist peace discourse is most meaningful when its universal values of equity and securing the dignity of women are appropriated and re-signified through the cultural institutions and the collective memory of activists in their local settings.
Description
Keywords
feminism, violence and peacebuilding, transnational politics, Uganda, social imaginaries
Citation
Chigudu, Simukai. "The social imaginaries of women's peace activism in Northern Uganda." International Feminist Journal of Politics 18, no. 1 (2016): 19-38.https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2015.1105588