Papers by Charmaine Pereira
Feminist Africa, Jun 21, 2021
This article contextualises the phenomenon of extractivism in Africa, exploring the extent to whi... more This article contextualises the phenomenon of extractivism in Africa, exploring the extent to which the different meanings of extractivism in the literature contribute to an understanding of its gendered character. We argue that extractivism is embedded in the changing dynamics of contemporary capitalism and configured differently in diverse social formations, each with its particular history, state, class formation, political culture and practice, range of natural resources, and policies. Nevertheless, certain broad commonalities may be identified. We highlight four key themes that have been salient in the literature: 1) meanings and manifestations of extractivism; 2) the key actors involved; 3) responses and resistance; and 4) alternatives to extractivism expressed by feminist intellectuals and movements. The article points to the need for greater attention to African feminist analyses of context, women's resistance to extractivism, their propositions for anti-capitalist alternatives, and the possibilities of transforming our economies, our social relations, and our relations to the natural world.
Feminist Africa, Jun 21, 2021
The introduction of teachers into local authority day nurseries has been recommended as a means o... more The introduction of teachers into local authority day nurseries has been recommended as a means of extending the educational opportunities open to the children attending such nurseries. An underlying assumption is that teachers are likely to be especially successful at providing compensatory experiences which will promote the child's language development. The present research was carried out in council day nurseries with and without teachers. Two main aims were identified. One was to investigate whether nursery nurses and teachers differed in their speech to children, particularly in terms of cognitive content. The second was to compare children's customary levels of social and cognitive functioning - as expressed In their spontaneous behaviour in the nursery - in the two groups of nurseries. Few differences were found in the behaviour of three-year-olds in each nursery group. The hypothesis that complex cognitive operations would be more often observed in the children from ...
us with the opportunity to continue some of the debates initiated by Patricia MacFadden, Charmain... more us with the opportunity to continue some of the debates initiated by Patricia MacFadden, Charmaine Pereira and Sylvia Tamale in an earlier issue (see Feminist Africa 2). In keeping with Feminist Africa's intellectual development agenda, the present issue also provides a platform for new research carried out by leading African feminist thinkers. The three feature articles present thoughtprovoking material drawn from the Mapping Sexualities Research Project. This is possibly the first project in the transnational field of sexuality research to have been carried out by African researchers rooted in feminist praxis. Through this new knowledge, we provide ourselves with the opportunity to deepen and further inform the ongoing debates and struggles around various aspects of sexuality. Much of the literature available on the global market addresses African sexuality by proxy – in terms of grand theorisations of race and imperialism, colonial histories of regulation and population contr...
Patricia McFadden's article "Sexual Pleasure as Feminist Choice" is powerfully writ... more Patricia McFadden's article "Sexual Pleasure as Feminist Choice" is powerfully written, highlighting as it does the extent to which women's sexuality is under-researched, poorly understood and often repressed. "Good women" do not discuss sexuality in public; by extension, to intervene into discourses of sexuality is to engage in battles that are not for the faint-hearted. McFadden raises important issues, such as the relationship between sexual pleasure and power, the critical need to distinguish sexuality from reproduction, the reassertion of feminist agency as the starting point for confronting sexual violations, and the necessity of sexual choice for women.
Community Care: A Reader, 1997
10th General Assembly of CODESRIA,'Africa in the …, 2002
... One of the key dimensions here is militarism and the militarisation of the state. In her anal... more ... One of the key dimensions here is militarism and the militarisation of the state. In her analysis of the implications of the militarisation of the state for women, Nina Mba (1989: 867) had this to say about the divides among women in the country: ...
Feminist Africa, Jun 22, 2021
This study focuses on genetic modification of cowpea, a food crop grown predominantly by poor men... more This study focuses on genetic modification of cowpea, a food crop grown predominantly by poor men and women in Nigeria and an important source of protein for the poor. The official justification for genetic modification is that it promotes resistance to the Maruca insect, which is said to be capable of destroying up to 80% of a farmer's crop. The genetic engineering of food sources represents an extension of resources for extractive activities from the traditional extractive sectors (oil, gas and solid minerals) to the commodification of life, all in the relentless pursuit of profit. In this article, I take up the question of what has made it possible for genetically modified (GM) crops to be adopted in Nigeria. I begin by exploring the sources of support for such an initiative, their interconnections and their interests in promoting the development of GM crops. This is followed by a feminist analysis of the intellectual politics of this regime and its contested interpretations of science in relation to the development and promotion of GM crops in Nigeria. Finally, I explore the space for resistance to GM crops in the country. Organised resistance has emphasised the risks of inadequate regulation of biotechnology, the damaging environmental consequences, and the threats to food sovereignty. While this is necessary, it is not sufficient. What is missing are feminist perspectives highlighting the extraction of women's labour underpinning the process, as well as the gendered character of access to, and control over, land in the making of livelihoods.
Contemporary Journal of African Studies
This essay examines ways in which selected texts in Takyiwaa Manuh’s scholarship treat the themes... more This essay examines ways in which selected texts in Takyiwaa Manuh’s scholarship treat the themes of knowledge, power and institutions with a focus on their role in Africa’s transformation. The range of Manuh’s scholarship covered includes her earlier work on how the political power of the Convention People’s Party was used to advance Ghanaian women’s participation in public affairs and African Unity; her later work on universities as institutions of knowledge production, addressing their relations with the wider society and the project of change and social transformation; as well as her work on women’s empowerment in Ghana. The main argument of this essay is that Manuh’s feminist work foregrounds the role of knowledge and action in the pursuit of social change, with institutions providing formalised conditions of possibility for the coalescence of knowledge and action in practice. Moreover, whilst Manuh’s scholarship is grounded in the realities of Ghanaian women’s lives, her work ...
Social Research: An International Quarterly
... While the peoples of the Niger Delta have faced the adverse effects of oil extraction on the ... more ... While the peoples of the Niger Delta have faced the adverse effects of oil extraction on the ... put it, Despite the vast wealth produced from the oil found under the delta, the region ... This hasimplications for the provision of appropriate training, which ought to offer girls more than the ...
This paper explores the common ideological ground between Islam and Christianity in Nigeria, in t... more This paper explores the common ideological ground between Islam and Christianity in Nigeria, in the ways in which gender and sexuality are configured in relation to women’s bodies. The latter constitute key sites for the inscription of social norms and practices inherent in particular interpretations of religion. We proceed by examining the interplay between religion and politics in historical context and in specific concrete instances. Whilst the religious right among Muslims and Christians share the view that women’s bodies are sexually corrupting and therefore in need of control, this perspective is also found in secular institutions. The linkage made between women’s bodies and ‘public morality’ produces diverse forms of gender inequality. The moralising of political economy that these processes entail complicates the terrain on which challenges to the politicisation of religion and its gender politics need to be sustained.
Meridians, 2018
The aim of this essay is to interrogate gender relations in the wake of the Boko Haram insurgency... more The aim of this essay is to interrogate gender relations in the wake of the Boko Haram insurgency in a way that recognizes continuities as well as discontinuities across multiple dimensions of social relations. The essay begins by outlining the changing trajectory of the Boko Haram insurgency and scholarly efforts to understand it as a social phenomenon. The second section discusses how research and media recognition of Boko Haram’s violence in relation to women led to a focus on spectacular events, such as mass abductions and suicide bombings. It is critical to recognize the politics of visibility and nonvisibility regarding women in the gendered dynamics set in motion by Boko Haram’s spectacles of violence. Finally, the essay points to ways in which feminist analyses of conflict and militarism throw light on the more suppressed yet critical dimensions of gender relations that surface in the wake of the Boko Haram insurgency.
Mandrágora, 2019
Este artigo explora os fundamentos ideológicos comuns do islã e do cristianismo na Nigéria em mat... more Este artigo explora os fundamentos ideológicos comuns do islã e do cristianismo na Nigéria em matéria de gênero e sexualidade. O corpo das mulheres constitui um elemento-chave na definição das normas sociais e das práticas de tal ou qual confissão. Examinaremos aqui a interação entre religião e política através de um contexto histórico e de exemplos concretos. Para a direita religiosa, muçulmana ou cristã, o corpo das mulheres é fator de devassidão e deve ser controlado – ponto de vista compartilhado por certas instituições laicas. A correlação entre corpo das mulheres e ‘moral pública’ gera diversas formas de desigualdade entre os sexos, cujas consequências econômicas complicam a luta contra a instrumentalização política da religião e contra a sexualização do político.
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 2009
... Thanks are due to Ayesha Imam, Bibi Bakare Yusuf, and the anonymous reviewer for their commen... more ... Thanks are due to Ayesha Imam, Bibi Bakare Yusuf, and the anonymous reviewer for their comments on earlier versions of this essay. ... ThisDay. 2008. "Nigeria: Indecent Dressing?the Limit of Legislation." ThisDay, February 18, 48, 56. Uwais, Maryam. 2008. ...
Development, 2009
Charmaine Pereira looks at changing debates on gender and sexuality. She highlights feminist theo... more Charmaine Pereira looks at changing debates on gender and sexuality. She highlights feminist theorizing that in order to understand the complexity of heteronormative social relations, it is important to examine the relations among gender and sexuality in general, and heterosexuality in particular.
Cahiers du Genre, 2012
Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour L'Harmattan. © L'Harmattan. Tous droits réservés pour t... more Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour L'Harmattan. © L'Harmattan. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays. La reproduction ou représentation de cet article, notamment par photocopie, n'est autorisée que dans les limites des conditions générales d'utilisation du site ou, le cas échéant, des conditions générales de la licence souscrite par votre établissement. Toute autre reproduction ou représentation, en tout ou partie, sous quelque forme et de quelque manière que ce soit, est interdite sauf accord préalable et écrit de l'éditeur, en dehors des cas prévus par la législation en vigueur en France. Il est précisé que son stockage dans une base de données est également interdit.
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Papers by Charmaine Pereira