Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The African Diaspora and Women’s Struggles in Africa

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of African Women's Studies

Abstract

Various scholars have documented the contribution of the African Diaspora toward the different struggles on the continent. However, the specific contributions of the African Diaspora toward women’s struggles have not received much attention. The chapter presents a brief overview of the African Diaspora engagement with women’s struggles in Africa. It importantly notes that the struggles of women in Africa are unique but also linked to the major continental struggles for independence, democratization, and sustainable livelihood as well as the continental struggles for women empowerment. The chapter argues that the engagement of the Diaspora with specific reference to women’s struggles has been limited yet very dynamic and beneficial. The African Diaspora has implicitly and explicitly served as relevant sources of first-hand knowledge that support the information politics of the women organizations and individual women in Africa. Through linkages with women organizations and individuals in African countries, the African Diaspora has also engaged in the transfer of economic and social remittances toward the economic development, political processes, and the dismantling of structures that constrain the empowerment of women in Africa.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abbas, H., & Mama, A. (2015). Editorial: Feminism and Pan-Africanism. Feminist Africa, 20, 1–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • African Union (AU) Protocol to the Constitutive Act of the African Union Relating to the Pan-African Parliament (Art.1). Avialable online https://au.int/sites/default/files/treaties/7806-treaty-0047_-_protocol_to_the_constitutive_act_of_the_african_union_relating_to_the_pan-african_parliament_e.pdf

  • Akyeampong, E. (2000). Africans in the diaspora: The diaspora and Africa. African Affairs, 99(395), 183–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arnfred, S. (1988). Women in Mozambique: Gender struggle and gender politics. Review of African Political Economy, 15(41), 5–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Asiimwe-Mwesige, J. (2006). Women’s experiences in the transition from the movement system to multiparty system of governance. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (Uganda Office). Online verfügbar unter http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/uganda/05918.pdf. zuletzt geprüft am

  • Badmus, I. A. (2009). Explaining women’s roles in the West African tragic triplet: Sierra Leone, Liberia, and cote d’Ivoire in comparative perspective. Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences, 1(3), 808–839.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauer, J. (2009). Women and the 2005 election in Liberia. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 47(2), 193–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berger, I. (2001). An African American ‘Mother of the Nation’: Madie Hall Xuma in South Africa, 1940–1963. Journal of Southern African Studies, 27(3), 547–566.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brempong, A. (2000). The role of Nana Yaa Asantewaa in the 1900 Asante war of resistance. Ghana Studies, 3, 97–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brinkerhoff, J. (2008). Diasporas and international development: Exploring the potential. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Budabin, A. C. (2014). Diasporas as development partners for peace? The alliance between the Darfuri Diaspora and the Save Darfur Coalition. Third World Quarterly, 35(1), 163–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnet, J. E. (2008a). Gender balance and the meanings of women in governance in post-genocide Rwanda. African Affairs, 107(428), 361–386.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnet, J. E. (2008b). Injustice of local justice: Truth, reconciliation, and revenge in Rwanda. Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal, 3(2), 173–193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Byanyiam, W. (2008). Africa and gender quality: Priorities for the AU. In J. Akokpari, A. Ndinga-Muvumba, & T. Murithi (Eds.), The African union and its institutions (pp. 317–332). Cape Town: Centre for Conflict Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, H. (1994). Pan Africanism and African liberation. In S. J. Lemelle & R. G. Kelley (Eds.), Imagining home: Class, culture and nationalism in the African diaspora. New York: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cochrane, F. (2007). Civil society beyond the state: The impact of diaspora communities on peacebuilding. Global Media Journal: Mediterranean Edition, 2(2), 19–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coffie, A. (2018). Tapping into resettlement for rebuilding: Lessons from peacebuilding engagement activities of resettled Liberians refugees in Canada. African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review, 8(2), 38–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, R. (1997). Global diasporas: An introduction. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Falola, T., & Paddock, A. (2011). The women’s war of 1929: A history of anti-colonial resistance in eastern Nigeria. Durham: Carolina Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garbin, D., & Godin, M. (2013). ‘Saving the Congo’: Transnational social fields and politics of home in the Congolese diaspora. African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal, 6(2), 113–130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gwekwerere, T. (2014). The African diaspora in continental African struggles for freedom: Implications on the criticism of African renaissance literature. South African Journal of African Languages, 34(1), 35–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haastrup, T. (2013). Where global meet local: The politics of Africa’s emergent gender equality regime. In T. Murithi (Ed.), Handbook on Africa’s international relations (pp. 103–111). Abingdon/New York: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hammond, L., Awad M., Ibrahim, A., Hansen P., Horst C., Menkhaus, K., & Obare L. (2011). “Cash and compassion: The role of the Somali Diaspora in relief, development and peace-building” Unpublished report submitted to UNDP Somalia. Available online https://www.hiiraan.com/2011/May/Cash-and-Compassion-Draft-for-comments.pdf. Accessed 10 June 2019.

  • Horst, C. (2008). The transnational political engagements of refugees: Remittance sending practices amongst Somalis in Norway. Conflict Security & Development, 8(3), 317–339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horst, C., & Gaas, M. (2009). Diaspora organizations from the Horn of Africa in Norway: Contributions to peacebuilding. PRIO Policy Brief, 2, 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  • House-Midamba, B. (1996). Gender, democratization, and associational life in Kenya. Africa Today, 43(3), 289–305.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hudson, H. (2009). Peacebuilding through a gender lens and the challenges of implementation in Rwanda and Côte d’Ivoire. Security Studies, 18(2), 287–318.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Human Rights Watch (HRW). (1996). Shattered lives: Sexual violence during the Rwandan genocide and its aftermath. Available online https://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/Rwanda.htm. Accessed 9 May 2019.

  • Hunt, S. (2014). The rise of Rwanda’s women: Rebuilding and reuniting a Nation. Foreign Affairs, 93(3), 150–156.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ikpeze, O. (2011). Legislating women’s affirmative action and its constitutionality in Nigeria. Nnamdi Azikiwe University Journal of International Law and Jurisprudence, 2(1), 160–174.

    Google Scholar 

  • Killingray, D. (2009). Rights, land, and labour: Black British critics of South African policies before 1948. Journal of Southern African Studies, 35(2), 375–398.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kimble, J., & Unterhalter, E. (1982). ‘We opened the road for you; you must go forward’: ANC women’s struggles, 1912–1982. Feminist Review, 12(1), 11–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kleist, N. (2008). Mobilising ‘the diaspora’: Somali transnational political engagement. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 34(2), 307–323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kleist, N., & Hansen, P. (2007). Performing diaspora: The mobilization of a Somaliland transborder citizenry. In O. Farah, M. Muchie, & J. Gundel (Eds.), Somalia: Diaspora and state reconstitution in the Horn of Africa (pp. 114–134). London: Adonis & Abbey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levitt, P. (1998). Social remittances: Migration driven local level forms of cultural diffusion. International Migration Review, 32(4), 926–948.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levitt, P & Lamba-Nieves, P. (2011). Social Remittances revisited. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 37(1), 1–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyons, T. (2004). Guns and guerilla girls: Women in the Zimbabwean national liberation struggle. Trenton: Africa World Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mama, A. (1995). Feminism or femocracy? State feminism and democratisation in Nigeria. Africa Development, 20(1), 37–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Medie, P. A. (2013). Fighting gender-based violence: The women’s movement and the enforcement of rape law in Liberia. African Affairs, 112(448), 377–397.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meer, F. (2011, March). Women in Apartheid Society. Available online https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/women-apartheid-society-fatima-meer. Accessed 23 April, 2020.

  • Menkhaus, K. (2007). Governance without government in Somalia: Spoilers, state building, and the politics of coping. International Security, 31(3), 74–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moran, M. H., & Pitcher, M. A. (2004). The ‘basket case’ and the ‘poster child’: Explaining the end of civil conflicts in Liberia and Mozambique. Third World Quarterly, 25(3), 501–519.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • New York Times (NYT). (2008). Rwanda Diaspora launches one dollar campaign. Available online https://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/6393/ Accessed 15 May 2019.

  • Nzomo, M. (1993). The gender dimension of democratization in Kenya: Some international linkages. Alternatives, 18(1), 61–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Okon, E.J. (2002, August). Report of the Niger Delta Women for Justice (NDWJ) on the Delta Women’s Seige on the American Oil Company, Chevron-Texaco in Delta State, Nigeria. Available online https://www.laohamutuk.org/OilWeb/Bground/Africa/Nigeria/NDWJ/NDWomensSeige.pdf. Accessed 13 Feb 2020.

  • Oquaye, M. (1995). Human rights and the transition to democracy under the PNDC in Ghana. Human Rights Quarterly., 17(3), 556–573.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prasch, A. M. (2015). Maternal bodies in militant protest: Leymah Gbowee and the Rhetorical Agency of African Motherhood. Women’s Studies in Communication, 38(2), 187–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quayson, A. (2013). Africa and its diaspora. In G. Huggan (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of postcolonial studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rasoanaivo-Randriamamonjy, R., & Serbin, S. (2015). African women, Pan-Africanism and African renaissance. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ratha, D. & Plaza, S. (2011). Harnessing Diasporas. Finance and Development, 48(3), 1–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reddock, R. (2007). Gender equality, Pan-Africanism and the diaspora. International Journal of African Renaissance Studies, 2(2), 255–267.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reddock, R. (2014). The first Mrs Garvey: Pan-Africanism and feminism in the early 20th century British colonial Caribbean. Feminist Africa, 19, 58–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schraeder, P. J. (1994). Elites as facilitators or impediments to political development? Some lessons from the “third wave” of democratization in Africa. The Journal of Developing Areas, 29(1), 69–90.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schraeder, P. J. (1995). Review: Understanding the “third wave” of democratization in Africa. The Journal of Politics, 57(4), 1160–1168.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shindo, R. (2012). The hidden effect of diaspora return to post-conflict countries: The case of policy and temporary return to Rwanda. Third World Quarterly, 33(9), 1685–1702.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tripp, A. M. (2001). The politics of autonomy and cooptation in Africa: The case of the Ugandan women’s movement. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 39(1), 101–128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tripp, A. M. (2004). The changing face of authoritarianism in Africa: The case of Uganda. Africa Today, 50(3), 3–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, S. (2013). Staging the Rwandan diaspora: The politics of performance. African Studies, 72(2), 265–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, T. E., & Brownhill, L. S. (2004). Why women are at war with Chevron: Nigerian subsistence struggles against the international oil industry. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 39(1–2), 63–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turshen, M. (2002). Algerian women in the liberation struggle and the civil war: From active participants to passive victims? Social Research: An International Quarterly, 69(3), 889–911.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Hear, N. (1998). New diasporas: The mass exodus, dispersals and regrouping of migrant communities. London: University College London Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Hear, N. (2014). Refugees, diasporas and transnationalism. In E. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, G. Loescher, K. Long, & N. Sigona (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of refugees and forced migration studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • West, H. G. (2000). Girls with guns: Narrating the experience of war of Frelimo’s “female detachment”. Anthropological Quarterly, 73(4), 180–194.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, E. H. (1992). Hope and dignity: Older black women of the south. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeleza, P. T. (2008). The challenges of studying the African diasporas. African Sociological Review, 12(2), 4–21.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy, University of Ghana, Legon-Accra, Ghana

    Amanda Coffie

Authors
  1. Amanda Coffie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amanda Coffie .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Nigeria

    Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso

  2. Department of History, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Toyin Falola

Section Editor information

  1. No affiliation provided

    Anene Ejikeme

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Coffie, A. (2020). The African Diaspora and Women’s Struggles in Africa. In: Yacob-Haliso, O., Falola, T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of African Women's Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77030-7_19-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77030-7_19-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-77030-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-77030-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference HistoryReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation