African Feminisms and Women in the Context of Justice in Southern Africa

This book explores justice ‘on the ground’ in Southern African communities, and in particular the roles that women play in these processes. Justice on the ground is often critiqued for being male-dominated and patriarchal. This volume seeks to unpack and problematize this assumption through the case studies of Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. Contributions focus on the lived experiences of women and the intersections of race, class, culture and the colonial experience that shape their lives. In the rural and peri-urban contexts discussed in this book, justice on the ground is found to be relational. The network of relationships between people and the well-being and health of a community as an integral whole continue to be of central importance as the survival of the community depends on the entire community functioning interdependently.

An engagement with African feminisms is helpful in providing a number of lenses, or simply questions, through which to read the case studies. These case studies reveal the complex and organic ways in which women have power and influence in relation to justice on the ground which may not be immediately obvious.

Cori Wielenga is Acting Director of the Centre for Mediation in Africa and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Her research interest lies at the intersection of local, national and international justice and governance systems in Africa. To this end, she has spent time in Rwanda, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa to understand the dynamics of intersecting justice and governance systems ‘on the ground’.