CONVERSATIONAL BRIDGES IN AFRICAN FEMINISMS, weaving knowledge together
218pp., illus., paperback, HSRC Press, Cape Town, 2025
ISBN: 9780796926968
In this collection of essays scholars, activists and artists demonstrate how dialogue is a form of feminist practice, building and sustaining African feminist communities.
"This is the sort of book that readers - both in and beyond South Africa - will turn to again and again in understanding, excavating and rediscovering the complexity and wonder of African feminisms. Collectively, the essays offer healing in the way their attention to activism, resistance and liberation insists on feminist practice being embodied, imaginative and spiritually transformative." Desiree Lewis, Professor in the Department of Women's and Gender Studies, University of the Western Cape
"Courageous and uncompromising, Conversational Bridges is powered by a bold African feminist language that is visionary and intentional in its practice of knowledge production. Essential reading for any aspiring, curious and seasoned feminist!" zethu Matebeni, activist and South Africa Research Chair in Sexualities, Genders and Queer Studies, University of Fort Hare
Contributions include:
"Art on Our Mind, Art in Our Hands: Autobiographical storytelling as African feminist praxis" by Sharlene Khan, Nono Motlhoki and Sophie Peters
"Anything but Fiction: Black South African women's fiction as theory in And Wrote My Story Anyway" by Barbara Boswell, Gogontle Mosiakgabo and Aika Swai
"Pluriversal Epistemic Visibility in Surfacing: On Being Black and Feminist in South Africa" by Gabeba Baderoon, Nadia Davids and Aika Swai
"Enraged Writing as Feminist Activism: Bridging the personal-political of gendered violence in Female Fear Factory" by Pumla Dineo Gqola, Lenina Rassool and Polo B Moji
"Transformative Feminist Leadership: Solidarity as a politics of care and love" by Tlaleng Mofokeng, Pregs Govender and Kharnita Mohamed.
Polo B. Moji is Associate Professor of English Literary Studies at the University of Cape Town.
Kharnita Mohamed is a senior lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Cape Town.
Aika Swai is a visiting lecturer at the Council on International Educational Exchange.