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African feminism as decolonising force: a philosophical exploration of the work of
Oyeronke Oyewumi
Coetzee, A.A.
2017
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Coetzee, A. A. (2017). African feminism as decolonising force: a philosophical exploration of the work of
Oyeronke Oyewumi.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION…1
I Preliminary remarks…1
II A brief introduction to Oyĕwùmí and the reception of her work…1 III Sub-Saharan feminist scholarship: an outline…4
IV Sub-Saharan African feminism and sub-Saharan African feminist philosophy in context…8 V Oyĕwùmí’s feminism as decolonising force…12
VI A note on the distinction between the empirical and the philosophical in the work of Oyĕwùmí… 15 VII Notes on terminology…16
VIII Summary of chapters …21
CHAPTER ONE: GENDER AND DIFFERENCE IN THE WORK OF OYĔWÙMÍ…24
I Introduction…24
II Some introductory remarks on the Nigerian and Yorùbá contexts…25 III Oyĕwùmí and the colonial invention of woman in Yorùbá society…27 IV The relationship between Africa and the West in the work of Oyĕwùmí…36 V Conclusion…43
CHAPTER TWO: OYĔWÙMÍ AND THE SUB-SAHARAN TRADITION OF RELATIO NA L THOUGHT…45
I Introduction…45
II The relational and non-dichotomous construction of the subject and the world in sub -Saharan African philosophy…46
III The relational and non-dichotomous construction of the subject and the world in Oyĕwùmí’s work…54 IV Implications of Oyĕwùmí’s work for the sub-Saharan tradition of relational thought…64
V Conclusion…67
CHAPTER THREE: AFRICAN FEMINIS M AS DECOLONIS ING FORCE…69
I Introduction…69
II Colonialism, coloniality and decolonisation…70 III Gender and colonisation in the Yorùbá society…75 IV The relation between gender, race and colonialism…83 V Conclusion…87
CHAPTER FOUR: IRIGARAY AND OYĔWÙMÍ IN DIALOGUE ABOUT THE SACRIFIC IA L METAPHYS ICS OF THE WESTERN SYMBOLIC ORDER…89
I Introduction…89
II Irigaray’s diagnosis of the Western symbolic order…90 III How can this system be shifted? ... 96
IV Reading Irigaray alongside Oyĕwùmí…98 V Critical reflections: race…101
VI Critical reflections: the subject…106
VII Critical reflections: gender duality and multiplicity…109 VIII Conclusion…112
CHAPTER FIVE: MOTHERHOOD…114
I Introduction…114
II De Beauvoir’s analysis of the problem of motherhood in the sacrificial economy of Western patriarchy …116 III Irigaray, motherhood and the undoing of the burial of the maternal feminine…119
IV Motherhood in precolonial Yorùbá society…122 V Consequences for subjectivity…131
VI Motherhood as political, symbolic category exceeding biological reproduction …138 VII Decolonising power of motherhood…143
CONCLUSION…147
I The dilemma of African feminism and African feminist thought …147 II Oyĕwùmí and the colonial invention of women in Yorùbá society…148 III Oyĕwùmí and sub-Saharan African philosophy…149
IV Oyĕwùmí and Irigaray…151
V The feminism of Oyĕwùmí as decolonising force…153
SUMMARY…155
