African feminisms in International Relations

Abstract

Scholars of Africa’s International Relations (IR) have criticized how the continent is studied in IR and its positioning on the margins of the field. Though a significant portion of the IR literature on Africa focuses on gender, and women, African feminist thought has not been centred in this literature. In this paper, I examine how African feminisms can contribute to IR. I show that by drawing on African feminist thought, IR can address weaknesses in how Africa is studied in the field. Specifically, I discuss how African feminists’ understanding of the complexity of context, and attention to history and intersectionality, provide direction on how to study African states and societies and their interaction with the international.