Nguni-Feminist thought

The term “Nguni” describes various offshoots of the Interlacustrine Bantu who migrated from East-central Africa to the South between AD 1050 and AD 1350. These groups are mainly distinguishable by language – isiZulu, isiXhosa, siSwati and Ndebele. However, common cultural traits, including the centrality of cattle-keeping, extended kinship networks and certain practices of Ukuhlonipha (respect), further differentiate them from other African societies. Nguni-Feminist thought, therefore, encompasses a range of conceptions of gender and gender relations as perceived, experienced and articulated by Nguni black women. This concept contributes to ongoing knowledge-production on the meanings of African feminisms, understood as stemming from black women’s subjectivities and localities (Oyěwùmí, 1997:16; Fraser, 2000; Lewis & Baderoon, 2021). It expands from the feminist analytical framework of intersectionality (Collins, 2019) – where black women’s oppression is understood to be made up of a confluence of racial, gendered and class struggles – by highlighting the salience of cultural categories of black women’s subjectivities (Dabi, 1987; Harms-Smith & Rasool, 2022).