Afems 2019 - Theorising from the Epicentres of our Agency

Thursday, 5 September 2019

Keynote: Patricia McFadden

Beyond Nationalist Patriarchy

Thursday, 5 September 2019, 10.15-11.45

Panel: Performances of Self

Chair: Polo B Moji

Dina Ligaga | Beyond Shame Culture? Desire and Kenyan Women’s Self-Presentations Online

Nonhlanhla Ndlovu | The Discursive Construction of Zimbabwean Women’s Femininities Online

Londiwe Mntambo | ‘All Your Faves Are Problematic’: Understanding feminism in its Contradictions

Lynda Gichanda Spencer | ‘Don’t Mess With Kansiime’: The Cultural Economy of Transgressive Female Humour

Thursday, 5 September 2019, 10.15-11.45

Panel: Feminist Epistemologies and the Repositioning of Praxis 

Chair: Kharnita Mohamed

Maria Martin | Legbism: Non-Political Nationalism, Cosmology, and Inductive Theoretical Development in Nigerian Women’s Intellectual History

Dominic Griffiths | Decoloniality and the (im)possibility of an African Feminist Philosophy

Dee Marco and Tiffany Willoughby-Herard | Reflections on Processes, Method and Feminist Positions – ‘Still Here: Black Feminist Approaches to Cultural Studies in South Africa’s Twenty-Five Years since 1994’

Thursday, 5 September 2019, 10.15-11.45

Panel: Inside-Outsiders, Outside-Insiders

Chair: Mpho Mathebula

Motlatsi Khosi | The Power of Myth, Magic and the Plotting Witch: A Critique of a Euro-modern Understandings of African Knowledge and the Spiritual

Zodwa Skeyi-Tutani | Zundiqondisise!: Voice, Visibility and Agency in the Works of Xhosa Women Crafters in the Eastern Cape

Tumi Mampane | Pentecostal Charismatic Constructions of Female Gender Identities in Alexandra Township

Youlendree Appasamy | Who Takes Care of Temple Aunty?

Thursday, 5 September 2019, 12.00-13.30

Panel: The Politics of Refusal 

Chair: Lynda Gichanda Spencer

Siyathokoza Mtolo | ‘Anything can happen’: Feminism Ripples in the Phenomenological Experiences of Safety Realities by Female Students During Habitual Walking at a South African University

Thembakazi Matroshe | Unraveled: A Re-Imagination of the Fallist Archive

Rodwell Makombe/Saneliso Thambo | Patriarchy, Unfeminine Femininities and Violent Masculinities in Kopano Matlwa’s Period Pain (2016)

Thursday, 5 September 2019, 12.00-13.30

Panel: Histories of Embodied Entanglements

Chair: Patricia McFadden

Helena Uambembe | Performing Normalcy in Time of Conflict: A Focus on the Women of 32 Battalion

Amie Soudien | Following Angela van Bengale/Ansla van Bengalen/Maai Ansiela: An Exploration of the Legacies of the First Enslaved Women in Contemporary Cape Town

Mmatumisang Kgosigadi ya ga Motsisi | Killing Joy: Performing the Female Trouble-maker in Cult Clit, Seeing Red and Dumela Mosadi

Marilú Mapengo Námoda | Bleeding Black Feminist Pastopias: Defining Development from the Perspective of our Bodies

Art on our Mind Dialogue with Natasha Becker hosted by Sharlene Khan

Afems Book Launches

Reshma Chhiba, Nontobeko Ntombela & Betty Govinden | The Yoni Book (2019)

Nedine Moonsamy | The Unfamous Five (2019)

Sharlene Khan | When the moon waxes red...Negotiating Subjective Terrain as an ‘Inside-Outsider’ (2019)

Tiffany Willoughby-Herard & Derilene Marco | (Still Here): Studies of Culture in South Africa’s Twenty-Five years since 1994 (due out 2020)

Afems Exhibition: Creating from the Epicentres of our Agency

Co-curated by Zodwa Skeyi-Tutani and Sharlene Khan at the The Point of Order, Wits University

Artists: Kama La Mackerel; Thembakazi Matroshe; Georgia Herron Lekorotsoana; Katleho Mosehle, Nokuthula Mabuza, Vuyolwethu Majeke; Ayathandwa Gcali, Makhosazana Maduna, Rotondwa Ravele, Matsi Wa Lesego, Rosinah Dumelang Ntlhane; Mmatumisang Kgosigadi ya ga Motsisi; Zama Cebisile Mwandla; Buhle Siwendu; Kundai Moyo; Shannen Ayla Marks, Kate Northmore, Ginger Snap; Saajidah Madhi