UKZN hosts Prominent Feminist Scholar

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The Dean of Research in the College of Humanities, Professor Sarojini Nadar  recently hosted the eminent and distinguished Feminist Scholar Professor Obioma Nnaemeka to a “Roundtable Conversation and Dinner” at Coastlands on the Ridge.  

Colleagues from the Howard, Edgewood and Pietermaritzburg campuses gathered to welcome Nnaemeka and to collectively share the contexts of their own work around gender and feminisms. Nadar explained that Nnaemeka was here as a guest of the School Applied Human Sciences and the College of Humanities. 

Her visit forms part of an on-going initiative by the College of Humanities to implement the “Humanities Charter”. 

Professor Nadar said, ‘The aim of the discussion, apart from intellectually engaging Professor Nnaemeka, was to also explore possible networking opportunities and future research collaborations.’  

The trans-disciplinary nature of the research being conducted in the Humanities was foregrounded when colleagues working within varied disciplinary homes shared their research interests. 

Dr Rubeena Partab (Social Work) and Dr Roderick Hewitt (Religion) shared their common interests in the study of Masculinities. Dr Lilian Siwila (Gender and Religion), Dr Saras Reddy (Health Sciences) and Sarojini Nadar (Gender and Religion) shared their current research in the Swedish-funded project on Gender, Religion and Health.   

Professor Rozena Maart, the Director of the Centre for Critical Research on Race and Identity, spoke about her work at the intersections of race, class and gender, while Dr Vivian Ojong and Dr Janet Muthuki (both from Anthropology) shared their interests in gender and trans-nationalism and migration.  

Dr Nyna Amin (Education) spoke of her research interests in the girl child, as well as her more theoretical interests in the subject of gender. Dr Maheshvari Naidu (Anthropology) together with her post-doc scholar Dr Nina Hoel spoke about their interests in feminisms in local contexts and their work in sexualities and body politics.   

All the participants spoke to how they were shaped by both personal and institutional trajectories in their own “histories” as researchers and academic activists, and how they understood feminism in a local and personal context. Nnaemeka revealed a wonderful sense of humour and said that she was known affectionately as “Obi” to her students and friends, saying that her students “often likened her to Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars”. 

She shared the background to her own work and was interested in knowing how scholars at UKZN were engaging with some of her work, as well as interrogating and deconstructing/reconstructing notions around various forms of feminisms and dialogue that could be considered as imperialistic. Both Nnaemeka and the UKZN colleagues at the “Conversation” indicated keen interest in forging intellectual links across the Universities and are keen on pursuing the conversation around a possible MOU with the University of Indiana. 

Although the reference to the character from Star Wars was tongue in cheek, Nnaemeka is a “true intellectual star” and her constellation of accomplishments and accolades speak for themselves. She is Chancellor’s Professor (Indiana University) and President of the Association of African Women Scholars (AAWS). She is amongst the leading theorists and scholars in critical gender studies and African feminism/womanism. She has also written extensively in the fields of transnational feminisms, French/Francophone literatures, oral and written literatures of Africa and the African Diaspora, gender and development, and human rights.  

She has edited two critical volumes, namely The Politics of (M)Othering: Womanhood, Identity and Resistance in African Literature (Routledge 1997)) and  Feminisms, Sisterhood and Power: From Africa to the Diaspora (Africa World Press 1998). Her scholarly publications have featured in various journals including Signs, Feminist Issues, Research in African Literatures, Law and Policy, Dialectical Anthropology, Western Journal of Black Studies and International Journal of Third World Studies. 

Nnaemeka’s intellectual body of work speaks to a wonderfully embedded sense of spirit and creativity and deep commitment to addressing gender asymmetry. She was able to share with the group, her thoughts around “Nego-feminism” which she describes as “no Ego” Feminism, as well as negotiated feminism. Negofemism, she said, was a response to overly individualistic feminisms that indulged in pandering to a sense of self, at the expense of the group or collective. It was felt that such a perspective has in turn spawned much “theoretical-fatigue” around defining and redefining feminism, while itself marginalising the very beneficiaries of feministic praxis.  

-          Maheshvari Naidu