Globalizing the Postcolony: Contesting Discourses of Gender and Development in Francophone Africa

by Claire H. Griffiths

Overview

Globalizing the Postcolony: Contesting Discourses of Gender and Development in Francophone Africa is a study of development in the former French colonies of West Africa. It takes as its starting point the international community's reporting on human and social development and gender in the developing areas which began systematically in 1990 and which has provided a framework for policy-making in this field. International reports suggest that the francophone African countries have been experiencing low levels of social development throughout the past two decades. These levels fall dramatically when the factor of gender is introduced to the point where statistically-speaking francophone African women have had less access to social development than any other population in the world.

This study analyzes current thinking on the challenges facing gender and development in Africa, before moving on to examine the historical factors marking the gender and development profile of the francophone West African region. Through an analysis of gender politics in the region from pre-colonial to postcolonial times, the book examines the gradual incursion of exogenous gender policies into the region throughout the 20th century. The discussion concludes by arguing that despite the tendency of the international community, and their colonial administrative forebears, to pursue 'one-size-fits-all' solutions to what they identified as the main development challenges of the day, the impact of standardized solutions remains subject to the unique historical and cultural context in which they are implemented. Adapting formula-driven policies to unique cultural contexts constitutes a major challenge for gender and development politics in the second decade of the new century.

Meanwhile, the book coincides with the introduction of a new international development agenda in Africa articulated around issues of security and globalization. While civil unrest continues to destabilize vast regions of the continent making the prospe

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739143827
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	12/18/2010
Series:	After the Empire: The Francophone World and Postcolonial France
Pages:	340
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Claire H. Griffiths is professor of French and Francophone studies at the University of Chester, UK, and former senior research fellow in the WISE Institute at the University of Hull.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

Abbreviations xiii

Part I Is There a Gender and Development Crisis in Francophone Africa?

1 Gender and Development in Francophone Africa: The Making of a Crisis 3

2 Science, Statistics, and Stories: In Search of Methodology 17

Part II When Gender and Development Went Global

3 The Origins of a Global Discourse, 1945 to 1990 33

4 "Good Governance" for Development, 1990-2000 47

5 The Millennium Summit and Beyond: Writing Women Out of Development? 59

Part III From the Global to the Postcolony: Data Profiling in Gabon and Senegal

6 Mapping Gender and Development: The Tools of the Trade 75

7 Senegal: A Monitoring Model for Francophone Africa? 85

8 Gabon: At the Limits of the Data Profile 99

9 Measuring Gender and Development: Challenges for Francophone Africa 115

Part IV In Search of Context and Culture 1: Historicizing Gender

10 Sex-land Status in Pre-colonial Africa 127

11 Engendering the Colony: France in Africa 143

Part V In Search of Context and Culture 2: Locating Gender

12 Speaking the Language of Gender and Development in Senegal 165

13 International Agencies and the Agenda for Change in Senegal 187

14 Theorizing Gender and Development in the Academy 199

15 Voicing Dissent and Contesting Change in Civil Society 215

Part VI Writing Gender and Development: Culture, Context, and Change in Francophone Africa

16 The Literary Politics of Gender and Development 233

17 Writing Gender and Development: The Birth of a Literary Voice 251

18 Modernization and Marginalization in the Francophone African Feminist Novel 263

19 Conclusion: Harnessing Culture for Gender and Development 277

Appendix A Commitment 5, UN World Summit for Social Development, 19 April 1995 295

Appendix B Commitment 5, 24th Special Session of the UN General Assembly, 26 June 2000 299

Selected Bibliography 303

Index 317

About the Author 323

Editorial Reviews

This timely book provides a subtle discussion on gender and development in francophone sub-Saharan Africa from the end of the Second World War up to the present day. In this meticulously researched monograph Claire Griffiths explores the UN-driven agenda to develop conceptual models, which are, it is argued here, too monolingual and universalizing to bridge the gender gap between the Western rich center and its impoverished peripheries. The novelty of the author's approach and methodology lies in the fact that the traditional tools of sociological enquiries are not so much dismissed as challenged in their ability to produce reliable results and redress gender inequalities. With this challenging study, Professor Griffiths has provided an invaluable service to policymakers and students of Francophone Africa.

Pierre-Philippe Fraiture

A triumph of detailed and sound research, Claire H. Griffith's Globalizing the Postcolony. Contesting Discourses of Gender and Development in Francophone Africa is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in issues concerning the intersection of gender and development. Whether analyzing these issues in Senegal or Gabon, her two case studies, Griffith's book is an impeccably reasoned and convincing argument on how the discourses and policies of development evolved within Francophone Africa with the influx of globalizing interventions, and the impact they have on women's lives. Using a variety of sources contextualized in history, Globalizing the Postcolony is careful to take local cultures into account. One standout innovation is Griffith's ability to push critical theories to their limits by daring to make aesthetic/subjective analyses from creative narrative accounts of politically engaged women novelists. The quantitative aspects of the book are rendered through analyses, tables and graphs, but the qualitative considerations attained through literary texts hold an equally important place-thus providing a fully integrated critical approach that revitalizes the debate. With enlightening and original conclusions, Globalizing the Postco

Irène Assiba d'Almeida

A triumph of detailed and sound research, Claire H. Griffith's Globalizing the Postcolony. Contesting Discourses of Gender and Development in Francophone Africa is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in issues concerning the intersection of gender and development. Whether analyzing these issues in Senegal or Gabon, her two case studies, Griffith's book is an impeccably reasoned and convincing argument on how the discourses and policies of development evolved within Francophone Africa with the influx of globalizing interventions, and the impact they have on women's lives. Using a variety of sources contextualized in history, Globalizing the Postcolony is careful to take local cultures into account. One standout innovation is Griffith's ability to push critical theories to their limits by daring to make aesthetic/subjective analyses from creative narrative accounts of politically engaged women novelists. The quantitative aspects of the book are rendered through analyses, tables and graphs, but the qualitative considerations attained through literary texts hold an equally important place-thus providing a fully integrated critical approach that revitalizes the debate. With enlightening and original conclusions, Globalizing the Postco

Irène Assiba d'Almeida

This timely book provides a subtle discussion on gender and development in francophone sub-Saharan Africa from the end of the Second World War up to the present day. In this meticulously researched monograph Claire Griffiths explores the UN-driven agenda to develop conceptual models, which are, it is argued here, too monolingual and universalizing to bridge the gender gap between the Western rich center and its impoverished peripheries. The novelty of the author's approach and methodology lies in the fact that the traditional tools of sociological enquiries are not so much dismissed as challenged in their ability to produce reliable results and redress gender inequalities. With this challenging study, Professor Griffiths has provided an invaluable service to policymakers and students of Francophone Africa.

University of Warwick P