ZEF Public Lecture: Power, Ontologies and Gendered Resistance in Rural Northwestern Ghana: Weapons of the Ninbala and Yeme

September 29, 2022 | 13:30 h - 14:30 h

We would like to invite you to the ZEF Public Lecture on Thursday,  September 29th , 13:30-14:30.

Please find the registration link below.

 

Power, Ontologies and Gendered Resistance in Rural Northwestern Ghana: Weapons of the Ninbala and Yeme

 

… to be presented by Dr. Constance Awinpoka Akurugu, Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Policy and Management, University for Development Studies, Wa campus, Ghana

 

Abstract:  This lecture examines diffuse and complex resistance practices that are exercised within the context of exogamous virilocal marriage and its constraints. In particular, it considers the deployment of songs and dissimulation as subversive strategies by women in a Dagaaba settlement in northwestern Ghana. It argues that, despite the constraints of marital violence and gendered subordination associated with exogamous marriage practices, and women’s representation of themselves as ninbala — a weak person — and yeme — a slave — in public discourse, they exercise resistance and power. By paying critical attention to the ontological subtleties of power and the other-than-human entities shaping social life and the ‘marriage space’, the analysis offers prospects for thinking about gendered resistance in a manner that incorporates these agentive non-human beings as well as strategies that might otherwise go overlooked, such as choosing silence. Without this careful analysis in notably constraining contexts, we risk misrecognizing resistance or overemphasizing subordination.

Dr. Constance Awinpoka Akurugu is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Public Policy and Management, University for Development Studies, Wa campus, Ghana. She is a Visiting Fellow of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Leeds, UK, and a fellow of the African Science Leadership Program. She is a feminist scholar and activist. Her research interests include postcolonial and African feminism(s) as well as transnational feminist discourses, cultural translation of theory, decolonisation and neoliberalism.

Register in advance for this meeting if you want to attend via Zoom:

https://uni-bonn.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5YpcO2vpzIqGNAW0Fe7kyMGw4yocYOEV6qa        

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

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