POS 243 Gender & Politics in Africa

Gender is a fundamental component of human identity; i.e. it is fundamental to the way humans organize social reality and lend meaning to their experiences.Gender Relations in Africa are complex and often evoke contradictory images, particularly in Western literature.African women are usually portrayed as powerless victims seeking intervention on their behalf while African men are presented as powerful dominant figures colluding with colonial and postcolonial institutions to deepen women's subjection. This course explores how categories of masculinity and femininity relate to and inform one another.It analyzes how these identity categories interact with other elements of social and political power such as ethnic affiliation, economic status and age in various places and times.For organizational purposes the course will be divided into five broad sections: Sexuality, Domesticity, Patriarchy, Matriarchy, and Governance.(L10) (CP)