Action and solidarity: Disestablishment of the African Gender Institute

The African Gender Institute (AGI) runs a full suite of undergraduate and graduate programmes at the University of Cape Town, publishes a journal and maintains three websites, and is fully engaged in a number of funded projects concerned with strengthening gender/women's studies on the continent, organizational transformation and research and activism in diverse arenas. The AGI has its roots in the humble beginnings of visions of gender and race equality, redistribution of intellectual resources, and the activism and research of some of the first students and faculty at UCT which identified gender dynamics as part of the historical systems of inequity. These inequities have resulted in significantly skewed access to resources, relationships, and freedom within South Africa, and the African continent. The following timeline begins to sketch the story of how the AGI developed, and suggests the way in which its identity and capacity have unfurled in relation to contextual opportunities and its ongoing commitment to innovative, equitable, and Africa-centric environments for learning, advocacy, and research.[1]

The creation of a new department of Anthropology, Linguistics and Gender Studies at the University of Cape Town, poses a number of disquieting challenges for the political and intellectual project of the African Gender Institute.

The proposed merger aims to:

1. Disestablish the African Gender Institute, the Centre for African Studies and the department of Social Anthropology as independent academic departments.
2. Recognize a new formation, the department of Anthropology, Linguistics and Gender Studies, comprising staff from Social Anthropology, the African Gender Institute, Centre for African Studies and the department of Linguistics.
3. Open up a debate within the university about the desirability of a cross faculty platform which can serve to promote engagement with Africa, in much the same way as the Centre for African Studies did in its early years.

The notion that the intellectual projects of African Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies can only be complemented by being placed under a haphazardly concocted interdisciplinary scheme reflects a poor understanding of the epistemological development of both fields and a complete lack of regard for the kinds of political interventions they aim to make.

This is of course not to mention the glaring absence of the term “Africa” in the proposed department’s title.

This proposal illustrates the Faculty of Humanities’ disengagement with national, continental and international political and ideological debates on the subject of Africa, and in the fields of Gender and Sexualities. It serves to undermine the role that the African Gender Institute has played in sustaining these discussions.

The Faculty of Humanities has failed to appropriately credit the AGI for the unique position in scholarship and activism that it holds, as it serves as a critical platform for scholars and activists interested in work on Africa that takes gender seriously. The teaching and research done at the AGI is engaged with the thinking and teaching of Gender and Women’s Studies on the continent. The AGI’s Gender Women’s Studies in Africa network offers African feminist scholars Africa-authored and Africa-focused resources and materials that take gender and feminism seriously. Through this and other networks, the AGI has partnerships with many scholars and activists on the continent and across the globe. These partnerships have led to transformative synergies, for instance, the AGI’s journal Feminist Africa is the only continental and Afro-centric bi-annual journal. This too is available electronically to readers.

Crucially, in its current form (as an independent unit) the AGI is a space that generates the kind of feminist scholars that can come back to staff the very unit.

The AGI has faced organizational challenges, particularly with regards to the recruitment of senior level staff. Additionally, the AGI continues to grapple with the challenges of what it means to stay true to the meaning of being an African Feminist space on the continent that not only generates African scholarship but is home to it as well.

The Faculty of Humanities is quick to note these challenges, and less forthcoming about how the Faculty has worked to restrict enlarged staff capacity and has been impotent in its support of the AGI.

The AGI is critical to UCTs reputation as a renowned continental university. It has been created and led by some of the most esteemed academics, feminist academics, and African feminist academics. To disestablish the AGI in its present form would be an injury to the University.

As the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities wishes to propose that no department in the Faculty should have less than six (6) full time permanent members of staff, it would be our wish to express a strong recommendation that this be applied to the AGI - that the Faculty of Humanities and the University of Cape Town pursue this agenda and give this department the institutional support it requires in order to become such a department, without the proposed disestablishment.

Following the actions of the Concerned CAS Students, we as students, alum, allies, activists, associates and friends of the African Gender Institute wish to express our disapproval of the proposed disestablishment of the African Gender Institute and wish to call for action and solidarity.

There is a need for urgent action as the faculty has planned to hold a Faculty Forum on Friday, 25 February 2011.

Please consider articulating your support for the AGI by forwarding this CALL FOR ACTION to your friends and colleagues.

Please also consider articulating your support for the AGI by writing a letter to Vice Chancellor Max Price: [email][email protected] and the Humanities Faculty Dean Paula Ensor: [email][email protected]

If you would prefer to remain anonymous, please send your letter to us: [email][email protected]

Alternatively, you can copy and paste the following statement and email it to the above email address:

I support the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town as a valuable space for students, scholars and activists. I believe in the AGI’s vision of gender and race equality, redistribution of intellectual resources and activism. I believe in the AGI’s political and intellectual project as it is a crucial intervention in knowledge production on Africa. I believe that the proposed disestablishment of the AGI and the proposed departmental merger will compromise the AGI’s ability to pursue its intellectual and political project. Instead, I believe that that Faculty of Humanities must better commit itself to the project of supporting the AGI’s development in its present form.

Thank you for your time and support. We look forward to hearing from you.

[1] http://agi.ac.za/about

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