Redeploying the Abjection of the Pog Gandao 'Wilful Woman' for Women's Empowerment and Feminist Politics in a Mystical Context

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3945970
AutoresC A Akurugu (0000-0002-6595-0993, autor de correspondencia), Constance Akurugu
Año2020
Volumen126
Número1
Páginas39-53
Fecha de publicación2020-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaFeminist Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0141-7789 • E-ISSN: 1466-4380
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0141778920930385
OpenAlexW3094447238
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas12
Referencias citadas22

In this article, I examine the marginalisation and abjection of strongwilled and assertive women in Dagaaba settings in rural north-western Ghana. This is done by paying attention to a local identity category known as pog gandao -'a woman who is more than a man'. The pog gandao , or what I gloss as the wilful woman, concept is used by men and women locally to stigmatise hard-working and assertive Dagaaba women. Drawing inspiration from the reappropriation and redeployment of queer abjection for the subversion of homophobia and the violence of compulsory heterosexuality, I demonstrate how such naming or shaming into the position of a pog gandao serves to hamper initiatives by enterprising and talented Dagaaba women. Being labelled as pog gandao , it appears, is even to lose one's status in normative gender presentation as a woman; it means to transcend into a realm beyond the masculine. But this transcendence is not enviable due to its potential to expose the subject in question to perceived supernatural harm, a serious matter in this cultural context whereby the world of human affairs is understood as thoroughly saturated with supernatural forces that structure daily and ritual comportment. I argue that the shaming interpellation of pog gandao works as the most powerful weapon against wilful women in oppressive male-centric institutions of the Dagaaba. And yet, this stigmatised interpellation also has great emancipating potential, and I conclude by exploring ways to reclaim it for undermining female subordination, and for both empowering women and for feminist politics

Aesthetics · Context (archaeology) · Political science · Politics · Queer · Sociology · Subversion · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Gender Studies · History · Law · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Marriage and Sexual Relationships