Umoja

A Swahili feminist ethic for negotiating justice in Zanzibar

Bibliographic Data

ID18931997
AuthorsJessica Ott (0000-0002-1773-2190, Schlumberger (Ireland), corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume3
Issue2
Pages389-403
Publication date2022-03-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2643-7961 • E-ISSN: 2643-7961
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/fea2.12080
OpenAlexW4214915213
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited22

This article explores umoja, a Swahili worldview of relational personhood, as an alternative cultural form to rights‐based approaches for seeking gender justice in Zanzibar. Since the colonial era, umoja— which translates roughly as “unity”—has become increasingly gendered in political discourse and used by various civil society and government groups to negotiate diverse visions of gender justice. Based on ethnographic observation of a women's savings cooperative, or vicoba, of working‐class women migrants from the Tanzanian mainland, and a feminist civil society coalition, this work explores umoja as a form of feminist solidarity and as a feminist ethic. As a type of feminist solidarity, umoja is exemplified by the vicoba, which maintains relational dignity among members and structurally mitigates within‐group inequities. As a feminist ethic, umoja involves intricately negotiating subgroup interests amidst constantly shifting individual and group relationships while maintaining conviviality in larger collectivities. By prioritizing collective conviviality, umoja avoids directly confronting patriarchal social structures, which raises questions about its potential to ensure gender justice. However, its emphasis on conviviality also acknowledges a shared humanity, which together with its treatment of inequities as intersectional and relational make umoja a holistic complement or alternative to rights‐based approaches for ensuring gendered social change

Civil society · Dignity · Economic Justice · Feminism · Personhood · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Solidarity · Swahili · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender Studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Law · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies

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