Women’s Activism and Contending Narratives of Liberation in South Africa

Women’s Activism and Contending Narratives of Liberation in South Africa

Department

Cairo Papers in Social Science

Abstract

Oral history archives have always been at the forefront of liberatory social movements in general, and of feminist movement in particular. Until the end of the twentieth century in the Arab world, archives of women’s oral narratives were almost non-existent with the exception of small documentation efforts tied to individual research. However, since 2011, there has been a marked increase in the documentation of projects. In this context, the Women and Memory Forum organized a conference in 2015 about the challenges of creating gender sensitive oral history archives in times of change. The papers in this collection shed light on documentation initiatives in Arab countries in transitional and conflict situations, in addition to international experiences. They engage with questions around archives and power, the challenges and opportunities presented by new technologies to the making and preserving of archives, ethical concerns in the construction of archives, women’s archives and the production of alternative knowledge, as well as conceptual and methodological issues in oral history.

Publication Date

2018

Document Type

Book Chapter

Book Title

Oral History in Times of Change Gender, Documentation, and the Making of Archives

Editors

Hoda Elsadda, Hanan Sabea

ISBN

9781617979217

Publisher

American University in Cairo Press

City

Cairo

First Page

29

Last Page

44

Series

Cairo Papers in Social Science 35(1)

Keywords

oral history, archive, Arab world, Egypt, Narrating Gender, documenting, Times of Conflict

Women’s Activism and Contending Narratives of Liberation in South Africa

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