African Women Studies Centre (AWSC)

The African Women Studies Centre recognizes that the experiences of African women have not been part of mainstream knowledge development and have often not been a source of public and “legitimate knowledge” that guides development on our continent. These experiences and knowledge have not been utilized to shape, order, and name our world. Our focus is, therefore, to bring African women’s knowledge to visibility, through academic and policy debates in our academic institutions and other fora at the national and regional levels. In addition, we take cognizance of the critical linkage between women of Africa and those of African descent but living in other parts of the world. The Centre also recognizes that, in our region, we continue to refer to and use theories and frameworks whose basic assumptions do not include African women’s worldview. Theories of power, political and other, need to be interrogated from the African women’s experiences point-of-view.