Abstract / Excerpt
“The idea of women’s activism, particularly in the context of colonial Nigerian history, often conjures up images of markets and mass movements, of throngs of women vociferously occupying public spaces to exact their rights as gendered and empowered beings ... Market women’s politics was one based on claims to ‘traditional’ gendered empowerment and a defense of said empowerment against the machinations of the colonial state. Since women’s market-based activism was carried out by women on their own behalf in an effort to achieve immediate and tangible goals related to their own daily lives, its feminist quality is unquestionable. The question becomes: can activist work that is conceptualized and carried out by one set of women for the sake of another be similarly characterized as feminist?”
