Western feminism reproduces a victim narrative that African feminism rejects

Evidence

Oduk differentiates African feminist philosophy from Western feminist philosophy in that the former is purely anthropological, theoretical and based on assumptions rather than reality of African women. Western feminist philosophy, according to Oduk, creates the same victim narrative for women that Western education created for Africans by focusing “on the situation of women, the majority of which are illiterate, poor, isolated, passive, submissive, afraid and lonely, and are to be found in rural areas”. African feminist philosophy, on the contrary, is not only committed to a pragmatic programme; rather, its vision is to ensure that women will be placed at the centre not only of events but of the thinking of the world. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 963

Categorization

• XREF: This critique parallels the reader’s pattern on ‘Complaints About Immodesty’: outsider narratives project victimhood onto non-Western bodies.
• SEED: Article angle: ‘Who Gets to Be an Agent?’ — comparing the victim-narrative critique in African feminist philosophy to similar critiques of colonial anthropology.