Abstract
In an era marked by geopolitical shifts, migration, and global realignments, questions of identity, belonging, and diversity take on renewed urgency. This paper examines how women’s contributions to Zambia’s nationalist and independence movements become legible through visual and embodied practices that mediate political memory and reconfigure historical knowledge. Drawing on archival photographs, documentary films, and the creative practices of contemporary women’s collectives, the study interrogates how gendered forms of representation make visible the affective and epistemic dimensions of historical experience. By tracing continuities between historical and contemporary women’s activisms, the project situates Zambian feminist praxis within broader African feminist thought to explore how embodiment functions as a site of mnemonic production and reparative historiography. It argues that practices of remembrance—performed through visuality, ritual, and collective action—generate alternative archives that contest patriarchal and colonial narratives of the nation. Zambia, as the only African country constitutionally declared a Christian nation and one where the majority of land remains under customary tenure, provides a critical site for examining how feminist movements negotiate visibility and agency within overlapping structures of religious nationalism and customary authority. Through this lens, the paper reconsiders visibility as both an epistemic and affective mode that connects the past and present, demonstrating how women’s embodied practices of remembrance enact historical repair and contribute to more inclusive imaginaries of belonging in times of geopolitical uncertainty.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
African feminisms women's movements gender belonging
