I wrote the following post for the American Sociological Association Section on Race, Gender, Class. A recent Al Jazeera article about how #MeToo has made it to Northern Nigeria reminded me that it would be useful to share my thoughts more generally. Have a look below.
“I, too, immediately thought about the AU investigation and report through #MeToo. ”
Africa and #MeToo
In Accra, the women with whom I speak often disclose the decisions they make to avoid the inevitable sexual harassment that they confront, in church, on the street, at work. Their efforts are often unsuccessful. The ubiquity of sexual violence (what Liz Kelly (1987) called “the continuum,” from street harassment to rape) is something that Ghanaian women, activists and those who would not label themselves such, have been navigating and protesting in myriad ways, long before #MeToo.
Despite a vibrant culture of activism on the continent, a report from the African Union revealing the rampant sexual harassment in the organization was framed as #MeToo arriving in Africa. Finally. By framing the AU report as #MeToo arriving in Africa, the implication was that, at last, African women had a way to speak on their experiences of sexualized violence.
I was happy to read about the AU investigation. The report detailed how women junior staffers, volunteers, and interns were exposed to the sexual predations of their male supervisors, including the demand for sex in exchange for jobs. Additionally, the report called attention to indiscriminate bullying of junior colleagues from male and female supervisors (African Union 2018).
I, too, immediately thought about the AU investigation and report through #MeToo. After all, I live in the United States and the trending hashtag gave language to something I knew was a global phenomenon. I also connected the story to what I knew about life in Accra, where I grew up, and where, for the last year, I have been conducting research for another project. I knew, from my conversations with ciswomen, straight and queer, about the open secret that in government institutions, schools, businesses, and churches, men exercise entitlement to authority, space, and women’s bodies. I also knew about the anti-violence organizing that happened on the ground from attending events like the “International Women’s Day Intergenerational Conversation” at the British Council in Accra, hosted by the liberal feminist group PepperDem Ministries.
Despite what I knew, it was easy to accept the idea that the AU investigation signaled #MeToo’s arrival in Africa. On the one hand, interpreting the report as Africa’s #MeToo may have allowed news outlets to call greater attention to the issue. Yet this was not the case in the United States. None of the major news outlets – neither The New York Times, Washington Post, nor LA Times – published anything about this story.
The African Union is the political and economic body representing the fifty-five independent African countries. Over 1 billion people are affected by the decisions that this body takes. Not reporting on this news would be like ignoring similar issues in the European Union. The AU, first created in 1963 as the OAU (Organization of African Unity) was founded long before the EU was established in 1991. And by the way, in 2017, when there was “A #MeToo Moment for the European Parliament,” the New York Times did not ignore its relevance.
For the website Africasacountry.com, Titilope Ajayi outlined various online and on-the-ground actions against sexual violence on the African continent. These movements confront the patriarchal and hetero-masculine cultures that relegate African women to second-class status through the regulation of their sexuality. Like #MeToo, online campaigns such as #WomenMarchUG and #MyDressMyChoice in Uganda and Kenya verbalize the prevalence of sexual violence, and create solidarity amongst (cis)women.
Framing stories like the AU investigation as Africa’s #MeToo is troubling. It has the consequence of effacing activism on the ground. Indeed, one commentator claimed that “that Africa’s women have missed the chance to add their voices to the global phenomenon that the #MeToo moment became in 2018” (Chutel 2018). The work occurring in line with the movement’s goals are completely erased by claims like this. More insidiously, framing activism against sexual violence as being legible only through #MeToo reproduces the idea that Africans cannot help ourselves.
When the U.S. American actress Alyssa Milano was attributed with founding the #MeToo movement, that error was rightly corrected. Black women in the United States emphasized the importance of naming Tarana Burke as the originator of the movement. Naming Burke meant centering Black women in the campaign against sexual violence. Naming Burke meant not effacing the work that Black women have done and continue to do “in defense of ourselves” as the newspaper advertisement taken out in 1991 in support of Anita Hill articulated.
Examining #MeToo through an intersectional racial frame means paying close attention to its global dimensions. In particular it means reaching out beyond established boundaries of whose stories evidently matter to engage African, South Asian, and other transnational activists. It also means acknowledging the various ways that people respond to patriarchal violence, and decentering the West as the progenitor of social change.
References
African Union. (2018) Outcome of the Investigation of allegations of harassment against women and other institutional malpractices in the African Union Commission. Press Release, November 22, 2018. https://au.int/sites/default/files/pressreleases/35249-pr-en_communique_on_the_outcome_of_investigations_of_allegations_of_harassment_at_the_auc_22nov2018.pdf
Ajayi, T. F. (2018, July). “#MeToo, Africa, and the politics of transnational activism,” Africasacountry.com. Retrieved from https://africasacountry.com/2018/07/metoo-africa-and-the-politics-of-transnational-activism
Chutel, L. (2018, December 23). The #MeToo movement should listen to the silence of African women. Quarz Africa. Retrieved from https://qz.com/africa/1501088/the-metoo-movement-should-listen-to-the-silence-of-african-women/
Kelly, L. (1987). The continuum of sexual violence. In Women, violence and social control (pp. 46-60). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Schreuer, M. (2017, October 25). A #MeToo Moment for the European Parliament. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/25/world/europe/european-parliament-weinstein-harassment.html