Thinking Ecofeminism in Africa through Genealogies of Resistance: A Reading of Wangari Maathai, Rebeka Njau, and Mary Njeri Kinyanjui

In Decolonisation and Afro-Feminism (2020), Ugandan feminist activist and thinker Sylvia Tamale proposes African ecofeminism as a particular form of intersectionality which foregrounds the links between gender and global and environmental justice. She suggests that although the term “ecofeminism” was coined in the European women’s movement, and women in the global South may not have identified themselves as ecofeminists, they have a long history of ecological consciousness. Tamale thus argues for an African-centred genealogy of African ecofeminism, drawing on the communal values, belief systems, agricultural knowledge, and ecological practices through which African societies have been organised. Following Tamale’s suggestion, this chapter discusses three representatives of contemporary feminism in Kenya and their historic role models of women mobilizing anti-colonial resistance. In addition to the well-known environmental activist Wangari Maathai, these are the writer Rebeka Njau and the economic geographer Mary Njery Kinyanjui. The chapter focuses in particular on the significance of cultural knowledge and feminist role models from their own history in texts by these three thinkers. We also aim to foreground the connections between feminism and ecology as a form of intersectional thinking in their writing.