#MenAreTrash. #AmINext? #SayHerName

#MenAreTrash. #AmINext? #SayHerName

Feminist Rage, Digital Activism and Gendered Violence in Southern Africa

by Kutlwano B. L. Mokgwathi (University of the Western Cape, South Africa)

Purchase this book

Hardback

$ 88

Availability: Pre-order

(24% discount on all pre-orders)

Located primarily in Southern African contexts, but with global relevance and resonance, this rich and nuanced perspective on gender-based violence addresses brutal and everyday male violences against women, children and the LGBTQ+ community, both institutionalized and interpersonal, through the productive lens of contemporary Digital Black and African Feminisms. Calling out the silencing of violence against Black and African women in particular, the book disrupts such erasures and plays witness to such violences. Rather than repeating tropes of damage and victimhood that African feminists have called out, the book also speaks to activisms and agencies, particularly as articulated in contemporary virtual spaces. In this way, the book raises and challenges the ongoing and silenced violences against Black women — remembering, mourning and bearing witness to these — while also protesting against them and the conditions that make such violences possible and imaginable. Importantly, the book, as all feminist scholarship hopes to be, is both political and personal. It works not only with dense theory and literature, but also with embodiment, affect and lived experience, memory and subjective narratives. Indeed, Kutlwano Mokgwathi's beautifully articulated narrative is stitched through with rage, grief, and other entangled affective engagements. What most stands out for the reader is the way in which this powerful and valuable account of contemporary African Feminist Digital activism, weaves both a despairing and reparative or hopeful narrative, what the author calls ‘respair’: we are reminded to remember the violated and dead, to ‘name’ violence, resist forgetting, to ‘disrupt’ denial, whilst also to ‘mobilise’ against systemic and interpersonal violence, and to engage creative and radical ‘reimaginings’, through reflexivity, care, solidarity and love.

Tamara Shefer
Professor, Women’s and Gender Studies
University of the Western Cape, South Africa

Dr. Mokgwathi provides a valuable addition to the literature on feminisms and socio-political challenges in Africa. By centering the longue durée of patriarchy in Africa, particularly the impact of colonialism, and placing digital feminist/womanist activist organizing in their historical context, she offers a thoughtful examination of “the routine violence that structures women’s lives." Mokgwathi’s book contributes to our understanding of how the past has shaped contemporary feminist and womanist movements in Africa in an increasingly digital world.

James J. Fisher
Researcher, Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life
Tufts University

This book explores gender-based violence in Southern Africa, specifically focusing on male violence against women, children, and the LGBTQ+ community. It examines how women in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, particularly in South Africa, utilize media technologies to mobilize, organize, raise political awareness, and amplify protests. Key to this discussion are hashtags such as #MenAreTrash, #AmINext, and #SayHerName, which shed light on various forms of violence, including intimate partner violence, community violence, and state violence. The book situates these practices within the historical contexts of colonialism and apartheid, framing violence as a communicative act that shapes everyday life in the region. It further links the practices of digital activism to broader traditions of social movements and feminist struggles. In agreement with African feminists, it posits that feminism on the continent is an action-oriented practice that arises from women’s collective efforts toward liberation. This viewpoint lays the groundwork for understanding digital Black feminism in Southern Africa as part of a larger trajectory of cyberfeminism and Black feminist theory. By utilizing the term Africana, the book stresses the connections between Africa and the African diaspora, emphasizing the significance of transnational linkages in ongoing struggles for liberation. The book explores the persistence of male violence and proposes practical solutions aimed at guiding policy development and promoting societal reform. As such, it represents a significant contribution to feminist scholarship and enriches the body of feminist literature from the SADC region by incorporating the advancements in media technologies in the pursuit of social justice.

Kutlwano B. L. Mokgwathi, PhD, is a communication specialist with an MA in Visual Communication and a PhD from the School of Media Arts and Studies, both earned at Scripps College of Communication, Ohio University. Her primary research areas include feminist media studies and gender within digital cultures. She emphasizes how African women utilize technology, such as social media, photography, and film, to reshape gender narratives and challenge patriarchal structures. Currently, she is pursuing a second doctoral degree in Women and Gender Studies at the University of the Western Cape. Her new research focuses on digital masculinities and the Africana Manosphere, particularly Red Pill and Alpha Male ideologies, as she explores the concept of masculinity in digital spaces and its relation to Africana identities.

Digital Ethnography, Hahstag Activism, Digital Black Feminism, Africana Feminism, African Feminisms, Men and Masculinity, Patriarchal Violence, Male Violence against Women, Colonial Violence, State Violence, Ideal Victims. Media Technology. Social Media. Visual Rhetoric. Cultural Memory. Twitter. TikTok. #MenAreTrash #SayHerName, #AmINext? Botswana, South Africa, Namibia