In November 2017, 30 feminist academics, social activists, progressive women from trade unions and the political arena from different regions of the African continent came together for the first “Feminist Idea Laboratory” in Maputo. The goal was to jointly start analysing critical challenges of socio- economic and political development through a feminist lens, to strengthen and further develop African feminist knowledge and activism and to discuss how feminist work could contribute to the development of socially and gender-just alternatives to the current models of development, decision making and political participation.

The participants of the first Lab chose as the topic for their joint work as “African Feminist Reflection and Action Group” the conceptual framework of Extractivism. The term is understood in a broad sense not just as extractive industry, but as predatory economic model, which exploits all kind of “raw material” (minerals, oil, land, work, bodies, food etc.) to convert them into cash regardless of the consequences. This economic system reinforces corporate power, deepens the commodification of resources, furthers displacements and destruction of livelihoods, increases crime and structural violence and depends heavily on the non-paid (care) work of women.

A joint Agenda

In the second Feminist Idea Laboratory – which took place in Kampala, Uganda between the 7th and 9th of May 2018 – the group decided to engage in a joint Research and Action Agenda on „Feminist Resistances and Alternatives to Extractivism“. Six different and concrete projects have been initiated under this agenda:

1) Feminist solidarity in the resistance to extractivism and the construction of alternatives (Feminist gathering and joint learning with activists from Mozambique, Brazil and Angola),

2) Feminist Schools of Women on Farms and Women in Mines Unpacking Patriarchy (Workshops with women from mining and farming communities in South Africa),

3) Promoting Feminist Agricultural Space (Recording Women Voices in agricultural communities in Botswana),

4) Resisting Genetically Modified Food Crops (Action research in Nigeria),

5) “Total Shutdown” (Designing a trade union activist tool on violence against women in South Africa),

6) Linking Extractivism and the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Young Women (Action research in the Democraic Republic of Congo).