The Daily Hussy — In African studies, historically and currently,...

In African studies, historically and currently, the creation, constitution and production of knowledge remains a privilege of the West. […] The fact that Western Women were the researchers studying other women was seen as proof in itself that they were better off in their own situation, this was evidences by their new-found position as creators of knowledge. This “positional superiority,”put them in a powerful position […]. Western feminists did not explain their privileged status, however, in terms of their race and the internationalization of a Western-originated capitalist system; they took for granted that it was a result of how far they had progressed as women in their own society. What white women did not realize was that if they were motivated by women’s subordination in their own society to study “Other” women, it was their economic and racial dominance in the global system that made it possible. The idea that the West could learn about itself and hence that feminists could find themselves in Africa was not a new one. Ranging from the explorers who used their (mis)adventures in Africa to text their manhood, through the Christian missionaries proselytizing for the sake of their own salvation, to the feminists in search of themselves, Africa represented a mirror to the Westerners in which they perceived themselves. [..] At a certain level, cross-cultural research was primarily a narcissistic undertaking.

Oyeronke Oyewumi - “The White Woman’s Burden: African Women in Western Feminist Discourse” (2004) (via first-taste) (via fyeahafrica)