Holistic Articulations: On Women’s Discursive Labor in an African City

2025/12/12 by Tolulope Akinwole · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #African history and culture studies #South African History and Culture #Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies

paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/asr.2025.10162

openalex publication_date 2025/12/12 · openalex created_date 2025/12/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21

Abstract

Abstract Women’s labor in African urban centers permeates every sphere of urban life, yet its full scope remains understated in scholarly accounts. Akinwole introduces “holistic articulation” as a method for reading African women’s discursive labor. Holistic articulation names an analytical strategy of linking discursive fragments about women’s labor across multiple archives: social history, African literature, popular journalism, mythography, and everyday expressions. By tracing these connections, holistic articulation highlights the breadth of African women’s space-making and performative labor. This approach extends existing frameworks for analyzing African women’s labor by foregrounding its discursive and imaginative dimensions.

Citations

• Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence
• Nego‐Feminism: Theorizing, Practicing, and Pruning Africa’s Way

Discussions

• What does women’s labor make visible in the African city? Tolulope Akinwole argues that women’s “discursive and performative actions” are central to understanding work, struggle, and urban life in Lag [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]

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