Gender and the Political Economy of Conflict in Africa ─ The Persistence of Violence

This book explores the persistence of violence in conflict zones in Africa using a political economy framework to situate violence against women and men in the context of criminal, corrupt, and violent economies. Violence affects the economy of production and the ecology of reproduction— the production of economic goods and services and the generational reproduction of workers, the regeneration of the capacity to work and maintenance of workers on a daily basis, and the renewal of culture and society through community relations and the education of children. The political economy approach employs an analysis of violence on both edges of the spectrum—a macro-economic analysis of violence against workers and a micro-political analysis of the violence in women’s reproductive lives. These analyses come together to create a new explanation of why violence persists, a new political economy of violence against women, and a new theoretical understanding of the relation between production and reproduction. The backdrop is the extractive industries in Africa, the global trade in diamonds, gold and other minerals. The case studies are the Democratic Republic of the Congo (violence in an era of conflict), Sierra Leone (violence post-conflict), and Tanzania (which has not seen armed conflict on the mainland).

This is an important contribution that fills a significant gap on the political economy of war and women/gender for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as researchers in African Studies, Gender Studies, and Peace and Conflict Studies.