The project ‘Rethinking African Gender Histories: Time, Change, and the Deeper Past in Northern Mozambique’ looks into new ways of reading and writing change in African gender history. It questions the current ways in which gender is connected to a teleological notion of history. This teleological single narrative categorizes African gender history into three stages: an idealized monolithic precolonial past, a disruptive and oppressive colonial period, and a postcolonial present that is centered on ‘liberation’. Focusing on the practices of Yaawo oral historians in Niassa in northern Mozambique, this project studies the gendered ways in which deeper historical knowledge is passed from generation to generation. As the research shows, examining deeper histories and the ways in which these relate to the present allows for a more complex understanding of historical time. Moreover, it offers alternative ways of thinking about gender and change in African history.

GENHIS-AFRICA was based at Ghent University and funded through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions – Individual Fellowship scheme.