CSA&G Monographs and Publications

Sibanda, D. 2023. ‘YOU DON’T BELONG HERE’: Female Identity and (Dis)Location(s) in Zimbabwean Urban Landscapes.

This monograph, titled “You don’t belong here”: Female identities and (dis)location(s) in Zimbabwean Urban Landscapes”, provides a detailed and critical exploration of the intersections between gendered (in)equalities and physical space in Zimbabwe.

Shefer, T. & Ngabaza, S. 2023. Sexuality education for gender justice in South African contexts: pitfalls and possibilities.

This book asks nuanced questions about how we might go about talking to young people about “sex” in ways that acknowledge their identities and experiences with an alertness to complexity and critical thinking. With longstanding experience and a wealth of expertise in the field of critical feminist thinking around gender and sexualities, the authors offer a remarkable commentary on possibilities and potential pitfalls for sexuality education in the post-apartheid South African schooling milieu.

Cundill, H. & Blackbeard, J. 2023. Doctor, interrupted: Women and surgeons’ voices in the South African clinical space.

By contrasting the informal, domestic healing practices of South African Afrikaner women with more formalised medical procedures available in urban Johannesburg-based clinics – such as plastic surgery and gynaecology treatment – we are able to gain an insightful perspective on how these two health systems shape the daily lives of South African women. By analysing Boererate alongside modern advancements in biomedicine through a historical lens, this research hopes to join ongoing conversations regarding contemporary medical humanities literature occurring within the country today.

Mfecane, S. 2022. (Un)knowing MEN: Ukwenza izinhlelo zobulungiswa bobulili kubantu besilisa zibe ngezase-Afrika eNingizimu Afrika. (isiZulu). 

In 2021, the CSA&G Press published a reprint of Mfecane’s original (2018) text after it was taken up widely by scholars and students in the field of critical gender and sexualities studies. Following the reprint, our team undertook to have the text translated into two African languages – isiXhosa and isiZulu – as a means to contribute to growing movements towards the decolonisation of ‘evidence’ in this important field. Our hope is that these translations will encourage critical exploration of the potential for increasing epistemological access by social justice actors through the translation of English academic texts. This is the isiZulu edition.

Mfecane, S. 2022. Uku(nga)wazi AMADODA: Ukuzijonga ngobuAfrika iinkqubo zomthetho wamadoda kwezesini kuMzantsi Afrika. (isiXhosa). 

In 2021, the CSA&G Press published a reprint of Mfecane’s original (2018) text after it was taken up widely by scholars and students in the field of critical gender and sexualities studies. Following the reprint, our team undertook to have the text translated into two African languages – isiXhosa and isiZulu – as a means to contribute to growing movements towards the decolonisation of ‘evidence’ in this important field. Our hope is that these translations will encourage critical exploration of the potential for increasing epistemological access by social justice actors through the translation of English academic texts. This is the isiXhosa edition.

Peters, S., Makama, R. & Pinheiro, G. 2022. “This is our reality”: Reflections from Just Gender Project Partners on Gender Justice Work and COVID-19.

The monograph traces and documents the stories of everyday people who work towards gender justice, and their experiences of continuing to work under pandemic conditions. As subsequent sections of the book will show, sustaining solidarity and continuing to do project work required a complex and challenging adaptation process – one that we thought warranted documenting in the form of a resource that could be used by other change agents and stakeholders working in the fields of social and gender justice.

Mfecane, S. 2021. G

(Un)knowing MEN: Africanising gender justice programmes for men in South Africa.

Contemporary conceptions of gender and gender relations in the global South have largely been informed by theories and concepts developed in the global North. While noting that this is a prevalent trend, in “(Un)knowing MEN” Sakhumzi Mfecane questions the sustainability and cogency of these theories at a local level. He calls for action by African scholars to re-imagine the notion of masculinity and manhood within the African context, using gender concepts that originate and speak to the African people. This 2021 edition was reprinted due to popular demand. First printed in 2018.

Pinheiro, G. & Kiguwa, P. 2021. Gender and Germs: Unmasking War Frames in South Africa’s Militarised Response to COVID-19.

In Gender and Germs, Pinheiro and Kiguwa provides a careful, textured analysis of South Africa’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, through an analysis of presidential speeches addressed to the South African public. It thus highlights pivotal moments in the South African political response to this historically significant moment. The authors’ psycho-social and decolonial feminist reading of South Africa’s militarised, hegemonically masculine response to the COVID-19 pandemic is ever timelier in a context in which the gendered inequities illuminated by the pandemic have produced immeasurable difficulties.

Townsend, Dina Lupin. 2021. Exclusion, objectification, exploitation: gender, sexuality and climate change information services.

In Exclusion, Objectification, Exploitation: Gender, Sexuality and Climate Change Information Services, Dina Lupin Townsend takes as a key focus the idea of knowing, in a critical exploration of the epistemological dimensions related to climate change phenomena. Through a holistic lens, underpinned by the core principles of social justice and feminist epistemologies, knowing is here interrogated not as value-free, but as a cornerstone of equal and fair efforts to find meaningful solutions to global warming.

Soer, Elize. 2020. New Chapters, Old Stories: Developmental Narratives Sustaining Apartheid(s).

In New Chapters, Old Stories: Developmental Narratives Sustaining Apartheid(s), Elize Soer encourages us to “think with history”, imagining the temporality of political thought as much longer and more pervasive than the commonly accepted historical narratives would have us believe. With her specific focus on the notion of “sustainable development” Soer displays how one could go about thinking with the histories of colonialism and apartheid to link the specific ideologies, or narratives, that underpinned these structures to the present-day sustainable development industry.

Nduna, Mzikazi. 2020. A magnifying glass and a fine-tooth comb: understanding girls’ and young women’s sexual vulnerability.

Research with regard to the sexuality of adolescent girls and young women continues to suggest new approaches for understanding the sexual risks experienced by girls and young women in Southern Africa. Whilst this knowledge base reveals that young women’s life conditions and experiences are sub-optimal, some sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) interventions are designed and delivered with unchecked assumptions. This monograph addresses some of the assumptions underpinning adolescent girls’ and young women’s vulnerability that could be considered when designing and delivering SRHR interventions.

Mawere, Tinashe. 2019. Gendered and Sexual Imagi(nations), the 2018 Zimbabwean E(r)ections and the Aftermath.

Gendered and Sexual Imagi(nations) attempts to answer questions that have been central to scholarship within the humanities. Drawing on the concepts which Schneider (1984:181) refers to as the basic building blocks of society, i.e. “the quartet of kinship, economics, politics, and religion”, Mawere explores, on the one hand, the historiography of the Zimbabwean state, specifically the Mugabe era, and the particular ways in which it has been underpinned by a deeply rooted system of patriarchal values. On the other hand, this text asks questions which most authors have shied away from asking. Rather than constructing a perspective which imagines leaders of ZANU-PF and the MDC in natural opposition and fundamentally different because of divergent political visions, Gendered and Sexual Imagi(nations) asks its readers to take note of the commonalities shared by male leaders of these parties, and, in fact, held by most male politicians.

Wielenga, C., Bae, B. B., Dahlmanns, E., Matshaka, C., Matsimbe, Z. & Murambadoro, R. 2018. Women in the Context of Justice: Continuities and Discontinuities in Southern Africa.

This Handbook builds on the work of a longer term project on justice and governance practices at community level during periods of transition.  This project is particularly interested in the burgeoning endeavour to incorporate community justice practices into transitional justice interventions after mass violence. One of the issues identified is that there seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to community justice practices, including the response that such practices are ‘patriarchal’ and ‘gender-biased’, and thus that they need to be abolished.

Mfecane, S. 2018. (Un)knowing MEN: Africanising gender justice programmes for men in South Africa.

In (Un)knowing Men Sakhumzi Mfecane shares his critical reflections on research on men and masculinities in South Africa. In South Africa, he argues, there seems to be an impasse in scholarly accounts of men and masculinities. Old theories do not provide new answers; violence against women, homicide, rape of women and children, and homophobia persist despite heavy financial investments by the government and international NGOs in research, education and activism that seek to end all forms of gender inequality in South Africa. Research and interventions, Mfecane points out, centre on the same goal of subverting patriarchy without putting patriarchy in proper social and historical context.

Lazarus, R. 2017. Flagging Adherence: social and structural realities of adult ART adherence in South Africa.

Although South Africa has the largest cohort worldwide initiated onto ART, we need to ask whether adequate attention has been given to ensuring long-term adherence to treatment. If the South African ART programme is to achieve the declared goal of the South African National Department of Health (i.e. to end the HIV epidemic by 2030), then – poor adherence to ART – must be recognised and addressed. The focus of this monograph is primarily on how social and structural factors shape and sustain the HIV epidemic, including their influence on adherence, and the implication of this for promoting adherence. We argue that dominant ways of thinking about adherence may themselves be problematic and we suggest alternative approaches.

Crewe, M., Burns, C., Kruger, C. & Maritz, J. 2017. Gender-based Justice: Reflections on social justice and social change.

This monograph is a foundation document to enable discussion about: (i) the history of attempts to bring equity and justice to the fore; (ii) gender, including how the concept has evolved; and (iii) how, despite the fact that we can and do inhabit so many different identities, the fundamental issue is still one of patriarchy and the gender oppression of women and people with alternative sexualities, rising from the desire to make people conform to an overarching gender belonging. In future monographs we will explore how we will work with partners to address gender-based justice and the kinds of interventions that are possible to shift our gender perspectives and how we view violence.

CSA&G. 2017. Policy Brief – Thinking out of the box: sexualities, gender and HIV.

 Thinking out of the box: sexualities, gender and HIV is one of series of ‘Policy Briefs’ developed by the CSA&G The aim of these policy briefs is to expand briefly on a core topic area relevant to the intersections between HIV and AIDS, gender, gender-based violence and sexualities, providing the reader with a brief background, an examination of key issues and setting out challenges for those working in the field.

CSA&G. 2017. Policy Brief – Power matters: understanding GBV.

Power matters: understanding GBV is one of series of ‘Policy Briefs’ developed by the CSA&G The aim of these policy briefs is to expand briefly on a core topic area relevant to the intersections between HIV and AIDS, gender, gender-based violence and sexualities, providing the reader with a brief background, an examination of key issues and setting out challenges for those working in the field.

CSA&G. 2017. Policy Brief – The Strongest Link: advantages of an intersectional approach

The Strongest Link: advantages of an intersectional approach is one of series of ‘Policy Briefs’ developed by the CSA&G The aim of these policy briefs is to expand briefly on a core topic area relevant to the intersections between HIV and AIDS, gender, gender-based violence and sexualities, providing the reader with a brief background, an examination of key issues and setting out challenges for those working in the field.

CSA&G. 2017. Policy Brief – Social Justice and gender inequality 

Social Justice and gender inequality is one of series of ‘Policy Briefs’ developed by the CSA&G The aim of these policy briefs is to expand briefly on a core topic area relevant to the intersections between HIV and AIDS, gender, gender-based violence and sexualities, providing the reader with a brief background, an examination of key issues and setting out challenges for those working in the field.

CSA&G. 2017. Policy Brief – Halting HIV: strategies and approaches

Halting HIV: strategies and approaches is one of series of ‘Policy Briefs’ developed by the CSA&G The aim of these policy briefs is to expand briefly on a core topic area relevant to the intersections between HIV and AIDS, gender, gender-based violence and sexualities, providing the reader with a brief background, an examination of key issues and setting out challenges for those working in the field.

Moletsane, R. 2014. Nostalgia. AIDS Review 2013. Series Editor: Crewe, M.

Edward Thompson, writing about British rule in India, says that as the colonisers of India the British had been insensitive not only regarding the harm which they had done to Indians but also about the harm that the representations of that relationship had done to them. That is to say, he said, if we continue to represent them (i.e. Indians) as savages, as violent, as barbarians in need of disciplining and education, we are going to hurt them because we have produced a psychological hurt which far from being resolved by power, or by understanding in a general sense, is going to be increased. Nostalgia is concerned with precisely those representations with which we are confronted in our work in HIV and AIDS, in development studies, in the reports of donors and of those who have undertaken research, and by people who have responded to being the subjects of research.

Stadler, J. & Saethre, E. 2012. Off Label. AIDS Review 2012. Series Editor: Crewe, M.

In this Review – Off Label – the experience of participants in a microbicide trial is analysed, operating from the idea that “as condoms and gels are employed (or not employed) in people’s everyday lives, these technologies acquire their own unique signification. In some cases, these meanings could be quite different to those intended by health care profession­als” (p20). These meanings and explanations are ‘off label’ in that while the health care professionals believe that the ways in which a trial will unfold and be experienced is based on how well the professionals understand the trial and the participants, it is the participants who take the intervention, interpret it, transform it, accept or reject it. Participants use trials to re-define themselves as knowledgeable participants, and to assert their individuality and choice.

McNeill, F.G. & Niehaus, I. 2009. Magic. AIDS Review 2009. Series Editor: Crewe, M.

Magic looks at one of the consequences of testing: treatment and access to treatment. No one would deny that all individuals who wish to should have access to testing and then, if they qualify, access to treatment. However, what is at issue is the manner in which testing and treatment are framed and thereby understood. How do individuals understand the HIV test, its implications and its complex relationship to people’s lives, to communities and to society? What informs whether or not individuals decide to test? How do they understand treatment, how drugs work, dosages and side-effects? Magic challenges the all-too-easy assumption that testing and treatment ‘normalises’ the disease and reduces HIV and AIDS-related stigma. Magic seeks to address the influences in people’s lives that affect their response to antiretroviral treatments, i.e. what drives adherence or treatment failure?

Rickard, K. 2008. Balancing Acts. Series Editor: Crewe, M.

Kevin de Cock writing in his comment in The Lancet in 2002, entitled ‘Shadow on the continent’ said that how an issue is defined strongly affects how it is addressed. Portrayal of HIV/AIDS against a background of either human rights, poverty, gender or public health elicits different responses, but the measure of each response must be its ability to curtail the epidemic, and at what social cost. In essence this is what this Review is about. How do we best understand what works, how do we estimate and measure the social cost, quite apart from the economic and political costs, and how do we strike the balance between the imperatives of public health on the one hand and the imperatives of human rights on the other?

Kometsi, K. 2004. (Un)Real. AIDS Review 2004. Series Editor: Crewe, M.

(Un)Real addresses the ways in which the HIV and AIDS epidemic has positioned men and the crucial roles that men can play in the social and political responses to HIV and AIDS. We address the construction of male identities and ‘maleness’ and the ways in which mascu­linities and male sexuality has been understood. For too long ‘gender’ has looked mainly at the position of women in society, addressing women and young girls in ways that position them negatively in relation to the rest of society through descriptions of vulnerability, of powerlessness and of being oppressed by men who have been placed centrally as the major problem in HIV and AIDS. This approach to gender has ensured that the many voices of men have been silenced and that men have been seen as being central to the problem but on the margins of solutions and of social, political and personal behaviour change.