The school of Women and Gender Studies of Makerere University celebrated its 30th anniversary with an international conference from February 23 to 25, 2022
Having been inaugurated in 1991, with its first intake of students in November that year, it is Africa’s oldest and largest school of gender.
The International Conference on Gender Studies in Africa (ICGSA) ran under the theme ‘Africa and Gender Studies: celebrating 30 years of transformation and reimagining the future’. Taking place at the Central Teaching Facility 2 auditorium, Makerere University, it was officially opened by Vice President Jessica Alupo and closed by Betty Amongi, the minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development.
More than 200 delegates from 38 countries across five continents, attended the prestigious event online, besides hundreds in physical attendance, and it featured in more than 480 papers.
The keynote speaker at the opening ceremony was Prof. Amina Mama of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, with the topic ‘Gender and women’s studies as African feminist strategy ’. The keynote speaker for the closing ceremony was Dr. Nyepudzayi Mercy Nyangulu, the Regional Champion for Women of Africa Arise; her topic was ‘Reimagining the future: priorities for the next 30 years’.
The conference had two objectives: to assess the challenges to and achievements of gender studies, parity and praxis across the continent and the global pan-African community, and to define the role of gender studies in Africa’s development by enabling conversation about the past and future of gender studies in Africa in relation to five thematic areas.
The areas were: teaching gender studies, theorizing gender studies, researching gender, practicing gender, and the impact of gender studies in Africa.
The dean of the school, who also doubled as the host of the conference, Prof. Sarah Ssali, said the school was established as a result of the struggles by women organizations and individual activists.
It has since helped enhance the feminist agenda in Uganda and the continent of Africa, by helping many African countries or universities to set up schools, departments or centres for gender studies, she added.
Ssali hailed the school for the many benefits it has brought to Makerere University and Uganda, such as the 40 per cent enrolment quota in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines for girls and women at Makerere University (since 2020), the Female Scholarship Initiative (since 2001) for affirmative action for girls and women, the Makerere University Gender Equality Policy (MUGEP) of 2009, and making gender studies a cross-cutting course in all colleges of Makerere.
Other results include the mandatory gender budgeting in all government ministries and agencies, compulsory gender-based data disaggregation by Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) and any other agency or research team carrying out surveys and data collection.
The school also played a major role in the evolution of the Makerere University Policy and Regulations Against Sexual Harassment (2006), and the National Gender Policy (2007).
Besides providing undergraduate and graduate training (including PhDs), Ssali said, the school promotes general gender research, trains community development officers (CDOs) for the ministry of Local Government, and provides short course for various ministries. It also provides support services in the formulation of government policies, and trains politicians and civil society personnel.
Ssali said the school has trained critical cadre essential for mainstreaming gender in government activities, development agencies and the general society.
“The school has made gender equality a public and legitimate topic,” she asserted.
Among the many recommendations and projections from the conference were further decolonization of gender studies and expulsion of Eurocentism in African academia; embarking on the study of masculinity and issues that make men fear empowered women; reclamation of African history and African feminism before colonialism; building and utilizing local African bibliographies, archives and journals and putting gender in the curricula of teachers training colleges, other tertiary institutions and secondary schools.
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