Hairiness and Hairlessness: An African Feminist View of Poverty

Abstract

In hair discourse, the issues of poverty eradication (SDG 1) and gender equality (SDG 5) intersect. Many prevalent economic assessments of poverty use monetary indicators, but little recognition is given to non-numerically measured forms of poverty. This work focuses on intellectual poverty as an undertheorized dimension of poverty by invoking a metaphorical “hairy-hairless” dichotomy of Scholarly African Feminists (SAF, or “Hairy”) and Indigenous-Survivalist African Feminists (I-SAF, or “Hairless”). I-SAF are unaware of their potential and lack the critical perspective needed to combat feminized poverty, while SAF suffer epistemic invisibility in global conversations. This article asks whether intellectual poverty is also feminized: What have African feminisms achieved with regards to ameliorating feminized poverty? Why has intellectual poverty persisted? What is wrong with survivalism as an approach for combating intellectual poverty (and by extension, other dimensions of poverty)? How may SAF and I-SAF interact to combat intellectual poverty? The article defines intellectual poverty as the inverse of intellectual prosperity. Just as intellectual prosperity promotes all-round prosperity, so intellectual poverty can contribute to poverty more generally.