"Women hold up more than half the sky": Reproducing Resistance and Care for Humans and Nature.20.04.2026 I 18:00 Uhr

14. April 2026, von LASt-Team

Foto: RWA

Wir laden herzlich zum Vortrag "'Women hold up more than half the sky': Reproducing Resistance and Care for Humans and Nature" ein, die am Montag, 20.04.2026, in Phil E ("Philosophenturm", Von Melle Park 6), von 18:00 bis 20:00 Uhr in englischer Sprache stattfinden wird. 

This talk proposes an Afro‑eco‑feminist re‑theorisation of social reproduction by focusing on African women’s everyday ecological practices as sites of resistance, care, and political imagination in South Africa. Building on feminist political economy analyses of the crisis of social reproduction and subsequent ecofeminist organising, the talk traces a shift from reproductive depletion toward prefigurative practices of care and commons. Drawing on pluralised social reproduction theory, Afro‑feminist epistemologies, and decolonial ecofeminism, it conceptualises practices such as food conservation, seed‑sharing, aquaponics, and land guardianship as reproductive commons functioning as hopeful infrastructure. Central to this argument is an Afro‑eco‑feminist ethic of relationality and responsibility, grounded in philosophies, which conceptualise land and nature as collective inheritances rather than objects of ownership. By treating women’s ecological work as both material infrastructure and epistemic practice, the talkdemonstrates how Afro‑eco‑feminism offers a decolonial framework for understanding social reproduction as a terrain of ecological care, political resistance, and critical hope oriented toward sustaining life across generations.

Khayaat Fakier is a associate Professor at Stellenbosch University in South Africa in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology and until the end of april she is a Agathe-Lasch Guest Scholar at the University of Hamburg (UHH). Professor Fakier is an acclaimed expert in the fields of diversity and gender studies. Her empirical research focuses particularly on groups in South Africa that are historically disadvantaged, feminist movements, and related currents within these groups. Her work pays special attention to the (self-)organization of women in rural areas, those in precarious employment (especially domestic workers, service staff, and similar roles), as well as activities in the informal and industrial sectors.