Umoja: A Swahili feminist ethic for negotiating justice in Zanzibar

Abstract

This article explores umoja, a Swahili worldview of relational personhood, as an alternative cultural form to rights‐based approaches for seeking gender justice in Zanzibar. Since the colonial era, umoja— which translates roughly as “unity”—has become increasingly gendered in political discourse and used by various civil society and government groups to negotiate diverse visions of gender justice. Based on ethnographic observation of a women's savings cooperative, or vicoba, of working‐class women migrants from the Tanzanian mainland, and a feminist civil society coalition, this work explores umoja as a form of feminist solidarity and as a feminist ethic. As a type of feminist solidarity, umoja is exemplified by the vicoba, which maintains relational dignity among members and structurally mitigates within‐group inequities. As a feminist ethic, umoja involves intricately negotiating subgroup interests amidst constantly shifting individual and group relationships while maintaining conviviality in larger collectivities. By prioritizing collective conviviality, umoja avoids directly confronting patriarchal social structures, which raises questions about its potential to ensure gender justice. However, its emphasis on conviviality also acknowledges a shared humanity, which together with its treatment of inequities as intersectional and relational make umoja a holistic complement or alternative to rights‐based approaches for ensuring gendered social change.

Psychometric validation of the collective asset Utu: associations with coping strategies and resilience during adolescence

“…Interventions that seek to strengthen Utu in communities may be positioned well to integrate equity enhancing objectives in ways that would be culturally acceptable and endorsed in communities. For example, research from Zanzibar on a women’s savings cooperate of migrants from the Tanzanian mainland, found that Umoja , a concept that roughly translates to “unity” and is closely tied to Utu, has been increasingly used to negotiate gender justice[ 73 ]. Umoja, “maintains relational dignity among members and structurally mitigates within-group inequities” by prioritizing collectivity and allowing women to negotiate rights based gender justice without directly confronting patriarchal social structures [ 73 ].…”

Promoting Resilience: Measurement of Utu, Risk, Coping and Resilience Among Adolescents in Tanzania

“…For example, research from Zanzibar on a women's savings cooperative of migrants from the Tanzanian mainland, found that Umoja, a concept that roughly translates to "unity" and is closely tied to Utu, has been increasingly used to negotiate gender justice. Ott (2002) argues that umoja, "maintains relational dignity among members and structurally mitigates within-group inequities" by prioritizing collectivity and allowing women to negotiate rights-based gender justice without directly confronting patriarchal social structures (39). An approach that leverages Utu as a positive aspect of culture can be equity enhancing and a culturally acceptable approach because it does not challenge traditional social structures.…”

“…An approach that leverages Utu as a positive aspect of culture can be equity enhancing and a culturally acceptable approach because it does not challenge traditional social structures. Rather, deploying Utu de nes equity as intersectional and relational, and outside of a colonial paradigm and western conceptualizations of gender rights (39). Similarly, interventions that explicitly integrate Utu learning and practice may be an effective approach to promote gender equity by changing belief and behaviors of adolescents.…”

Refusing aid

“…In the context of postconflict development, we can imagine Can Pe Yot's refusals as a "refusal to consent" to narratives of an enduring Acholi underdevelopment and aid dependency that fuel development interventions. Inspired by others who explore relations of interdependence and relational personhood in African contexts (Chekero & Morreira, 2020;Ferguson, 2013;Nyamnjoh, 2017;Ott, 2022), this interpretation depathologizes dependency and legitimizes VSLA members' rejection of aid. Refusals are an offensive position against development NGOs and state-run projects and their accompanying claims of creating positive material, economic, and social change.…”