According to Mama, the journal was created partly in response to a bias in existing scholarship towards the "Women In Development" (WID) perspective. Particular topics covered by the journal include: women's activism, sexism in higher education, militarism and peace, and gender-related violence.[5][6] Patricia van der Spuy and Lindsay Clowes write that the publication of the journal marked an important step in the development of South African feminism.[7]Iris Berger has critiqued the journal (as an indicator of contemporary African feminism in general) for leaving out colonial and precolonial African women's history.[8]
Feminist Africa is the first "continental" African gender studies journal.[5] The journal publishes works by African scholars in America and discusses the situation of intellectuals across the African diaspora.[9][10] These international contributors have raised the journal's profile but barred it from receiving Department of Education subsidies.[4]Feminist Africa does not receive funds from the University of Cape Town (although it is edited by salaried UCT workers) and relies on sponsorship by international donors—particularly the Ford Foundation and Hivos.[4][11]
^Karen MacGregor, "Out of Africa", Times Higher Education, 1 July 2005.
^See Feminist Africa 7, December 2007, particularly the editorial introduction by Rhoda Reddock: "The journal Feminist Africa has come an important voice for feminists and scholars within the continent, making a space for continental voices in a world dominated by voices from the North including those of diasporic women. The publication of this issue from within the continent and edited by a woman from the economic South is an important development which opens up new possibilities for South-South collaboration and debate within the African diaspora. But the diasporic experience is not limited to those of African descent and must include all those who share and inhabit these diasporic spaces. Many parts of the world are today becoming spaces of inter-locking diasporic communities for example from Asia, Africa, China, Europe and even the Middle East" (pp. 4-5).
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