Women, Rastafari and the new society: Caribbean and East African roots of a popular movement against structural adjustment

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Periodical article

Title:	Women, Rastafari and the new society: Caribbean and East African roots of a popular movement against structural adjustment
Author:	Turner, T.E.
Year:	1991
Periodical:	Labour, Capital and Society
Volume:	24
Issue:	1
Pages:	66-89
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	protest class relations economic policy women
Abstract:	This study considers gender and class relations in Caribbean and East African popular struggles during three crises of capitalism in the 20th century: the women-centred Nyabingi popular movement in Uganda in the early 20th century; Rastafari in Jamaica and Mau Mau in Kenya in the period from the 1930s to the 1960s; and the struggles of the new Rasta in Kenya against the implementation of structural adjustment programmes in the period since 1980. The paper argues that within the growing internationalization of the world market, capital has sought to develop through establishing class alignments characterized by specific gender relations. Using the concept of the 'male deal' to examine gender dynamics during each crisis, the study concludes that the 'new Rastafari', whose defining feature is the assertion that class consciousness cannot exist without gender consciousness, is part of an international social movement of resistance to structural adjustment and the affirmation of a new society which transcends the limitations of the male deal. Bibliogr., sum. in French.