An Introduction: Gender, Development and Water
1 – Introduction Welcome to my blog on 'Gender, Water and Development in Africa'. I intend to outline my motivations to explore this topic and briefly contextualise the role of gender within water and development discourse. This is a crucial issue as water scarcity disproportionately affects women since they are overly impacted by the lack of access to safe and clean water and hygiene infrastructures. Binyavanga Wainaina's (2005) essay How to Write About Africa uses brutal satire to illustrate how Africa is frequently misinterpreted and portrayed in Western media and literature. Wainaina employs a sarcastic voice to reinforce existing preconceptions of Africa as a homogenous nation with a 'primitive' character. The author romanticises its hardship and poverty while purposely ignoring the joy in the lived experiences of everyday encounters, and mocks an entire continent of ethnically diverse people by portraying them as mostly destitute, helpless, i...