Gender Mainstreaming in Peacebuilding and Localised Human Security in the Context of the Darfur Genocide: An Africentric Rhetorical Analysis

Summary A wide body of scholarship has been developed on the Darfur crisis in Western Sudan which started in February 2003.1 Such scholarship includes various academic works by scholars such as Apiah-Mensah (2005, 2006), Deng (2007), Howell (1974), Mohamed (2007), Rankhumise (2006). Among other issues identified by these scholars and conflict resolution practitioners, was the need to establish a nexus between human security and development as a key in conceiving an understanding of human peace and security. The conflict in Darfur and its impact on human security and development also caught the attention of regional and international organisations, including the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN). It is on this basis that this article seeks to employ an Africentric perspective (also read as Afrocentricity) for the purpose of analysing the place of women during the Darfur peacebuilding process with a focus on the underlying factors that led to the marginalisation of women. Methodologically, this article is heavily dependent on conversations and interdisciplinary critical discourse analysis in its broadest form. Contrary to the official narrative, this article contests the notion that in the post-genocide era in Darfur authentic women voices have found expression in peace-building. The argument established in this article is that existing domestic and inter-national legal instruments have given a false sense in terms of women inclusion in the post-genocide political life of Darfur.