Mapping the notion of the transnational: A close reading of the ‘Women’s Question’ from the Ethiopian Student Movement’s publications in the 1960s and 1970s

Abstract

abstract This focus piece explores how the notion of the transnational was mapped and mobilised in the publications of the Ethiopian Student Movement (ESM) that were printed and published in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in their quest to articulate the ‘Women’s Question’ in Ethiopia. Reading from the large corpus of ESM publications, I more specifically engage those publications which covered discussions, opinion pieces, and debates on the Women’s Question from my interest in demonstrating how ESM activist publications were already engaged in discussions of the transnational in the 1960s and 1970s. Pertinent to formulating the Ethiopian Women’s Question, I map how the notion of transnational was mobilised as part and parcel of activist praxis within ESM. A genealogical reading of the evolution of the Women’s Question in the writings of the ESM showed that discussions on the subject were sporadic, especially between the late 1960s and early 1970s, when this question was more explicitly configured as journals committed to address women’s issues, such as Tanash Ityopyawit [Rise up Ethiopian Women!], and Tagia Ityopyawit [Struggle Ethiopian Woman], emerged.