The coronavirus (COVID-19) global crisis is reminiscent of other pandemics plaguing the African continent. Scholarly work on pandemics in Africa evidence that discourses on pandemics are driven by capitalism, modernisation and globalisation interfering with women’s daily experiences of gender and sexuality. In so doing, the prevailing gender and class disparities among the continent’s most marginalised population are amplified. We contend that pandemics remain feminised in Africa and that this feminisation needs to be understood from a historical perspective. Furthermore, it is critical to note and get an understanding of the history of pandemics in developing countries. In this briefing we pay attention to the lived experiences of Nkomazi women and the ways in which they frame their understanding and navigation of sexual reproductive health and its intersecting inequalities in the context of the HIV pandemic and pre-COVID-19. Emerging from women’s narratives were themes related to food insecurity closely followed by social security, which accelerated some young women’s initiation and involvement in transactional sex relationships. To elicit the themes, we utilised a qualitative inquiry to explore the intergenerational narratives of 20 Nkomazi women to understand their negotiated experiences and meanings of gender and its intersections through South Africa’s most tumultuous political period and shifting socio-political terrains. We drew from decolonial and African feminist frameworks to interrogate the colonial tradition of the State’s historical and contemporary emergency responses to pandemics. We conclude by challenging the claim that the impact of COVID-19, as with other pandemics, does not discriminate based on race, age, gender, socio-economic status and geographic location. Instead, pandemics exacerbate the widening inequality gap. We point to how these intersectionalities accentuate the gender blindness of global and local health governance in contexts of public health emergencies.

In this article, I argue that the sexualities of Black rural women in post-apartheid South Africa are shaped by the enduring legacies of colonialism and apartheid. Drawing on African feminist, Black feminist, and decolonial scholarship, I conceptualise sex and sexuality not only as a socio-cultural domain, but as a deeply contested terrain of power through which race, gender, and heteronormative citizenship are constituted, regulated, and lived. Focusing on women’s narratives from Mpumalanga and drawing on an intergenerational focus group discussion comprising 20 young and older women conducted within narrative inquiry, I illuminate how intimate life is forged through the intricate entanglements of desire, material exchange, respectability, coercion, dependency, and survival. I further contend that the post-apartheid order, despite its formal commitment to sexual and gender rights, has not dismantled the racialised, gendered and heteropatriarchal conditions that continue to restrict Black women’s bodily autonomy and intimate negotiations. My analysis also demonstrates that sexuality becomes most legible through dominant heterosexual and cisgender scripts, while queer and non-normative intimacies remain obscured by moral, linguistic, and social constraints. By centring a reflexive narrative methodology, I advance a decolonial feminist account of how coloniality continues to inhabit embodiment, desire, and the fragile, intimate textures of women’s everyday lives.

The research paper explores the intersections of colonialism, apartheid, gender, sexuality, and nationalism through the narratives of women from Mpumalanga, in South Africa. I critically examine how these factors shape the identities and experiences of Black women in South Africa, especially in the wake of the country’s transition to democracy. I employ qualitative methods, engaging with women’s narratives alongside existing literature, to frame my analysis. This approach allows for an understanding of women’s embodied experiences and how these relate to broader socio-political contexts. By utilising personal narratives, this research highlights the lived realities of Black women, illuminating the ongoing effects of socio-political and cultural legacies on their sexualities and identities. The theoretical frameworks guiding my analysis are rooted in decolonial and African feminist scholarship. These frameworks challenge conventional narratives on gender and sexuality, emphasising the need to contextualise African experiences within their unique historical and socio-cultural landscapes. I draw on diverse scholarly contributions that examine the effects of the colonial gaze, gender roles imposed by colonial ideologies, and the historical narrative of Black women under surveillance. To conclude, through women’s personal narratives and Focus Group Discussions, my research aims to critically interrogate the historical constructions of gender and sexuality, foregrounding women's voices to deepen understanding of power dynamics in post-apartheid South Africa. Through this, I assert that the legacies of racial and sexual disparity continue to influence contemporary discourses and women’s lived experiences today.