Naledi Pandor’s Feminist Reimagining of Africa’s Global Engagement

Global politics has often been framed as the ‘business of men’. Yet, Dr Naledi Pandor’s leadership disorders colonial patriarchal expectations of who does politics and how politics is done.

Written by Maggie LoWilla

May 22, 2025

Illustration by Charles Owen / THE REPUBLIC.

By design of our colonial history and capitalist logic, leadership has been regarded as the preserve of straight, cis-gender, able-bodied, white men. Not any individual white men, but the fantasy of an elite masculinity marked by individualism, assertiveness and competitiveness directed towards command and control. —Helena Liu, Senior Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney

I found it appropriate to start with the above quote because this essay is about gender and leadership in global affairs. It is about the leadership of an African woman, Dr Naledi Pandor, who does not fit the colonial ideal in appearance or in praxis. I am interested in her leadership as a deviation of the standard, a glitch in the (coloniality) matrix. Pandor was South Africa’s minister of international relations and cooperation from 2019 to 2024 and was a member of the South African ministerial team that initiated the genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Overall, Dr Pandor’s leadership in South Africa’s foreign policy and diplomacy offers a compelling case through which to draw insights that can be applied to Africa’s engagement with multiple global powers.

From BRICS negotiations to United Nations summits, Pandor has shaped South Africa’s global engagements with a sharp intellect, a steady hand and an unshakable commitment to justice. But beyond her well-documented role as an anti-colonial and anti-apartheid stateswoman, her leadership is deeply feminist—challenging traditional power structures, amplifying marginalized voices and insisting on ‘justice, self-determination and autonomy’.

BY THE COLONIAL SCRIPT, WE WERE WRITTEN

The story of Africa and African women has long been told by others, forced down resisting throats, scripted without consent. It has never afforded Africa main character energy; instead, the continent is cast as ‘the wretched’, the needy, the perpetual ‘other’. In the 1988 book, TheInvention of Africa, philosopher and scholar Valentin-Yves Mudimbe argues that colonial conquest surpassed the seizure of physical objects such as land, property and people; it also erased histories and traditions, robbing Africa the ability to define itself.

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About the Author

Maggie LoWilla

is a gender, peace and security researcher and practitioner dedicated to reimagining peacebuilding through feminist, youth-led and community-driven approaches.

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