Abstract South Africa has taken centre stage in most accounts of the synergistic potential of law and politics: it is seen to be a case which demonstrates that human rights can be made real, with the favourable combination of institutional and political conditions. Among these conditions, from a feminist perspective, are the inclusion of equality and socio-economic rights in the Constitution, high levels of representation of women in parliament and the bureaucracy, and a strong and free civil society. The country is often invoked, in comparative social science, as an example of a democratic and relatively peaceful transition from authoritarianism, in which the breakdown of institutions was avoided; rather, it is seen as an example of successful institutional redirection from supporting an authoritarian state to advancing a democratic project. However, the Constitution is coming under increasing attack. It is not only conservative forces that seek to undermine rights in the name of culture, or wealthy elites concerned about defending their rights to property through rule of law and opposing high taxation, that are critical. It is also challenged by radical voices that aim at creating a society free of oppression. For the latter actors, the Constitution is less a tool of change and more an example of coloniality, or the imposition of a Western discourse on Africa. These arguments about decolonising political projects require more careful engagement, as the project of decoloniality is one that is in many respects allied to the project of feminism, whose own history required the disabling of the invisibilised male norm on which much legal and political theory was founded. This paper addresses the decolonial critique by showing the radical roots of the equality clause in a century-long history of struggles by black women.

中文翻译：

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非殖民化平等：南非宪法中性别平等条款的根本根源

摘要 南非在大多数关于法律和政治协同潜力的论述中占据了中心位置：它被视为一个案例，表明人权可以通过制度和政治条件的有利结合而成为现实。从女权主义的角度来看，这些条件包括将平等和社会经济权利纳入宪法、妇女在议会和官僚机构中的高代表以及强大和自由的民间社会。在比较社会科学中，国家经常被引用作为从威权主义进行民主和相对和平过渡的一个例子，在这种过渡中避免了机构的崩溃；相反，它被视为成功从支持威权国家到推进民主项目的制度重新定向的一个例子。然而，宪法正受到越来越多的攻击。不仅保守势力以文化的名义寻求破坏权利，或者富有的精英们关心通过法治捍卫他们的财产权和反对高税收，都是至关重要的。它也受到旨在创造一个没有压迫的社会的激进声音的挑战。对于后一种行为者来说，宪法与其说是变革的工具，不如说是殖民主义的一个例子，或者是将西方话语强加于非洲的例子。这些关于非殖民化政治项目的论点需要更加谨慎地参与，因为非殖民化项目在许多方面都与女权主义项目相关联，女权主义项目本身的历史要求废除许多法律和政治理论所依据的隐形男性规范.