Abstract

The emergence of digital technology as a medium of artistic expression has transformed the terrain of African performance, ushering in a renaissance of feminist thought and action on virtual stages. African women, historically marginalized in
mainstream theatre and media discourses, are increasingly using digital platforms to articulate resistance, narrate experiences, and construct counter-hegemonic narratives that disrupt the patriarchal and colonial status quo. The digital revolution has transformed African performance culture, empowering African women to assert agency, subvert patriarchal norms, and forge intercultural feminist solidarities through virtual platforms. This paper examines how digital theatre reconfigures gendered representation and performance praxis in African contexts, using Judith Butler’s gender performativity and Obioma Nnaemeka’s nego-feminism as theoretical lenses. Through critical analyses of Hear Word! by Ifeoma Fafunwa, Portrait of Myself as My Father by Nora Chipaumire, and The Revolution Will Be Live by Zandi Tisani, it explores how virtual stages serve as sites of resistance, cultural memory, and transnational dialogue. These performances enact subversive gender performances, negotiate African cultural norms, and archive lived experiences, challenging exclusionary narratives as well as creating borderless feminist communities. Through the fusion of indigenous epistemologies with global feminist discourses, African women redefine digital performance as a radical praxis of liberation.

Keywords: Gender performativity, nego-feminism, digital performance, intercultural feminism, virtual spaces