Decolonial Feminism, Entrepreneurship, and the Use of Bicycles for Development in Northern Uganda

This study aims to provide deeper understanding of the “grand narratives” surrounding the promise and potential that bicycles and entrepreneurship are assumed to have for women in the Global South. Decolonial feminism is used to contest Eurocentric narratives underlying bicycles and entrepreneurship and to provide nuanced insight into how women in Northern Uganda resist the oppression resulting from colonialism and patriarchy. Eighteen women from two communities shared their lived experiences of using bicycles received from a nongovernmental organization. The findings revealed that bicycles are used by women for income-generation and business activities that largely align with dominant Westernized narratives of entrepreneurship that reproduce capitalist modes of thinking. Histories of colonialism and coloniality influence gendered roles and identities that are reflected in the work women do. However, the self-organization of women has led to bicycles and “bicycle savings groups” being used by women to promote unity and advocacy that resist patriarchal oppression and may alter gender relations. This paper contributes to existing literature on gender, mobilities, and entrepreneurship, demonstrating the usefulness of decolonial feminism to reveal the threads of oppression experienced by women while at the same time centering subaltern women’s agency. The findings unveiled the need to better account for heterogenous experiences of mobilities and entrepreneurship, particularly those of subaltern women who are framed as the beneficiaries of bicycles through grand narratives.