In conversation with Nyanchama Okemwa
The conversation below is the transcript of Nyanchama Okemwa’s presentation for a panel at the Women World Conference 2022, held in Maputo. The conference’s venue was Eduardo Mondlane University. The conference convened feminist academics, civil society and community-based activists. Someone called attention to the fact that the community-based activists kept to a tent outside, while the academics met in the classrooms inside. The activists were invited to participate in the debates inside. The majority of the audience in the session were activists who could not speak English, and for whom the presentations had to be translated into Portuguese. The text has been shortened and edited for clarity.
Among the Abagusii, the hearth is much more than a place of fire; it is the threshold of life, survival, fecundity, belonging, and ancestral memory. Mothers, as custodians of these sacred hearths, fan the embers of life — from womb to grave — emblazoning ancestral flames across generations. In reclaiming their silenced wisdom, mothers churn the fires of resilience that continue to shape our past, present, and future.
Abagusii women are centered at the threshold of the eternal hearths—womb, fire, conjugal dwelling, land, and grave — where life emerges, endures, and recycles.
“Wombs and Graves, Witches and Whores” (Nyanchama Okemwa 1999)
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