Kehinde Awofeso is a former banker, an artist and a computer engineer. She obtained degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Information Technology from the University of Lagos and Obafemi Awolowo University, respectively. She has worked on a number of cover designs and has illustrated children’s books. She is an information technology consultant who enjoys painting. She…
Category: Feminist Africa Issue 22: Feminists Organising – Strategy, Voice, Power
The focus of Feminist Africa 22 – “Feminists Organising” – implies a vision, a sense of alternative possibilities of greater social justice alongside the liberation of women from all sources of oppression, and collective feminist energies being mobilised to bring about change in this direction. How have feminists in Africa organised and what are the ends to which feminist organising is directed? What strategies are used to pursue which goals and what trajectories of change are envisaged? How do we effect change within ourselves, even as we strive to change relations and conditions at local, national, regional, and/or global levels? Whose voices are privileged, heard or silenced in the course of feminist organising and in what contexts?
“I’m not a feisty bitch, I’m a feminist!” Feminism in AWAKE! Women of Africa
By Ntokozo Yingwana Introduction Although being an African, a sex worker and a feminist are often considered to be incongruent identities, in certain embodiments they intersect and inform each other. This Profile highlights what feminism can learn from analysing sex workers’ rights activism among a group of Cape Town-based sex worker feminists called AWAKE! Women…
Women Organising in Ghana: The Network for Women’s Rights (NETRIGHT) and NGO Networking for Policy Intervention
By Akua Biritwum Introduction Ghanaian women’s agitations for economic justice have been a marked feature of their activism since pre-independence nationalist struggles, including the trade blockades of 1917 and 1918. Market traders mobilised resources for party activities and took part in disruptive civil acts that undermined the colonial economy and contributed to making political change…
Female in Nigeria: Profile
By Ayodele Olofintuade Introduction In June 2015, the Abuja-based Warmate Bookclub, inspired by Chimamanda Adichie’s feminist pamphlet, We Should All Be Feminists, started the hashtag #BeingFemaleinNigeria (Edoro, 2015). This not only focused on everyday sexism but also addressed norms, cultural beliefs and practices as well as government policies that have led to the oppression of…
Faith, Feminism and Fundamentalisms: Theo Sowa in plenary discussion with Everjoice Win, Fatou Sow and Musimbi Kanyoro
This discussion of the nexus of religion, fundamentalisms and feminism on the continent took place at the 4th African Feminist Forum in Harare in April 2016. Read the full article below or download HERE
Women Organising in Senegal: Charmaine Pereira speaks with Codou Bop
Codou Bop is a longstanding feminist in Senegal, co-founder and coordinator of the organisation GREFELS (Groupe de Recherche sur les Femmes et les Lois au Senegal) or Research Group for Women and Laws in Senegal. The conversation below took place between Dakar and Abuja, via Skype, in January 2017. Codou’s strategic positioning at the nexus…
the revolution is a woman
A collective poem compiled and written by Toni Stuart at the 4th African Feminist Forum, 10-12 April 2016, in Harare, Zimbabwe. The poem uses words, phrases, ideas and thoughts shared by the women throughout the forum. Read the full article below or download HERE
Collective Amnesia, by Koleka Putuma. Cape Town: Uhlanga, 2017
By Uhuru Phalafala The release of Koleka Putuma’s debut collection Collective Amnesia officially positions her within an ongoing global feminist dialogue with black female poets who utilise poetry as a vehicle to confront their particularised oppressions as women of colour. These young writers, be it Somalian Warsan Shire, Indian Rupi Kaur, Sudanese Safia Elhillo, or…
Beauty of the Heart: The Life and Times of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke by Zubeida Jaffer. Cape Town: ZJ Books, 2016
By Gabeba Baderoon Questions of lineage mark much contemporary writing by Black women, from Nomboniso Gasa’s Women in South African History (2007) to Koleka Putuma’s Collective Amnesia (2017), signaling a longing for beginnings and continuity in the face of the vast silences and abrupt severing which mar so much of South African history. In Beauty…
Tribute to Aminata Diaw Cissé: 1959-2017
By Fatou Sow Aminata Diaw was our friend. She was my colleague, my sister, my friend. We became colleagues upon her arrival in 1986 at the University of Dakar. Young and brilliant, with a string of qualifications under her belt, she became one of the first Senegalese women to teach philosophy there. It was still…