Tag: Nneka
Let the Good Vibes Roll: Supporting Women Artists
Let the Good Vibes Roll: Supporting Women Artists
Nneka Egbuna, AWDF’s Ambassador for the Arts featured in New African Woman magazine (April/May edition)
Nneka Egbuna, AWDF’s Ambassador for the Arts featured in New African Woman magazine (April/May edition)
Nneka Egbuna, AWDF’s Ambassador for the Arts has been featured in the April/May edition of New African Woman (English edition).
This article focuses on Nneka’s working visit to the African Women’s Development Fund in Ghana to officially start her role as the foundation’s Ambassador for the Arts. Nneka arrived in Ghana on the 12th of February 2012 immediately after finishing her Africa tour, which had taken her to Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Zanzibar.
New African Woman is widely distributed throughout Africa and the rest of the world. For details of where to purchase a copy or for digital access please visit http://www.africasia.com/newafricanwoman/
Introducing Nneka, Internationally Acclaimed Musician and Activist as AWDF’s Ambassador for the Arts
Introducing Nneka, Internationally Acclaimed Musician and Activist as AWDF’s Ambassador for the Arts
[tp lang=”en” not_in=”fr”]On Thursday 16th February 2012, the African Women’s Development Fund, (AWDF) formally introduced Nneka Egbuna, internationally acclaimed musician and activist, as AWDF’s Ambassador for the Arts during a short ceremony at AWDF House in Accra, Ghana. Speakers at the event included renowned feminist writer and professor, Ama Ata Aidoo and Kinna Likimani of the organisation, Mbaasem (Women’s Affairs). In attendance were representatives of women’s rights organisations including Mawuse Awity of the Network for Women in Growth (NEWIG), Adwoa Bame of Women’s Initiative for Self Empowerment (WISE), and Lucy Mensah of Women United Against Aids in Ghana (WUAGG). The event also attracted a number of African women artists including Sherifa Gunu, Yasmeen Helwani-Nsiah and Pauline Oduro.
Speaking during the ceremony, Theo Sowa, AWDF’s Interim CEO explained why AWDF’s new strategic plan included ‘Arts, Culture and Sports’ as a new grant making thematic area, “Art can touch the souls as well as the minds of countless people, inspiring passion, anger, joy and other emotions that can catalyse action in ways that court cases and academic lectures and even protest marches may never achieve… Arts – traditional or modern – are integral to our cultural lives… and changes in social, economic and political arenas will never truly take root without parallel changes in our cultural norms, beliefs and practices…we can and must leverage the transformational power of the arts if we are to achieve and to accelerate real social change.”
Speaking on her role as AWDF’s Ambassador for the Arts, Nneka stated, “Being AWDF’s Ambassador for the Arts is another way for me to get my message out. Being AWDF’s Ambassador compliments my music. This is also a way of sharing my music and raising awareness of issues affecting women. My music raises awareness about critical social issues, which are the same issues that AWDF works on.”
ENDS
Press Enquiries
Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah (AWDF Programme Officer for Communications)
Tel: +233 302 521 257 (Ghana)
Email: nana@africlub.net/awdf
Website: www.africlub.net/awdf[/tp]
[tp lang=”fr” not_in=”en”]
Le jeudi 16 Février 2012, le Fonds africain de développement de la femme, (AWDF) a officiellement présenté Nneka Egbuna, musicienne internationalement célèbre et militante, comme ambassadrice AWDF des Arts au cours d’une brève cérémonie à la Maison AWDF à Accra, au Ghana. Intervenante à l’événement, écrivaine féministe renommée et professeur, Ama Ata Aidoo et Kinna Likimani de l’organisation, Mbaasem (Affaires féminines). Étaient présentes comme représentantes des organisations des droits des femmes, y compris Mawuse Awity du Réseau des femmes de la croissance (NEWIG), Adwoa Bame d’Initiative des femmes pour l’autonomisation (WISE), et Lucy Mensah des femmes unies contre le sida au Ghana (WUAGG). L’événement a également attiré un certain nombre de femmes artistes africaines dont Sherifa Gunu, Yasmeen Helwani-Nsiah et Pauline Oduro.
Intervenant lors de la cérémonie, Theo Sowa, directrice générale par intérim d’AWDF a expliqué pourquoi le nouveau plan stratégique d’AWDF inclu ‘Arts, Culture et du Sport’ comme un nouveau domaine thématique ouvrant à des subventions, “L’art peut toucher les âmes ainsi que l’esprit de nombreuses personnes, la passion inspirante , la colère, la joie et d’autres émotions qui peuvent catalyser l’action de manière à des affaires judiciaires et des conférences universitaires et même des marches de protestation qui ne peuvent jamais être atteintes … Arts – traditionnel ou moderne – font partie intégrante de nos vies culturelles … et les changements dans la vie sociale, économique et politique arénas ne sauront jamais vraiment prendre racine sans changements parallèles dans nos normes culturelles, les croyances et les pratiques … Nous pouvons et devons exploiter le pouvoir de transformation des arts si nous voulons atteindre et accélérer un changement social réel. ”
Parlant de son rôle d’ambassadrice AWDF pour les Arts, Nneka a déclaré: «Etre ambassadrice AWDF des Arts est une autre façon pour moi de diffuser mon message. Ambassadeur de l’être, AWDF complimente ma musique. Ceci est aussi une façon de partager ma musique et la sensibilisation aux questions touchant les femmes. Ma musique sensibilise sur les problèmes sociaux essentiels, qui sont les mêmes questions sur lesquelles travaille AWDF “.
ENDS
Réclamation Presse
Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah (AWDF Programme Officer for Communications)
Tel: +233 302 521 257 (Ghana)
Email: nana@africlub.net/awdf
Website: www.africlub.net/awdf[/tp]
Welcoming Nneka Egbuna in her new role as AWDF’s Ambassador for the Arts
Welcoming Nneka Egbuna in her new role as AWDF’s Ambassador for the Arts
[Below is a speech delivered today by AWDF’s Interim CEO, Theo Sowa at an event held to welcome the musician and activist Nneka Egbuna as AWDF’s Ambassador for the Arts]
We are delighted to have you with us at AWDF this morning to welcome Nneka Egbuna in her role as AWDF’s Arts Ambassador.
AWDF was founded 11 years ago by three inspirational women – Hilda Tadria, Joanna Foster and Bisi Adeleye Fayemi, who was also AWDF’s founding Executive Director until last year. They created an amazing organisation aimed at supporting women organisations in their work to make real change in women’s lives – to ensure the recognition and implementation of ALL women’s human rights (economic, social, cultural, political etc) across our continent. And in partnership with the organisations we make grants to (some of whom are here today) AWDF has achieved some great milestones. AWDF does grant making, capacity building, advocacy and movement building. We have made over 19 million dollars in grants to more than 800 organisations in 42 African countries.
More importantly, we have been able to support some amazing stories of change – for example, the small group of women in Ghana who started baking loaves in a clay oven and have moved from that to setting up a modern bakery with new infrastructure – the profits from which have established a crèche and sponsored neighbourhood children through school; or the project in Ethiopia where on a site visit after a year, positive women who had previously been on the verge of death were transformed through effective treatment of HIV/AIDS, to the extent where they were strong and vibrant, able to afford to buy their own medications without disruptions to the timeline and support their children – all from the seed of a small grant which allowed them to earn and save money from decent, safe labour. Or the women’s shelter in Nigeria, where the women leveraged the money from AWDF to lobby local people and the local government – resulting in the first shelter for women victims of violence in that country, a place where women and their children could go to and be safe in the face of extreme violence. That group was so effective that the Governor of the state not only put money into the building of the shelter, but took on the torch of helping to get other shelters built in other parts of the country.
There are so many stories of change and each of the AWDF staff has different favourites. But one of the lessons learned during this time is that its not enough to change women’s lives project by project – or even policy by policy… That will take too long – and African women, our children and our communities deserve better – deserve change now!
And so AWDF’s Arts, Culture and Sports thematic area was born.
We have learned that it is not enough to talk about international conventions that promote women’s human rights; about international legislation that outlines national responsibilities for the wellbeing of children and communities; about international, regional and national policies that aim to do everything from eliminating poverty to protecting women from violence. These are important discussions to have and the drive to promote, recognise and realise women’s rights is central to the achievement of well being and inclusive development on our continent and throughout the world. Yet despite these laws, these tools, these policies we live in nations where girls continue to have unequal access to education; where women die giving birth at double, triple and quadruple the rates in countries on other continents; where our mothers, daughters and sisters lives are blighted by violence, and where redress and justice can seem distant dreams.
I think that too often our social, economic and political discussions miss a crucial element that is needed to engender true social change – and that is the human element. We can have the most powerful legislation throughout the world – yet if women don’t know about it, how can they use it to change their lives? Just as importantly, real change is not externally imposed. A wise, feminist mother and mentor once told me that true and sustainable change in any area has to be powered by individual, internal understandings and decisions that come together in collective action and movement. So change in our heads, in our hearts, in our beliefs and in our actions…
And the arts can be powerful catalysts of such individual and collective understandings. Artists can produce works that translate dusty words into clear and heartfelt understandings of issues and ways of dealing with them. Art can touch the souls as well as the minds of countless people, inspiring passion, anger, joy and other emotions that can catalyse action in ways that court cases and academic lectures and even protest marches may never achieve. Art can bring information and meaning into lives in ways that can be more real, more grounded and more influential than any number of texts. Arts – traditional or modern – are integral to our cultural lives… and changes in social, economic and political arenas will never truly take root without parallel changes in our cultural norms, beliefs and practices.
Please don’t think that I am saying that we can achieve social change and justice through art alone. We cannot. But we can and must leverage the transformational power of the arts if we are to achieve and to accelerate real social change.
And that is what our Arts, Culture and Sports programme seeks to do. We hope to use the power of the arts and culture to increase public support for women’s rights, to challenge the negative stereotypes of African women; to document women’s lives and contributions and create new, dynamic and more accurate narratives about African women; to raise the profiles of our amazing African women artists and to use arts and sports to mobilise new constituencies – especially of confident, passionate young women activists.
I have seen traumatised children respond and come to life in music workshops; have seen communities that have been fighting for years come together over games of football; have seen the power of film to touch people’s hearts and change their thinking; have experienced writers whose works have changed my life and motivations (including the wonderful Professor Ama Ata Aidoo who is with us today)…
Join us in using arts, culture and sport to accelerate and leverage the change we want to see.
Thank you.
Where are all the African women artists?
Where are all the African women artists?
On the 4th of August 2011, I attended the ‘Adventurers in the Diaspora Series’ at Accra’s Golden Tulip. The topic for discussion was “Revitalising Ghana’s National Museum of Arts”, and judging by the huge turnout the subject was clearly of interest to a large number of people. There were several ‘distinguished’[1] persons on the panel. This is how members of the panel were described in the event posted on Facebook:
“Mrs. Frances Ademola -artist and owner of Ghana’s first private art gallery, the LOOM
Mr. Seth Dei—Ghana’s largest collector of contemporary art and whose Dei foundation supports various Ghanaian artists and indigenous high-tech initiatives. He is also a partner at Blue Skies industry, a pre-eminent agro-business based in several countries around the world.
Hon. Fritz Baffour, MP- Chairman of the Museum board
Hon. J.S. Annan (MP)- Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry and ex-Minister for Education
Prof, Atukwei Okai- Secretary General of Pan African Writers Association (PAWA) and professor of African literature
David Adjaye- principal of Adjaye Associates, a world-leading architecture firm based in London and New York.
Kofi Setordji- reknowned artist and sculptor, co-director of Nubuke Art Gallery”
I feel like there were a lot more panelists at the actual event than described above, and I cannot remember Professor Okai being there (but I could be mistaken).
A couple of the panelists struck me for diverse reasons. Frances Ademola struck me, because she is a woman artist, the founder of an Art gallery and was credited by many members of the panel as the one who had nurtured their appreciation of Art, yet I had no prior knowledge of the existence of either her or her art gallery. David Adjaye because I have heard so much, and read so much about this award winning Ghanaian British architect yet I had no idea that he even visited Ghana or was in any way active here[2] and finally Kofi Setordjii because he gave a compelling call to action when he spoke.
At the end of the evening I was having a drink with one of my artist friends – he’s a photographer, likes to strum the guitar, writes and has an amazing eye for fashion and style.
Me: I want to go and check out the Museum of Arts, I had no idea one even existed.
Him: Yes, let me know when you want to go and we’ll make a trip of it.
Me: I want to see what potential there could be for AWDF to work with the Museum. We want to build an African Women’s Museum but we’re putting that on the backburner for now. Maybe we can fund an exhibition of women artists.
Him: [laughing] Which women artists?
Me: Yeah, that’s the point isn’t it? I am sure there are women artists everywhere but we don’t know about them. And it depends how you think about art – there is photography, fashion, writing…
Him: True. A lot of the time people do not think of photography as art…
Our conversation got me thinking. Who are the African women artists and where are they? I am especially interested in African women artists who use their art as a tool to provoke social consciousness. I started to create a mental list of African women artists that I know are doing this and then I thought, “I should blog about this and ask people to add to the list”. So that’s what I’m doing. My list is only going to comprise of people that I know in some way, and for the sake of brevity I will highlight only 10 African women artists. Either I have read their books, watched them perform, heard them speak, seen a trailer for their movie or engaged with them in some way – even if it’s only been via twitter 🙂
Do me a favour and add on to this list in the comments box. Let’s track who the African women artists are, what they do, and where they are.
Here’s my list:
- Frances Ademola? – I’m a bit confused as to whether to add her to the list. Is she an art gallery owner or an artist? Is the owner of an art gallery also an artist because they have an artistic eye or does an artist always create? AiD’s programme described her as an artist but in googling her I have come across this interview, which quoted her as saying, “I’m the eye of the buyer. It’s a good thing that I’m not an artist”[3]
- Nneka – Nigerian/German songstress who sings in English and Pidgin about the need for Africans to take responsibility for the problems we face on the continent (The Uncomfortable Truth), jogs our collective memory on the issues confronting Nigerian society whilst reminding us of the importance of remembering Ken Saro Wiwa and the causes for which the prominent environmental activist died , (Soul is Heavy) and the need for us all to recognize our inherent beauty (Beautiful). Nneka agreed in 2010 to work as an Arts Ambassador for AWDF and I’m really looking forward to exciting collaborations between her and AWDF
- Yvonne Chaka Chaka – One of Africa’s most powerful voices who also lends her support to many admirable initiatives. Yvonne Chaka Chaka sits on the AWDF South Africa board, is a member of the African Women Leaders Network for Reproductive Health, serves as a UN Goodwill Ambassador for Malaria and also has her own NGO, The Princess of Africa Foundation. I personally met Yvonne when she attended AWDF’s 10th anniversary celebrations in November 2010 and I was struck by how nice Yvonne was as a person. Sometimes when you meet huge stars you’re disappointed because they act like divas but Yvonne is niceness personified.
- Wanuri Kahiu –I get most of my updates on Wanuri via her twitter handle @wanuri . I have seen the trailer for her film Pumzi and unfortunately missed an opportunity to see the full length film at the last Environmental Film Festival of Accra yet what I have seen of her trailer has been enough to convince me that this is the type of work that organizations like AWDF need to fund if we are going to use the arts as a tool for gender empowerment. In researching Wanuri further I came across her blog and it looks like she is not only nifty with the camera but with words too.
- Ama Ata Aidoo – Where do I start from when it comes to this doyenne of African literature? Like many people in Ghana, I first came across Ama Ata Aidoo in secondary school as “Dilemma of a Ghost” and “Anowa” were on our reading list. At university I decided to write my dissertation on the concept of ‘home’ as seen through the works of Ama Ata Aidoo and Buchi Emecheta (another stalwart of African women’s literature). In 2008, I met Auntie Ama face to face and was thrilled to be able to interview her for AWDF’s very first e-newsletter.
- Asa – I have been told Asa is my lookalike but that’s not why I have included her on this list 🙂 Recently I’ve heard one of her songs, which touches on the issue of sexual abuse. Please let me know what the title is if you know the song I’m describing – she sings about a young girl who has been abused and somehow the girl’s Father is involved.
- Jessica Horn – Jessica is a personal friend, poet and an all round inspiration to me. She’s the author of “Speaking in tongues” and a dynamic member of the African Feminist Forum’s steering committee. Jessica is also a women’s rights consultant focusing on issues of health, women’s rights and social change
- Leila Djansi – I first heard of Leila when her film “Sinking Sands” came out. I eventually watched ‘Sinking Sands’ with a friend and immediately afterwards was interviewed by Joy Fm for our perspectives on the film. Although we liked many aspects of the film we both felt that it’s a shame the male lead had what many may perceive as an excuse to be violent to his wife, especially as domestic violence is such an every day occurrence all over the word. Despite this, and upon continued reflection on the film I feel that ‘Sinking Sands’ is an important milestone in the Ghanaian film industry. The lead actress Ama K Abebrese did an amazing job and was well rewarded with an African Movie Award for Best Actress in a lead role. Kudos to Leila for highlighting the issue of domestic violence.
- Yaba Badoe – ‘The Witches of Gambaga’ is a powerful documentary, which brings us the real life stories of women condemned to live as witches at the Gambaga camp in Northern Ghana. I first saw this documentary at the 3rd African Feminist Forum in Dakar, Senegal, and subsequently at its premiere in Ghana. ‘The Witches of Gambaga’ always provokes a variety of reactions in the audience – shock, disbelief that women are accused of witchcraft in this day and age, and a strong desire to change the status quo. It is my hope that this documentary remains a powerful tool for creating a more just world for women and men.
So in your opinion where all the African women artists who use their art as a tool for social justice and the empowerment of women?
Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah
Programme Officer for Fundraising & Communications
AWDF
[1] I believe this was how the panel was described. In Ghana and to my understanding, being distinguished usually means you’re a Member of Parliament, a Minister or a Politician of some sort. Sometimes the term ‘distinguished’ is used to refer to a person who has excelled in their profession or life work.
[2] I’m assuming David Adjaye is in some way active in Ghana’s artistic/cultural purely events purely because he was selected for the panel discussion. Of course I could be totally wrong.
[3] http://visionofthefuture.blogspot.com/2009/11/art-matriarch.html