*African Feminism(s) in Popular Culture* “From Miriam Makeba’s music to Oumou Sy’s fashion to Nike Ogundaike’s art, African feminists are at the forefront of using creativity to express that progressive thought is not only cerebral but also visceral and expressive.” *~ Minna Salami, MsAfropolitan* In March 2013, the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) and the […]

I formally came into feminism at university or rather I came to name my politics ‘as such’ during that time. But like many other young women of my generation, my formative understandings of, and identifications with feminism have over the years been shaped by popular culture. I think of the ways social media (and other […]

Gay was an obscure word until my first year in the University. I mean, in secondary school, I knew that girls did things to themselves in the dark in their hostels; my best girlfriend had written a long amused letter from her boarding school in Oyo State to tell me all about dykes and babes. […]

In May 2013, the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) held a strategic meeting with grantee partners, researchers and activists on African women’s economic empowerment and livelihoods. One of the immediate outcomes of this convening was a statement to the Africa regional meeting of the World Economic Forum. Watch the video below for highlights of the […]

Earlier on this year the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) welcomed Golden Baobab into our network of grantee partners. The organisation has a powerful mission to: “…fuel the global imagination through African children’s literature by inspiring the creation, ensuring the production and facilitating the distribution of enthralling, high quality, culturally relevant literary content by African […]

The Nisaa Institute for Women’s Development in South Africa has been a grantee partner of the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) since 2010, and to date has received US$15,000 in grants. AWDF has supported Nisaa to air ‘Change the Tune’, which comprises of selected pre-packaged radio programmes addressing issues around gender and gender based violence […]

“Let’s talk again about possible futures. What would the world look like if more grandmothers were given opportunities and support to help them to take on leadership roles? With 100,000 more women like Mariam sitting on local land councils, would property grabbing come to an end? With the counselling, support and encouragement of 100,000 more […]

The 16 Days against Gender-Based Violence event launched around the world on Monday. The campaign takes place annually between November 25th [International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women also commemorating the lives of the Mirabal sisters] and December 10th [International Human Rights Day and the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights]. […]

At the 2nd African Women in Film Forum (AWIFF), Ade Solanke, award winning playwright and screenwriter led a masterclass on scriptwriting. The power point from this session is embedded below:    

words by Sionne Neely, Ph.D. | images by Moment Catchers GH A nation without documentaries is like a home without photo albums. We have to gain confidence in telling our stories to the world. Without a family album, we don’t have a history. -Yaba Badoe at AWIFF, September 23, 2013 If we have problems documenting […]