In Solidarity: Statement by South African feminists – Caster Semenya and Gender Discrimination – the ‘elephant in the room’ We write in response to the controversy surrounding the 800 m women’s world running champion, Caster Semenya and the flurry of articles surrounding this sad saga. Some of those championing Caster’s cause accuse those wanting to […]

In Solidarity: Statement in Support of Mary Robinson, Presidential Medal of Honor Awardee The African Women’s Development Fund(AWDF)supports the nomination of former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson for the [United States of America’s]Presidential Medal of Freedom. Mary Robinson has been a longtime friend and supporter of the African Women’s Development Fund. She […]

Did Obama say anything we did not already know? I thought I had heard all about the Obama speech (I have said on several occasions that he did not say anything I did not know) until recently when I heard two well educated and learned professionals discussing some of the ills in our society. They […]

I thought I had heard all about the Obama speech (I have said on several occasions that he did not say anything I did not know) until recently when I heard two well educated and learned professionals discussing some of the ills in our society. They spoke specifically about: • Corruption in the public sector• […]

Grantee Spotlight: Rural Women’s Movement in Swaziland An email update sent to Nafi Chinery, AWDF’s Capacity Building Officer: Feedback from Rural Women’s Movement (RWM), an AWDF grantee in Swaziland on their experiences at the recent International Resource Mobilisation Workshop (IWRM) held in Bangalore, India. AWDF supported RWM and 4 other grantees to attend the IWRM. […]

An email update sent to Nafi Chinery, AWDF’s Capacity Building Officer: Feedback from Rural Women’s Movement (RWM), an AWDF grantee in Swaziland on their experiences at the recent International Resource Mobilisation Workshop (IWRM) held in Bangalore, India. AWDF supported RWM and 4 other grantees to attend the IWRM. Dear Nafi, On behalf of RWM I […]

In Solidarity: African Women and Human Rights Organisations across Africa Women across Africa are appalled by the decision to try a Sudanese woman journalist Lubna Ahmed Hussein and two others for violating the public dress code. African women and human rights organizations urged the court to dismiss the charges and abolish this repressive law against […]

Currently, one of my favourite ways of enjoying Wednesday evenings is to watch the “Zain Africa Challenge”. It’s a quiz organised by Zain and it’s for selected Universities in Africa. The quiz master of the show is great and leaves an “indelible mark” on his audience – a good enough reason to make a date […]

Over the weekend, I attended the final funeral rites of a close relative at one of the suburbs in Accra. Unfortunately for me, most of the activities during the church service were in Ga, the local language spoken by the people of Accra for which I neither speak nor understand. So to while away the […]

Scrolling the contacts list on my phone last week, I realised there was this “Old man” friend whom I have not spoken to for about two weeks (which was quite unusual). This man is 65 year old and a German has been my friend for close to 6 months. I tried calling him, but his […]