On the 10th of March, the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) and the African Feminist Forum (AFF) organised a panel discussion on ‘What’s new in African feminisms: Pop, People and Politics‘ as part of the WOW festival at the Southbank Centre in London. Resource persons were Jessica Horn, a founding member of the AFF, writer and women’s rights consultant; Rita Ray, DJ, Presenter and African music specialist; Meklit Hadero, musician, cultural activist, and Senior TED fellow, and Pontso Mafete, Programme Manager for Women and Girls at Comic Relief UK. The panel was facilitated by Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, AWDF’s Communications Specialist.

The dynamic panel addressed the issue of what exactly African feminisms involves, shared details of African feminist led initiatives on the continent, discussed the potential popular culture has to change gender inequity and invited the audience to send in tracks for the compilation of an African feminist mixtape (please email your track choice to communications [at] africlub.net/awdf). Questions from the floor were engaging and included a desire to know more about African politics on the continent and a reminder that African women politicians need support (whilst being held accountable) by the African women’s movement.

Footage from the event can be viewed via