Category: Blog

I have been wanting to read ‘What’s the Point of the Revolution If We Can’t Dance’ since I got my copy at the African Feminist Forum in September. However, it has taken me until today the 6th of December to finish the book (whilst queuing for 6 hours to vote). For me the most interesting thing is that the book began to influence me even before I delved into its pages…At the recent Association of Women in Development (AWID) Forum, I attended a session on ‘What’s the Point of the Revolution If We Can’t Dance’ and afterwards made up my mind to write a list of personal self-care principles which are:

• Have a manicure every 2 weeks
• Have a pedicure every month
• Have a facial every month
• Exercise at least 4 times a week
• Drink at least a litre of water a day
• Read a fantastic book at least once a month
• Have a weekend break every 3 months
• Take a fun holiday at least once a year
• Have a massage once a month

The great thing for me is that although my list may appear very indulgent (and why not?) it actually will not cost me much money. I am fortunate that my favourite Auntie owns a beauty studio so I get to have free manicures, pedicures and facials. All I really need to do is tip the staff that provides the treatments, and from time to time I bring my Auntie a small gift. However I have realized that my self care routine only works when I am actually in my home country Ghana. I am quite fortunate that the organization I work for, the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) has a flexible working policy…I am a night owl so tend to go to bed very late and accordingly rise late so it is a real boon to be able to start work at 9am, 9.30am or 10am. In Ghana that’s a real luxury, many people I know have to fight through hours of traffic to start work at 8am.

By now you are probably thinking I have it good when it comes to self-care, but I have realized a pattern. Whenever I travel for work (and recently that has been up to twice a month) I fall sick. I usually get a cold which in the case of my trip to San Francisco for the ‘Women Raising Millions’ training was somewhere between my 16 hour flight time from Accra – San Francisco. In Uganda, during the entire African Feminist Forum I had a cold and a racking cough, my poor room mate Sophie would wake up in a panic wondering if I was okay and very recently in Dakar I reacted very badly to the dusty conditions and sneezed for three days continuously. So what am I going to do about this? These short term illnesses have given me a clear message. I need to take even better care of myself. I need to start taking some good vitamin and mineral supplements, I need to go to the clinic to run some tests to ensure there is not an underlying reason for these persistent coughs and colds, when I am outside Ghana attending conferences or convenings I need to try as much as possible to emulate some of the healthy eating practices I maintain at home and not indulge in lavish hotel breakfasts or the pastries and biscuits that are sometimes present at conferences and convenings. I also need to ensure that I find ways of taking a break whilst traveling for work…So what do you do to take care of yourself? Let’s share some ideas and strategies. Any recommendations

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer
Fundraising & Communications

‘Onamdaade’ is an Akan word used in Ghana which literally means (a person without a vehicle). It has similar meaning in this short text.

It is a hilarious moment at AWDF since we now have our own office building which is spacious and magnificent. We are still settling down and this coming Thursday (27th November 2008) is the official commissioning of the building (every body is invited anyway).

The area is serene and well laid out. In terms of categorization of urban settlement, I will place it in the first class category. I must be honest; it very well befits the status of a feminist grant making organization, such as AWDF, which has immensely supported the empowerment of women and women’s rights promotion through provision of grants to support several women-led initiatives on the African Continent since its establishment seven years ago.

Although acquiring our own property is a boost to the organization, it has also brought untold hardship to the ‘onamdaade’ staff because no commercial vehicle plies the vicinity, making life for such category of staff unbearable.

One has to either take a dropping ( a chartered Taxi) from Tetteh Quarshie roundabout which is approximately $4.00 a day (for a return journey) or wait at Tetteh Quarshie roundabout and make numerous calls to colleagues with vehicles to find out who is passing by at that particular moment for a lift. It is indeed a daunting task.

‘Onamdaade’ comrades, better think of how to get your own vehicles before colleagues decide not to pick up your calls in the morning. Thank you.

Rose Buabeng (‘Onamdaade’ team leader)
Anglophone Programme Officer

I have just spent several busy, fun and intense couple of days in South Africa. I arrived here last Saturday and headed to the Monkey Valley Resort for the Feminist Tech Exchange and Wow! what an experience that has been. The Tech Exchange comprised of several tracks including digital stories, video, audio, mobile and social networking tools. I was on the digital story track and after 15 hours of intense training (and some late nights) produced my very first digital story.

I am very excited that I was able to take part in this track because digital story telling is another useful tool that feminists can use to tell their own stories – in ways that are compelling, attention grabbing and ‘impactful’. All you need is a recorder, images and a basic Movie Maker that can be found on most computer software.

My person digital story was about ‘My feminist journey so far…’. Watch out for the premiere on this blog!

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer (Fundraising & Communications)
AWDF

Oi, (As we say in Mozambique).

I get the singular privilege of changing my identity every week for the next few weeks so this week I am Mozambican. Remember Samora Machel? Yes this is the beloved land of Samora Machel. Maputo is the capital of Mozambique and as Ghana is to the cedi and pesewa so is Mozambique to the meticais and centavos . I arrived in Maputo on the night of October 30th, 2008, expecting to have some communication difficulties but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that just about everybody speaks some amount of English. Do you know that Mozambicans are Portuguese speaking? Anyway, I go through immigration and customs with no incidence and was met on arrival by a host I had met over the net (He happens to be a man who speaks English better than the partner who I had asked to kindly coordinate the visit). Pedro my host is a very cordial and meticulous person and has done a good job of arranging all logistics, including translators, convenings, meetings with local authority officials and grantees.

My first point of call the next morning as early as 8.15am was the office of the Provincial Directorate of Women and Social Affairs, Angelina P. Lubrino, a very affable lady who warmly welcomes us and holds a long chat with us (I mean myself and my translator) on the situation of women organizing in Maputo. I then rush off to the convening, I had unfortunately kept the very busy women of Mozambique waiting for 15 minutes, because I spent too much time at the Provincial directorate for women’s office, well you can’t cut a “big” woman off you know. The meeting went very well and I was very fascinated about these three young articulate activists for sexual minority rights. Their message was simple, in their own words “we have come to the meeting to inform our mothers and grandmothers that we are” and had to be listened to.

After a one on one chat with a few organizations after the meeting (Remember organizations are always looking for exclusive scoops or contacts after such convenings), I rushed off again to visit the first grantee on my itinerary. The project had gone well and everything was in place. I was happy with myself, my only regret was my inability to visit some of the beneficiaries because the project was implemented up North about 8 hours ride away. I then proceeded to visit LAMBDA, an LGBT group, one of the groups I had volunteered to visit and had such an eye opening chat with these two young ladies who gladly gave me a tour of their offices and shared with me the plans they had for the place. I finally get to retire to my hotel room around 6.30pm. I did a lot of stairs climbing that day, I have noticed that most offices are in high rise buildings, and the pain in my tendons the day after made me resolve to stop being elusive with John our wellbeing consultant. Wearing slit (a traditional long Ghanaian skirt) and climbing stairs is not a past time for an ‘old school’ member you know. Anyway, thank God I had a good night sleep, I wished I could have slept the whole day but that was not to be. I had already agreed to visit a women’s HIV&AIDS network. I set off the next day thinking it was going to be a quick one, being a weekend. Apparently this group had something else in mind. After a lengthy chat in their offices with the aid of an interpreter (It prolongs the chat you know) they led the way to the field to visit some beneficiaries of their home based care project.

This project actually kept me thinking? Why are networks entangling themselves in direct service? I though networks were suppose to be coordinating and providing institutional and programmatic support to its members? As well as focusing on critical advocacy issues? Anyway, here we were after about 30 minutes drive to this community in Maputo with a very small driveway that we quickly navigated in order to park the car. Well we really did not have a choice, there was no way we could have driven around all the points of call. It was such a long winding walk through the sandy community. We entered the first house and my first shock, there were about 7 elderly women sitting on mats in the compound of the house eating their lunch. Wondering what is cooking for lunch? Salad and bread, very healthy, no wonder at their age they look so strong. We enter the common room, I guess, and I and the interpreter were offered a chair, all others had to sit on a mat on the floor of the room. So now I got the catch, it is their culture, they sit on mats with one or both legs of women bent to the side, and with the legs of men bent in a kind of squatting position in front of them. Unfortunately, the beneficiary had passed away the week before leaving behind 4 children in the care of their grand auntie who pleaded passionately with us to help her support the children through school, meanwhile all the children are boys. This sets me thinking again, can the AWDF funds be used to support the care giver to support the children who are all boys? I need some clarifications from my Director of Programmes. Well, the network will not let me be, till we had visited three families, it can be emotionally tiring and the expectations of those visitors are raised so that one wonders how one can personally be of help. Well it was another eye opener. At about 3.30pm I get a view of the city of Maputo, It is a very nice city with good road networks and some good cars, a beautiful coast line and they use platoons as well to get to other parts of the city. A few noticeable issues are the number of cars that have detachable trailers (you can easily hire them for use) which carry their goods and the way they carry their babies in the man made traditional kangaroo pooches. The way the women tie their wrappers is also worth noting.

The next day saw me (and my translator of course) on a long ride (About 4 hours) to the city of Xai Xai (it is pronounce Shaishai). The ride to the district of Xai Xai in the Gaza Province was a smooth and awesome one. The scenery was simply breathtaking especially on entering the district of Xai Xai which has an amazing well developed beach, very good road networks, a lot of greeneries and fascinating developments. One cannot miss the presence of beach goers every where in the town and I had the privilege of staying in one of the lodges by the beach. The coast line is incredibly well developed with camp houses on stilts, cabins they are called l think, guest houses, hotels, restaurants, etc. Despite all these developments it is so obvious that great care had been taken to preserve the flora and fauna in the area. Later upon enquiry I was told that it was one of the conditions that go with being granted a license for development in the area. Maybe some of our cities and towns should learn a lesson or two from the city of Xai Xai. Another noticeable scene was the presence of families. A good number of the beach patrons were there with their families, another lesson to be learnt there. After a tour of the coast line which had considerable motor able roads I managed to have my dinner after some miss-communications had cost me some serious hard earned cash.

Monday is another day, an 8.30 am meeting with the Xai Xai Provincial Director of Women Affairs. Can you imagine? The provincial Director for Women’s Affairs was a man, (Well we have a similar case in our back door). A very pleasant man though who offered us the use of the District’s social centre for the convening without charge. The meeting with him went well and I proceed to the convening afterwards. Meeting community women can be so invigorating, clearly articulating their views, needs and solutions. Another great convening there raising issues of violence against women, HIV&AIDS and neglect by partners coupled with the perennial drought in that part of the country. Afterwards I visit a new grantee that has just been awarded a grant. ACTIVA is implementing a huge home based care project but appeared unprepared for our visit despite the fact that they were our key contacts to Mozambique. Come to think of it, this could have been as a result of communication problems.

Anyway we return to Maputo that night only for me to learn that my booking for my last night in Maputo has mysteriously disappeared on their system even though I had left my luggage in their storage and categorically asked for a reservation, but I had no papers to confirm this so had no case. The staff were however concerned enough to get me another hotel which was just excellent. I collected my luggage and headed for my new place of abode. The icing on the cake was, it was a very good hotel with very fast internet service in the rooms free of charge, just plug and surf. So here I sit at 12.00 midnight just hitting away at my lap top, I really do not want to sleep, such luxuries in the field is very rare you know. But as nature will have it I have to obey so this is to say bye and hope to link up again.

Ciao
Beatrice from Mozambique
(Acting Grants Manager)

Wow, today is truly an exciting day. So many of us thought that we will never in our lifetime see a Black person in the ‘White House’ and that day has arrived. The question for me is ‘if we thought that was impossible’ then what else is possible? Is it possible to have a Black woman in the White House? Is it possible to have a Feminist President? Is it possible to live in a world where all women live in peace, security and equity? I think the answer has to be ‘Yes it is!’

Personally the importance of an Obama victory in the US elections is significant because of the powerful symbolism he represents. I have to confess at the start of his campaign for the Democratic Party ticket I thought ‘he doesn’t have a chance!’ I thought even if he succeeds in winning the Democratic Party ticket he is highly unlikely to win the US elections. I thought Hilary Clinton was a safer bet for the Democrats and she was a strong woman candidate (a positive attribute in my opinion). Well, I been proved so wrong and I am thrilled about that. It is a great thing to be wrong when you have lost hope in humankind. It is a great thing to be wrong when you fail to anticipate that record numbers of young people, women and people of diverse ethnicities will turn out to vote for a mixed race male whom they perceive to symbolise hope, diversity and a new world.

The Obama victory reminds me that the feminist battle may not take as long as we think it might. The Obama victory reminds me of Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point, which emphasises that the right context, a few key individuals and creativity can result in change occurring within a very short period of time.

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer (Fundraising & Communications)

Hello Sisters,

For the next few weeks you will be reading from me from Southern Africa. I give you a peep into my diary for the week ending October 31st, 2008. I write from the city of Lilongwe (Are you wondering where the hell that city is?) Wonder no more, it is the capital of Malawi in Southern Africa. A city that appears to be lightly populated with virtually no traffic, if you compare it to the city of Accra not to mention the city of Lagos, you are virtually in heaven. I arrived in the afternoon of the 27th of October, after about 6.5 hours flight to the city of Jo’burg and a wait of about 4 hours in transit. I could not help but soak in my first impression of Malawi, a dry and low densely populated land (At least from my impression on the long stretch of the highway leading from the airport to the city centre). I was also caught off guard with the left hand drive system in the country. I can never get over the fact that some countries drive on the left, I always get the impression that the vehicle in which I am riding will be involved in a headon collision with oncoming cars. And how do they manage to change gears with their left hand especially for right handed people? Anyway it all has to do with diversities of culture and systems.

I go straight into a meeting with one of the partners after I have managed a quick shower and eventually get to enjoy my hotel room at about 7.00pm dead tired, not before I have had a brush with a young Indian guy with an attitude, whose vehicle I was hiring for the next day’s trip to another city, Blantyre. It was one of the times I regret not taking lessons from Bisi on how to do the “dance”. Questioning me as if I was highly out of his league of customers or that I had the trait of somebody who was going to escape without settling the bill. It was only after I had retorted sharply to him that I was paying in cash that he changed his attitude. Malawi has a large Indian population and they appear to dominate the business landscape in Lilongwe. I had earlier tried to fly to Blantyre only to be told by Air Malawi that they had unilaterally decided that there was not going to be a flight to Blantyre the next day. I guess they are not really different from our very own dear erratic Ghana Airways or Virgin Nigeria; it must be a kind of virus on the continent.

Malawi really stands up to its slogan “Warm heart of Africa” the place is warm in all senses of the word. The weather is actually hot and the people friendly. The city of Lilongwe is very well set out into sectors with clearly demarcated areas and well numbered and named streets, there is no way a visitor will miss her way around the city (Remember it is a comparatively new city built after independence).

The next day is another marathon for me rushing to the Mozambican embassy to put in an application for an urgent visa (There is no Mozambican consulate in Ghana) through to attending a convening with some very dynamic women which was quite refreshing, to meeting with another grantee in her office immediately after. I finally picked up the Mozambican visa and headed for the city of Blantyre which used to house the capital of Malawi during the colonial era. By the time I arrived in Blantyre after 6.00pm I was ready to collapse. The trip to Blantyre was however eventful for me. Just outside the city of Lilongwe in the Dedza district are these awe inspiring, very nicely arranged and cultured range of mountains as if a gardener has the task of keeping them prim and proper with clusters of huts beneath their base. As usual, traveling along country roads you do not miss the quest of man to be seen and heard. I saw the ingenuity of (wo) man with product adverts carved into the hill sides and huge boulders, as well as all kind of billboards. Some interesting ones that caught my attention include “herbalist of the century” and “Beerman cave” you can imagine what happens in those two places with its resultant effect on women.

I also saw some of the effects of colonialism when in the town of Nhyehox, my self- imposed tour guide points out to me that the right side of the road is Mozambican while the left side belongs to the people of Malawi. But wait a minute, if you want to fly from Malawi to Mozambique, you will have to fly for two hours first to Johannesburg before connecting to a flight to Mozambique which is likely to take about one hour and ten minutes, that is Africa for you.

The city of Blantyre appears more densely populated and bursting with activity than Lilongwe. After a radio interview and a convening with women’s groups the next day, I go to visit one grantee and I noticed that the elevators in Malawi appear to work better than those in Accra, perhaps they do not have the power problems Ghana perennially experiences. After, I endure the long drive back to Lilongwe (About 4 hours) that afternoon and for the first time after arriving in Malawi I appear to have some respite, your guess is very right this is about 7pm. I recheck into the hotel Cresta Cross Roads, collect my luggage from storage and decide to take a stroll around the vicinity of the hotel which is within a huge complex of other businesses (Malawi is a comparatively safe city). The next morning I get an anti climax when I visit a grantee in Lilongwe who has over under performed, I just could not keep myself in check, well God was good as usual, He helped me to control my disappointment and after a lengthy discussion in their office I request to see the shop AWDF is suppose to be supporting. The shop has been so abandoned, infact it has never been put to use, and after wasting time and fuel to go to the place they could not open the doors to the shop so mission unaccomplished, remember this is a live grant. After this anti climax I had to rush to the airport enroute to my next destination.

The next time you read from me I am probably going to have another identity, till then hold the fort tightly.

With all the warmth I can gather in Malawi,
Beatrice

I can’t tell you the number of times I have had conversations (read arguments) with people (read men) about why Feminists focus on women. A few days ago a friend said to me ‘ Why don’t feminists work with humans…soon the script will flip…‘

Well guess what I found when I was sorting through my files from my days at LSE’s Gender Institute? Answers to this very question in the form of fantastic quotes which I will share below:

‘ What women are challenging is something everyone can see. Men’s grievances, by contrast seem hyperbolic, almost hysterical; so many men seem to be doing battle with phantoms and witches that exist only in their own overheated imaginations. Women see men as guarding the fort, so they don’t see how the culture shapes men. Men don’t see how they are influenced by the culture either; in fact, they prefer not to. If they did, they would have to let go of the illusion of control.’ (Susan Faludi, Stiffed: The Betrayal of the Modern Man, p.14)

‘(I)t has become commonplace to see powerful and successful men weeping in public – Ronald Reagan shedding a tear at the funeral of slain U.S. soldiers, basketball player Michael Jordan openly crying after winning the NBA championship. Most recent, the easy manner in which the media lauded U.S. General Schwartzkopf as a New Man for shedding a public tear for the U.S. casualties in the Gulf War is indicative of the importance placed on styles of masculine gender display rather than the institutional position of power that men such as Schwartzkopf.'(Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and Michael A.Messner ‘Gender Displays and Men’s Power: The ‘New Man’ and the Mexican Immigrant Man,’ in Theorizing Masculinities)

‘There has also been, alongside the survival of what we might call routine popular misogyny, evidence of the partial reversal of the traditional evaluation of stereotypical masculine and feminine traits…This is not evidence of the arrival of sexual equality in material or ideological terms, but it is evidence of dramatic change…This suggests that popular discussion of the ‘crisis’ in masculinity and changes in the prospects that face men, or the popularity of appeals to rediscover ‘the deep masculine’ proferred by Robert Bly(1991) are more than anti-feminist backlash. They are evidence of the material and ideological weakening and collapse of patriarchy. It is a bad time to be a man, compared to the supremacy men have enjoyed in the past – and this is a thoroughly good thing. (John mcInnes, The End of Masculinity, p. 55)

‘ The feminine mystique’s collapse a generation earlier was not just a crisis but a historical opportunity for women. Women responded to their ‘problem with no name’ by naming it and founding a political movement, by beginning the process of freeing themselves. Why haven’t men done the same? This seems to me to be the real question that lurks behind the ‘masculinity crisis’ facing American society; not that men are fighting against women’s liberation, but that they have refused to mobilize for their own-or their society’s-liberation. Not that traditional male roles are endangered, but that men are in danger of not acting.’ (Susan Faludi, Stiffed: The Betrayal of the Modern Man, p.41)

What are your thoughts on the quotes?

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer
Fundraising & Communication

I was reading through some of the notes I took at the 2nd African Feminist Forum recently held in Kampala, Uganda and just have to share some of the great quotes which struck me (some funny, some spot on, some simply controversial…’ Enjoy!

‘Feminism is like Christianity, you have to convert people.’ Hope Chigudu quoted by Dr Hilda Tadria

‘Retired, still not tired’ Dr Hilda Tadria

‘Many of us have learnt to settle for the world as it is, not the world that ought to be’ Michelle Obama quoted by Dr Hilda Tadria

‘Integrity is what you do when no one is watching’ Rotary speaker quoted by Dr Hilda Tadria

‘Have you ever heard of inviting your oppressor to join you? In every sense of the word they have screwed us up’. Solome Nakaweesi Kimbugwe

‘If someone hasn’t felt how it feels to eat last, to work more and to earn less how do you expect them to support you…’ Solome Nakaweesi Kimbugwe

‘Arguments below the waist beads…a kick in the ovum’s’ Zeedah

‘Patriarchy is a system so men are not the enemy’ Pregs Govender

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer
Fundraising & Communications

Part of what I have enjoyed the most at this year’s AFF has been the sheer creativity unleashed. Jessica Horn who is a member of the AFF working group has kindly agreed that I can reproduce this poem which she wrote in honour of Lovetta Warner and read during one of the workshops I attended:

Call her love

is going to do it today

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer
Fundraising & Communications

AWDF in association with our partners Akina Mama wa Afrika are currently convening the 2nd African Feminist Forum in Uganda. At the opening ceremony this morning Dr Susan Kiguli, a lecturer at the Institute of Languages, University of Makarere shared a powerful poem which she wrote specifically for this occasion.

NO LONGER A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS

together a vision of the times
spreading revolution
creating change

We refuse you to take
more than we are able to supply
together a vision of the times
spreading revolution
creating change

My question to you here is ‘Will you continue to be a voice in the wilderness?’

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer
Fundraising & Communications