Tag: AFF

For nearly two decades, the African Feminist Charter has served as a vital political framework for feminist movements across the continent. Adopted in 2006, it gave African feminists a shared resource and political framework to identify, build solidarity, and collective struggle.

Twenty years later, the challenges facing African feminists in 2026 are rapidly evolving. Anti-rights attacks, democratic and economic crises, increased insecurity, and overlapping social crises have reshaped our realities in profound ways. Our Charter must reflect that.

As we gear up for the African Feminist Forum 2026 in Windhoek, Namibia, we  have launched a continent-wide process to review the achievements and gaps in utilising the Charter. And to enable feminists to collectively reimagine the Charter in the context of the current and future realities of feminist organising. This is a participatory, community-driven process to ensure this foundational political framework speaks to who we are and what we face today.

This process belongs to all of us. We are calling on African feminists in all our diversities,  across countries, languages, generations, identities, and lived experiences, to contribute to this reimagination.

The survey is available in English, French, Portuguese and Arabic. Please complete it in whichever language you are most comfortable with. Your responses will directly inform the revised Charter and help ensure it reflects the full breadth of African feminist experience.

Access the survey here. Submit by  5 April 2026

Your insights will directly inform a Charter that represents all of us.

AFF is a regional political platform that brings together African feminists from the continent and the diaspora to strategise, connect movements, and advance feminist visions for justice and liberation. The forum’s registration is now open and we are calling on African feminists organising in Africa and the diaspora to participate. The registration fee is USD 300. This provides access to the full Forum programme and shared convening spaces but does not include accommodation or travel. The contribution supports the collective hosting of the Forum and enables broader participation.

Following the encouraging response to the Forum announcement, the dates have been updated to allow us to better prepare and welcome participants into a thoughtful and well held space. We appreciate your flexibility and apologise for the inconvenience caused. The African Feminist Forum will now take place from 10 to 12 August 2026 in Windhoek, Namibia.

To hold a politically grounded and collectively safe space, participation follows an application and verification process grounded in shared feminist values.

Who can apply: 

The African Feminist Forum is open to and invites African feminists in Africa and the diaspora in all their diversities. Feminists are expected to apply in individual capacity and not as affiliates/partners of a feminist/gender justice organisation. This ensures that we guard against institutional agenda-setting or the professionalisation of feminist agendas and encourages bottom-up movement-building as a political strategy to inspire collective action.

You do not need to have attended a previous AFF or hold a formal organisational role. Young, emerging and frontline feminists, including those identifying as LBTQI+ and Indigenous, are strongly encouraged to apply.

How to apply: 

To commence an application to attend AFF 2026, submit your application through a form on Canapii. Your submission will be reviewed and a response provided within two weeks of submission. Submitting an application does not guarantee participation, and all participants, including sponsored participants, will be subjected to the same review process.

Following the assessment process, selected applicants will receive registration instructions, payment details and will sign a feminist undertaking and code of conduct.

Click here to access the AFF registration platform.

The African Feminist forum was an event full of revolutionary love and heated discussion. It was a time of growth, and a time of healing. It was a time for us as Feminists to just be. Below is a reflection on the experiences of an AFF alum, and renowned blogger and the media co-coordinator for AWID. Find out more about AWID and the original piece here.

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STANDING ON AFRICAN FEMINIST LAND

On my first day in Zimbabwe I visited the National Museum of Science. Above the doorway of the anteroom hung a picture of Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana, with the caption ‘MAPFUPA ANGU ACHAMUKA’. This was translated to me to mean, “my bones will rise”. Nehanda was a spirit medium active in the first Zimbabwe Chimurenga [1]. She inspired her people in the liberation struggle, refused to convert to Christianity and was sentenced to death by the colonisers. The story is told that Nehanda went singing and dancing to the gallows declaring, “my bones will rise” to win freedom.

An image of a poster at the National Museum of Science, Harare. (Photo: Nana Darkoa)

I have always felt strongly that Zimbabwean women embody resistance. Women in Zimbabwe took active part in the liberation struggles for independence as fighters and comrades. In my 2008 interview with Margaret Dongo, a former freedom fighter, she emphasized, “there were no rubber bullets for women”. On the warfront, women and men were trained in a similar manner, women did not get preferential treatment.

A Milestone on the #AfriFem Journey

The resistance, creativity and strength of Zimbabwean women resonated in the fourth African Feminist Forum (AFF) held in Harare from 10-12 April 2016. The presence of over 160 African feminists from 32 African countries and the Diaspora amplified and multiplied the energy of the Zim sisters.

Sisters from South Africa sang, “…this land is women’s land…” and right there, in the hall of Rainbow Towers, it felt as if we were standing on African feminist land.

As someone who has been lucky enough to attend three consecutive AFFs, I felt a different energy at #AFFZim. The space felt more radical, it was clear that the AFF had been on a journey, and suitably on its 10th anniversary had grown into a more formidable space. A space that confidently said, “We are feminist. No ifs. No buts”. A space full of young feminists, queer bodies, academics, differently abled women, sex workers, older women… A space with sisters from all parts of our continent across our various arbitrary colonial divisions – activists from Egypt, Senegal, Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, Botswana, Angola, South Africa, Mauritania, Uganda… emphasizing the need for us to continue to build solidarity across our movements, and to create spaces which welcome us in all our diversities.

Nurturing the Body and Soul

Wellness was weaved into the entire AFF programmeof the AFF with some of us waking up early to shake what our collective Mamas gave us at Zumba classes with Kuda whilst the more zen sisters worked on their downward dog poses. We did not forget about the importance and benefits of sexuality and its links to well being. In an evening session on ‘Sexuality and the Well of Being’ we shared about a variety of sexual experiences and I had the pleasure of passing dildos around the room with Iheoma Obibi and Prudence Mabelele, my collaborateurs in sex positivity.

Highlights & Lowlights

We spoke about the continued need to dismantle patriarchy in all its forms. Sisters from Zimbabwe shared that they had nicknamed patriarchy ‘Patrick’. In speaking on ‘New Faces of Patriarchy’, Bisi Adeleye Fayemi extended the metaphor and reminded us that we needed to work against both ‘Patrick’ and ‘Patricia’.

In a session on ‘Protest Movements’, we heard from Thenjiwe Mswane about the #FeesMustFall movement, its non-hierarchical leadership structure and the recent exclusion of feminist and queer bodies within the movement. Marian Kirollos spoke about the ongoing struggles in Egypt, and the prominent role that women continued to play in the continued uprising. Dorothy Njemanze reminded the audience that the secondary school girls abducted from Chibok, Nigeria represent a tiny fraction of the thousands of girls captured and forced into sexual slavery by terrorists and militias.

In breakout sessions, we discussed the importance of creating feminist cultural spaces, documenting our stories by writing and blogging, and the connections that need to be made amongst our feminist diasporas for Pan-African organizing across the world.

As with every gathering of passionate, strong-minded sisters, we had our moments of tensions and disagreement. I was with the crew that felt, ‘what is this respectability politics?’ when one too many Aunties sighed about how ‘young women are showing all their breasts and vaginas on social media’.

Kampire Bahana from Uganda challenged this eloquently, pointing out that this was part of a purity narrative. Some younger queer sisters spoke up about feeling a level of discomfort and silencing in the space. We were all reminded that we needed to be conscious and attentive to the various forms of privileges that we carry.

As in all previous AFFs that I have attended, I left feeling inspired and reinvigorated to continue in my life of activism, knowing that I have sisters all over the continent and globe who stand with me, and whose work and dynamism continues to blaze a path for those to come.

4th AFRICAN FEMINIST FORUM

Harare, Zimbabwe April 9-12, 2016

It’s finally here! AWDF is honored to be hosting the fourth regional African Feminist Forum (AFF) in Harare, Zimbabwe from 10-12 April 2016 under the theme: African Feminism: Voice, Power and Soul.

The forum will be preceded by a pre-forum of feminists from Francophone Africa, who will meet on April 9. This year, AFF is being organized in partnership with the Zimbabwe Feminist Forum and coordinated by the Zimbabwe Women’s Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN).

Over 170 feminists from all over Africa will be attending this power charged programme which will include:

• Plenaries- to set the context, take stock and identify areas of strategic concern around politics, economics and society.
  
• Breakout sessions- for more in-depth strategizing on the key themes
  
• Skills sharing– sessions where feminists specialists train participants
• The Great Debate- a highly participatory debate on a contentious issue within feminism
  
• Wellness space– one-on-one and group sessions focused on physical and emotional health and wellbeing.
  
• Arts programming– showcasing African feminist art-activism

Each of the three days of the forum will be dedicated to Zimbabwean feminists ancestors Day 1: Chiwoniso Maraire singer, mbira player and advocate of social justice. Day 2: Award-winning writer Yvonne Vera, and Day 3: Freedom Nyamubaya, freedom-fighter, poet, dancer and farmer.

The African Feminist Forum (AFF) regional gathering brings together African feminist activists to discuss strategy, refine approaches and develop stronger networks to advance women’s rights in Africa.

For more information, please check out the relaunched African Feminist Forum website at: www.africanfeministforum.com

The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) in partnership with the African Feminist Forum (AFF) warmly invite you to a series of events organised for the AWID Forum 2012. It will be an opportunity to share our experiences as African feminists on some of the most pressing challenges on our continent. You are warmly invited to attend the African Feminist Forum (AFF) panel on:

Feminists and Questions of Political and Economic Power in Africa, 20645

Date: 21^st April 2012

Time: 11:30am – 1.30pm

Venue: Halic

Members of AFF will also participate in the following panels:

• Militarism, Conflict and Violence
• Changing World Geopolitics and Global Governance

(These sessions run more than once so please check the AWID programme for dates and times)

Other networking and learning opportunities are available by:

• Interacting with staff from the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) during our donor office hours at the Resource Mobilisation Hub which will be running throughout the AWID Forum.

• Joining us in celebrating the work of women’s funds at a reception for members and grantees of the International Network of Women’s Funds on:

Date: 19^th April 2012

Time: 19:00 – 23:00

Venue: Babylon Lodge