Tag: African Feminist Forum

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

As the African Feminist Forum Working Group we are distressed to hear that nine women human rights defenders were arrested on 21 June 2014 in Cairo after participating in a peaceful protest against the Protest and Public Assembly Law[1]. The nine women are: Yara Sallam, Sanaa Seif, Hanan Mustafa Mohamed, Salwa Mihriz, Samar Ibrahim, Rania El-Sheikh, Nahid Sherif (known as Nahid Bebo) and Fikreya Mohamed.

As Africans and as feminists we have witnessed the tremendous leadership of Egyptian women before, during and since the 2011 revolution and in organising for democracy, including taking to streets where they have continued to mobilize despite facing violence and harassment for being women. We know that this is the continuation of a legacy of brave and important activism that Egyptian feminists and women’s rights activists have made across history towards shaping freedom in Egypt.

As the African Feminist Forum Working Group we send out solidarity to our fellow activists and sisters.

We also add our support to the following six demands made by Nazra for Feminist Studies, to the Egyptian authorities:

1. Drop all charges directed at the women human rights defenders and effectuate their immediate and unconditional release;

2. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of all the aforementioned women human rights defenders;

3. Cease the harassment and persecution of human rights defenders and ensure that all human rights defenders in Egypt are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities free from persecution, arbitrary arrest, judicial harassment and physical violence;

4. Ensure that the Protest and Public Assembly Law is revised to be fully compliant with relevant international standards and the newly passed Egyptian constitution;

5. Guarantee the right of women human rights defenders to engage in human rights work and take measures to ensure their protection before the law and in society;

6. Quash the convictions of other human rights defenders that are based on a Protest and Public Assembly Law and drop all charges stemming from the legitimate exercise of the rights of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

Signed,

African Feminist Forum Working Group

Date 24th June 2014

[1] Law No, 107 on the Right to Public Meetings, Processions and Peaceful Demonstrations, passed in 2013

“I’m really excited that Leymah Gbowee alongside President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tawakkul Karman have been jointly awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Award. There seems no better time to publish the interview I held with her in 2008 on the sidelines of the 2nd African Feminist Forum” Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, Communications Officer, AWDF

NS: Who is Leymah Gbowee?

LG: How do I describe who Leymah is? Usually I will start with my children because that is one identity I really love (I have 4 biological and 1 adopted child) but I think I am a person who from a really young age has been looking for answers to life and this was reinforced during the early years of the Liberian war. I am a helper and a woman who loves herself. I am an activist at every level. Everything that touches a woman’s life, a girl-child’s life and a child’s life touches my being. I have a lot of compassion and a lot of energy. I find it difficult to relax. I was brought up in a home and was the fourth child of five girls. I had a mother who was an only child and a father who is sympathetic to feminism. It was my father who resisted us being subjected to female genital mutilation. I come from a family of activists. My grandmother got divorced thrice and taught us that if a husband brought in the charcoal or rice you should be able to bring the salt. I will also describe myself as a politician; I have a head for politics.

NS: I only became aware of your work through ‘Pray the devil back to Hell’…

LG: (wry smile) that’s funny because that is not what I focus most on. What I pride myself on the most is starting WIPSEN – Liberia from scratch and bringing it to international standards and through that making progress in the lives of women and children. While I celebrate ‘Pray the devil back to Hell’ I celebrate WIPSEN, which was founded by Thelma Ekiyor and myself.

NS: What is WIPSEN about?

LG: The co-founder of WIPSEN, Thelma was also the founder of a previous organization WIPNET, which focused on grassroots activism and what we realized, was missing was the links between policy and grassroots activism. Some of these grassroots women who were very good mediators were not being called up to serve as mediators at an international level. Good initiatives like resolution 1325 were also not filtering down to the grassroots. WIPSEN however focuses on peace and security governance, which allows us to fill in those gaps so at the moment for example we are working with the army in Liberia to ensure that women’s issues are reflected in policy.

NS: Where do you get your strength from?

LG: I get my strength from my faith in God. Pain has a way of moving people to 2 levels. When you are in pain you want revenge or you want the pain to go away. From the age of 17 till I turned 31 all I saw was different versions of pain. The situation went from bad to worse to ridiculous. It’s almost like you are sinking and you can see no end. I experienced this personally and this was also the experience of other women in Liberia. This is how I started working to build peace in Liberia and I was grateful when the women said ‘we trust you, guide this process”. Daytime was the time for action and night-time was when I would do my strategic thinking and planning. During the war it was the pain that gave me the most energy. There is a scene in ‘Pray the devil back to Hell’ when we barricaded the men in the venue where the peace talks were being held. That was the time when I was most angry; I wanted to grab an AK47. I started stripping like I had threatened to do (The documentary ‘Pray the devil back to Hell’ explains that it is a taboo for African men to see the naked bodies of their Mothers so stripping in front of men is an act of defiance)

NS: How did you meet Abigail Disney? (Abigail Disney is producer of ‘Pray the devil back to Hell’)

LG: That was a weird one. I had gone to the US to attend university in Virginia; no one knew I was there. I got invited to speak at the 5^th anniversary of 1325 and Swanee Hunt told me that ‘Someone is looking for you – Abby of Disney world’. So Abby and I had a meeting and she asked me about the work I had done and told me that she wanted to explore this as a movie. We went back to Liberia and set up a meeting with key people and Abigail’s team interviewed lots of people, took tons of footage and images of film. When I saw the final piece I thought they had done a good piece.

NS: What kinds of support do women working in peace building need?

LG: One of the things I firmly believe in is giving the support that is needed. Never underestimate work anyone has done. Validate and show confidence in what women do. When we started it was a lonely road. We started our activism with $10 from a woman’s handbag. For two months we were fundraising. We had no support from NGOs and initially had a church help us with fundraising. When we went to Accra for the peace talks we thought we would be there for three weeks but we ended up being there for twice that time. AWDF gave us support, which enabled us to stay, and women from Northern Ghana gave us support. They sent us 5 women who sat down and cried with us. When the press asked the women why they were there, they said, ‘When our time comes, the Liberian women will help us’. That’s the kind of support we need. Technical, financial and moral support – it makes you feel good. At the same time we also heard that Nigerian women had presented a statement on our behalf. That’s what we need to do. When we hear something has happened women all over Africa need to start mobilising.

NS: How have you found the AFF so far?[1]

LG: Spaces like AFF is where I come to rejuvenate. Over the past year I have been mellow and quiet. Yesterday during the trial (As part of the AFF a ‘Feminists on Trial’ session was held which explored through a mock trial critical issues that feminists need to address) I was jumping about and people said, ‘This is the old Leymah’. You are able to rejuvenate when you are with women who share the same challenges…