*African Feminism(s) in Popular Culture*

“From Miriam Makeba’s music to Oumou Sy’s fashion to Nike Ogundaike’s art,
African feminists are at the forefront of using creativity to express that
progressive thought is not only cerebral but also visceral and expressive.”
*~ Minna Salami, MsAfropolitan*

In March 2013, the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) and the African
Feminist Forum co-hosted a panel discussion: ‘What’s new in African
feminisms: Pop, People and Politics
<http://wow.southbankcentre.co.uk/events/whats-new-in-african-feminisms/>’
as part of the Southbank Centre’s Women of World (WOW) festival in London.
[1] <https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#146aeaee42e8381a__ftn1> The dynamic
paneldiscussed a myriad of issues including the potential popular culture
has for social transformation and feminist consciousness-raising in Africa.

One of the panelists, African music specialist DJ Rita Ray noted that the
thing about popular culture (going back to my admittedly broad definition)
“…is that it is everywhere the people are – in the buses, in the market, on
the radio, on television, on the internet, in classrooms and so on.” Popular
culture (and by extension the arts) have the ability to influence people on
an emotional level and ‘to catalyse action in ways that court cases and
academic lectures and even protest marches may never achieve.’[2]
<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#146aeaee42e8381a__ftn2> On that basis,
popular culture provides a means by which to open up feminist discourses in
Africa and to turn feminist consciousness-raising and activism into a more
centrally held, political, and educational project.

Current expressions of feminisms in Africa reveal the pressing need for
activists (and organizations) to acknowledge and address engagement with
pop culture and the arts as an authentic activist strategy. To return to
bell hooks who once insisted, “It’s great to have libratory academic
theory, but if we can’t bring it out to the public, it’s not very useful.”
[3] <https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#146aeaee42e8381a__ftn3> To follow
this assertion with the voice of a fellow African feminist sister Theo Sowa
who once said: “We can have the most powerful legislation throughout the
world – yet if women don’t know about it, how can they use it to change
their lives? Just as importantly, real change is not externally
imposed…true and sustainable change in any area has to be powered by
individual, internal understandings and decisions that come together in
collective action and movement…Change in our heads, in our hearts, in our
beliefs and in our actions…”[4]
<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#146aeaee42e8381a__ftn4>

There have been a few examples of formal efforts to actively facilitate
stronger connections between the ‘politics and the people’ through pop
culture and the arts. Notably, AWDF’s most recent partnership with popular
Nigerian musician Nneka Egbuna is one; *Nyangoma* a blog managed by a
collective of African feminist artists working to ‘…create a space to share
each other’s work and learn about the artistic expressions of African women
is another, and finally the inclusion of the ‘poetic licence’ segment at
OSISA’s 2012 ‘Money, Power, and Sex’ Open Forum highlighting African
artists who are using their work to tackle social injustice is yet another
example. And while these are only a few scattered examples, in the context
of all the exciting creative work that we see emerging on the continent it
is clear that there is much more work to be done.

This is the task for the African feminist movement – to find ways to more
effectively (and creatively) support positive transformative African
popular culture that advances the ideas of resistance, power, and
self-identification. Ultimately, supporting these multiple platforms and
means of creative expression, allows African women the agency to identify
and represent themselves as they are, and not as they are presented by
others. It also provides the means for us (as African women) to document
our own creative contributions, and to actively support multi-generational
movement-building while simultaneously mobilizing new constituencies.

Looking ahead, while a focus on popular culture and the arts is only one
strategy in our efforts to achieve broad based social change and justice it
is an important one. Popular culture and the arts will continue to be a
meaningful force and we must use it to articulate our outrage, express our
resilience, and develop new ways of responding to the challenges
experienced in our everyday lives.
*Biography:* Amina Doherty is a Nigerian feminist ARTivist whose work
focuses on feminist philanthropy and creative arts for advocacy. Amina
actively supports several community-led media platforms across Africa and
the Caribbean and brings to her activism a passion for music, art, travel,
photography, fashion and poetry. She has facilitated several learning
programs on women’s rights, youth development, resource mobilization and
economic justice. Amina is the founding coordinator of FRIDA | The Young
Feminist Fund. She holds a BA in Political Science & Women’s Studies from
McGill University (Distinction) and an MSc in Gender, Development and
Globalization from the London School of Economics (LSE).