African Feminists – TomupeisheAfrican Feminists – Tomupeishe

A number of AWDF staff at the 3rd African Feminist Forum in Dakar, Senegal. From left to right: Rose Buabeng, Sophia Kpebotso, Rissi Assani-Alabi, Zeytuna Abdellah-Azasoo, Mavis Gardiner, Gertrude Annoh Quashie
Photograph by Nyani Quarmyne

Sindi Medar-Gould at the 2nd African Feminist Forum in 2008

I cannot really remember when I met Sindi. I’ve tried hard in the last few days since the news of her death; tried recalling when I met her and under what circumstances and am sure, a sister somewhere would have been witness to our meeting because that was how Sindi was. She gathered us like the big sister she was and with wit, experiences that life throws at you and the maturity of being “nearly always” the oldest in the room – shared what she had, she was an excellent mentor to those seeking mentorship.

Sindi graduated from Colorado College in the 80s, won a Fulbright Scholarship and landed at Bayero University Kano (BUK) in Nigeria where she lectured and was a researcher on women’s human rights and Islam for 8 years. She’d found her calling. Sindi went on to become a member of ‘Women in Nigeria’ and served in several capacities crisscrossing the globe advocating for the rights of her sisters in Nigeria. In the last few years, she served on the management boards of the ‘Nigerian Feminist Forum’, AWID and several others, worked for ‘Baobab for Women’s Human Rights’ and more recently became Women’s Learning Partnership Senior Advisor for Africa. Then she started whispering about going back home and many of us did not think this possible. How? Why now? We have not finished the struggle. The reality was that she wanted to be with her family. She wanted to see her grand children and great grand-children.

In colourful and often risqué language one can visualise her saying, she’s glad she does not have to do that anymore with a haughty laugh. Yes, that was classic Sindi.

Sindi lived in Nigeria for 25 years and for every one of those years she was an activist, teacher, mentor, mother, grandmother, great grand-mother and friend. She just wanted to be called Sindi, no extras. No nonsense Sindi did not suffer fools easily. The struggle for advocating for women’s human rights has not stopped! The problems are more complex than before and Sindi is no more.

As you lay in a coma, I knew it was near but I hoped for a miracle. He who knows you best made a decision that you will suffer no more. Adieu, my sister friend my conspirator and mentor for age was no barrier to our friendship. Till we meet again and you tell me in that twang I could never imitate “you crazy girl”.

Adieu

Iheoma Obibi
Executive Director & ASHOKA Fellow
Alliances for Africa

Click the link below to listen to my 60 second pitch. Will you join me in capturing women’s stories?

The forum60sec 16th March

By: Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah

Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah at ‘The Forum’

This post was originally shared on ‘the feminist wire‘

Leigh Ann van der Merweinist

Leigh Ann van der Merwe was born in 1982 in Ugie, Eastern Cape of South Africa. Growing up as a gender questioning person, she struggled to conform to typical male gender codes and as a result always felt left out both in family life and at school. Leigh Ann’s first gender challenge was attempting to play on the Ugie High School Netball team. Netball is a typical female sport code in South Africa. She struggled through high school and graduated from Blackhealth High School in 2000. She enrolled for an LL.B degree with the University of the Western Cape in 2001 but did not complete due to financial difficulty. She started working as a controller at a security management firm. It was through another trans woman that Leigh Ann was introduced to trans activism in 2007.  Her experience of activism includes being a candidate in the Transitioning Africa Exchange Program from 2010 to 2011. Leigh Ann was also a fellow in the Open Society/Austrian American Foundation/Transgender Centre of Excellence program in Salzburg, Austria during October 2011 and presented at a transgender consultation at UNAids in Geneva during November 2011. She holds a seat on the United Nations steering committee for transgender people in the Global South. Leigh Ann reviewed a number of gender literature resources produced by other NGO’s and was part of the study team on a UNFPA report on the challenges of sex workers in the East London area. She is actively involved with a number of NGO’s dealing with gender & women’s issues, HIV and public health. She is also the secretary of the board of an East London based NGO working with orphans and vulnerable children. She presented two papers at the first ever Gender Dynamix Transgender Health and Research Conference, November 2011. Her paper on Transgender Feminism is currently under review for the New Voices in Psychology publication with the University of South Africa. In 2012, Leigh Ann received an award from the Masimanyane Women’s Support Centre in recognition of her work as a Women’s Rights Defender. She holds a certificate in Community Journalism from the University of South Africa and is working towards finalising a B.A. degree in Communication Science. She is very passionate about feminism and women’s rights.

TFW: Tell us about yourself.

Leigh Ann van der Merwe: I grew up in a small town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa called Ugie. My family always joke and say that if you don’t hit the brakes of your car fast and hard enough, you might just slip right through Ugie. I grew up with my grandmother who is the strongest person I know. My mom passed when I was two years old. I am the last born of twelve kids. I was raised in a house full of other children and what I remember fondly is telling ghost stories in front of our old “pearl” stove. Growing up I was a really feminine little boy but I was always reminded of my masculinity and how I should accept and embrace that. In the same breath I want to express how my family contradicted that “male” affirmation because somehow I was always expected to curl everyone’s hair on a Sunday afternoon, and the one thing that tied me to my late Aunt Mavis, is how the two of us used to water her house plants on a Sunday morning. She always used to show me how to cook this and how to bake that… so much for affirming masculinity, and whatever that means in an African context!

Even though I could not comprehend feminism as a philosophy at the time, I somehow could not get over being expected to do some things for my male cousins when they could do it themselves. At this point in life, I fully understand those actions were part of the social programming that we “do” certain things for male figures as part and parcel of patriarchy.  I grew up amongst very masculine men who did very masculine things like hunting, fishing, playing sports but it didn’t interest me. I was always in the kitchen, playing house (being someone’s wife – it’s really funny now, the idea of being someone’s wife) or on the netball field, where I played the position of defender. I grew up in the eighties and had so much admiration for the political struggle for freedom in South Africa at the time. I used to love chanting along to the struggle songs that sometimes came on the radio and silently I promised myself I would somehow, some way be part of the change, and that silent promise led me to a commitment to human rights for all.

TFW: How did you eventually come to feminism and how do you live feminism in your life and activism now?

Leigh Ann van der Merwe: OK, so growing up, the way I envisioned my life was that I would transition from male to female, get married (I already had my partner in mind), adopt a child…or two or three, get a job (maybe in parliament) for myself, buy a house, and buy a car (in my mind this was a Toyota Camry). I would sit and dream about this for hours and hours. All I wanted to do was to leave this small town, travel to the city and start building on my dream. This dream took a knock in 1999 when my sister was killed by her lover. I never got over that. Indeed I moved away, I finished high school and started university. Things didn’t go as planned and I ended up right back at home. I got a job (not my dream job – nowhere remotely close to it), I lost sight of my dreams, I gained weight, I realized how alien the world can be if you don’t fit the “norm”-whatever that might be.  I joined the transgender movement and I started fighting for the human rights of people but somehow, somewhere, something was lacking. For some reason, I couldn’t stand the idea of being expected to fulfill certain gender roles (in my newly very affirmed and very accepted gender role at that point in time). I completed an internship at Gender DynamiX and was mentored by a good friend and old colleague. He opened my eyes to the reality of life for women – and now I am a woman, as I have always been in my heart and mind. So, my gender identity and the expression thereof was widely accepted but I felt oppressed by being an educated woman and yet I had to submit to the choices men in my family made. I very publicly took up the feminist label but before I did that, I had to ponder on what cisgender (non transgender) women would say of me being born and socialized as a male (well… socialized as a male … I am not so sure of that but anyway…). I had to reflect on what it meant to be a transgender woman and being a feminist and then it dawned on me that this was an issue to be addressed in the context of formal organizing. The way that I live and breathe my feminism is the fact that I get up each morning; go to an organization that I founded. I haven’t had a salary for the last two years but I have not had a better love than this baby that I am raising. In two years, it has gone from a simple idea to what it is now: S.H.E.

TFW: S.H.E focuses on African Trans Feminisms – how do you define this frame and what do you feel African Trans Feminisms bring to the feminist movement?

Leigh Ann van der Merwe: I don’t want to think of African Trans Feminism as something distinct from any other form of feminism. I don’t think that I can attach one single definition to it. For me, Trans Feminism is a transformative way of thinking about feminism, feminism inclusive of all identities; especially those pushed to the margins like HIV+ women, sex workers, differently abled women, transgender and intersex women, refugees and internally and externally displaced individuals. I see all those identities in Trans Feminism. The use of the word Trans for me is not specifically used in the context of gender variance but Trans (formative): an alternative to the brand of feminisms typified by rigid practices and ideologies like hairy armpits and unshaven legs, power hierarchies about who belongs and who doesn’t. Trans Feminism brings a fresh perspective to feminism, an “out of the box” approach. A feminism where we don’t articulate the same patriarchal values we wanted to move away from in the first place.

TFW: You grew up in a relatively conservative, ‘traditional’ home and community where patriarchy was entrenched and justified in ‘culture’.  What has that meant for you and how do you feel the African feminist movement can shift discourses and practices on tradition and culture away from oppression and patriarchy?

Leigh Ann van der Merwe: I remember in my childhood, there were certain things a woman could not even say. For me, that means their are/were certain things that women could not even think about. Patriarchy is so entrenched in our societies to the extent where women get frustrated every morning about what to wear, how to do her hair (bad hair days), how to articulate her own issues… all very political statements that we overlook because we have been socialized to think that these are all petty women’s issues.  Little do we know that our insecurities about the length of our dresses are something rooted far deeper into a system, which we are made to believe, is part of solid moral social fabric!  I grew up in a traditional, Christian home where we had bible studies on Thursdays and Sunday service right in our living room. I have been raised to believe that God is everything, never to question all the things that go wrong in life…. to believe in good and evil and that good will triumph over evil one day and (the best one) that my feminine ways might lead me to the burning fires of hell. The burning fire of hell is right here and right now!

African feminism can steer us away from this mentality. We need more young African feminists to contend with patriarchy the very minute it surfaces in our practices. African feminism will raise the smart girl child who will be able to think and comprehend for herself into the woman who will be able to articulate her own issues. Our feminist activism must gear up to develop the female leaders of tomorrow.

TFW: Who have been your inspirations and how have they shaped you?

Leigh Ann van der Merwe: Wow… there have been so many. In earlier years, it has been Oprah. I just love the idea of an independent black woman who is so successful and who does not have the need to define her existence by relationships or marriage. I have the utmost respect for South African struggle icons like Lillian Ngoyi and Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. The modern day feminists that I love and respect include: Thule Madonsela, Pregs Govender, Tsitsi Dengaremba, Hakima Abbas, Jessica Horn and Zanele Muholi. I have so many role models in my inner circle. They include: Dr. Mzikazi Nduna, Liesl Theron, Marion Stevens, Gabrielle Le Roux, Daphney Conco, Jane Bennett, and Sally Shackleton. I just draw love and inspiration from all these women in my life.

TFW: What is your vision for Africa and the trans feminist movement and what role do you hope to play in that?

Leigh Ann van der Merwe: I will be very frank and say that our first move should be to get transgender women to think beyond pink feathery outfits and high heels and realize there are far bigger political issues at play. I want to see a strong movement where transgender women, alongside sex workers, HIV+ women, differently abled women and so many other identities, are made room for in feminist spaces. A strong movement where we don’t see each other as the enemy and realize that we need to address the inequalities stemming from patriarchy. I want to see a trans African Feminist movement where all these women typically pushed to the margins, have seats in our governments, in positions where they are leaders, in positions where they are policy makers. I want to see equality and justice for ALL women. What is my role in all of this? It all starts with me!

Yara Sallam, Women Human Rights Defenders Program Manager at Nazra for Feminist Studies in Egypt

Yara Sallam is the Women Human Rights Defenders Program manager at Nazra for Feminist Studies, the first program in Egypt that focuses on women human rights defenders.  Yara previously worked as a professional legal assistant at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) in The Gambia, as researcher on Freedom of Religion and Belief at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), and as a research assistant at the Institute of Research for Development (IRD) focusing on women’s rights in Egypt. Yara has earned two degrees in law – a Licence of Law from Cairo University in Egypt and Maîtrise of Commercial Law from Paris I University Pantheon Sorbonne in France. She has also been awarded a Master of Laws degree in International Human Rights Law from the Law School of Notre Dame University in the United States of America.

1. How did you come to feminism and how do you feel it is defined in your life and activism?

The first time I read about feminism as a theory was in 2010 while I was doing my master’s degree, but I didn’t need to read the theories and the books to practice feminism. I was lucky to be raised in a leftist family that believes in equality between men and women, and applies these values. My mother is, by anyone’s definition, indeed a feminist, but still refuses to call herself one because of the negative connotations associated with who is a “feminist” and whether this implies an aggression toward men. For me, growing up seeing a strong woman like my mother, who fought her own battles bravely in the public sphere, struggled while growing up, takes strong stands in her personal life despite social stigmas, is what inspired me and made me the feminist I am today. She taught me about feminism in her day-to-day struggle, and I will be grateful for her all my life.

When I started my master’s degree, I knew I wanted to do my thesis on women, and this started my interest in working on women’s issues. Although my work at Nazra for Feminist Studies came by coincidence, I have found myself in a place that is really motivating and inspiring. Working in Nazra, has taught me what it means to work collectively for one purpose, in different ways, and is a practical example of what feminism means and how people can use their passion and believe in feminism on the ground to help push for change.

2. You have been very much involved in the uprisings in Egypt and the change processes since the overthrow of Mubarak.  What do you see as the opportunities and challenges for feminist gains in Egypt? 

The start of the revolution in January 2011 opened up many opportunities for women to be present in the public sphere and participate in the struggle for democracy and human rights. Even though many women who are active at the moment, in different revolutionary groups or political parties or independently, do not necessarily consider themselves feminists, but – as my friend Mozn puts it – their mere presence in the public sphere, challenging traditional views about women’s role in the society, is a gain for the feminist movement. Women are shaping new grounds for their participation in politics, human rights defence and revolutionary actions, which cannot be taken from them anymore.

The challenges that we as feminists are facing is the rise of a new dictatorship, the same way as with the previous regime of Mubarak, only with a religious interface and with a conservative approach that is not very smart. Not only do we have a government that does not bear its responsibility for human rights violations, including violence against women rising to the extent of rape with sharp weapons in Tahrir Square, but also allows statements from officials blaming women for the sexual assault. The current regime is also re-establishing ‘state feminism’ (which was present during Mubarak) by using female figures from the Freedom and Justice Party to attack women’s rights and feminists. The struggle continues, not only against the regime, but also with civil groups who are not convinced of the importance to push for women’s inclusion in the public sphere, though it’s the first time there are real political parties competing for real elections.
3. On February 12, there was a global day of action against sexual terrorism and in solidarity with the women of Egypt.  Can you tell us more about why this has become necessary and what type of solidarity feminists in Africa and across the globe can show to Egyptian sisters? 

The Global Protest Against Sexual Terrorism Practiced on Egyptian Female Protestors was a call for solidarity by a Facebook page called “The Uprising of Women in the Arab World” which has been doing online campaigning to raise awareness and gather support for women in the Arab world. I believe with the uprisings everywhere, not only in the Arab world, solidarity between people around the world, especially feminist movements, is crucial. Solidarity is not only important in terms of having a collective feeling of support that we are all fighting for the same cause, to end patriarchy, but also because we all know different tools and have different skills. What African feminists, and other feminists across the globe, can do is to pressure the Egyptian government (through sending urgent appeals, hold protests or other forms of pressure) to let them know that there are other feminists watching out for their sisters and supporting them. Another important aspect is that we all need to learn from each other, I believe that we in Egypt have a lot to learn from our African sisters, and also from the experience of other feminists, like in Latin America, about tools they used, and success and failure stories.

4.  As a lawyer, how do you see the role of the law in ending patriarchy and sexist oppression in Egypt and more broadly in the rest of Africa?  

I believe law is one of the tools patriarchy uses to control women’s sexuality, personal choices, and mobility. Feminists in Egypt, and across Africa, should engage with legislators in the process of issuing laws and ensure that a gender perspective is always taken into account.  Feminists must also fight against laws that reinforce the traditional roles of women in society and patriarchal values that we have in the Arab and African societies, which are being translated into laws.

5. You firmly define yourself as an African. Why do you claim this identity and how does this identity inform your feminism and your activism? 

I was always annoyed by the fact that many Egyptians do not consider themselves African, although we are, but it wasn’t till I lived in The Gambia for a couple of months that I learnt why I consider myself African, and why I feel connected. I can’t really explain how I feel, but there is something in the collective sense, the appreciation of family, the roots, the ancestors, the diversity, the music, the dance, and everything in between that makes me feel more at home than anywhere else I’ve been to. This sense of belonging to one community and one continent, Africa, is the same way I feel about feminism, that we are in the same struggle together, and that solidarity is much needed in this struggle. Being an African Feminist to me means that I understand the difference that we have as individuals but still work collectively for one purpose, respecting everyone’s culture, and cherish the way we all complement each other.

6.  In Egypt, where most of the population claim an active faith and the majority of people claim Islam as their faith, where do you see the relationship between religion and feminism and what efforts are being used to combat patriarchy through feminist interpretations of religious script, if any?

Personally, I do believe that each one of us should use the tools she or he believes in, and it’s only fair to give the same right to feminists who want to engage in reform for the religions they believe in, whether this would be Islam or another religion. In a country such as Egypt, I believe it is important for Islamic feminists to engage with the mainstream religious discourse, and challenge the idea that it represents Islam, and that it’s the only credible religious opinion – when you can speak their language, it’s easier to break their arguments.  However, I think it would be harmful to keep the feminist discourse only Islamic, I believe that secular feminists should also help shift the discourse into a non-religious one.

Meklit Hadero, musician, activist and Senior TED Fellow

We’re delighted to have the talented musician and activist Meklit Hadero join us at “What’s new in African Feminisms? Pop, People and Politics” panel as part of the Women of the World Festival.

This is what Joshua Jelly Schapiro wrote about Meklit after meeting her:

“I’ve always felt at home with movement,” murmurs Meklit Hadero in the same gentle voice with which she traces her songs’ supple melodies. “All of us are made of many places.” And she should know: Born in Ethiopia, raised in the U.S. and nurtured by San Francisco’s richly diverse arts scene, this acclaimed singer embodies worlds. Joining her soul-filled phrasing to a songwriter’s craft, her music’s influences range wide – from the jazz and soul favorites she grew up on; to the hip-hop and art-rock she loves; to folk traditions from the Americas and her forebears’ East African home. But this singular artist’s sound, drawn of multitudes, is hers alone.

Emerging from her adopted hometown of San Francisco, Meklit erupted to national notice with the 2010 release of “On a Day Like this…” on Porto Franco Records. Hailed by Filter magazine for “[combining] New York jazz with West Coast folk and African flourishes, all bound together by Hadero’s beguiling voice,” her full-length debut — which also garnered feature-stories on its maker from NPR, PBS and National Geographic — brought Meklit’s music to a whole new audience. It also announced the arrival, as the San Francisco Chronicle has put it, of “an artistic giant in the early stages.”

The journey that brought Meklit to this stage included many stops. Born in Ethiopia in the early 1980s, she grew up in Iowa, New York, and Florida. After studying political science at Yale, she moved to San Francisco and became immersed in the city’s thriving arts scene. “She sings of fragility, hope and self-empowerment, and exudes all three,” wrote a Chronicle reporter after witnessing an early performance in the city’s Mission District. “What’s irresistible, above all, is her cradling, sensuous, gentle sound. She is stunning.” She hasn’t looked back.

Named a TED Global Fellow in 2009, Meklit has served as an artist-in-residence at New York University, the De Young Museum, and the Red Poppy Art House. Meklit has also completed musical commissions for the San Francisco Foundation and for theatrical productions staged by Brava! For Women in the Arts. She is the founder of the Arba Minch Collective, a group of Ethiopian artists in diaspora devoted to nurturing ties to their homeland through collaborating with both traditional and contemporary artists there.

Now touring in support of her debut album while nurturing plans for her next, along with numerous side-projects, Meklit is gracing renowned festivals and concert-halls worldwide. Most at home not in one place but many, she’s an artist leaping from stage to stage before our eyes.

Here’s a teaser of what will be discussed:
African women are gaining force in music, writing and film, offering powerful and subversive views on gender, power and Africa’s future.  In the political arena, there are now two African women Presidents with the election of election of Joyce Banda as president of Malawi. Gambia’s Fatou Bensouda was declared chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma became the first woman head of the African Union. African women are mobilizing across the region to challenge religious fundamentalisms, prevent the tide of violence against them, questioning corruption and building women’s economic power. In partnership with the African Feminist Forum and the African Women’s Development Fund, this session looks at what is fresh in African feminist thought and action, and the relationship between Diaspora and continent based activism. Speakers include  Pontso Mafete, Women’s Rights Manager at Comic Relief, Jessica Horn, writer and women’s rights consultant, and DJ Rita Ray, renowned DJ and African music specialist. Chaired by Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, Communications Specialist at the African Women’s Development Fund.

Jessica Horn

DJ Rita Ray

Pontso Mafete

Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah

4 African Feminists,  Hakima Abbas, Jessica Horn, Minna Salami and Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah were included in Applause Africa’s list of 40 inspirational Africans in their recent changemaker edition.

Were there any other African feminist sisters on this list? Let us know via the comments box.

In the mean time check out the profiles of Hakima, Jessica, Minna and Nana as featured in the magazine.

Please find attached the power points from our resource people:

Jan Moolman Feminist Cyborgs: Online Security

Yara Sallam Online Activism: a case study from Egypt

Spectra Asala Feminist Cyborgs- Online fundraising

You can also check out the live blog for today’s session which is hosted here
If you are on twitter you can also check the timeline for @genderitorg and check the hashtags #afrifem #takebackthetech to follow some of the conversation that took place via twitter.

This Wednesday 5th December at 1pm GMT we shall repeating this webinar except this time it will be bilingual Please especially share this information with your French  speaking colleagues or friends who may be interested in participating. Click this link to register and please share with your networks