Let's #FlipTheScript for African womxn!
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Why are you always murdering our narratives with your gaze? Why are you always hijacking our narratives with your gaze? Why are you always trying to assassinate us with your gaze?
Koleka Putuma, Interview (in Collective Amnesia)
Narratives matter. No one knows that better than African womxn. Whether at home, at work, in the streets or in the laws, depictions of African womxn are purposely inaccurate, exclusionary, and murderous. Narratives have been weaponized to justify assaults on our bodies, our rights and our lives, for as long as we can remember. Yet we are supposed to take it with a smile, for a “good/real African woman” accepts her fate and suffers in silence.
No one is more inadequately represented than African womxn – except, maybe, for African feminists. Portrayals of African womxn as helpless victims who need external (read: Western and/or male) support to claim their rights are so common that one may forget that the continent has a long, political history of feminist organizing. It also negates the fact that there are millions of womxn all over the continent who are fighting to dismantle patriarchy.
As a result, African feminists are either celebrated either as exceptions to the victimhood rule by Western media and development organizations, ignored by male-led pan-African initiatives, or vilified as traitors to their African culture by their fellow Africans.
So, as African Women’s Day is drawing near (officially named Pan African Women’s Day, as it was declared in 1962 by the Organisation of African Unity’s Assembly after a first Pan-African Women’s Conference was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania), narratives is all I’m thinking about.
Which women will be celebrated in press releases and whose faces will be printed on colorful fabrics? What exactly will they be praised for? And what of the millions of African womxn who will be left out of the picture because they are challenging the dominant narrative, and left wondering, “Ain’t I an [African] woman”?
It’s time we flip the script. Don’t you think?
This year, let’s make African Women’s Day a celebration of African womxn who break the mould. African womxn who say “my body, my rules” and challenge male and state entitlement over their bodies. African womxn who won’t remain submissive to the male authority figures in their families and their communities. African womxn who reject the idea that they should not experience sexual pleasure. African womxn who debunk the myth that queerness is un-African. And African womxn who organize against patriarchy, including outside of the ‘approved’ organizing spaces.
Like Eyala itself, #FlipTheScript is not just about changing the narrative. It’s about us African womxn centering our visions and our voices, and celebrating ourselves for who we are rather than who we are expected to be (huge thanks to sister Ramatu Bangura for helping me figure this out in one of those life-changing conversations only Afrifem can have!)
So, will you join the celebration? This week (27-31 July), in the lead-up to Day of African Women, Eyala is partnering with Oxfam International’s Enough Campaign for conversations with African womxn and feminists who transgress the norms and create new narratives for African womxn. Here’s the programme:
On Tuesday 28 July at 2pm GMT, join me on IG live (@Eyalablog) for a chat with Rachael Mwikali, a Kenyan feminist whose work focuses on womxn living in informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya (the womxn most NGOs claim to serve but seldom celebrate) through her work at the Coalition for Grassroots Human Rights Defenders. I can’t wait to hear about her life journey and the lessons she’s learning about from grassroots feminist organizing.
On Wednesday 29 July at 2pm GMT, I’ll be on Facebook live (@EyalaBlog) in conversation with two young feminist powerhouses from Francophone West Africa. Emma Onekekou (from Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso) started EmmalInfos, a digital platform amplifying Francophone African LBTQ voices. Bintou Mariam Traore from Cote d’Ivoire who single-handedly started a massive online conversation on what it means to be an African womxn, using satirical posts on social media (#VraieFemmeAfricaine). The conversation will be in French, but look out for English recaps!
On Thursday 30 July at 2pm GMT, I’m looking forward to a live Q&A on Twitter (@EyalaBlog) with Ghanaian feminist activist and author Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, who is also Director for Communications and Tactics at AWID. She co-founded award-winning blog Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women, and her book entitled 'Sex Lives of African Women' is to be published by Dialogue Books in July 2021.
And it gets better! On 31 July at 2pm GMT, we’ll celebrate African Women’s Day (and Eyala’s second birthday!) together during a FIRE webinar that will bring together some of the speakers mentioned above (Rachael and Nana Darkoa) together with other African womxn who disrupt the harmful social norms and simplistic narratives that perpetuate discriminatory gender roles and gender-based violence in Africa:
Dr Tlaleng Mokofeng (South Africa): Medical Doctor (MBChB), Sexual and reproductive health and rights advocate, UN Special Rapporteur on Right to Health, and author of Dr T: A Guide to Sexual Health & Pleasure.
Souad Douibi (Algeria): Plastic arts professional, performer and art therapy teacher. In her 2016 street performance titled “Imra’a” (woman), Souad drew tags on the walls and sidewalks of Algiers that prompted a public debate about womxn’s role in society.
Cleopatra Kambugu (Uganda): Transgender woman and advocate the rights of sex workers, and sexual and gender minorities . Director of Programme of East African activist fund UHAI EASHRI.
Don’t wait to register! There is a limitation on how many people can attend the webinar.
Excited yet? Join the conversation! Follow @EyalaBlog on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and don’t mention to share your thoughts and experiences, using #FlipTheScript to connect with others. Let’s do this!
