Movement Building — Musings

Since our launch in 2018, Eyala has curated several spaces for conversation among African feminists. We have also had the opportunity to participate in many other spaces, as part of our mission to support African feminist movement building.

One conversation that always comes up? The tensions between different generations of African feminists. We noticed that most of these conversations circled around the problems and often led to finger-pointing and the usual blame game, leaving little room for discussions on possible solutions.

This month, we explore feminist intergenerational tensions, with the hope that the conversations we bring forward will help us all to work past the real challenges we have identified and start building solutions that will keep our movements solid.

Eyala Advisor Lusungu Kalanga launches us into this journey with an excellent musing that explores this theme.

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I will start with a disclaimer: my generational identity varies depending on the spaces I occupy. In some spaces, I am a young feminist, while in others, I am the older feminist 😊

Recently, a renowned Malawian human rights defender, Emmie Chanika, passed on. A trained registered nurse, Chanika began her activism work in February 1992 when she founded the Civil Liberties Committee (Cilic), the first human rights organisation in Malawi. Emmie Chanika, like other women fighters for Malawi’s liberation including Rose Chibambo, Vera Chirwa and Emily Mkamanga, sacrificed so much to build Malawi’s women’s movement in extremely difficult circumstances with little resources.

All of these women started their activism very young, most in their teens and early 20s. They may not have called themselves feminists (noun), but they were feminist (adjective). This trajectory is similar to many women’s movements on the continent and beyond.

I reflect on these women’s work and the foundation they set for younger feminists and juxtapose this with the tensions that exist between older and younger feminists today. How do we honor these women in Malawi and across the continent while also recognizing that this work is like a relay race where we pass each other the baton? Even when you pass the baton, you are still very much part of the team.

How can we make this a reality in our movements, recognizing all the intersections that exist, recognizing that we are not homogenous and most importantly, challenging the power dynamics that exist within the movement including the age differences and the fact that some have been doing this work for decades?

Can we have meaningful conversations and intergenerational co-leadership?

In my feminist journey, I have had my share of ‘intergenerational’ conversations and panels that left me questioning what my role was supposed to be in the first place. One time, I was on such a panel as a young feminist with an older feminist, and the only words I got in were a greeting. I realised that I was there only as a token.

We need to reflect on the power imbalances that exist between feminists who are older/well-known and younger/less-known feminists. How do we create a safe space for honest conversations that are balanced and self-reflective? We need to continue being careful and intentional when we bring younger and older feminists together so that the spaces are beneficial to all, and others do not feel stifled. This may sometimes look like recognising your privilege and refusing to be put on pedestals, passing on the mic and platform for new voices to be heard, and validating one another.

Additionally, when there are collaborations between younger and older feminists, it is important that these should be based on equal partnership and resistance to the infantilisation of younger feminists. While younger feminists have to be assertive, the responsibility also falls on those who have been in this work for longer to provide the needed support and trust in the leadership capabilities of those new to the field.

As one of my feminist mentors Jessica Horn mentions, feminist leadership is about compassion and revolutionary love, and this should be reflected in our interactions with each other, with the collective as the center.

Can we learn from each other?

I have had the opportunity to learn from feminists, young and older across the continent and beyond. Apart from the continued learning and unlearning from the experiences of other women and my own, I have also invested in reading about the women that came before us, learning and unlearning to shape our feminist politics.

I believe this learning and unlearning should go both ways and I often wonder if it does. Are older feminists investing time to learn from younger feminists? Do those who have been in this movement for decades think younger feminists have something to contribute? Are they open to being challenged to see the world from the perspective of younger feminists?

There has been an impressive rise of online activism led by younger feminists across the continent that cannot be ignored. This has also been reflected in offline work by the emergence of young feminist movements. For instance, in my country Malawi, we have the Young Feminist Network, PEPETA Malawi and She Decides Malawi chapter, all led and driven by young feminists fighting for reproductive health rights, political participation and to end violence against women.

Just as younger feminists continue to draw from older feminists on showing up, courage and consistency, there is a lot older feminists can learn and tap into from spaces younger women have carved for themselves in terms of horizontal leadership, rest, and centering those at the margins.

Can we recognise our differences and find ways to support each other?

One thing we emphasise as feminists is that we are not homogenous. We have different priorities recognising the intersections that exist among us. With regards to the age gap, it is also clear that there are many differences in priorities. This is not a bad thing, and it should not draw a wedge between us.

We can do better at practicing curiosity about each other’s lived experiences, needs and challenges and use our power to support and create multiple entry points into our movements to validate each other’s struggles. Paraphrasing Audre Lorde, we are not free while any other woman is unfree, even when our shackles are very different.

Relatedly, we should resist the patriarchal narrative that when we disagree on ideas or ways of working, we are enemies. We should recognise the old ‘pull her down syndrome’ that is amplified and reinforced by misogynists to pit us against each other for what it is: a distraction. Granted, we cannot invalidate individual lived experiences and should hold each other accountable. However, we should also be conscious not to let these patriarchal narratives be our story.

There is power in the collective…

On 9th August 2018, Eyala celebrated its launch by convening 40 inspiring women in Dakar. Each woman shared a word that best captures their experiences of what it means to be a woman and a feminist. The conversation moved from this offline space to Twitter, calling on feminists to share our words. My word was ‘resistance’. A word I went away reflecting on was by another feminist mentor of mine, Zimbabwean feminist, Everjoice Win. She wrote:

“My word is COLLECTIVE. Whatever we do it has to benefit the COLLECTIVE. The COLLECTIVE is a source of POWER. Yes, you can fight for your own rights. I can and should take action. But by working in a COLLECTIVE, I can contribute to a bigger and sustainable change. “

Eyala turned 4 this year and I found myself looking back on that thread and reflecting on this word and others that were prominent too: love, freedom, radical, courage… but at the center of these: the collective.

Feminism is a political struggle, and everyone has a role to play in the fight for our freedom. The patriarchy continues to reinvent itself and adapt. We can see this through the regressive right politics that have become louder, high rates of violence against women and gender diverse people on/offline, and the fight against our reproductive health rights, for example.

My hope for the present and future is that we continue to leverage on each other’s strengths as a collective and make space for learning and unlearning together. There is room to have honest conversations that translate into action, and there is room for co-leadership.

Now more than ever, we should continue to build and strengthen our movements and lean on each other.