Considering how likely it is that owning a sex robot will be increasingly commonplace within the next ten to twenty years, I’m concerned that there is so little critical reflection on what male sex robots might mean for women. Almost all the news and commentary is about female sex robots, and how they’ll apparently make…
7 popular posts about African feminism
It’s exactly seven years today since MsAfropolitan was launched . In the time since, I’ve published over 350 articles (where did I find the time?) and this site has received half a million visits and tens of millions of hits yearly (thank you!). There are 3530 comments and a similar engagement on social media. Again, thanks for being such dynamic readers, I…
Seven characteristics an empowered woman has. Psychology matters.
“Who is the empowered woman, and what’s your opinion on the use of the word ’empowered’ as a marketing tool?” In a recent interview with She Leads Africa, I was asked the above question and it made me reflect further on a theme that has always been important in my writing. Empowerment was also the…
7 films directed by African women to see at Film Africa
The fifth edition of the Royal African Society’s annual film festival, Film Africa, is taking place on the 30 Oct – 8 Nov in London. Film Africa celebrates the best African cinema with a wide-ranging film programme. This year, over 60 films from 26 African countries will be screened. As one of the Friends of Film Africa, I have selected seven…
7 non-fiction books African feminists should read
African feminists, that is African women who are feminists, should not only read books by other African women. From my Afropolitan point of view, our reading should be cosmopolitan, we should enjoy books about all kinds of topics from anywhere in the cosmos. That is how you expand your mind, and not by repeatedly reading one genre. However,…
7 ways that women are oppressed without knowing it
I will live but that is all that I will do for patriarchy, is my conscientious feminist motto. It is not always an easy task for women, however, because society constantly tries to diminish feminist consciousness by encouraging women to redefine rather than, remove, oppression. For instance, rather than embolden legal action against rape, women are encouraged to…
7 South African rebel women artists – in memory of Miriam Makeba
Today, 4 March, is the birthday of the unforgettable Miriam Makeba. To honour her memory I am posting a selection of my favourite songs by seven sensational South African singers who, like Makeba, embody/embodied the spirit of feminist pan-Africa and the African femme fatale. Pata Pata! Busi Mhlongo “Umoya ma-Afrika” Brenda Fassie – “Vuli Ndlela” Lebo Mathosa –…
Seven things that women want in Africa’s future
This week, more than 3000 delegates are at the annual meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Kigali discussing new strategies to tackle poverty, underdevelopment, and put their weight behind global schemes that ensure Africa’s progress. To mark the occasion, UN Women Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, published an OpEd today titled Women’s Role in the Next 50…
7 great novels by African women writers
“In the stories we tell ourselves, we tell ourselves,” said Michael Martone rightly. We also read ourselves in the books we read, or at least in those books that we cherish. For this reason, one of my 2014 resolutions was to return to a favourite pastime, namely reading fiction. For some years my reading life…
7 tips for African women bloggers
This is a follow up to a previous post “Why African women should blog” Happy women’s day! Sticking to my tradition of posting a “Seven” series blog every 8 March, this year I’m dedicating the slot to something that is at the heart of this blog, which is to encourage more women in the continent and diaspora…
His idea of beauty: Interview with Terence Nance, director of An Oversimplification of Her Beauty
Are you familiar with semiotext(e), the avant-garde, “punk-rock” publisher that introduced french theory to America? No? Don’t worry, most people probably are not. But they should be. Semiotext(e) publishes books that are at times bursting with self-indulgent introspection but that often push and provoke new ways of understanding the world we live in. I ask this…
7 ways that Africa is shaping globalisation
Globalisation, the compression of the world through cultural exchanges and innovation, is not a new incident to Africa (nor any other part of the world for that matter). Africa is interwoven in a millennia-long global exchange, where it has often lost out but also benefited from and shaped the course of global innovation to a far…
How to make African pie
Is Africa hopeless, hopeful, sinking, growing, shrinking or rising? Such preoccupations repeatedly appear in analyses of Africa. Here are, for instance, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 articles from The Guardian discussing the theme, 1, 2, 3, 4 articles from African Arguments, and from Africa Unchained and TIME to link to just a few. These ruminations are no…
A year of African feminism
I’d like to end the year here with a short recap. I posted 72 blogs in 2012. They featured original content about race relations, pop culture, African affairs and psychology which are four of the five key themes of MsAfropolitan. The list below consists of the most popular blogs from the fifth major theme – African…
7 Ethiopian Women to Watch
This is a guest blog by Elias Wondimu Ethiopia has a rich tradition of independent, intelligent women. From the Queen of Sheba to wedding gown designer Amsale Aberra, these women have helped shaped the cultural and historical trajectory of Ethiopia and beyond. The seven women on this list are members of an extraordinary generation of…
Seven things about gorillas and Africa
Why write about gorillas and Africa? Because there is an alarm about Gorillas in the midst of Congo conflict /////// One ~ Tourists will generally shy away from unstable regions but this is not the case when it comes to regions with gorillas so I was wondering about touristic ideas of Africa and its gorillas….