Should dance performances be a part of studying philosophy? Can morality be objective? Are there alternative ways to think of IQ and EQ? Watch my interview at The Philosopher, which took place on 16 May as part of their Spring 2022 series, where we discuss questions such as the above. With thanks to host Adam…
Beauty and nonconformity
The Cooper Gallery in Scotland has launched a major five-chapter exhibition and event project titled The Ignorant Art School: Five Sit-ins towards Creative Emancipation and I’m delighted that I will be leading one of the sit-ins on 1 April, 2021. My event is titled “A Beauty Class: Society, Politics and Transcendence”. See below for the synopsis and…
Solidarity Statement – Sex for Grades in African Universities
The African Feminist Initiative has released a solidarity statement following the awareness raised by Nigerian journalist, Kiki Mordi’s (pictured), brave and important documentary, Sex for Grades. I post the statement below. Sex for Grades: Solidarity Statement By African Feminist Initiative We are African feminist scholars and feminist scholars of Africa, working in institutions both on…
What is the role of family?
This article was originally posted on CNN Style where it was titled The Western concept of family needs to move with the times Nothing has made me reflect on the meaning of family as much as loss. In the space of three years, I lost three of the people that I have loved the most:…
bell hooks is for everybody
It is with great pleasure that I dedicate this year’s International Women’s Day post to bell hooks, a feminist writer, theorist and critic whose work has inspired, educated and comforted me in equal measure. I first encountered bell hooks’s writing in my university library in Sweden and I must admit that I was not instantly…
International Women’s Day at the UN
I’m delighted to be marking International Women’s Day at the UN’s WFP head quarters where I’ll be a guest speaker addressing the women’s struggle and feminist movement. The event will be opened by the WFP Executive Director (David Beasley) and closed by the FAO Deputy Director General (Helena Semedo). I’ll be sharing the stage with…
An African feminist analysis of Marvel’s Black Panther
This article was originally posted on The Guardian where it was titled Black Panther deserves an Oscar – but is it a feminist film? No way. Next Sunday, Marvel’s Black Panther will compete for the best picture award at the Oscars. If it wins, it will not only be a first-time victory for a superhero movie, it…
Preliminary notes on the spectre of the Spectacle
Just like the halo around the moon is not the moon, the spectre of the Spectacle is not the Spectacle. It is merely a simulacrum of it, a distillation of the pomp and ceremony that revolves around the Spectacle. Yet it is the closest we can get to the Spectacle itself. So we obsess about…
Why Me Too has failed, my Cambridge Union talk
Me Too has lost much of the radical spirit with which it commenced for two key reasons. Firstly, as I argued at the Cambridge Union debate on the topic last week, the movement is now “in the hands of the media, and therefore in the hands of the male establishment who owns the media”. Secondly…
New podcast feature on black feminism, women’s liberation, Ancient Egypt and more…
Hey everyone! Sharing a link to an interview on the Badass Women’s Hour podcast, which lives up to its name. I’m so grateful to be able to bring my views to exciting spaces like this. Our wide-ranging discussion covered everything from the difference between liberal and radical feminism, between growing up in Nigeria and in…
Spirituality, feminism and expanding our understanding of knowledge
Thanks to a recent article in the Guardian, which reported that “Mind, Body and Spirit” UK book sales are growing while other book genres are dropping in sales, I’ve been thinking about how perceptions of spirituality relate to feminism and to the expansion of knowledge. Three things in particular came to mind. First of all, that our…
A post-444 analysis of Lemonade
In a critical review of Lemonade in 2016, bell hooks wrote, “Even though Beyoncé and her creative collaborators daringly offer multidimensional images of black female life, much of the album stays within a conventional stereotypical framework, where the black woman is always a victim.” It was reassuring to read hooks’s take on Lemonade in “Moving Beyond…
How the family unit was designed to oppress women’s sexuality
A group of states including the six African states Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia and Uganda have recently tabled a resolution at the 35th session of the UN Human Rights Council entitled, “Protection of the Family: Role of the Family in Supporting the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights of Older Persons.” In the resolution,…
Reflections on writing, voice and inner life
In August 2014, to my great excitement, I was invited to give a TEDx Talk in London. It was thrilling to have the opportunity to share my thoughts on the renowned platform and I eagerly began preparing for the event. But my excitement about the talk was soon replaced with gloom, when a few weeks…
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…
In memoriam. Calling for a compassionate but sensible approach to cancer.
On this day one year ago, I lost my dear mother to cancer. It has been the toughest as well as the most conscious year in my life. Conscious, because as Janis Joplin sang, “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to loose,” and having lost the most important person in my life, those lines…