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MsAfropolitan

FEMINISM. PAN-AFRICA. SOCIAL CRITICISM. DIASPORA. CULTURE.

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A Historical Overview of African Feminist Strands

August 24, 2022 By MsAfropolitan 3 Comments

Recently launched by the Goethe Institute, The House of African Feminisms (HoAF) is a platform for feminist discourse, resources and enlightenment. The project aims at highlighting the works of various African feminist scholars, artists and thinkers around the world as well as providing a resource on African feminisms.  To mark the launch, the HoAF invited…

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Filed Under: Africa, Afropolitanism, Decolonisation, feminism, MsAfropolitanPosts, Social Criticism Tagged With: Africa, African feminism, feminism, gender, history

Book announcement! I’m writing a book about African feminism

August 16, 2022 By MsAfropolitan 1 Comment

I’m so excited to share that I am writing a new book! It is titled “Can Feminism be African?” and will be published by William Collins early 2024. This book has been a long time in the making. I can’t wait to share it with the readers of this blog. Read on for the full…

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Filed Under: Africa, Can Feminism Be African?, feminism Tagged With: Africa, african diaspora, African feminism, feminism, gender

Human auctions in Libya and the patriarchal, imperialist system that enables them

November 20, 2017 By MsAfropolitan 5 Comments

Last week a  CNN report containing footage of African migrants being sold in human auctions in Libya was published. In the footage, we see young men being sold to buyers for about at $400 to undisclosed buyers. Here are the videos:  I have been terribly busy and unable to blog in a few weeks but I could…

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Filed Under: Africa, Afropolitanism, feminism, Social Criticism Tagged With: Africa, Europe, Imperialism, Libya, patriarchy, slavery

What will the Sahel look like in 10 years? A research initiative on the Sahel region and call for papers

October 21, 2017 By MsAfropolitan 1 Comment

I’m pleased to share the news that I have joined the Editorial Board of the Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of the Sahel, which is an initiative of The International Consortium for Geopolitical Studies of the Sahel – a collaborative international research team of experts focusing on the security, socio-political and ecological complex of the Sahel, of which I also am…

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Filed Under: Africa, Decolonisation Tagged With: Africa, decolonisation, Sahel Consortium, Sahel region

32 views on Afropolitanism

October 7, 2015 By MsAfropolitan 4 Comments

Last month, I took part in a panel discussion about Afroisms at Busseywood film festival. The panel, moderated by Tega Okiti, consisted of Emma Dabiri and Chardine Taylor-Smith, both opponents of Afropolitanism, and myself – a proponent of it. When I chose the name for my blog, I didn’t intuit becoming a proponent of Afropolitanism. The term…

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Filed Under: Africa, Decolonisation, Pop Culture, Social Criticism Tagged With: Africa, Afropolitan, Afropolitanism, culture, gallery, philosophy, Segun Aiyesan, Theory

Repowerment rather than empowerment

September 7, 2015 By MsAfropolitan 8 Comments

I’m getting impatient with the idea that the reason we should empower African women is to lift African economies, as UN under-secretary-general and executive director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, argued in The Sowetan on Sunday. I’m not fed up with this proposition because economic growth isn’t important for African countries (although I do think…

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Filed Under: feminism, Social Criticism Tagged With: Africa, African development, African feminism, Empowerment, gallery, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Repowerment, UN Women

Q & A with Angélique Kidjo

March 11, 2015 By MsAfropolitan 2 Comments

A celebrity is commonly seen as “a person who is known for his well-knownness”. However, Angélique Kidjo is a celebrity in the original meaning of the term, celer: which has roots in change and of course, celebration. In other words, she is someone we celebrate because she transforms us, her work touches us both poetically and politically. Watching Kidjo perform…

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Filed Under: Pop Culture Tagged With: Africa, African women, Angélique Kidjo, Benin, feminism, Music, pop culture

On the African Union’s message to women

March 9, 2015 By MsAfropolitan 3 Comments

Yesterday, to commemorate International Women’s Day, the former chairperson of the African Union, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, posted a message for African women on the union’s website. The focus of the update, one which I have pasted below, was to hone in on a political vision and action plan – ‘Agenda 2063‘ – which, among other things, “envisages a…

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Filed Under: Africa, feminism Tagged With: Africa, african diaspora, African feminism, African Union, African women, Agenda 2063, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, women's issues

Africa Reflecting: A year of philosophical introspection ahead for Africa

December 21, 2014 By MsAfropolitan 14 Comments

On the brink of the new year, we are encouraged to look into the future with hope. But given the misfortune that 2014 was when it comes to African affairs, I am not hopeful about 2015. Here are some things that regrettably happened this year; violence in the Central African Republic, Libya and South Sudan escalated; over 19, 000…

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Filed Under: Africa Tagged With: #Africa2015, Africa, Afropolitanism, Kwame Nkrumah, pan-Africanism

Watching ‘Concerning Violence’.

November 19, 2014 By MsAfropolitan Leave a Comment

                      The trailer for Göran Hugo Olsson’s ‘Concerning Violence’. I just watched ‘Concerning Violence’.’ ‘Anger. Catharsis. Birth. Small paroxysms of ritualistic release.’ ‘I also felt serene watching it.’ ‘This is what it is to be a woman. It is to be pain. Femininity is not a…

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Filed Under: Africa, Decolonisation, Pop Culture Tagged With: Africa, Blitz Ambassador, Concerning violence, Frantz Fanon, Göran Hugo Olsson

Why you should read Assata Shakur in times of Ferguson

August 20, 2014 By MsAfropolitan 4 Comments

Having witnessed police officers mercilessly beat up a group of young hippies, Assata Olugbala Shakur, at the time a young activist in the Black Students Union in New York, had an epiphany. It was this: she was not going to change a thing by smoking weed in the park and complaining about brutally racist police….

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Filed Under: Decolonisation, feminism, Pop Culture Tagged With: Africa, Assata Shakur, Ferguson, gallery, Michael Brown, Nelson Mandela, Police Brutality, US

Media frenzy about Ebola

August 6, 2014 By MsAfropolitan 3 Comments

On a flight to Lagos last week, a woman with a terrible chesty cough and feverish eyes sat a couple of seats away from me. Unlike many a public transportation commuter, the woman was considerate; she covered her mouth when she coughed and it was evident that she was trying to cough as little as she could despite…

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Filed Under: Africa, Social Criticism Tagged With: Africa, african diaspora, Ebola, Hysteria, Lagos, media

The EU’s African history

July 24, 2014 By MsAfropolitan 26 Comments

The majority of Europeans take for granted that the EU was set up to create peace and stability in Europe. After all, the EU won the Nobel Prize for “advancing the causes of peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights”. Yet this fabrication of the truth would make Alfred Nobel do a triple turn in his grave….

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Filed Under: Africa Tagged With: Africa, EU, Eurafrica, gallery

Ethical Fashion Initiative: when fashion is both beautiful and meaningful

July 11, 2014 By MsAfropolitan 8 Comments

It’s about 6pm on the 12th of June 2014. I’m at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva, a characteristically grandiose European institutional building made all the more incredible by its waterfront view and bright, modern yet noble style. It is the type of space that – bewilderingly – makes you think of both justice and injustice. Today…

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Filed Under: events, Pop Culture Tagged With: Africa, Afropolitan, Creativity, Ethics, fashion, Geneva, Stella Jean, Style, UN, WTO

When it comes to the bride price app there is only one word. No.

June 13, 2014 By MsAfropolitan 16 Comments

This post is inspired by a piece  CNN published on Wednesday about the Nigerian bride price app, an app/quiz which calculates the marital value of a woman by pricing attributes such as her height, weight, beauty, cooking skills, education and dialect. All in jest, yeah, the app, as the site’s disclaimer says is, “a joke, and…

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Filed Under: Africa, feminism, Pop Culture Tagged With: #brideprice, Africa, African feminism, identity, Nigeria, Social Media, women's issues, Young Women

Awra Amba, an Ethiopian village where gender equality is real

May 30, 2014 By MsAfropolitan 10 Comments

If I were an alien visiting our planet this week I’d think, “Whoa, how’s that for a mess, one half of the species trying to annihilate the other half!” We on earth don’t see it that way ourselves; or we would be in revolution against misogynist warfare. Yet an eye that has not been conditioned to normalise the…

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Filed Under: feminism Tagged With: Africa, African women, African Women's Decade, Awra Amba, Ethiopia, gender, Life, Spirituality, Young Women, Zumra Nuru

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Feminism. Africa. Popular Culture. Social Criticism.

Hi! I'm Minna Salami, I'm a Nigerian-Finnish and Swedish writer and social critic, and the founder of the multiple award-winning blog, MsAfropolitan, which connects feminism with critical reflections on contemporary culture from an Africa-centred perspective. As a lecturer and keynote speaker, I have spoken at over 300 universities, cultural events and conferences, on five continents. I am the author of "Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone - a collection of thought provoking essays that explore questions central to how we see ourselves, our history, and our world." (Harper Collins US) Read full bio

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An African Feminist mixtape

Essay: Oyalogy – A poetic approach to African feminism through Yoruba mythology

ESSAY: A brief history of African feminism

ESSAY: A brief history of African feminism

VIDEO: TEDxTalk – To change the world, change your illusions

VIDEO: TEDxTalk – To change the world, change your illusions

VIDEO: ARISE TV TALKING AFRICA INTERVIEW

VIDEO: ARISE TV TALKING AFRICA INTERVIEW

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more articles

On Abortion

August 23, 2022 By MsAfropolitan 1 Comment

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Enlivenment, Sensuous Knowledge and Postactivism at the World Ethic Forum

August 10, 2022 By MsAfropolitan Leave a Comment

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