Happy New Year! I’m especially excited about two things in 2020. Firstly, the 10th anniversary of my blog on 16 March. Then three days later, on 19 March, the UK book launch for Sensuous Knowledge, my debut collection of interwoven essays that centre womanhood, African Studies, black feminism, philosophy, personal narrative, myth, art and culture…
The only feminism that can challenge xenophobic and misogynist populism is inclusive feminism
On 7 June, the European Women’s Lobby launched its campaign for the 2019 European Parliament elections for equal representation of women. Over 100 leading women’s rights activists from the EWL membership across Europe gathered at the EU Parliament in Brussels under the theme of “Women ReShaping Power”. I had the honour of delivering a keynote…
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…
What is the point of dialogue? (When everyone got so much things to say)
Contemporary exchanges, on- and offline, often claim to be encouraging dialogue. Especially analyses of race, gender, sex, pop culture, identity, nationality, religion and so on. Yet, while many indeed claim to encourage dialogue in theory, in practice few have understood the point of it at all. Dialogue has become a platitude. Whether it’s feminism, Afropolitanism, racism, religion, migration,…
What is conscientious feminism?
In July 1992, an international conference on Women in Africa and in the African Diaspora (WAAD) was held in Nigeria. WAAD was a rare incident: an interdisciplinary and international conference about African women in Africa. The conference, which took place in the Eastern town of Nsukka during an unusually dry week in July (precipitation for this month…