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MsAfropolitan

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

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Regarding pornography

April 24, 2015 By MsAfropolitan 7 Comments

It’s time for women to radically change our views about pornography. By radically change our views, I mean views both as in watch more porn and views as in attitudes. Statistics suggest that half of all women with access watch porn, but there’s still a veil of shame to it. Why? After all, most people, male or female,…

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Filed Under: feminism, Social Criticism Tagged With: Andrea Dworking, feminism, gallery, Gloria Steinem, Linda Lovelace, sexuality, women

Listed in some exciting women’s month features

March 10, 2015 By MsAfropolitan Leave a Comment

I was incredibly honoured and quite stunned, frankly, to be one of twelve esteemed women (including Michelle Obama, and other heavy weighers!) to feature in ELLE Magazine Malaysia feature “Celebrating International Women’s Day: 12 women changing the world”. https://www.elle.my/life-and-love/Career-and-Money/gallery/Women-who-make-it-happen#1 It was also a delight and honour to be among YNaija’s Nigeria’s 100 most influential women list. https://lindaikeji.blogspot.de/2015/03/meet-nigerias-100-most-influential.html Check…

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Filed Under: Pop Culture Tagged With: ELLE Magazine, feminism, International Women's Month, women, YNaija

7 ways that women are oppressed without knowing it

March 8, 2015 By MsAfropolitan 14 Comments

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…

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Filed Under: feminism, seven, Social Criticism Tagged With: #IWD, conscientious feminism, feminism, gallery, international women's day, International Women's Month, oppression, women

7 great novels by African women writers

March 20, 2014 By MsAfropolitan 22 Comments

“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…

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Filed Under: feminism, Pop Culture, seven Tagged With: African feminism, African Feminist fiction, Afropolitan, Americanah, fiction, Ghana Must Go, literature, Memoey of Love, ReadWomen2014, Shadow of Imana, Sula, We Need New Names, women

The objectification of men

November 14, 2013 By MsAfropolitan 3 Comments

I am intrigued, despite my previous post about how African women’s art is feminist, by how seldom women artists (from Africa but also elsewhere) objectify the male body. We lose out from this disengagement with the male as object. Whether it is fine or digital art, photography or sculpture, we are culturally deprived of an artistic female…

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Filed Under: feminism, Pop Culture, Social Criticism Tagged With: Africa, art, gallery, gender, masculinity, sex, women

Meditations with Lorna Simpson

June 27, 2013 By MsAfropolitan 2 Comments

Why do I like pictures that seem ghostly? I’m not religious and I am no more spiritual than any one else. I’m not an atheist either but I cherish rational argument. I spend quite a lot of my time upside down, in Adho Mukha Svanasana and occasionally Urdhva Dhanurasana and so on, and yet despite my fondness for…

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Filed Under: Decolonisation, feminism, Pop Culture, Social Criticism Tagged With: art, feminism, Spirituality, women

What does women’s day mean to African bloggers?

March 8, 2013 By MsAfropolitan 13 Comments

When I was seventeen, I got a job as a telephone salesperson of ink cartridges. The worst thing about the job was that I was so good at it. I was promoted and was eventually earning a serious lot of money. I don’t know what made me a successful ink cartridge seller but I use…

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Filed Under: Africa, feminism, Pop Culture Tagged With: #IWD, Africa, african diaspora, African feminism, African women, feminism, gender, women, women's issues, Young Women

Dressing up as Frida Kahlo

March 6, 2013 By MsAfropolitan 21 Comments

A few weeks ago, ahead of FRIDA – Female Revolution in Dance & Art, I got “unibrowed”, moustached, red lippied and dressed up as the legend Frida Kahlo for the International Women’s Month event. Or rather, as Frida Kahlo in a selection of her self-portraits. The photos, which are part of the ongoing exhibition, were…

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Filed Under: events, feminism, Pop Culture Tagged With: Afropolitan, fashion, feminism, Frida Kahlo, photography, style icons, women

Can women have it all? On marriage, motherhood and work

January 31, 2013 By MsAfropolitan 11 Comments

  One of the most popular articles in 2012 was “Why women still can’t have it all“, by Anne-Marie Slaughter in The Atlantic. It received the most facebook likes any Atlantic article has ever received and everyone from Michelle Obama to Gloria Steinem weighed in on the matter. Whether or not women can have it…

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Filed Under: feminism, Social Criticism Tagged With: African feminism, gender, happiness, identity, Life, women, women's issues

The Independent: Twitter, power lists and the question of gender

May 29, 2012 By MsAfropolitan Leave a Comment

Power list after power list fail to represent women as influential in social media and in society at large. Why is it that women are not considered influential on social media and particularly on Twitter? To understand why, we we must answer a few basic questions: What does influence mean? How is it measured? And…

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Filed Under: feminism, Pop Culture Tagged With: Social Media, The Independent, women

My Afropolitan fashion shoot with Essentials Magazine

January 13, 2012 By MsAfropolitan 11 Comments

I was recently featured in Essentials magazine in an article about women whose style reflects who they are. Here are some photos from the shoot. How would you describe your style? Who are your favourite African designers? Anything else fashion related come to mind?

Filed Under: Pop Culture Tagged With: Afrocentric, Afropolitan, fashion, style icons, women

MsAfropolitan Boutique Interview Series – Douriean Fletcher, founder of eKlektik eKhos

July 3, 2011 By MsAfropolitan Leave a Comment

The mission of the MsAfropolitan Boutique is to showcase and offer a handpicked range of products made by African Diaspora women on a rotating basis. Visit us here. As part of my journey to achieving this goal, I’ve met many inspiring women whose stories I want to share with you in an interview series features which…

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Filed Under: Interviews, MsAfropolitan Boutique Interview Series Tagged With: african diaspora, African women, African Women's Decade, Afrocentric, Afropolitan, entrepreneurs, fashion, MsAfropolitan Boutique, style icons, women

The melodious song of longing, Baaba Maal – In Praise of the female voice

March 20, 2011 By MsAfropolitan 4 Comments

Apart from lyrical gratification, what do you get when you fill the Royal Festival Hall in London Southbank with artists like Senegalese superstar and advocate of women’s rights Baaba Maal, Speech Debelle, VV Brown, Eska, Krystle Warren and Annie Flore? You get a powerful evening of inspirational female voices from across three continents aptly title…

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Filed Under: feminism, Pop Culture Tagged With: african diaspora, celebrities, happiness, Life, Spirituality, women

Mixed race femme fatale, or blonde bombshell?

January 25, 2011 By MsAfropolitan 8 Comments

Returning to the race topic, not because I love talking about it but because it makes me feel somewhat uncomfortable and pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones is good. I also do think we have become too p.c. in how we tackle racial tensions. I agree we should be speaking of them delicately, but…

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Filed Under: Decolonisation, feminism, Pop Culture, Social Criticism Tagged With: African women, beauty ideals, decolonisation, gender, identity, mixed race, sex, stereotypes, women

American Apparel joins the black hair debate

June 14, 2010 By MsAfropolitan 17 Comments

So in short – Zeitgeist brand American Apparel prefers Solange to Beyonce. Following the recent revelation that when it comes to staff the company is more interested in the natural hair look than what they wrongly referred to as the trashy look, there’s been a lot of hoo ha about American Apparel having policies on…

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Filed Under: Decolonisation, Pop Culture, uncategorized Tagged With: black hair, Decolonisation, sex, women

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

A Historical Overview of African Feminist Strands

August 24, 2022 By MsAfropolitan 3 Comments

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On Abortion

August 23, 2022 By MsAfropolitan 1 Comment

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