Reflection of the Week: Making a Feminist Internet in Africa

Summary of the Editorial

In the editorial Making a Feminist Internet In Africa: Why the Internet Needs African Feminists and Feminisms by Sheena Magenya, Sheena presents a current and very real problem of today:

With many gatherings and meetings being cancelled and postponed, the quick and easy solution that is being shared around is “well then, let’s just meet online”, and therein lies the problem: presenting the internet as a solution to a social problem, as some kind of communication silver bullet that imagines an equality of access, use and representation on the internet which is false. [1]

The sad reality is that much of this 'online space' that we have been thrust in, especially due to the recent pandemic, does not have immediate offline processes and recourse for many terrible behaviours. The main and topical example includes that of online gender-based violence. In many first world countries there are repercussions for such behaviours in the online environment, but the reality is that many African countries are missing such online legislations, guidelines and rules. The online environment should be a safe space in which any person from any background, culture, colour, sexuality, gender, etc. etc. etc. should be able to express themselves freely and to have loud, powerful narratives. Instead, the absolute opposite has seemed to have occurred - the online environment can almost be viewed as a safer space for perpetrators, allowing them to attack women, LGBTIQA people, etc.

This is not okay. This needs to change.

Africa’s particular voice and history in this dynamic needs to be a loud and powerful narrative that shifts the dominant white tide towards a different and more inclusive internet. [1]

There have been so many terribly sad stories of rampant disregard for the lives and environment of Africa and Africans. We, as the users of, potential contributors to, and/or influencers of the internet (and online environment that is in its relative infancy in Africa), it is our responsibility to ensure that the narrative is one of inclusivity, enrichment, equality, truth and kindness.

Africa is usually thought of a a beneficiary of technology, and never an innovator of it. Further, as Sheena mentions, the innovations in Africa are often thought of as only being in response to exiting problems on the continent - such as famine, drought, disease and death:

Technology in Africa is something that we use to change our lives, we do not innovate for fun, for pleasure and for play. This is a generalisation of course, but also, this is the dominant narrative you will find online. This is the danger of a single story that Chimamanda speaks of, where multiple truths are treated like water and forced to take the shape of the vessel they are poured into.[1]

The internet is as unequal as the world we live in. Only with the kindness and care that is required to understand and overcome the many real world problems, will we be able to change this. Sheena says it best:

"But for this to happen we need more African feminists taking up space, telling stories, giving alternative views, creating bodypositive content, showing off our bodies and talents and skills. African feminists make more room for African women online. " [1]

At a time when the most vulnerable people are being asked to stay away from others, we are turning to an internet that is bigoted, racist, homophobic and classist for company and connections with a wider world.

Besides all the above pressing issues, in this time of the pandemic, people are being expected to be able to simply switch to online working - on connections and technology that they don't have. Without a feminist internet that ensures that all people can access and influence content and governance of this internet, we will be replicating the often violent and oppressive way of life that might eventually be inescapable [1].

A feminist internet is more than just a gathering of like minds, it is also a call to action. It is a demand for diversity, and safety and fun. It is a big ask. But one gathering at a time, like the Making a Feminist Internet in Africa meeting, it is possible to begin to push for the same kinds of social, cultural, economic and political changes online that we demand offline/onground. In this global moment of crisis and isolation, the need for a feminist internet, one that includes and centres the voices of African feminists, is no longer necessary, it is crucial. [1]

This editorial by Sheena is an example of the crucial revolution that is (and needs to continue) happening around us in order to create this feminist internet. Sheena is a feminist with twelve years of working experience in Namibia, South Africa and Kenya with a background in media and communications. She is one of the many many many amazing influential, powerful African women that are making their voices heard in order to make real, positive change.

Some More Amazing African Feminists

These names, stories and pictures are taken from the following articles:

• 18 phenomenal african feminists to know and celebrate
  by Moiyattu Banya (April 01, 2015).
• OUR LIST OF TOP INFLUENTIAL AFRICAN WOMEN IN 2018
  by ALU Education (March 12, 2019).
• 10 Powerful African Feminists Who Fight For Women Rights
  by Anna Regush (December 11, 2017).4

Theo Sowa – CEO of African Women’s Development Fund

Theo Sowa is Chief Executive Officer of the African Women’s Development Fund. She has previously worked as an independent advisor for a wide range of international and social development issues. Her work has covered advocacy, service delivery, evaluation, facilitation, policy, and organizational development with a range of international and intergovernmental organizations and grant-making foundations.
Follow her work at: http://www.awdf.org/our-work/staff/. Follow her on Twitter: @TheoSowa

Abena Busia – Writer, Poet & Professor

Professor Abena Busia is the current Chair of the Department of Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She is also co-director and co-editor of the groundbreaking Women Writing Africa Project, a multi-volume anthology published by the Feminist Press at the City University of New York. As Professor Busia points out, "History is located in multiple places,” and the anthology is designed to recognize the complex cultural legacy and “cultural production” of African women. Busia has helped edit two volumes of the anthology—Women Writing Africa: West Africa and the Sahel (2005) and Women Writing Africa: Northern Africa (2009).

Osai Ojigho – Lawyer and Activist

Osai Ojigbo is a lawyer, gender justice advocate, and human rights activist. She holds a law degree from the University of Lagos in Nigeria and a Master’s of Law degree from the University of Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom. She served as the Deputy Executive Director at Alliances for Africa (AfA), where she coordinated the Gender Justice in Africa Initiative. Osai has designed and implemented programs aimed at building the capacity of community-based women leaders on issues related to human rights.
Follow her on Twitter: @livingtruely

Bogolo Joy Kewenedo

Bogolo Joy Kewenedo is currently the Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry for Botswana. Her zest in translating policy into action and goal of improving the living conditions of her people made the new President of Botswana, Mokgweetsi Masisi, to appoint her to his cabinet. At the age of 31, she is celebrated as Africa’s youngest minister. Last year, she was appointed by the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres to serve as a member of the UN High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation.

Leymah Gbowee – Activist

Leymah Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist, social worker and women's rights advocate. She is also a 2011 Nobel Peace Laureate. She is the founder and president of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, based in Monrovia. Leymah is best known for leading a nonviolent movement that brought together Christian and Muslim women to play a pivotal role in ending Liberia's devastating, 14-year civil war in 2003.
Follow her on Twitter: @LeymahRGbowee

Minna Salammi – Activist, Blogger & Speaker

Minna is a Nigerian-Finnish writer, blogger and speaker and the founder of MsAfropolitan, a multiple award-winning pan-African feminist blog. She is also a member of the Duke University Corporate Education Global Learning Resource Network, the Guardian Africa Network, a board member of UK Charity For Books’ Sake, and a Huffington Post contributor.
Follow her work on her blog: www.msafropolitan.com Follow her on Twitter: @MsAfropolitan

Amina Doherty – Artivist

Amina Doherty is a Nigerian feminist ARTivist whose work focuses on feminist philanthropy and creative arts advocacy. She has facilitated learning initiatives on women’s rights, youth development, philanthropy, and economic justice. Amina actively supports several community-led media platforms and brings to her activism a passion for music, art, travel, photography, fashion and poetry.

Amina Doherty started to call herself feminist during undergraduate years when she found herself lost in the writings of Chandra Mohanty, Gloria Anzaldúa, June Jordan. Amina was greatly inspired when she made connections from their words with the life stories of her mother and her grandmother. Over the years her interest in feminism has increased and revealed itself through different forms: art exhibitions, community programmes, cultural events and grant-making initiatives. Now she is a founding member and coordinator of FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund, an organization that aims to strengthen the capacity of young feminist organizations around the world through small grants. For her feminism is ‘earth-based, heart-filled and spirit-centered.’ African feminism shows the realities of women in different cultures of African countries. These women are quite brave to stand up for political ethics and human rights, advocate for the revision of biased colonial-era laws, intervene during armed conflict to protect the rights of civilians, challenge religious fundamentalisms. It is resulted in some solid and important changes.
Follow her on Twitter: @Sheroxlox

Bethlehem Alemu

Bethlehem Alemu is a fierce entrepreneur from Ethiopia who started her footwear company, SoleRebels in 2005 to provide eco-friendly, fair trade jobs to her community. Her firm converts tires into smart shoes. SoleRebels has been expanding rapidly since its founding and currently, it has 18 stores around the world, including the USA Japan, Austria, Spain, and Switzerland, among others. Bethlehem was the first female African entrepreneur to address the Clinton Global Initiative and was also named as one of the top 12 women entrepreneurs in the last century by CNN.

Nana Sekyiamah – Writer, Blogger & Activist

Nana Sekyiamah calls herself a “Fab African Feminist.” She has served in many leadership roles on the African continent for years as the Communications Specialist for the African Women’s Development Fund, a leading pan-African grant funding organization in Ghana. She focuses on writing stories that explore issues around the diverse sexualities of African women. She is the curator of Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women, a highly acclaimed and widely read blog on African women and sexuality.
Follow her work on www.adventuresfrom.com
Follow her on Twitter: @Nas009

Wanjira Mathai

Wanjira Mathai is the daughter of late Wangari Mathai, the famous Nobel Prize winner and environmentalist who spent her life campaigning for sustainable development, democracy, and peace. In the same vein, her daughter is well known for continuing her mother’s legacy and thus, as a board member of the Green Belt Movement, she recently campaigned to plant over 30 million trees. She is also a senior adviser at the World Resources Institute and for the Partnerships for Women’s Entrepreneurs in Renewables (wPOWER).

Amina Mama – Professor and Researcher

Professor Amina Mama is Nigerian-British feminist writer and intellectual who has worked for over two decades in research, teaching, organizational change, and editing in Nigeria, Britain, the Netherlands, South Africa, and the U.S.A. She spent a decade at the University of Cape Town’s African Gender Institute where she led the collaborative development of feminist studies and research for African contexts. Amina currently works as a professor of Women and Gender Studies at the University of California, Davis.

Awino Okech

Amino was born and raised in Kenya. Her journey with feminism started after high school through an apprenticeship with a local organization Kenya Female Advisory Organisation (KEFEADO). Since then she took a keen interest in women’s rights. During her studies, Amino joined one of the few feminist theatre collectives. Now Amino Okech creates projects based on the connection between gender, sexuality and nation/state in conflict and post-conflict societies. Her journey is successfully continuing.

Yewande Omotoso – Writer

Yewande Omotoso was born in Barbados and grew up in Nigeria with her Barbadian mother, Nigerian father, and two older brothers. The family moved to South Africa in 1992. Yewande trained as an architect at the University of Cape Town, to which she returned after working as an architect for several years, to complete a master’s degree in Creative Writing. The product of her degree is her debut novel Bomboy, which was published in 2011.
Follow her on Twitter: @Yomotoso

Purity Kagwiria

Purity Kagwiria serves as the Executive Director of the Akili Dada institute, an organization that provides education and leadership opportunity to girls and women in Kenya. A journalist by profession, Purity is an active member of the feminist/women's rights movement and she is committed to analyzing the private and personal spaces that women inhabit and developing strategies that lead to the emancipation of women. Purity holds a degree in Gender and Development from the University of Nairobi and a Diploma in Journalism from Kenya Institute of Mass Communication.
Follow her on Twitter: @Pruncie
Follow the Akili Dada Institute: @akilidada

Yaba Badoe – Activist and Filmmaker

Yaba Badoe is a Ghanaian-British documentary filmmaker, producer, and writer. A graduate of King’s College in Cambridge, she worked as a civil servant in Ghana before becoming a General Trainee with the BBC. She has taught in Spain and Jamaica, and has worked as a producer and director making documentaries for the main terrestrial channels in Britain and the University of Ghana in Accra. Her documentaries include The Witches of Gambaga (2011) and The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo (2014).

Aisha Fofana Ibrahim

Aisha Fofana Ibrahim is the Director of the Gender Research and Documentation Centre at the University of Sierra Leone’s Fourah Bay College. In 2009-2010, she was the Helleiner Visiting Research Fellow at The North-South Institute, an IDRC-funded fellowship. While at The North-South Institute, Ibrahim’s work focused on affirmative action as a means to overcome barriers that limit women’s entry into politics. Aisha also serves as President of the 50/50 Group of Sierra Leone, which focuses on advocacy, policy, and capacity building for women’s leadership.
Follow her organization:www.fiftyfiftysierraleone.org.

Melissa Kiguwa

Melissa Kiguwa is an artist, a daughter, and a radical feminist. Her artistry ranges from designing one of a kind custom-made pieces of jewelry to poetry to improvisational blues performance. Her work is rooted in acknowledging and giving praise to diverse global Afro experiences. Raised by a Haitian father and a Ugandan mother, Melissa considers herself an “Afro-nomad.” Her latest poetry book is titled the Reveries of Longing.

Ilhan Omar

Ilhan Omar is a 36-year old Somalian who lived at a refugee camp in Kenya for around 4 years. She is the first naturalized African and Somali-American elected to the United States Congress. Before her political position, she has been a fierce campaigner for affordable housing, healthcare, and a living wage. In 2017, she was one of the 46 women to feature in Time’s Magazine’s report, “Firsts: Women who are changing the world.”

Ama Ata Aidoo

Professor Ama Ata Aidoo, née Christina Ama Aidoo, is a Ghanaian author, poet, playwright, and academic. She also served as a Minister of Education in Ghana under the Jerry Rawlings administration. She currently lives in Ghana. In 2000, she established the Mbaasem Foundation to promote and support the work of African women writers.
Follow her on Twitter: @AmaAtaAidoo

Zawadi Ny’ongo

Zawadi’s family is quite famous: her father Anyang’ Nyongo’ is a politician and her sister Lupita is a Hollywood actress. Zawadi seems not to be as popular as another daughter but her role in the African feminist movement is of a great value. For over 15 years she has been an advocate for women’s rights and for about nine years – a leader in the field of sexual and reproductive rights. Zawadi’s most successful project is the is the #1MilliForJadudi campaign which raised over $71,000 in a couple of days, to help a 24 -years-old brain cancer patient Emmanuel Otieno to get surgery in India. “I am a feminist because I care”, she says. She really cares not only about women but those who really need support.

Maame Afon Yelbert-Obeng

Born and raised in Ghana, Maame is a committed advocate and a passionate leader, who is also a dynamic singer and recording artist. She recently released her second album, titled Ekome. She has worked as a Program Officer for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) at the Global Fund for Women, and is Board Member and co-chair of the Bay Area Regional Advisory Committee for the African Women’s Development Fund in the U.S.A. (AWDF-USA). Maame is also a board member and Program Director for Moremi Initiative for Women's Leadership in Africa, and is also board member of We Care Solar, an award winning organization using organization using solar technology to facilitate timely and appropriate emergency care for maternal and infant health.
Follow her music: www.maameafon.com.
Follow her organizations' work: http://moremiinitiative.org/wp/ and http://wecaresolar.org/

Rainatou Sow

Rainatou Sow is the founder and executive director of Make Every Woman Count, an organization that monitors women’s rights throughout the African contintent. The Guinean activist was named " Inspirational Woman of 2012" by the United Kingdom based group, Women 4 Africa. She has also been featured on CNN, as well as in Forbes Africa.
Follow her organization: www.makeeverywomancount.org

Shamillah Wilson

Shamillah is a Life Coach and Founder of Project Ignition established to provide young people with a variety of opportunities to reach their greatest potential and grow into activists. Her participation in the feminist movement is followed by the same aim – she wants to let more women take part in different spheres of life, especially, in entrepreneurship. Working as a consultant on females’ rights, HIV/AIDS and sexual rights helps her to achieve this goal. Shamillah believes that feminism is not about the separation of personal and professional but it is about the way you live your life.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Nigeria in 1977. She is the author of three critically acclaimed novels: Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), and Americanah (2013). She also released a short story collection, The Thing around Your Neck in 2009. Chimamanda self-identifies as a feminist and has written and given speeches on various current topics relating to women’s issues in Nigeria and across the Diaspora, including her celebrated TED talks. Follow her work: www.chimamanda.com

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian Feminist, Novelist, and Author who is known as a fierce campaigner for equal gender rights and women empowerment. Adichie has been involved in several political movements and campaigns against sexual violence including the #metoo movement. In 2012, Adichie gave a powerful talk at TEDxEuston in London titled “we should all be feminists” which had over 5 million views. In the video, she shared her experiences on being an African feminist and her views on sexuality and gender construction.

Hilda Twongyeirwe

Hilda Twongyeirwe is a Ugandan writer and editor. She published the children’s book, Fina the Dancer, in 2007. She has also written a number of short stories, and her poetry has appeared in a number of journals, magazines, and anthologies. She is currently the coordinator of FEMRITE, an organization focused on developing and publishing women writers in Uganda and the East African region. Through FEMRITE, she has edited a number of publications, including I Dare to Say: African Women Share Their Stories of Hope and Survival in 2012.
Follow her work at FEMRITE: www.femriteug.org

Moiyattu Banya

Moiyattu Banya is a Native to Sierra Leone, a Digital Mover and Shaker, Feminist and a Writer. She currently teaches women studies courses at Temple University in the United States and also does international consulting with Social Enterprises in West Africa. She is Founder of Women Change Africa. Moiyattu is part of the African Women’s Development Fund’s (AWDF) Community of African Women Writers.
Follow her on Twitter: @WcaWorld.

Moiyattu is also the author of 18 phenomenal african feminists to know and celebrate which is the article in which many of the above women were mentioned.