July 22nd started out as a happy, sunny morning in Nairobi. The “All Sold Out” concert was all set to rock the house in a few hours. Koffi Olomide, his dynamite band and a stunning entourage of dancers had just touched down in Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Excited fans, cell phone cameras in hand,…
For me to talk about what feminism means to me, I would have to talk about my life story. Don’t worry, it will not be a step by step, real time recount of my entire life but the moments in my life that ultimately shaped my identity as a feminist. Now you have to know…
I was elated when the sexual harassment bill passed the second reading at the Nigerian Senate. Finally we could seat at our desks and not worry about being preyed on. But wait a moment how are we sure young women will speak up? In a highly dangerously patriarchal society as ours, where people are quick…
One afternoon in 2007 as we were handing out food donations to needy households, a poor single mother brought her daughter to us for counseling. Her daughter had bled through the rag she had improvised for sanitary pad, the blood permeated to her dress showing a reddish patch, when boys saw this they laughed and…
Many efforts towards HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment services overlook the challenging environment in which women and girls are limited to enjoy their right to access information and services, which is rooted in women’s low status within African societies. It is now more than three decades since the first three cases of AIDS were reported…
Have you heard of Jose Garcia? Garcia, a 15 year old high school student in Miami, shot to Instagram fame in early 2015 when his #realmensupportwomen hit the web, calling for men and boys to carry tampons and sanitary pads to help out the ladies in their lives — and told women they can ask…
The average African woman may see nothing wrong in serving her boss coffee for the following reasons: It is her job. She feels her job might be threatened if she refuses to. She feels it is part of a woman’s skills. Asking a woman who was not employed to make coffee, to perform a task that…
