AfricanFeminism (AF) brings you the first of a series of HERstories we will be capturing over the next coming weeks. The aim of this specific HERstories series is to document through interviews, African women’s experiences of practicing authentic choice and the related societal/family backlash they have faced for that choice as well as how they have dealt…
At five years old, I learnt that sitting on an ‘uncle’s’ laps was not a sign of regard and affection, it was for his gratification.
Childlike innocence coupled with naivety and absolute trust was backed by a far away sense of dread and shame, whose root I could never quite point to.
I recently showed a video to some people I worked for. It was to commemorate International Women’s day. Since we were celebrating the occasion with the theme #BeBoldForChange, I thought nothing could provoke a more lively discussion for the mixed gender audience like the movie by Eleonore Pourriate, “Oppressed Majority”. After, an older man came…
On February 18th I lost my grand aunt-my grandmother really (English limitations) because in my culture a sister of my grandmother is my grandmother. Both have almost equal roles and space in your life. This incredible woman, May Kyomugasho Katebaka left us at the age of 97. We last met in 2014 when I visited…
Unlike my mother and grandmother, my sister and I were not born nor raised in a harem. Fatima Mernissi, a notable Moroccan feminist whom I greatly admire, shared in her memoir, that she was among the first group of girls with access to school in 1940s Morocco.I was born in 1996, when Morocco had already initiated some improvements concerning…
For over three weeks now, I have been racking my brain, unsure of what to write about, desperately hoping for a clear sign from the heavens on which direction this article should take. That sign did not come. There is so much to write about. I want to talk about the formidable Prof. Sylvia Tamale…
It started off slowly. In 2011, the United Nations endorsed that October 11 would be marked the International Day of the Girl Child. This October I saw, for the first time, my timeline fill with ordinary people writing something thoughtful about the day and what it means to them and the girls in their communities.…
