In the lead up to the first Black Feminisms Forum, This is Africa will be publishing a series of interviews, features and articles about Black Feminisms. First up, Maggie Mapondera sits down with renowned activist, scholar and thinker Gay J McDougall, a member of the BFF’s Working Group, to talk about the struggles faced by women of African descent the world over.
Our freedom dreams are a roaring Black; swellings of coming insurrection manifested. This roar is felt in the tip of a brush about to paint the sounds of our resistance; in the cadence of saxophones, playing the drawings that our grandmothers sketched, of struggles unrelenting; in the poems inscribed by the movement of our bodies when that bass drops.
That is the basis for the historic gathering of over one hundred Black feminists from around the world happening in Bahia, Brazil in September 2016. I see you.
Whether they’re demanding that #FeesMustFall in South Africa, contesting white settler colonialism in Canada, or defending the right of Afrofeminists in France to self-organize and decolonize, Black Feminists around the world are fighting interconnected (yet unique) struggles.
A year ago today, 1,800 feminists and women’s rights advocates from all corners of our movements gathered on the shores of Bahia for the 13th AWID International Forum.
The Black Feminisms Forum (BFF) takes place 5 - 6 September 2016, ahead of the AWID Forum in Bahia, Brazil.
The BFF will connect Black and Afrodescendant feminists from many regions of the world to celebrate the contribution of Black feminisms to knowledge, practice and struggles for self-determination and justice, while building solidarity and collective power.
The Black Feminisms Forum (BFF) is scheduled to take place in early September this year in Salvador, Brazil, ahead of the 2016 Association for Women’s Rights in Development Forum. It will bring together Black feminists from different communities and contexts across the globe to celebrate the contribution of Black feminisms to knowledge, practice and struggles for self- determination and justice, while building solidarity across the boundaries of nation states.
In this first conversation – AWID's Arts & Culture Coordinator Amina Doherty sits down with donors, artists, and activists from diverse social movements, contexts and backgrounds to discuss their work, alternative strategies for organising and the value of supporting (and funding!) art.
When organizations and movements are asked what they need to grow stronger, many are clear about their answer - better relationships and alliances across their sector and across movements.
Our hearts get broken. In romantic relationships, in our families, in our organizations and movements, the hurt is real. Raising resources is not easy. Building alliances and deepening relationships takes time. The lessons come most often through adversity.