#msafropolitan

[myblackgirlmagicsyllabus]

I saw this film recommended by MsAfropolitan as a film that fitted her RealHuman Test (RHT)-1. In films about humanitarian issues, the protagonist is not simply a prop to raise awareness on an issue. She also has other thoughts, emotions and aspirations than the issue at hand. 2. The protagonist is able to solve dilemmas in the story without intervention (advice, aid, assistance) from a white person. 3. Even when the liberation of the protagonist is of focus, it is not made to seem like a liberated African woman is as rare as life on another planet. DIFRET the film was based on the inspirational true story of a young Ethiopian girl and a tenacious lawyer embroiled in a life-or-death clash between cultural traditions and their country’s advancement of equal rights. When 14-year-old Hirut is abducted in her rural village’s tradition of kidnapping women for marriage, she fights back, accidentally killing her captor and intended husband. Local law demands a death sentence for Hirut, but Meaza, a tough and passionate lawyer from a women’s legal aide practice, steps in to fight for her. With both Hirut’s life and the future of the practice at stake the two women must make their case for self-defense against one of Ethiopia’s oldest and most deeply-rooted traditions.

[fuckyeahbrainfood-blog]

In fact, the very meaning of the term ’empowerment’ is rooted in the mind. The prefix ‘em’ stems from Latin, meaning to ‘put into’.  The suffix ‘ment’, in Latin, signifies something having to do with the mind. Thus, empowerment connotes to put power into the mind.

Ms Afropolitan

[curating-africa]

May 2015 be a year of deep, philosophical introspection about future Africa. May the result be clarity in how we have come to where, who and what we are. And most importantly, how we will get to where, who and what we want to be

Africa Reflecting: A year of philosophical introspection ahead for Africa

[mnyamane]

Interview in May 2014 with radio host Tokini Fubara of The F Word UMFM-CJUM 101.5FM, Winnipeg, Canada. Discussion covers the politics of African Feminism, Fela's song "Lady", bell hooks calling Beyoncé a terrorist, fashion, pan-Africanism and more.

[itsawomansworld2-blog]

The situation seems in fact graver than ever. Despite Obama’s claims that Al-Qaeda is near defeated, the 19 US embassy closures this week including four in Africa (Madagascar, Rwanda, Burundi and Mauritius) suggest otherwise. The circumstances are not aided by the increasing number of western-based jihadists, such as Denis Mamadu Cuspert, a Ghanaian-German former gangsta rapper known as Deso Dogg who is now a Jihadi rapper, Abou Maleeq, and is fighting in Syria and whose disquieting Youtube videos encourage blowing people up with bombs and grenades. Of course, all Africans are impacted by the global war and its steady spread to African soil. Like Professor Wole Soyinka says about war and fundamentalism in the remarkable book Of Africa – ”As if the African continent did not have enough on her plate, enter a shadowy but lethal force determined to reenslave a continent” – but nevertheless African women are especially affected for several reasons of which I’ll name a few.

- Minna Salami (MsAfropolitan) in The global war and its impact on African women

[itsawomansworld2-blog]

Patriarchy

Race

Tradition

Underdevelopment

Sexuality

Global feminism

Love

[itsawomansworld2-blog]

To get to the bottom of it, we must ask, what makes the clitoris in itself so dangerous that millions of women are prevented from owning one? I’ll tell you what. The clitoris is the only human body part that exists purely for the sake of pleasure. Unlike the penis, which is responsible for urination and whose reproductive function is tied to sexual pleasure, a woman’s clitoris has nothing to do with babies or pee. In other words, the scientific reason for the clitoris is simply to enable a woman’s orgasm. Of course this is a problem. Why is this a problem? Well, because it means that female anatomy is at direct odds with the idea that women’s primary sexual role is reproduction. A woman’s biology presents a threat to the myth that a woman’s ultimate role is mothering, a myth which people are so fond of that to challenge it can be to risk your life.

Minna Salami (MsAfropolitan) in What makes a clitoris dangerous?

[itsawomansworld2-blog]

While the term ‘feminism’ is an import to Africa (as all English words are), the concept of opposing patriarchy, the raison d’être of feminism if you like, is not foreign. Africa has some of the oldest civilizations in the world so while they didn’t always call it feminism (the noun) as far back as we can trace we know that there were women who were feminist (the adjective) and who found ways of opposing patriarchy. Feminism is an important part of African women’s “herstory”.

- Minna Salami (MsAfropolitan) in A brief history of African feminism