African Women

dynamicafrica: Madam Efunroye Tinubu was among the most...

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 08:55:53 -0600

Madam Efunroye Tinubu was among the most prominent and powerful Yoruba women in pre-colonial Nigeria (early to mid 19th century). Other renowned Yoruba women from that period were Iyalode Efunsetan Aniwura and Madam Omosa, both of whom deserve posts of their own.

Madam Tinubu was an Egba woman born to a trading family in Abeokuta (also known as Egbaland). After completing an apprenticeship, she headed to Badagry, Lagos where she started trading in tobacco and salt. She later expanded her trade to include slaves who she sold to European slave traders. As a shrewd businesswoman, Madam Tinubu became the most important middleman in trade between Europeans and the Yorubaland interior by creating large trading networks. Madam Tinubu’s wealth and connections led her to meddle in politics.

With her trade and wealth, she was able to lend support to military efforts, which in turn made her more powerful. Although she was not from Lagos, she began taking interest in Lagos politics. In 1846, King Akintoye of Lagos faced exile and sought refuge in Badagry with Madam Tinubu. Being the badass that she was, Madam Tinubu ignited and supported a movement to return King Akintoye to regain the throne he had lost, she was successful.

In 1851, after regaining his throne King Akintoye invited Madam Tinubu to Lagos where she further expanded her business and political activities. Due to her influence in Akintoye’s court, rumours abounded that Madam Tinubu was the real power behind the throne. Madam Tinubu’s influence was such that when Prince Dosunmu succeeded King Akintoye, she continued to hold a space in Lagos politics.

Today Madam Tinubu is called a patriot by some, I am not too comfortable with that term because technically there was no ‘Nigeria’ when she was alive. However, Madam Tinubu did take a stance against the British in their efforts to further flex their colonial muscles into Yorubaland. In 1855, she spearheaded a campaign against Brazilian and Sierra Leonean immigrants in Lagos who she felt were actively trying to oppose the King and did not respect local customs. Apparently, her actions against these immigrants worried the British (who had been keeping an eye on her since she helped King Akintoye regain this throne). By supporting the local king and insisting that foreign residents respect local customs, Madam Tinubu’s activities were getting in the way of British colonial and mission policies. In 1856, colonial authorities in Lagos deported her from Lagos to her home town, Abeokuta in 1856.

I believe it was in Abeokuta that Madam Tinubu developed and adopted a staunchly anti-British stance. She eventually stopped selling slaves to the Europeans, it seems, after she learnt of the ‘evils of transatlantic slavery’, that is, the differences between the treatment of domestic slaves and those sold to the Europeans. Apparently she fought European slave traders to liberate slaves in Lagos and thereabouts however there is no mention if Madam Tinubu liberated the slaves she owned when she became anti-imperialist.

In Abeokuta, she traded gunpowder, bullets and other firearms (she also traded in palm oil and food produced on her massive plantations). She concerned herself with the Abeokuta-Dahomey wars that were taking place at that time, and through doing so became involved in Egba politics. Madam Tinubu would make loans to the army and supply food and arms during wartime. She was also in charge of the market place in times of peace. She contributed to defending Egbaland during attempts at Dahomean invasion in 1863 after which she was bestowed the title of ‘Iyalode’ in 1864 officially placing her in a position of power. She was the second woman to receive this title.

She died in 1887, at the height of her popularity.

Today, Madam Tinubu has several monuments dedicated to her, in Abeokuta, one stands ‘in the town square named after her Ita Iyalode.

There seem to be conflicting dates on when exactly a colonial government was established in Nigeria (and dare I say other parts of Africa as well). I have noticed that a lot of people place colonial governments actually earlier than they were. This supports the idea that from the beginning African and Europeans economic and political relations were unequal. The academic essay I read places Madam Tinubu as a pre-colonial Yoruba heroine who has a lot of information on her because her alliances and political activities, including her anti-colonial stance worried the British.

At this point, I am about to discuss the main reason I’m writing this post. Recently there was a debate on Facebook with several Nigerians saying that we shouldn’t be celebrating Madam Tinubu because of her trade in slaves. Some people argued that Madam Tinubu could not be patriotic if she was selling slaves to Europeans. Someone went as far as comparing her to Hitler. From the start, the entire discussion unsettled me.

(cont. reading at Eccentric Yoruba)

womenwhokickass: Nnedi Okorafor: Why she kicks ass “When a...

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 06:19:03 -0600

womenwhokickass:

Nnedi Okorafor: Why she kicks ass

“When a story comes to me, I have to write it or it won’t let me rest,” Okorafor said. “The characters are real to me. I hear their voices. Their actions affect me. The places I write about exist. I’ve felt the sting of their sand storms and smelled their forests. The creatures really do bite, snarl, sing, spit, sting, etc. When I’m writing, I’m there and I enjoy being there.”

She is a Nigerian-American writer of fantasy, science fiction, and speculative fiction. Her novels and stories reflect both her West African heritage and her American life.

Okorafor has received a 2001 Hurston-Wright literary award, the winner of the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, the Carl Brandon Parallax Award, a Booksense Pick for Winter 2007/2008, a Tiptree Honor Book, the Andre Norton Award, the Golden Duck Award, an NAACP Image Award nominee, the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, the 2011 Tiptree Honor Book and the 2007–08 winner of the Macmillan Writer’s Prize for Africa.

Her short stories have been published in anthologies and magazines, including Dark Matter II, Strange Horizons, Moondance magazine, and Writers of the Future Volume XVIII.

In 2009, she donated her archive to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) Collection of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at the Northern Illinois University Library.

Her fiction has been called “highly original” and “endlessly imaginative”.and has been favorably compared to that of Octavia Butler and Nalo Hopkinson for her deft blending of contemporary and traditional themes and forms. Reviews of her writing praise her courageous female characters and her breath-taking descriptions.

thesmithian: Author Marie NDiaye, who is the first black woman...

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 06:14:58 -0600

thesmithian:

Author Marie NDiaye, who is the first black woman to win France’s Prix Goncourt, has been named a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize. She is nominated alongside such international superstars as Lydia Davis, Marilynne Robinson, and Peter Stamm, as well as past winners like Philip Roth, Alice Munro, and Chinua Achebe.

more.

sarraounia: Artworks by Mariama, self taught Tuareg artist from...

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 06:13:35 -0600

sarraounia:

Artworks by Mariama, self taught Tuareg artist from Niger. More here.

sarraounia: Thomas & Mariam Sankara wedding

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 06:13:18 -0600

sarraounia:

Thomas & Mariam Sankara wedding

Kadi Sesay is a Sierra Leonean politician, feminist,...

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 06:10:36 -0600

Kadi Sesay is a Sierra Leonean politician, feminist, pro-democracy advocate and the Vice President of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP). She served as Sierra Leone Minister of Trade and Industry from 2002 to 2007. She is the founder and Managing Director of Leone Consulting & Advisory Services – for Trade, Investment and Development.

Dr. Sesay was a lecturer at Fourah Bay College for 20 years and became Head of the English Department. She spent 6 years chairperson for the National Commission for Democracy and Human Rights (NCDHR). She is the first woman in Sierra Leonean history to head a national commission.

She is the mother of CNN International news anchor Isha Sesay.

dynamicafrica: Best friends, South Sudanese models Ataui Deng...

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 15:25:48 -0600

dynamicafrica:

Best friends, South Sudanese models Ataui Deng and Ajak Deng (not related), photographed by Phill Taylor

sarraounia: Sarraounia (une reine Africaine), Med Hondo,...

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 15:25:14 -0600

sarraounia:

Sarraounia (une reine Africaine), Med Hondo, 1986

One of my favorite movies from one of my favorite directors. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Nigerien author Abdoulaye Mamani, in which he tells the Battle of Lougou.

Sarraounia was a warrior queen hailing from Lougou. She was a Azna (a group of resistant Animists who rejected Christianity and Islam, most of them were Hausa) who fought against French colonialism, and particularly the barbaric Voulet-Chanoine mission during which the French attempted to lay claim to territories from the Niger river to Lac Chad.

Although there are controversies among Nigeriens about the ethnic group she belonged to, Sarraounia was probably Hausa. She was one of few leaders that resisted the advances of French expansionists Paul Voulet and Julien Chanoine.

Wiki synopsis: The story takes place in Niger (but filmed in Burkina Faso) and the surrounding region of the Sahel. It begins with the initiation and establishment as queen of the Aznas of a young girl. The young queen, Sarraounia, becomes an accomplished warrior when she defends her tribe from an enemy tribe. Accomplished in archery and herbalism, she is a renowned “sorceress”. Meanwhile, French colonialists Paul Voulet and Julien Chanoine set out to conquer new lands for the French colonial empire. As they advance across the land they rape women and leave burning villages in their wake.

When Abdoulaye Mamani published the novel, he gave a copy to Med Hondo who decided to adapt it into a film. As well as using the book for reference, Hondo conducted research with Mamani, interviewing older Nigerien people and accessing material in the national archives. Aï Keïta, the actress playing Sarraounia was chosen after Med Hondo witnessed a confrontation between her and a family member. He initially had her in mind for a small role (Amina, a loyal friend of Sarraounia)…

Sarraounia won the Étalon de Yennenga prize at the 1987 Panafrican Film Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO). Historian Frank Ukadike called it “a landmark of African cinema, the most ambitious for its inventiveness, professionalism and dedication.” Writing for The Boston Phoenix, Chris Fujiwara said that the film avoids clichés, calling it a “large-scale epic drama” that is “both ironic and celebratory”. I definitely recommend this movie, simply one of the best African film I have ever seen (aesthetic and historical perspectives).

Trailer

Rwanda’s Minister of Gender and Family Inyumba Aloysia...

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 15:25:00 -0600

Rwanda’s Minister of Gender and Family Inyumba Aloysia Dead at 48

The Minister who was one of the ruling RPF founding members was instrumental in the 1990-94 liberation war which stopped the Tutsi Genocide. She has been holding the MIGEPROF ministerial post since May 2011. Prior to that appointment, Inyumba served as a Senator in the National Senate of Rwanda from 2004.

While in Parliament, she was an active member of the Rwanda Women Parliamentary Forum, which brings together Rwandan Women Parliamentarians. The fallen Minister served as the first Minister of Gender and Social Affairs from 1994 to 1999; right after the genocide when the ministry was first established.

Inyumba was passionate about women’s involvement in politics and leadership and takes an active role in representing women’s voices to local government throughout Rwanda. She was involved with women at the grassroots, encouraging them to participate actively in the decision making processes in their communities and the nation and exhorting women to rise up and use their gifts as leaders.

From 1999 to 2001, Inyumba served as Executive Secretary to the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission. She believed that women are by nature peace makers and should use their God-given abilities to lead peace and reconciliation initiatives in the communities and spearhead efforts at national unity.

She was a holder of a Doctorate Degree in Social Work and Social Administration from Makerere University Kampala, and an honorary doctorate from La Roche College in the United States. She held a Masters of International Relations from the Irish American University.

(—source)

dynamicafrica: AFRICAN ARTIST: Miatta Kawinzi Miatta Kawinzi...

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 15:02:21 -0600

dynamicafrica:

AFRICAN ARTIST: Miatta Kawinzi

Miatta Kawinzi was born in 1987 in Nashville, TN to a Liberian mother and Kenyan father. Based in NY, she has recently completed fully-funded artist residencies at IAAB in Basel, Switzerland and Flux Factory in NY.

She has exhibited in the US and internationally, and her work is included in the Art-in-Embassies public collection in Monrovia, Liberia and private collections.

She has received awards from the NY Community Trust foundation and Hampshire College. She received a BA in Art & Cultural Theory from Hampshire College in 2010, and also works as a teaching artist in youth communities.

Fatou Bensouda is a Gambian lawyer, former government civil...

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 17:08:59 -0600

Fatou Bensouda is a Gambian lawyer, former government civil servant, international criminal law prosecutor and legal adviser. She has been the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor since June 2012, after having served as a Deputy Prosecutor in charge of the Prosecutions Division of the ICC since 2004. She has held positions of Legal Adviser and Trial Attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

Bensouda attended primary and secondary school in the Gambia before leaving for Nigeria where she graduated from the University of IFE with an Bachelor of Laws degree. She then obtained her Barrister-at-Law (BL) professional qualification from the Nigeria Law School and a Master of Laws from the International Maritime Law Institute in Malta. She became the Gambia’s first expert in international maritime law and the law of the sea.

In 2004, she was elected as Deputy Prosecutor with an overwhelming majority of votes by the Assembly of State Parties of the International Criminal Court. In 2011 the Assembly of States Parties of the ICC announced that an informal agreement had been reached to make Bensouda the consensus choice to succeed Luis Moreno-Ocampo as Prosecutor of the ICC. She was formally elected by consensus on 12 December 2011.

Bensouda has been the recipient of various awards, most notably, the distinguished ICJ International Jurists Award (2009) for her contributions to criminal law both at the national and International level. Bensouda has also been awarded the 2011 World Peace Through Law Award for her work in considerably advancing the rule of law and thereby contributing to world peace. Time magazine listed Mrs. Bensouda among the 100 most influential people in the world in its annual Time 100 issue. She has has been named by the leading African Magazine, Jeune Afrique, as the 4th most Influential Personality in Africa.

Somalia appoints first woman foreign minister Somali Prime...

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:14:00 -0600

Somalia appoints first woman foreign minister

Somali Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon Said announced on Sunday the members of his new government and for the first time of the country’s history, a woman has been named as Foreign Minister.

“After long discussions and consultations, I have named my cabinet which consists of only 10 members. Among them is a female foreign affairs minister for the first time in Somali history” said the prime minister.

Mrs Fowsiyo Yusuf Haji Adan, who hails from the self-declared independent state of Somaliland commented on her nomination by pointing out its historical aspect: “My nomination as the Foreign Minister is historic for the Somali country and particularly for the women of Somalia. It turns a new page for the political situation of our country and will lead to success and prosperity,” she said.

Another woman, Maryan Qasim Ahmed, has been appointed Minister of Development and Social affairs, after previously serving as Women’s Minister.

(—source)

Professor Tebello Nyokong is a researcher of a ground-breaking...

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 10:31:48 -0600

Professor Tebello Nyokong is a researcher of a ground-breaking cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Born in 1951 in Lesotho, this South African Professor has achieved international acclaim for her groundbreaking work in harnessing light for cancer therapy and environmental clean-ups.

She is currently undertaking research on a new cancer diagnosis and treatment methodology called ‘photo-dynamic therapy’, which is intended as an alternative to chemotherapy.

Through her international reputation, Professor Nyokong has contributed considerably to enhancing the reputation of South African science. Many international scientists have been drawn by her work to visit South Africa, and her laboratory has hosted postdoctoral candidates from around the world.

In 2009 Professor Nyokong won the Africa-Arab State L’Oréal-Unesco Award for Women in Science and was named by UNESCO as one of the world’s top five exceptional women scientists.

In addition to working on photo-dynamic therapy, Professor Tebello Nyokong, continues to train chemists, particularly women, in the skills needed to keep South Africa at the cutting edge of scientific development.

“I work very hard and do not give up easily even when things are tough. I tend to take setbacks in my life as a way of working even harder. I actually get challenged by doing the ‘impossible.”

(—source)

Graça Machel is a Mozambican politician and humanitarian. She is...

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 10:04:00 -0600

Graça Machel is a Mozambican politician and humanitarian. She is the third wife of former South African president Nelson Mandela and the widow of Mozambican president Samora Machel. She is an international advocate for women’s and children’s rights and in 1997 was made a British dame for her humanitarian work.

Graça Machel is the only woman in the world to have been First Lady of two different countries, serving as the First Lady of Mozambique from 1975 to 1986 and the First Lady of South Africa from 1998 to 1999.

She attended Methodist mission schools before gaining a scholarship to attend University of Lisbon in Portugal, where she studied German language and first became involved in independence issues. She earned a scholarship from Romance Languages. She is also fluent in German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and English, as well as her native Tsonga. She returned to Mozambique in 1973, joined the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO) and became a teacher.

Following Mozambique’s independence in 1975, Machel was appointed Minister for Education and Culture. She married Samora Machel the same year. Following her retirement from the Mozambique ministry, Machel was appointed as the expert in charge of producing the groundbreaking United Nations report on the impact of armed conflict on children. Her first husband died in a plane crash over South Africa in 1986.

Machel received the 1995 Nansen Medal from the United Nations in recognition of her longstanding humanitarian work, particularly on behalf of refugee children.

In July 1998, she married South African President Nelson Mandela and also received the North-South Prize. Machel currently serves as the chair of the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA) Eminent Advisory Board.

Serkalem Fasil is an Ethiopian journalist and former...

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 09:55:49 -0600

Serkalem Fasil is an Ethiopian journalist and former co-publisher of the newspapers Asqual, Menilik, and Satenaw. In 1997, Fasil began her journalistic career at the newspaper Wenchef. The following year, at the age of twenty, she founded her own newspaper, Menilik, put out by her own publishing house.

In November 2005, Fasil was arrested along with thirteen other reporters, including her husband, Eskinder Nega after publishing articles critical of the Ethiopian government’s actions during the May 2005 parliamentary elections. Fasil and her co-defendants were charged with “treason, outrages against the Constitution and incitement to armed conspiracy”.

Amnesty International identified her as a prisoner of conscience, who had not advocated or used violence. She was being held in a Kaliti prison in Addis Ababa in a rat-, cockroach-, and flea-infested cell. While in prison, Fasil gave birth to her and Eskinder’s son Nafkot. She was released by presidential pardon on 10 April 2007, along with her husband and 27 other defendants.

Fasil won a “Courage in Journalism Award” from the IWMF (International Women’s Media Foundation) in 2007. She donated the prize money to Amnesty International in thanks for helping to secure her release from prison.

keltamasheq: Tuareg poetess Dassine Oult Yemma

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 11:37:35 -0600

keltamasheq:

Tuareg poetess Dassine Oult Yemma

Wanuri Kahiu is a Kenyan film director. She has received several...

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 17:04:07 -0500

Wanuri Kahiu is a Kenyan film director. She has received several awards and nominations for the films which she directed, including the awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Picture at the African Movie Academy Awards in 2009.

Kahiu was born in Nairobi, Kenya. After graduating from the University of Warwick in 2001 with a BSc degree in Management Science, she enrolled for a Master’s Degree at the ‘Masters of Fine Arts’ programme in directing at the School of Film and Television at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Her movie From a Whisper received a total of twelve nominations and earned five awards at the 5th African Movie Academy Awards in 2009.

sarraounia: “The best way to describe our film Bamako is that...

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 16:56:12 -0500

sarraounia:

“The best way to describe our film Bamako is that it comes straight from the heart. That is the main reason I wanted a small part in the film. It helps you feel the script even more if you are in the set. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster for us. There is even a part in the film where I am in a bride’s gown in a courtyard where my husband used to play when he was growing up.”

Maji-da Abdi Sissako is a filmmaker, producer and costume designer. Her notable works include Heremakono and Bamako (as executive producer). As a filmmaker, she is credited for The river between us, a short film revealing the effects of war on Ethiopian women and children who were forced to relocate in refugee camps and Africa, Africas, a 3-parts film serie in collaboration with fellow filmmakers Fanta Regina Nacro (Burkina Faso) and Agnes Ndibi (Cameroon). Africa, Africas, released in 2001, is one of the first African documentary focusing on post-colonialism, war, body image, the effects of colonialism on women and the way they view beauty, poverty and exile.

She is the founder of Images That Matter, an International short film festival and the director of the Addis Ababa International Film Festival. Maji-da is also the wife of Mauritanian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako.

vocalomusicvox: Nneka reflects on her inquisitive nature and...

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 16:42:23 -0500

vocalomusicvox:

Nneka reflects on her inquisitive nature and her passion to address social problems:

Nigerian singer songwriter, Nneka mixes hip hop, reggae, soul, rock, and Afrobeat into her own unique style of politicized music. Known to bring attention to injustices, hypocrisies, corruption and violence in her homeland, Nneka’s songs are a passionate plea for love, selflessness and peaceful coexistence in communities worldwide. She spoke with The MusicVox host Jesse Menendez about her latest album Soul Is Heavy, her inquisitive nature, her urge to question politics, religion and social problems in her music, as well as her personal experiences living in Nigeria and Germany that led her to become the versatile musician she is.

The MusicVox airs M-F 6-8pm CT on 89.5 FM and Vocalo.org

dynamicafrica: Vintage color portrait of two Somali women

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 16:41:57 -0500

dynamicafrica:

Vintage color portrait of two Somali women