Black Looks

  • I’m money and I rule

    Posted: July 31, 2011, 4:10 pm by Sokari

    Via Musa Okwonga – The Kings Will series

  • A comic called 100 Butches

    Posted: July 26, 2011, 1:00 pm by Sokari

    New Art Everyday – Elisha Lim’s illustrations called 100 Butches.


    You can buy these awesome prints, sketches and originals at Etsy.com

  • Freedom Sudan

    Posted: July 21, 2011, 4:09 pm by Sokari

    Last week South Sudan became the world’s newest country and rather than take the opportunity to move in new transformational directions chose to announce that “equality would not be extended to gay and lesbians.”

    South Sudan was formerly subject to the Sudanese interpretation of Sharia law, under which homosexual activity was illegal, with punishments ranging from lashes to the death penalty. In 2003 the government of what was then called “New Sudan” adopted its own penal code, and in 2008 the autonomous Government of Southern Sudan adopted a replacement penal code. Both codes prohibited sodomy.

    In May 2010 Mayardit spoke of a New Sudan where “all citizens” enjoy “equal rights” in a country based on “democracy, equality and justice”. But Mayardit said that LGBT recognition was “not in our character.”
    “It is not even something that anybody can talk about here in southern Sudan in particular. It is not there and if anybody wants to import or to export it to Sudan, I will not get the support and it will always be condemned by everybody.”

    In short the usual boring predictable statements about “it” doesnt exist here – New Sudan, Sudan or anywhere else on the continent. But there is a Sudanese LGBTI movement, Freedom Sudan which has been in active since 2006 and based in Sudan.

    Freedom Sudan is the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) organization in Sudan. Our organization has been formed in December 2006. Our status is illegal. Homosexual behavior is illegal in Sudan and homosexuals facing the death penalty. That’s why our organization was formed in secret and all our activities are carried out secretly, hoping that one day we will get accepted in our communities and even in our families, and hope that we can be FREE to be the way we are. Freedom Sudan is an organization run by volunteers only.

    Our main goals are:

    Recognition of homosexuality in Sudan.
    Social acceptance of homosexuality and acceptance of the rights of homosexuals in Sudan.
    Abrogation of the death penalty for homosexuals (Articles 148,151, 316 and 318).
    Work together with other LGBT organizations in the world for a better LGBT rights.

  • The blood that feeds the heart of DRC’s conflict.

    Posted: July 21, 2011, 2:46 pm by Sokari

    Two films from the DRC

    “There is a global consensus that exists that says it is OK for nearly six million black people to die in the heart of Africa and for us to be silent”

    Blood in the Mobile is an exceptionally well produced documentary which traces the mobile phone [Nokia] to it’s source in the eastern DRC. The clip doesnt do the film justice. The film maker is painstaking in his pursuit to arrive at the Walikili mining camp – a place of violence and exploitation where the miners live in makeshift tents with no amenities, no regulation and are at the mercy of attacks by the ever changing militias and collapsing mines. The cassiterite is mined in deep holes by men and boys and is then transported by foot through dense wet forests for two days before reaching the nearest town. Here the mineral is loaded on to planes which land on the dirt tract that runs through the town. At each point in this perilous journey, the various operating militas collect “taxes”.

    All attempts to illicit a response from Nokia which claims to be a “responsible corporation” proof fruitless. Everyday we read new reports on the innovative uses of mobile phones in Africa and elsewhere in the global south – the endless production and consumption of newer models of Nokia, Samsung and iPhones. Mining of cassiterite and other minerals may be just one of the many contributing factors to the war in the DRC but Walikili and other similar camps are central to it’s sustenance.

    The second film, “Crisis in Congo” traces Congo’s history through coloniasation and focuses on the role played by the US, Britain and their allies, Uganda and Rwanda who act as proxy protection outfits, have played in the greatest humanitarian crisis of the 21st century. Protection of western economic, political and corporate interests, military support of Uganda and Rwanda in the invasion of the Congo and maintenance of successive dictatorships and perpetuation of tyranny against people. One example is a US law [109-456 - sponsored by senator Obama and signed into law in 2006] which “outlines a comprehensive strategy for the Congo to realise justice” but its no surprise that it is yet to be adequately implemented. The law states

    that the US Secretary of State has the power to revoke aid to any nation deemed to be destabilising the Congo if she has sufficient evidence that a country is doing so. We have so much evidence on Rwanda and Uganda and we even have a leaked UN report that states all the Secretary of State has to do is read it and say OK now we are going to support. But since 2000 the US has given Rwanda $1 billion. The leaked UN report is calling this government a genocidal government. Why is the US government supporting a genocidal government?”

    Congo concerns all of us.

  • Blogging for TB: Real stories of people living with tuberculosis

    Posted: July 19, 2011, 9:29 pm by Sokari

     

     

     

    TB&ME [multidrug-resistant tuberculosis]  it is a collaborative blogging project supported by Medecins Sans Frontieres is designed to give multidrug-resistant TB (MDR TB) sufferers a platform where they can share their experiences.   Over the coming months and years MSF will be conducting advocacy around TB and MDR-TB  with the aim and hope that through the project, they will learn what issues affect the patients most, where they are lacking in terms of treatment, diagnosis and services, and what MSF can offer in future.  MSF also hope that the personal voices will  help the wider public understand TB and the devastating  impact on  millions of sufferers worldwide.

    The blog post are are either written or spoken directly by the patients from Uganda, India, Philippines and Swaziland . …See here for a selection of blog posts.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Mandela Day: Revolutionary radicals will not, cannot celebrate

    Posted: July 18, 2011, 1:18 pm by Sokari

    Happy 92nd birthday to Nelson Mandela, I celebrate your life and your sacrifice. I honour you for your commitment and steadfastness over 27 years. But for many South Africans there is no reason to celebrate Freedom Justice and Democracy because it’s not a reality. From the Shackdwellers and Rural Network South Africa...

    Revolutionary radicals recalcitrant in their reflective refusal to revere “freedom days” are dubbed as reactionaries by our “democratic state”.

    The South African calendar is full of days on which we are asked to celebrate our freedom. There is Human Rights Day, Freedom Day, Worker’s Day, Youth Day, Mandela Day, Women’s Day and Heritage Day. These days are turned to months. Those of us who refuse to celebrate these days and months as if the struggle is over and who insist that the struggle goes on are called reactionaries.

    Tomorrow, on the 18th of July, on Mandela Day, Abahlali baseMjondolo will be in court for the Kennedy 12 case. We as the Rural Network will be in court in Utrecht for the case of Mr. Mdlalose who was assaulted by a farmer. In Motala Heights Shamita Naidoo is organising an event for all the children.

    On Mandela Day we will still be struggling. We are saying to people that, yes, it is good to give 67 minutes on Mandela Day. But we should give that 67 minutes in struggle. This South Africa is not the country that Tata Mandela and his comrades fought for. The only real way to honour Tata Mandela is to work to complete the struggle of Mandela. This means that the struggle continues. It also means that those who tell us that the struggle is over dishonour the spirit of Mandela.

    We are looking forward to the 26th to the 29th of July when Dear Mandela, a powerful film about the struggle of Abahlali baseMjondolo, will be released in Durban. This film is clearly saying that Mandela’s struggle is not completed.

  • Gigi [Ejigayehu Shibabaw]

    Posted: July 18, 2011, 3:34 am by Sokari

    Gigi Shibabaw

    If you like this check out Gigi with Tabla Beat Science [ Midival Punditz, Karsh Kale, Zakir Hussain, Sultan Khan - awesome]

  • Zimbabwe to Egypt: Reflections from Tahrir Square

    Posted: July 15, 2011, 5:00 pm by Rumbidzai Dube

    I met Rumbidzai Dube in March 2009 at the Tactical Tech InfoActivism camp in Bangalore India.  At the time she worked as a researcher  within the Women’s Programme at the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) an NGO in Zimbabwe.   Since then Rumbidzai has completed her Masters in Law (LLM Human Rights and Democratization in Africa) at the University of Pretoria in Pretoria, South Africa.   She has worked as an intern for the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and is presently serving a second internship in Egypt with the Cairo  Institute for Human Rights Studies.   Over the next six months Rumbidzai will be writing about her work and her observations of life in Cairo and the people’s revolution.

    ______________________________

     

    As a Zimbabwean, an African, a black person and a woman, I cannot help but wish my life were different. No, I do not wish I had a different nationality-I love my country and all its beauty. I do not wish I were anything else but an African- I love the diversity that makes our continent what it is. I do not wish to be anything other than black- in fact I love being black because I do not believe in the stereotypes attached to being black. I am not barbaric! I do not eat human flesh! I do not live in a jungle! I am not ignorant though I do not claim to know everything there is to know in this world! I am not poor even though my bank account is empty! As one of my professors always said whereas some subscribe to the “I think therefore I am” theory by Rene Descartes as an African I believe “We are therefore I am.”Hence money does not make me rich, family does. When I have no family then I am poor.

    When I wear something black there is definitely a difference between my skin complexion and that piece of clothing and I see the same difference when a ‘white’ person wears a white dress so maybe that label should be changed to dark skinned and light skinned instead. I love being a woman, ask any woman who is comfortable in her skin and she will tell you she does not wish to be recreated any differently. The reason I wish my life were different is that I hate the negativity attached to these identities that make my life more difficult than it should be. As a Zimbabwean I face repression from my own government. We cannot express ourselves freely, assemble freely, associate freely and choose who we want to govern us freely. As an African our nations are subjected to global politics characterized by the paradox of ‘equal’ nations yet some are more equal than others.’ This has caused untold suffering, particularly, to the African peoples through skewed negotiations on climate change. We constantly fight the war on the patenting of life saving drugs as against free and easy access to medicines. We are victims of conflicts fuelled by the availability of arms and weapons supplied by developed nations, the so called ‘War economies.” As a black person I am constantly made to feel I need to measure up to something. I still have not figured out what that something is since I certainly do not feel I am lacking in any respect. As for my struggle as woman, that cannot be told in this short space. I will leave it for another day and forum.

    Where am I going with all this? Well here is my story…

    Today I spent an hour in Tahrir Square, mingling with the thousands of Egyptians who were gathered there. Some were just sitting and discussing the recent developments in the country including the acquittal of some and conviction of other perpetrators of human rights violations during the |Jan|25| protests. Others were chanting slogans making demands from the Supreme Council of Armed Forces to implement the reforms that have been demanded since the Revolution began. Yes, there were factions in the Square. I came across one stand comprising youths that cried out “Allah Akbar” an Islamic phrase loosely translated to mean “God is the Most High.” I also found another one where they were playing Christian gospel music. It was clear there were different groupings in the Square but guess what, they were all in the Square.

    They could have chosen to assemble in different squares but they did not. They came together, putting aside their differences for a greater purpose which was to put the message across clearly to the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces that this new earned right conceived during the Revolution shall neither be aborted nor miscarried. I also met a 14 year old blogger- yes fourteen. Before he has even reached the legal age of majority he understands that politics and political participation affects his life and impacts on his human rights. He does not shy away from it because ‘politics is a dirty game’-no. He takes charge and makes legitimate demands from the politicians in his country. I spent quality time with my close friends Alaa Abd El Fattah and Manal Bahey El Din Hassan who have been blogging for years at Manalaa.Net, exposing the Mubarak regime for the dictatorship that it was. Alaa got arrested several times by the police and today he stands with the rest of the Revolutionaries celebrating the fruits of his and many other people’s hard work. I walked within that Square for an hour and in all that time I did not get sexually harassed, neither did I hear any man whisper the obscene things that I am usually subjected to on the street. I was treated with respect and I did not feel conspicuous as a dark-skinned person amongst the crowds of light-skinned people.

    What did all this mean to me?

    As Zimbabweans, Africans, black people, women we can change our future. It takes patience, persistence and perseverance but it not impossible. Let history be remembered as the hair we shaved off our heads but let it not determine the kind of new hair we grow on our heads. Black people let us not remain victims of perceptions created ages ago and sustained for generations by people who suffer from a misplaced superiority complex. Africans let us not let the ghost of colonialism haunt us forever. Zimbabweans let us not pay for not having been born when the war of independence was fought. Women, let us stand strong against the skeleton that patriarchy has since become. We have been eating off the flesh of these things and I am sure pushing over the bones will not be such a hard task.

    Back to Tahrir Square and Egypt…

    Many people have argued that the culture of protests has become almost maniacal in the Arab world. Others argue that they have not seen how protesting has helped the Egyptian people and I quote my colleague, Paul speaking of the revolutionaries and the ousting of Mubarak (Paul and I studied for the Bachelor of Laws Honours Degree at the University of Zimbabwe)

    “I do not see any good results coming from them. And do u believe they are the ones who removed him from power? I do not think so that is why they back in the streets bcoz their revolution was not home grown”
    Well here is what I think. Protesting helped Egyptians get rid of a despotic government whose corruption had reached chronic levels. It ensured that their demands for justice against the perpetrators of human rights violations during the |Jan|25| protests were heard. Protesting ensured that property and money worth thousands of dollars belonging to the state which had been siphoned by the President and his wife was returned and handed over to the State. Through their concerted effort, Egyptians are setting a culture which if entrenched will see better respect, promotion and protection of human rights. How? Every time they gather in protest they are asserting their right to peaceful assembly and association as well as their right to freely express themselves.

    Every time they make political demands pertaining to law reform, constitutional amendments, as well as the formation of political parties and their participation in elections they are asserting the right to participate in the governance of their country. It definitely is not as simplistic as it sounds but this is one step (or however many it may be) positively taken and it is gaining momentum each day. The police and military authorities still resist this culture but their resistance is becoming weaker each day. The weaker it becomes the more entrenched these freedoms will be in Egyptian society, spelling a progressive realization of their rights.

    It is also many steps ahead of the Zimbabwean scenario where attempts to hold peaceful protests are crushed every time. In Zimbabwe, we have a security system that harasses, arrests and detains lawyers for demanding the sanctity of the profession that they chose. Our system finds a group of brave women (the Women of Zimbabwe Arise-WOZA) as criminals yet these women are constantly advocating social justice. The Egyptians have certainly gone one step ahead in this regard and the more they gather in Tahrir Square and hold their peaceful protests with no interference from the state apparatus, the higher their chances of sustaining this exercise of their right.

    No sexual harassment for an hour?

    Yes, I have discovered that Egypt is one of those places where being a woman is particularly difficult. The way you dress, walk, talk and laugh is so scrutinized that you cannot help but be very self conscious. Men whisper all sorts of obscenities to you as they pass by. Others stalk you. Some even try to grab you and run-in public! Yet today I was in that Square and for a whole hour none of that happened yet there were thousands of men there. Why-I asked myself? The obvious answer is because the Revolution birthed a new culture of respect for women with leading figures like Dr Laila Soueif emerging as lead figures at some defining moments of the Revolution . Harassment of women was viewed as unacceptable behavior and hence that perception holds true. Yes-it might only be wholly observed in Tahrir Square and at moments such as the one I experienced today but there is no doubt with time it shall cascade down to the everyday lives of Egyptians. It will take time but as always everything that is good comes through hard work, perseverance and persistence.

    A 14 year old blogger? Wow!

    My first thought was; I am 27 and I have done close to nothing to share the knowledge I have on human rights, democracy and democratization, good governance and women’s rights? ZIP!! And I am very ashamed to admit this. My second thought was I wish I knew a 14 year old blogger in Zimbabwe, let alone one who blogs on human rights and political participation. It is this kind of awareness that we need to build in our youth in Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa. A youth that is not polarized on political grounds. A youth that resists state patronage. A youth that questions policies and practices that do not benefit the wider population. We do not want a youth that is used to terrorise communities, or to rape women and girls, or to force communities to support a party or a government they clearly loathe. It is time that our 14 year olds developed an interest in the things that shape their future and the future of their countries rather than concentrating on figuring out how to put a condom on!
    There is more but for now I will end here.

  • links for 2011-07-14

    Posted: July 14, 2011, 5:02 pm by Sokari
    • Israel Passes Anti-Boycott Law: This Week in Online Tyranny Israel makes boycotts illegal. One of the time-tested, non-violent ways in which people have attempted to force grass-roots change is by boycotting the products or services of an entity whose actions they dislike. Now, Israel made such boycotts illegal.
      Given how deeply social media is twined into contemporary political action, this makes certain types of online actions as illegal in Israel as they are in non-democratic countries. (tags: Israel censorship boycott Palestine socialmedia)
    • Violence Against Migrant Women Won’t End After DSK Case The narrative of the immigrant housekeeper assaulted by a European official perfectly illustrates an axiom of violence and power: the wider the gap between genders and races, the greater the latitude of injustice.
      Yet the same story plays out every day on an endless loop around the globe: a retaliatory rape against a young girl sends a warning to the enemy militia; a wife is pummeled into bloody silence, her bedroom beyond the purview of traditional local courts; a daughter is married off to pay down a farm debt. The stories weave into a pattern that a media-fatigued public has come to normalize. (tags: DSK Rape)
    • South African Artists Against Apartheid: LEGAL VICTORY In a bold ruling defending the right to freedom of expression and political speech, the South African media watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), unequivocally dismissed all complaints relating to the  SA Artists Against Apartheid radio advert that called for the boycott of Israel and compared Israel to Apartheid South Africa (tags: palestine israel apartheid southafrica)
    • Venezuela Rocked By 7.2 Magnitude Rumor! (BoRev.Net) Hey here is something that only happens every other week or so! The news is reporting on something maddeningly crazy that Hugo Chavez has said, only when you conduct your own independent investigation involving sophisticated journalistic techniques (Google) you find out that it is all, in fact, complete bullshit. Here's how it worked this time, pretty much exactly like it works every other time: (tags: Haiti Rumours venezuela Chavis)
    • The Shelters That Clinton Built Shabby Toxic shelters built by Bill Clinton in Haiti - But headaches were not the only health problems students, staff and parents at the Institut Haitiano-Caribbean (INHAC) told us they've suffered from since the inauguration of the classrooms. Innocent Sylvain, a shy janitor who looks much older than his 41 years, spends more time than anyone in the new trailer classrooms, with the inglorious task of mopping up the water that leaks through the doors and windows each time it rains. He has felt a burning sensation in his eyes ever since he began working long hours in the trailers. One of his eyes is completely bloodshot, and he said, "They itch and burn." He'd previously been sensitive to eye irritation, but he says he's had worse "problems since the month of January"—when the schoolrooms opened their doors. (tags: haiti earthquake BillClinton)
    • After witnessing Palestine's apartheid, Indigenous and Women of Color feminists endorse BDS A group of Indigenous and Women of Color feminists who recently returned from a visit to Palestine has issued a strong statement endorsing the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. Explaining their decision to travel to Palestine, the group wrote: (tags: pinkwashing BDS palestine Occupation)
    • Palestine – Resisting homophobia and occupation Haneen Maikey from the Palestinian queer group Al Qaws was in Amsterdam in June talking about their struggles for sexual emancipation and against the Israeli occupation (tags: homonationalism homophobia pinkwashing palestine israel LGBTIQ)

  • “Shedding light on sexuality and gender”

    Posted: July 13, 2011, 3:24 pm by Sokari

    A review by Lerato Dumse of Zanele Muholi’s solo exhibition which opened in Joburg last Thursday.

    Lerato is part of the Free Gender collective. Free Gender will be hosting the first lesbian conference in the township on the 5/6 August 2011. This is a wholly local initiative and is self-financed. They need your help to make their conference successful. We are not funded by any organization. We will be making history be part of that history by assisting the organization financially. See Below to support Free Gender

    The opening of Zanele Muholi’s Inkanyiso exhibition pulled the crowed in Johannesburg, at the Stevenson gallery on Thursday 7 July 2011.Faces and Phases is about preserving the histories and showing the struggles faced by black lesbians, and Zanele has added 66 new portraits in the ongoing series.

    Inkanyiso means light, and Muholi; a visual activist aims to shed light into the “viewer’s understanding of sexuality and gender”. Other works available during the exhibition is Beulahs (2007-10) and Transfigures (2010-11), as well as the award winning documentary Difficult Love (2010) showing in film festivals around the world. Tumi Nkopane 24 is on the series and says: “Zanele’s work is part of politics because these portraits fight discrimination”. Nkopane believes that people’s ignorance causes them to be intolerant against lesbians, “Faces and Phases can help break the Ice; by showing that we are part of society”. Now based in Cape Town, Muholi was born in Umlazi (Durban) in 1972. She studied photography at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg. Mbali Zulu says she wants to send a message that hate crime must end through photography, because people are lazy to read. The 22 year old thinks: “Zanele’s work makes a huge difference in our community; I love her work and hope she continues for future generations”. Addressing the crowed at the gallery; Zanele thanked everyone for their support, especially those who participated in the series. “Faces is also about the face-to-face confrontation between myself as a photographer/activist and the many lesbians, woman and transmen I have interacted with from different places”.23 year old Matshidiso Nofokeng is honored to be part of Faces and Phases as it represents her as a whole, she said. “I was not out; and I want people to know who I am, Zanele is giving young black lesbians an opportunity to express who they are”. Nofokeng met Muholi in 2007 “she helped me accept myself and be proud of my body” she concluded. Photographs from the series were shot in Gauteng, Cape Town, Mafikeng and Botswana.

    To support Free Gender and the lesbian conference see here

     

  • links for 2011-07-12

    Posted: July 12, 2011, 5:03 pm by Sokari
    • Monsanto in Haiti Last spring, Haiti’s minister of agriculture gave agribusiness giant Monsanto permission to ‘donate’ 505 tonnes of seeds to Haiti ‘to support the reconstruction effort’. A year later, Beverly Bell asks what has become of the seeds that Monsanto gave, and ‘how real was the fear of Haitian farmer organizations that the donation was a Trojan horse?’ (tags: Monsanto Haiti)
    • Unpackaging the LGBTI communities Being rooted in sexuality rather than gender, the issues of lesbian, gay and bisexual people are completely different from those of transgender people, writes Audrey Mbugua. (tags: transgender lgbti+africa)
    • A People's History of the Egyptian Revolution | Left Turn – Notes from the Global Intifada Millions of Egyptians brought down one of the world’s most repressive regimes, that of the US-backed Hosni Mubarak, in just 18 days. Their bravery, perseverance, and tactfulness in the face of the regime’s brutal crackdown not only triggered uprisings across the Arab world but inspired and influenced protests against government austerity in the US, Spain, Portugal, and Greece. Despite the fact that it is only a few months old, it’s important to begin piecing together a people’s history of the revolution to convey what happened and how it happened so that the lessons from this critical struggle can be disseminated. (tags: Egypt uprising)
    • Africa: Exploitation and resistance – Audio Bankers are speculating on food in global markets, causing price spikes and real hardship for millions. ‘Land grabs’ in Africa are seeing more farmland transferred into corporate hands. Over one billion people in the world are hungry despite decades of ‘development’. Our food system is in crisis, but a global movement of small producers is fighting for an alternative – food sovereignty. This session will explore the problems of, and possible solutions to, the global food crisis (tags: Food_Insecurity landgrab landrights)
    • Land 'investment' deals in Africa: Say ‘no way!’ Food insecurity, loss of food sovereignty, the displacement of small farmers, conflict, environmental devastation, water loss, and the further impoverishment and political instability of African nations – these are among the consequences of large-scale investments in land in Africa, a special investigation by the Oakland Institute has revealed. Pambazuka News spoke to Anuradha Mittal, Jeff Furman and Frederic Mousseau about what prompted their research and what they discovered. (tags: Food_Insecurity africa landgrab landrights)

  • Eating the other: “Our voices must be respected”

    Posted: July 10, 2011, 9:17 pm by Sokari

    You have no right to speak of my story.
    You have no right to publish my story in the press
    Because I did not give you authorization.
    You have no right. I did not speak to you.
    You have said things you should not have said.
    Thank you

    Haitian American writer Edwidge Danticat responds to the rape story “How Violent Sex Helped Ease My PTSD” by Mac McClelland. A classic case of appropriating someone else’s suffering as an atonement for not suffering, a phenomena Bell Hooks describes as “Eating the Other” [Black Looks: Race and Representation]. As a way of deflecting the guilt of white privilege the subject both desires “blackness” and “constructs a social framework of sameness, a homogeneity of experience.”

    The desire to make contact with those bodies deemed other, with no apparent will to dominate, assuages the guilt of the past, even takes the form of a defiant gesture where one denies accountability and historical connection” . Most importantly, it establishes a contemporary narrative where the suffering imposed by structures of domination on those designated other is deflected by an emphasis on seduction and longing where the desire is not to make the other over in one’s image but to become the other”.

    In this essay Danticat recounts her meeting with the Haitian woman McClelland called both Sybille and K* in her writings and her request that McClelland not write about her. A breach of trust, a disregard for the voices of Haitian women and their right to ownership of their stories.

    >I met her at a meeting for rape survivors in Port-au-Prince. She is a 25-year-old mother of three children. She has a beautiful singing voice and often sings in talent shows to inspire other rape survivors.

    This incredibly brave and talented woman speaks Creole, French and Spanish. She learned Spanish while traveling between Haiti and the Dominican Republic to buy grocery items, toiletries and non-perishables that she would then resell in Port-au-Prince.

    She lost the father of her older children to illness before the earthquake and lost the father of her youngest child on January 2010, during the earthquake. She also lost her home, which is how she ended up living in the camp where she was raped.

    In her essay, Ms. McClelland writes that K*’s trauma led in part to her own breakdown. Nevertheless, during Ms. McClelland’s ride along with K*, on a visit to a doctor, Ms. McClelland, as has been reported elsewhere, live-tweeted K*’s horrific experiences. The tweets put K*’s life in danger because they identified the displacement camp where K* was living–with details of landmarks added–her specific injury, her real name, and suggest that she is a drug user.

    When K* found out about Ms. McClelland’s tweets, even before Ms. McClelland’s original Mother Jones article was published, K* wrote a letter to Ms. McClelland and Mother Jones magazine asking that Ms. McClelland not write about her. Her lawyer emailed the letter to them on November 2, 2010…[see above]

    Ms. McClelland has stated on this same twitter account that she had K*’s permission and K*’s mother’s permission to ride along with them, but she certainly–according to K*’s lawyer, and the driver on the ride along, and K* herself–did not have K*’s permission to tweet personal and confidential information about her. And even if Ms. McClelland in some way thought she had K*’s consent, the attached letter should have made it clear that it was withdrawn and that she had, as the letter states, “no right” to write about K* anymore, especially in ways that her previous tweets had made K*’s and her location easily identifiable.

    I have K*’s permission to publish this letter and to talk about K* because she is angry at the way Ms. McClelland has portrayed her in the tweets, has ignored the wishes of her letter and continues to make K* part of her story.

    This week, K* wrote me an e-mail from Port-au-Prince saying, “I want victims in Haiti to know that they can be strong and stand up for their rights and have a voice. Our choices about when and how our story is told must be respected.”
    Continue

    H/T Eccentric Yoruba

  • Photographic experiences

    Posted: July 8, 2011, 6:49 pm by Sokari

    “No More Pot Lucks” – an interview with Zanele Muholi by Michelle Pearson Clarke – a friend for Faces and Fazes. Michelle starts with her own story which is as it should be because Zanele’s work is about the women and transmen she photographs. It never was and never is about Zanele. Her photographs are conversations between her and her friends. Every 150 plus portraits is a friend. Not an acquaintance but a relationship of two or three or four.

    I won’t write about my own experience of being photographed by Zanele because this is not my time. That will come later and requires a renewed inspiration which I am still seeking out.

    This is a very different introduction to this interview than I had planned. As I write this, my mother is undergoing surgery to remove cancerous tumours from her brain. We are nearing the end of a 14-year battle with pancreatic cancer and I am reminded yet again of her inordinate reserves of grace and resilience. And as I write this, I am reminded yet again of all that she will leave behind with me.

    It’s a lot. I’m lucky, I know. I love my black queer self because she loved me. She was the first person to see me as I am. Her seeing me meant that she cut my plaits off when I asked at age six and it meant that she made me a bowtie and cummerbund for my graduation dance at age 16 and it meant that she danced with me and my friends at Pride at age 33. She saw me right into my current existence.

    This is what it’s like to have Zanele Muholi take your photograph. It is the experience of being seen. A South African artist, Zanele has been documenting black queer women and transmen in her ongoing series of black and white portraits, Faces and Phases, since 2006. She began the project as a commemoration and a celebration of the lives of the black lesbians that she met in her journeys through the townships of Johannesburg. I met Zanele in 2008 while she was in Toronto studying in the Documentary Media MFA Program at Ryerson University. By then she had expanded the project to include people that she met in her travels from Cape Town to London to Toronto.

    Zanele took my photograph on July 28, 2009. She met me at work and we walked down Sherbourne Street and we talked about life and photography and Joburg and Port-of-Spain. Every so often, she stopped me and took another shot with her film-loaded SLR camera. We had become friends and it was quick and casual. Months later, she sent me a single digital image. For a long time, I found it difficult to look at that photo. It was taken two days before a very painful transition in my life. When I looked at that picture, it was almost unbearable to look at the sadness in my eyes. That was all I could see and I knew why it was there. The bathroom mirror had mounted a long and spirited defense but here was undeniable evidence of loss and grief…..Continued

  • links for 2011-07-08

    Posted: July 8, 2011, 5:02 pm by Sokari

  • “They have killed Sizakele”

    Posted: July 7, 2011, 5:02 pm by Sokari

    “They have killed Sizakele”
    For Sizakele Sigasa, AIDS and lesbian activist, murdered with Salome Massoa, 7 July 2007, Soweto

    Where is she
    in this land of crushed stone?
    Where is she
    as morning dresses the day
    in the dirtied lace of tired gospels

    Where is she
    our sister Sizakele
    in this brittle dawn?

    White powdered faces
    ululate against an unremarkable sky
    as bullets tip the minute hand
    …one, two, three…
    collarbones crumble
    …four, five, six…

    Here where sun chases starlight
    here in heartbreak’s wilderness
    here she is
    embroidering morning dew
    beading our memories
    in the red and rainbows of militancy

    Here in this theatre of slaughter
    she is clearing a round of clay earth
    intoning a litany
    calling for a witness

    You say: it is not our tradition
    She says: is this your tradition
    to rip the pulse from my chest
    to deny a mother the dignity of dying first?

    You say: in the name of the father and the son
    She says: in the name of my sisters
    slain in meaningless massacres
    for loving their own skin

    A people do not survive
    monsoons of oppression
    only to savage their own kin.

    Jessica Horn: from Intersectionality and Sexuality in Africa.

  • links for 2011-07-05

    Posted: July 5, 2011, 5:01 pm by Sokari

  • People worth listening to: Grace Lee Boggs

    Posted: July 4, 2011, 6:16 pm by Sokari

    95 – wonderful inspirational beautiful woman – community, oneness, commitment and love

    Listen here

  • We are women and we play drums which makes us happy

    Posted: July 3, 2011, 7:09 pm by Sokari

    I want to be a part of this…..

    More drumming and icecream from Rwanda here – this is the formal one
    Via ukweliwetu256

  • links for 2011-07-03

    Posted: July 3, 2011, 5:01 pm by Sokari
    • Bring Back the Truth and Dignity from 1976 We are the future of the nation. We are the driving force of this nation. But because we are still unrecognized, we are still unemployed, poor, and living in shacks we are still going to fight for our dignity. This is our lives; our future. If we do not fight for ourselves, for our generation, no one else will do it. Those youth of June 16, 1976 died for the truth and yet it is not revealed. We will carry on from where the 1976 youth left off. (tags: Abahlali shackdwellers, southafrica)
    • Alice Walker: Why I'm joining the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza | World news | The Guardian There is a scene in the movie Gandhi that is very moving to me: it is when the unarmed Indian protesters line up to confront the armed forces of the British Empire. The soldiers beat them unmercifully, but the Indians, their broken and dead lifted tenderly out of the fray, keep coming. (tags: israel gaza alicewalker flowtila)
    • War on Terror & War on Trafficking: A Sex Worker Activist Confronts the Anti-Trafficking Movement « INCITE! Blog This booklet is a product of two years of research into the state of the anti-trafficking movement in the United States. I went to dozens of events, lectures, and conferences, and spoke with many wonderful but misguided people who take part in this movement. I have also had opportunities to hear many stories of surviving forced labor and prostitution, some of which were not so dissimilar to my own experiences in the sex trade in one point or another. I do not wish to negate their authority to speak about their own experiences and how they wished things were different, but I am deeply troubled by the cherry-picking of survivor stories and experiences that support the anti-trafficking trope equating all prostitution with trafficking and all trafficking with slavery, while all other voices are dismissed as “exceptions” (or “the top 2% elite,” as one anti-prostitution researcher said). (tags: trafficking sexwork terrorism War+Terror)
    • Africa Gathering London: Putting the social in media Throughout the Arab Spring, Al Jazeera has used social media both to distribute its journalism but also as a source for their journalism. As we’ve seen in Syria and Libya, the story of the Arab Spring would be almost impossible to tell without the help of social media. Al Jazeera has developed a sophisticated way to engage with and evaluate social media. (tags: africa technology socialmedia)

  • Taiye Selasi and some of the horrific things going on

    Posted: July 2, 2011, 7:53 pm by Sokari

    Taiye Selasi is interviewed by Granta and on NPR’s Tell Me More and  speaks about  her debut novel “Ghana Must Go” [see my collection here] and now infamous short story “The Sex Lives of African Girls” [which I have not read].  Its not difficult to figure out why this has become so popular.   Neither of the interviews are that great though no fault of Taiye’s, so this is just me following the hype – with Granta she talks briefly about her novel

    YI: Your story takes places in a rich household in Accra. Even though many of the characters are leading comfortable lives, a sense of menace runs beneath the surface. I was scared for all the women, especially the young narrator. Did you mean to paint the sex lives of African girls as dangerous and doomed?

    TS: It’s hard to say what I meant, but that’s certainly what I’ve done. To be honest, I was rather surprised to discover that I’d painted such a devastating portrait. It was only months and months after I’d finished editing – focusing narrowly on rhythm, image, pacing, form – that I noticed how dark the content was, how fundamentally damning the comment.

    This piece is told from the perspective of a girl who is just starting to grasp the sexual dynamics at play among the adults around her. It’s interesting that you chose to inhabit her limited point of view. Was it hard to get this narrator’s voice right – to figure out what she does and doesn’t understand?

    I suspect the second person helped a great deal. This ‘you’ voice appeared in my head from the beginning and guided me through the text, limiting my view of things to her view: I rarely looked where she wasn’t looking. In the first draft I’d included a passage alluding to the nature of Uncle’s work in Ghana’s oil extraction industry – but omitted it when it became clear that the narrator wouldn’t (couldn’t possibly) understand such politics. I’d slipped for a moment into an ‘I’ voice, an ‘I’ mind, and it showed.

     

    Tell me More with Michelle Martin is slightly crass in parts with  the usual stereotyping questions on “Africa” and writings by writers from various parts of the continent. It makes no sense to be talking to a writer from say, Ghana about  African writing.  Would she be asking a British writer about European writing  or an Indian about Asian writings? Why are writers from Africa expected to speak for the continent and  deal with “issues” for example,  ”some of the horrific things going on on the continent right now”.   Hmm there are some pretty amazing things going on on the continent right now – uprisings in Senegal, Swaziland, Mauritania to name a few.   The truth is there are horrific things happening and the truth is there are some amazing people responding to these horrors. Not just the big names, high profile movement people but people on the ground in their every day lives refusing the violence being thrown at them.

    A reminder there are some pretty horrific things going on in the US right now for Black women, women of colour, immigrant woman – there is a woman in New York from Guinea who had the courage to speak about being raped by a powerful white man – Dominique Strauss-Kahn.  The problem is most people dont believe her.  Its hard to be believed when you are a black woman, a poor woman, an immigrant woman.  People dont believe you because you dont have papers or you told some untruths to get your papers – that means you must be telling a lie about being raped.   It means you are not credible. Who on this planet has never told a lie, or misinformed someone about something – does this mean if I am raped and its discovered that I committed some fraud x years ago that I am lying about being raped?  What is the connection except to deny me my truth?   The system is set up so people have no choice if they are to survive and its damn arrogant and inhumane to condemn people for trying to survive.   This is obscene.  Other obscenities are  the sly comments on black woman and sexuality, on poor women being “greedy bitches” – being made on Twitter by men including black men and by some women.  People are so conditioned to believe  powerful white men in grey suits even though this group have proved time and time again to be the biggest liars, the biggest cheats, the biggest violators throughout our world history.   Eve Ensler has written an excellent essay on what we can learn from this tragic story

    This is a stream of the questions running in my head all morning.

    How do you fight a rape case if you have lied in your past? How do you fight a rape case if you have been sexually active? How do you fight a rape case as a woman who wants a future in journalism, politics, banking, international affairs? How do you fight a rape case and ever hope to be taken seriously again or be perceived as anything other than a raped victim?

    How do you fight a rape case as a woman in places like Congo where there are no real courts and no one is held accountable? How do you fight a rape case as an illegal immigrant with no rights in that country?

    How do you fight a rape case if you still believe rape is your fault, if you don’t even know what rape is, if you are afraid of upsetting your boyfriend/husband, or afraid of getting him in trouble because he will be more violent to you?

    To return to Taiye Selasi.  Much has been written on the duty or responsibility of the writer.  In response to a question on this, Selasi speaks about the need for the truth to be told.   I agree with her on that but I dont see it as the artist’s responsibility – I see it as a responsibility of humanity .  Does the fact someone chooses to write or paint or take photographs mean they now have a responsibility to everyone – why?   Personally I dont see that the writer has a responsibility to anyone but themselves.   Notwithstanding that there are many truths and we, as part of humanity, have a responsibility to be true to ourselves and take responsibility for our actions, words, and mess ups.

    And the thing that frustrates me the most when I think about the countries from which I come, Nigeria and Ghana, is the sense that the lives of millions of women and children and young men should somehow be held hostage to the ego-maniacal ambitions of a few middle-aged men. I think this idea is obscene and I think it needs to be discussed. I think it must be discussed. And I think literature that ignores this truth isn’t telling the truth. That hasn’t been said.

    To leave out the other stories or to let them sort of lie under the rubble of things having fallen apart is incomplete. And so as a writer I think I’m always sort of seeking to excavate human narrative from underneath all of that and hold it up to the light of universal experience. And to say as the highbrow social magazine Us Weekly says: Africans, they’re just like us. We’re living the lives that everyone in the world is living. And when that happens and only when that happens, I think does it start to seem obscene. Does it start to seem absurd? Does it start to make you crazy to think that teenagers using Facebook, dating, breaking up, mothers wanting the best for their children, fathers finding work, losing work, pursuing dreams. The whole panoply of human experience, to think that that is being pressed down, limited and curtailed by these really limited and in many ways outdated political squabbles, that becomes absurd.

    Only when we can see that human beings being limited, being fundamentally limited by that are exactly the same as human beings everywhere else.

    It’s a question of whether you feel the rain or just go through life getting wet!

  • Cradle nation: An Evolutionary Sigh!

    Posted: July 1, 2011, 6:32 pm by Mia Nikasimo

    “Honestly, I haven’t been any where. I have not worked for a living for four years, now. “We know where it lives,” everyone says in rabid finality, so I took to listening to loud classical music. It has worked for me in the past so it was a sort of back to the grind stone, if you like,” said Orogodogoin as she took stock of the group animosity fuelled by fear that gathered around her.

    The absence of Activism had cost Orogodogoin four years of unemployment while the white LGBTI activists made a living off selective activism. It was not for want of trying Orogodogoin tried. Orogodogoin applied two or three times once to work in a church run bookshop.

    “The job has gone!” said the gay manager of the bookshop on Orogodogoin’s first attempt.

    “Oh, it’s you again,” said the same gay manager of the same bookshop. “Thank you for coming again but we will call you.”

    “Hello,” said the same gay manager to a gay man waiting to try his luck. “The job is yours. Me, employ whatever that thinks it is? It will not happen, the job is yours if you want it, just say, yes, already!”

    “Yes already, then!” said the gay man and he got it just like that and Orogodogoin hadn’t even left the bookshop.

    Activism was necessary. Orogodogoin knew it. Orogodogoin was not going to forget that experience in a hurry.

    It was Saturday, the 25th of June 2011.  Orogodogoin was attending the conference, “Cradle Nation, Exploitation and Resistance” and she had written the following:

    My name is Orogodogoin and Orogodogoin is a writer and a transsexual activist. Orogodogoin felt the conference was a learning curve for me. “Cradle Nation, Exploitation and Resistance” was an invitation for reasons only the organiser, World Peace Path (Development and Justice for the world’s poor) knew.

    The spread of the church venue appeared to be packed until Orogodogoin looked up and saw the seats in the “gods” were hardly taken. Orogodogoin needn’t have worried because no sooner had the first half of the conference ended because then Orogodogoin discovered that the Cradle Nation Sexualities (the striving for liberation) event was tucked away in a back room called, “the Vestry room”. Vestry indeed! The venue space turned out to be a small room but given that it was filled and spilling outside Orogodogoin wondered if a giant monitor was out there to give those that couldn’t get into the room a glimpse of what was going on inside. Apparently no such luck was at hand.

    Given all this, the question was, why did Cradle Nation Sexualities have to be brushed to a side room at all? there was no time to dwell on this as the moderator, Sappho Grant, who due to time constraints opted for a “question and answer” format WHICH that meant we all had sufficient time to do the subject matter justice. Tigersclub, David, and Orogodogoin spoke about Cradle Nation Sexualities, silence, the Western world’s worldview of sexuality, the incursion of sexuality NGOs onto the Cradle Nation stage who thought they could come in and tell us about ourselves using imported labels to remap sexuality in Cradle Nation for us rather than helping us focus on our needs ourselves.

    Orogodogoin had to say, in hindsight, unlike Tigersclub and Kako who preferred to steered clear of the word, activism, Orogodogoin embraced it. Kako rejected it because he had never spoken from an activism standpoint. Tigersclub, because he preferred a more “softly, softly” approach. It is not that Orogodogoin couldn’t talk without taking the standpoint Orogodogoin adopted. on the contrary, owning Orogodogoin’s subjectivities as a transwoman, a lesbian and an Cradle Nation native disenfranchised both in the West and in Cradle Nation, sanctioned Orogodogoin’s speaking out.

    “Activism, of any form was not a curse,” Orogodogoin said. “Because without it different experiences from the cultural constructs would fade into obscurity. Allowing that to happen was not an option for Cradle Nation.”

    It was sufficient for me to talk about Cradle Nation Sexualities without first elaborating, what transgenderism means? Orogodogoin counted the subtleties of  dance forms that could take form in our daily life (whether we are transpeople or otherwise living in Cradle Nation or Cradle nation natives living elsewhere.) After all, Orogodogoin started out as an actor and dancer for part of Orogodogoin’s life. Therein, Orogodogoin explored Cradle Nation’s gender identities and sexualities claiming that, for the same reason most women have had to adopt silence in violent homes or because of their economic dependence on their husbands, “so have we in Cradle Nation as we have done in the Western world!” Conversely, Orogodogoin said, transwomen are subject to similar restrictions and in some situations even worse. To be a transsexual woman in Cradle Nation society today is life threatening. in the west which sees itself as a safe haven from homophobia and transphobia and despite legislation favouring the lgbti and irrespective of what white lgbt activists say, there are still enormous problems to overcome. Orogodogoin should know. As an Cradle Nation native, a transsexual woman and a lesbian living in the West, Orogodogoin has experienced transphobia and internalised homophobia from quarters Orogodogoin wouldn’t have expected it from. Orogodogoin now beginning to think that it is time we started talking about these hate crimes when they happen in the Western world instead of solely focusing on cradle nation and other parts of the global south.

    THIS IS NOT SIMPLY because Orogodogoin is a Cradle Nation native but rather because Orogodogoin is an activist who claims to have expertise in transgender politics. In fact Orogodogoin suggested that naming names of people and organisations that fall short of their remit in conferences like this is a good starting point. Although Orogodogoin mention Bolin Coward and Mahcter Nacthell  because Orogodogoin actually witnessed them abusing a black transwoman at black pride last year but Orogodogoin could have mentioned others like Max Worthash of the Gantry Centre in Woolwich, London, Eulij P. Easton of the Abo Centre in Camden, London and their transphobic acts. Was such silence healthy given the failure these activist deployed in place of the duties they were employed (or self employed) to carry out? Orogodogoin will name names. Holding such information back will not do us any good. We need a proactive approach to address Cradle Nation Sexualities and Orogodogoin contended that recasting an atmosphere of in-fighting as is happening in the West will not be an advancement of this process for change.

    Transgenderism is the dance of diversity and it manifests in the following forms: gender queer, intersex, transsexuals, transgenderist, androgyny, boi, grrl, fag hags, mtf butch, butch, ftm femme, femme, bisexuals, ftm, mtf, straight and much, much more that Orogodogoin may not have mentioned here today. Indeed, a diversity of gender identities which also have and identify their own sexualities. Or, as some of our questioners asked, “why do we need labels?” “Orogodogoin is interested in the situation about the difference between Western sexualities and how Cradle Nation Sexualities are impacted on, can you address these points,” and in that lay broader issues both charted and uncharted which with time we Cradle natives for ourselves to explore and proudly embody.

    Kako spoke of the sexualities of women like his mother for whom silence was a form of self-defence, domestic violence, reproduction and how they were used as control mechanism to keep women in check while the husband ran the roost as they liked almost without any checks and balances at all. He asked, “who is to say whether such women have sexualities other than those made available to them by the patriarchal world that encroached on such women and their needs sexually, economically, socially, culturally or even politically?”

    Tigersclub gave examples of woman in time of war, women like Oya deified, Osun deified, Ooba deified but can one ever forget the like of Efunsetan, Amina of Zaria, Fumilayo Anikulapo Kuti and the vast throng of strong women who speak of sexualities the western world would not have a clue about let alone speak about?

    Olodumare, for instance, is transgender, Sango was transgender, and so are most of the deities abound in Yoruba mythology and worshippers all over Yoruba-land at home or in the Diaspora not to mention their gender identities and or sexualities. Did the sacking of the Sankore University of Timbuktu have something to do with the rewriting of certain parts of that  particular part of his/herstory of Cradle Nation Sexualities? Archaeology and palaeontology have their work cut out in future finds.

    Despite a spoof video on Youtube in which an elder is asked about sexuality and or gender identity one could hardly expect a reasonable outcome. The elder without helpful guidance claimed that the LGBTIQ was aberrant to Yoruba culture. One could hardly confine Yoruba mythology to prescriptions by colonial masters of old, religious leaders and dogma nor those enshrined by their stooges in present day settings and neo-colonialism. To add, one must say, our bodies are not for sale to or for financiers from overseas or religious pundits that force their will on us merely because they do not understand our ways.

    Tigersclub came out again which was a big hit. He said, “It happened on a talk show and nobody had dared attempt to do so since!”

    Sappho Grant, Orogodogoin, Tigersclub and Kako whichever way we were viewed – contributors or activists, whatever way we framed our role, our sexualities and our calls for liberation, what all of us were saying was that, it is no longer enough for us to let those with ulterior motives speak for us be they NGOs from abroad or our leaders with their hands tied behind their backs by financiers calling the shots from abroad. Cradle Nation Sexualities are about Cradle natives speaking up for Cradle natives in ways that speak to us. We are rich enough linguistically, culturally, traditionally, socially and politically to decolonialise our conditioning ourselves. In this, we can find ways to be without the stricture of old colonial keeping us the way they want us rather than the ways we are.

    And now returning to the beginning…

    “What did they expect might happen? Did they think no one was going to be interested in Cradle Nation Sexualities?” Orogodogoin thought looking at the small space allotted. We had just seen and heard the key speaker and editor in chief of Buka Press, Daniel Aran dealing World Peace Path a blow. His fellow panelists rallied to the same tunes. Chika Agbabiaka asked for a volunteer who would write what the audience thought when, “Cradle,” was mentioned and had everyone contributing. Then came another point of contention, “identity grab was new colonialism.” What seemed to be the issue? Well, the word, DEVELOPMENT, as found in grabbing our identity for development (theirs, not ours) given what it now represented was an affront to the poor they purported to bring justice to. For Ijimare I. Iginju, a deeply academic foray into the foibles of development, which was shown to be a throw back from the immediate aftermath of colonialism now conveniently masquerading as progress. The question was how did that equate justice? A further call was sent out to the elusive NGOs and their modus operandi, the same developed nations of the north prescribing to the strategic south about how best to “develop the Cradle Nation” where “helping us to improve ourselves” would have been a good start and then their was the issue of the “global recapitalisation of finance” and the adverse impacts that was having on Cradle Nation. Finally, a high point of sorts came from Aran retort to us all that we are all Cradle Nation natives.

     

    When Awero Guardian, the moderator of the main event and a member of world Peace Path (Development and Justice for the World’s poor) attempted to excuse herself.

    “What, I’m not from that part of the world” she said with an alarmed look on her smiling face.

    Orogodogoin was reminded how even Orogodogoin was a Cradle Nation native in spite of her attempts to suggest otherwise. An example of her compromised country, Israel, was mentioned. Even Awero found that funny.

    “People with a common heritage at each other’s throats, what would you call that? Apart from that we are all human beings irrespective of political borders,” said Aran in what must have felt like a passing shot.

    With all the calls for changes in the way the West approaches the global south can it really be inclusive to hide Cradle Nation Sexualities and gender identities in the backrooms of resistance? Can it be healthy to mention homophobia and remain silent when transphobia is still extremely rampant? Sexuality and gender identity are part of human life and it ought to be heard as such in the main halls of debate where all the other issues of contention are wrestled with and with as sizable an audience to boot.

    Orogodogoin wondered at the long faces afterwards. Why does the truth upset people so? Is this why nobody on the panel embraced activism? Would we be doing ourselves any favours without it? Where would every marginalised section of society be without activism?

    Why is Orogodogoin called Orogodogoin? Phenomenology is not something alien in diverse cultures. Rather it is like an evolutionary sigh. Orogodogoin is an evolutionary sigh. No final note, no giving thanks just those receding glimpses of the long face that couldn’t easily let go of their rank prejudice. Orogodogoin wondered what they would have made of mtf butch had she mentioned that this is how she identified… Long, glum faces and then it dawned on Orogodogoin: the faces before Orogodogoin perceived a Trojan horse in Orogodogoin’s being there.

    Mia Nikasimo (C) June, 2011.

     

  • My African Mind: How ignorance did become history

    Posted: July 1, 2011, 6:19 pm by Sokari

    Healthy black monsters come in all shapes and sizes:

    ‘Fornication under the consent of the pope’ – opened the season of rape of black women from then till now – of no consequence.

    MY AFRICAN MIND from BOFADACARA on Vimeo.

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