Fahamu (Oxford)
COLUMN
March 8, 2007
Posted to the web March 8, 2007

By Sokari Ekine

8 March is International Women's Day. So the focus this week will be
on blogs by African women. There are probably hundreds of blogs by
African women on the continent and in the diaspora. Therefore
selecting six was not an easy task. I have chosen the following
because they are either consistent and have been publishing for over
a year (keeping a blog consistently is no easy task) or they are
exceptional in content or style.

Wordsbody - a literary and arts blog by Molara Wood for those who
want know what is happening in the literary and arts scene in London
and Lagos.

Recently she posted an interview with Nigerian writer, Mohammed Sule
who recently passed away on the 12th February - on reading in
Nigeria....

'Given our reading culture in this country, where those who are
creating these problems have little or no time to read, how could the
writers really change the ills? ......The people who are causing the
ills are in the minority while those who are reading are in the
majority. So if you are able to reach the majority, if you are able
to reach about a million people, they may have different perspectives
about the book, but your preaching will get through. And then we are
moving forward. Of course, I'm also aware of the poor reaching
culture. When I was in primary school, we had a library where we
could read. It was the same in secondary school. And we read a lot.
But these days, even some university graduates hardly read. So it is
a fundamental problem. But I don't believe the problem cannot be
solve if all those concerned wake up to their responsibilities. '

Mshairi - Kenyan blogger who writes on women's issues, human rights
as well as some of the best poetry online. Mshairi has also been
involved with me in setting up the African Women's blog. On the night
of the lunar eclipse she wrote

'As night deepens, thrilled we stand in wonder

in awe, a crystalline sky a mantle of stars.

Spectacularly ascending over the surface

the moon regally glides over earth's shade

little by little, once a crescent then engulfed

we marvel at moonlight's luminosity loss. A

lingering darkening an effervescent cerise glow

vivid hues of gray and orange.'

Freedom for Egyptians - "Freedom and Democracy are the only
guarantees for human dignity, self-respect and human rights - an
important statement if you are an Egyptian - one of the few countries
that has imprisoned bloggers. Her comment on the sentencing of
Egyptian blogger, Abdel kareem Nabil Soliman Amer.

'It is really sad! Egypt is setting a dangerous precedent for trying
and sentencing internet writers and bloggers when other countries are
working on raising the ceiling of freedom of
expression.. ......... ..And the biggest disaster is that it is not the
issue to agree or disagree with Kareem Amer's blog, but the real
disappointment is that many people are supporting jailing Kareem,
including his family. They do not know that regardless where do they
stand on politics or religion, their turn is coming...... I am not
shocked but sad.'

Ore's Notes - I was privileged to work with Ore on the BAWo project
last year, supporting and encouraging young Nigerian girls in a
blogging project. Without Ore's hard and determined work the project
would not have gotten off the ground. This year Ore has single
headedly taken the idea further by applying and receiving funding
from Hamrambee. Ore writes about life in Lagos, literature, feminism
and technology. On Nigerian newspapers, not an easy decision as there
are so many but she goes for......... .

'My paper of choice then was This Day, mostly because it appeared to
be so highly regarded. After trying it out for a few weeks, I
realized how much I did not like that paper. So much of the news in
This Day (and this is common to a lot of Nigerian newspapers) is
focused almost exclusively on politics. Yes, politics affects
virtually every sphere of our lives, but there is surely more to
report than that. Not being very interested in politics myself, I had
to admit to myself that This Day was not the paper for me. I recently
tried The Guardian and while I enjoyed that, I remembered that I had
read an issue of Business Day sometime last year on a flight to Abuja
and actually read it cover to cover.'

Afromusing - Afromusing blogs on alternative technology especially
solar power, renewable energy and technology in general as well as
the occasional dip into music and film. Recently she ran a test on an
I-pod solar charger...

'Ok: It works well, there are preliminary indications that it
functions as designed, marketed and as expected.... ........I am
afraid i did not realise that my schedule today did not afford me
more than 2 hrs of direct sunlight, i learnt that next time i promise
to test something like this...make sure i have a way of positioning
said gadget in direct sunlight for the ideal amount of time to make
for a true test........ If you arent stopping.... I have attempted to
charge it twice today. In the morning i got abt 30 minutes of direct
sunlight (I got swamped and forgot to set it up earlier). I started
out with a completely dead battery, when the charger was in direct
sunlight after 30 seconds the ipod turned on to indicate that it is
charging, needless to say, i was excited. After 30 min or so i did
not have direct sunlight so it stopped charging. At this point i
could turn the ipod on and even play a song, but decided not to,
attempting to keep the 'integrity' of the experiment he he, so i
turned the ipod off.'

R. E Ekosso's Blog - Rosemary from the Cameroon and blogs from the
Netherlands on race, literature, feminism and just about anything
that catches her eye. Recently she wrote two posts about Chinua
Achebe's famous essay on Joseph Conrad's "In the Heart of
Darkness" ....some of her thoughts.

'The white man knows all the plant species in my world, and can tell
where oil will be discovered even before the organic matter has
finished rotting. He has complete mastery of the extent of my
resources, and can describe my diseases in great detail. If he is
particularly knowledgeable, he might even be able to produce small,
potted and sometimes wildly inaccurate histories of some of my
people...... But he does not know who I am. I do not think he wants to
know, because there is no money or superiority or power in knowing
me.....However, I know him better than he knows me. He studies my
vital statistics, and I study his soul'

Soul Searching - one of the older blogs by African women and one of
the first I read, Soul does not have an RSS feed, google ads or any
other signs of publicity on her blog. She very rarely uses links but
just writes and writes - poetry, stories, thoughts. Nubian has been
viciously attacked time and time again by, in particular, male
members of the Nigerian community of bloggers, but has never let this
intimidate her or prevent her from speaking her mind. The thing I
love about Soul are her postings on her everyday experiences in
London - on the tube, on the street, at work, in a club. Generally I
don't read journal type blogs because to be honest I find them boring
but Soul is different - she can tell a story.... Here's a post on
loss - I feel for her on this one as I am sure most of us have
experienced it at some time or the other.

'It hurts cos I was gonna back the pics up that evening. (damn you..
bloody jetlag and procrastination)

All the pics I took when I was out of town - Gone

All the pics of 'I' - Gone

All pics of eating at my fav. chicken shack by 'the cage'- Gone

All artistic shots of 'the 7 tracks' - Gone

All pics of 'I and co', 'O', 'A and co', 'K and co' - Gone

All 'artistic' images in various stages of undress - Gone (lol, just
kidding)

not again!.

My heart is literally breaking right now. I need a camera for work
but dang, buying the same camera again...

I think I'm going to cry. again.'

My Realities Latifah - Blogging from Soweto in adverse conditions,
Latifah's poems are stories about her life as a lesbian victim of
hate crime and living with HIV. She now has her own computer thanks
to a generous soul, so hopefully she will be able to post more
frequently as she can write her pieces at home and only needs to
spend a minimum of time at the internet café. But working nights 6
days a week is a hard additional struggle so anything she writes is a
bonus - a brave heart.....For her mother...... ......... ........

'Thank you for being there for me

Thank you for the best mom to me

You've shown me that no matter what

You'll always be by my side

Even though what the world may think about me

You still remain there for me

You have always told me things will work out fine one day and I love
you for that

I have not always seen what you meant by showing me right and wrong
but now i know.

Thank you for your patience and faith in me

Thank you for not judging me when others find joy in doing so
everyday

Thank you for your ongoing support and courage

Akekho ofana futhi ozofana nawe!'

Kameelah Writes - On Why I write.......

'why i write-speak/ /* because i am not supposed to. because prophet
muhammad (pbuh) said the 'ink of a scholar is worth more than the
blood of a martyr.' because cheryl wright said 'i like fighting with
my words. my words whoop people's asses many a day before i have to
use my fists.' and audre lorde said 'what are the words you don't yet
have? what do you need to say? what are the tyrannies you swallow day
by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of
them, in silence? because me'shell ndego'ocello asked 'after a half a
century of post-colonialism and swallowing the bullshit that we have
been fed, the question is: how are we gonna spit it out?' because
swallowing & consuming bullshit all your life is a bad for your
health. because this is the real spit or swallow question. because
jayne cortez asks us 'to imagine somewhere in the advance of
nowhere.' because this pen is pressed for revolution.'

Dogonland - The newest blog / journal, my friend Del has finally
joined the blogosphere. I remember only a year ago her saying she
could not understand this thing with blogging and Wikis....... .Ok she
is my friend but Dogonland is a serious and excellent project as you
will see. Del has just returned from the Pan African film festival so
she should be writing a lots about that in the next few days...
meanwhile here is a tribute to Toni Morrison on her birthday...

'You've given black Americans a fictionalized reclamation of that
traumatic memory...... ....racial history. Shifting back and forth in
time has made some uncomfortable with your work because it's not an
easy read but like Jorge Amado, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ben Okri,
Gayle Jones, Maryse Conde, Pedro Almodovar, Ousmane Sembene, Isabel
Allende, Chris Abani, James Baldwin, Zadie Smith, etc. you
love "language" and bring the lives, deaths, births, smells, shifting
perspectives, ancestral connection, earth/landscape to life. Your
stories are sweeping, interwoven tales of how really good and how
really heartbreaking life can be...'

Black Looks - Do I read my own blog? Well yes, now that Annie
Quarcoopome is writing regularly on colonialism / neo-colonialism and
literature, plus Rethabile from Sotho blog (the only man on the blog)
but a beautiful one and a poet too, Kym from Askthisblackwoman and
Kameelah (see above). So yes I do read my own blog.

Blogging is not easy and to blog consistently week after week and
month after month moving into years requires a special kind of
commitment and so I would like to honour all those women mentioned
here and the many many more that I have not included but which can be
found at the African Women Blogs Aggregator - African Women's Blogs

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, and is Online News
Editor of Pambazuka News.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka. org or comment online at
pambazuka.org

how did i miss this
bumping for future ref