March 8, 2018
By Sayaspora
International Women’s Day is important to us. Over the past week, our team has been thinking through what this day means to us, and this is what we decided.
For us, this day represents a time to celebrate and honour the women in our lives and our communities. It is a day to raise our voices to uplift African women on our continent who continue in many ways to resist and challenge the status quo.
A day to highlight African women who are often erased from mainstream conversations about African womanhood and women’s rights. Women who despite all odds are surviving and helping others to survive too.
This day also represents a time for us to highlight the triumphs and challenges of women across the globe.
Happy international women’s day to all of you. You matter, your dreams matter and your struggles matter.
SAYASPORA TEAM.
Licensed psychologist in Georgia who started up Therapy for Black Girls “an online space dedicated to encouraging the mental wellness of Black women and girls”.
She works in gender and development and women’s rights. She is the co-founder and director of Girls Empowerment Sierra Leone and a professor at both Columbia University and Temple University.
Sevda Alizadeh
She started up Ushahidi after the 2007/2008 post election violence in Kenya. It is a website that collects and records eyewitness reports of violence through text messages and google maps. Currently she is a Policy Manager at Google Africa.
Glow is an activist who uses vlogs about her own experiences to push for the representation of trans men and women in South Africa. In an interview with Vogue magazine she said the following about her work “A large majority of what I do is push for representation by just being myself,”. (Vogue Magazine 2018) Most of her vlogs are based on her own experiences as a trans woman in South Africa.
She is a queer visual artist and activist. She created a photographic series called of Faces and Phases to show positive image of black lesbians and transgender people.
Présidente de l’association des femmes chefs d’entreprises du Maroc (AFEM). « L’association des femmes chefs d’entreprises du Maroc est considérée comme une grande institution tant les valeurs qu’elle véhicule dépassent le simple cadre d’un réseau associatif. Forte de ses 600 membres, de ses 7 antennes régionales, de ses 6 incubateurs au féminin labellisés Maroc Pionnières, l’AFEM est fière d’être le centre névralgique et le porte-drapeau de l’entreprenariat féminin au Maroc.
“Born in 1983 in Mexico City, Mexico, Lupita Nyong’o started acting as a teen in Kenya and went on to work behind the scenes of the film The Constant Gardener. She directed and produced the albinism documentary In My Genes and starred in the TV series Shuga. The actress also featured prominently in the box office-shattering superhero flick Black Panther (2018). “
She is the creative mind behind Tongoro, a 100% Made In Africa label providing clothing that offer style conscious consumers quality, variety and convenience, at affordable prices. “I’ve always considered myself a child of Africa. The mix of cultures is so prominent that I just take all of my cultural baggage, what I’ve been taught by my family, and I put everything into my work. So I think as far as influences, I just try to translate as many stories that I can out of all these different cultures inside of me.” | Quote : OkayAfrica
Artist, singer-songwriter, Iranian-Dutch who’s finding a home in Music. “Besides being an immigrant, I was already weird,” she remembered, sighing. “I didn’t really care what people thought of me, but at the same time I was really lonely.” Photo and Quote : The fader.
She is a “Soul Model”. « Blackness does not look one way. Being carefree can be graduating from Princeton or it can be twerking to Future. Breaking stereotypes doesn’t negate our Blackness, nor does satisfying stereotypes validate it. We don’t have to choose. We are entitled to wholeness. For too long we’ve lived our lives by other people’s definitions and it’s time to start living by our own. We are creative, articulate, intelligent and determined because of our Blackness, not in spite of it. […] It was not until I realized that it is possible to fit into as well as shatter every stereotype that I actually understood what it means to be free. »
She’s the programming director of A/D/O, «a space in Brooklyn dedicated to discovering, exploring and debating the boundaries and #futureofdesign.» […] I think more than anything representation of unique, and unexpected, and underrepresented perspectives is hugely important. Not only for the people who are being represented, but in order to stay relevant and healthy, diversity is a major key.»
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