in the DRCongo which we support where they have been speaking out against the violations, particularly the awful sexual violence that is happening. Tey are forced to move from location to location, but they are not deterred, they speak out against what is happening to them so that the world can know what is going on.


ON FEMINISM Te ‘F-word’ gets a lot of derision, that is why together with other women in the movements, we got together to establish the African Women’s Forum – we wanted to reclaim the F-word. Feminism, the way we understand it, as African feminists, it’s a global struggle against all forms of patri- archal oppression. Many of the people who do not want to use the F-word claim that they are promoting women’s rights, they claim that they support gender equality, that they do not want to call themselves feminists because they do not believe in feminism. Our response to that is, you cannot promote women’s human rights, you cannot fight for gender equality, or gender justice if you do not advocate for the dismantling of the institutions and structures responsible for women’s op- pression. Wanting to fight the gender jus- tice and equality war, without using the word feminism and feminist tools, is like wanting to take a shower without get- ting wet. Now we are aware that feminism has had


a certain degree of notoriety, but our take on that is the fact that any group of people who insist that we are going to set up outside convention spaces, think differently and do things differently, have to pay a price. And no matter what, there will always be a stigma or a certain detachment from what it is that this group of people are trying to do. We advocate that being a feminist is


fighting for women’s rights, and fighting against oppression. I have been married for 21 years to a wonderful man who is a partner in so many ways, and makes our lives complete. He is also very supportive. He makes my life complete and I make his life complete – that is the way it is supposed to be, but you hear stories from women who are married to men who abuse them, who deny them space, who denigrate them as human beings, and they go through life and these relationships without being able to achieve their full potential. If you are in that kind of a relation-


ship, and friends and family are trying to convince you that you need to stay in


that kind of marriage or relationship be- cause that is what a good African woman is supposed to do, I always say, No, you know what a healthy relationship is like, what women deserve. Women have value, women should be given respect and dig- nity and they should have that in their private relationships, public relationships and their professional relationships.


ON AFRICAN GAY RIGHTS My take on the issue of homosexuality is two things. First of all, if you are in the business of advocating for rights of people, then we cannot get into the business of advocating which rights appeal to us and which rights appeal to others, because from there we would be going down a very steep slope. Terefore, every woman has the right to choose what kind of relation- ship they want to engage in. Every hu- man being has the right to be involved in making a decision about their lives, their bodies and relationships. We should not get into the business of designating who people can be with in their private spaces. Once we start doing that then every single thing in their lives is up for grabs. Te mo- ment we start deciding that some people have certain rights, and others should not have those rights, then one day what is going to happen is that the rights are rewritten and taken for granted, and will then become negotiable. Secondly, we need to be very careful


about understanding these issues within different African communities. Tere is a lot of research that has been done, and still being done about gay relationships in indigenous African communities and we know that there is a lot of ignorance, homophobia. But before we start making absolute


pronouncements about what is and what isn’t right in African culture, we need to take cognisance of norms and practices in all African communities to understand what is allowed, what is permitted, what people may not necessarily have condoned but they did just because we understood that human beings have certain rights, they are complex and things can’t be the same everywhere. So we need to be very careful and make sure we have informa- tion, facts and figures. But more impor- tantly, as a human right issue, we need to be very careful particularly as young Afri- can people about our own understanding of the universality of human rights and the indivisibility of human rights.


ON GRANT PROJECTS THAT SEEM TO DO TOO MUCH Our thinking around that has to have a certain political perspective. Certain forces have combined to create certain situations. Where many African countries are deeply fractured, many of our gov- ernments are unable to fulfil their social contracts with their people, be it providing social services, infrastructure, good gov- ernance and so on. When you have these vacuums, someone or something has to


Mutual support: Bisi and her husband Dr Kayode Fayemi, Governor of Ekiti State in Nigeria attend the Purple Ball.


take its place. And in response to situa- tions where people have next to nothing in communities, there are women and men who try to step in to fill in the gaps. Eve- rybody knows they can’t do everything, everybody knows they can take the place of governments, or the place of certain statutory services that should be provided to people. Te fact that we have people that are rising to that challenge, it’s a statement and a noble commitment in itself on how communities in Africa are ready to take their own destiny into their hands. And it is that particular commitment and scope that the AWDF is supporting.


ON HER LEGACY AND AWDF VISIBILITY We could be more visible to those who have never heard of us. But what we have been focusing on is letting our work speak for itself. But as I stand down as executive director, I think the legacy I am most in- spired by is the fact that, when we started the AWDF, we promised the women of Africa that we will create an institution that we will be proud of, one that will be trusted, respected and credible. And I would like to think that I have achieved that.


WINTER 2011 | NEW AFRICAN WOMAN | 45


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