– Bertha Tobias Young Namibian women are currently picking up the baton of revolutionary social change as it pertains to gender equality in the Land of the Brave. They currently self-determine in ways that our foremothers could have only dreamed for them. Importantly, they are running through the left-over shards of the glass ceiling which has been shattered by the sheroes who came before us. When I reflect on the… Keep Reading
Depictions of violence in art
– Helen Harris & Gina Figueira, StArt Art Gallery In 2020 and 2021 Sister Namibia ran an Artists Activation project that commissioned artists to make new work related to feminism in Namibia. Working as curators on this project was an intense and gratifying experience. The parameters were broad enough that the artists we worked with did not feel restricted by them, but the direction and purpose was clear. The resulting exhibition… Keep Reading
THE ROLE OF MALE ALLIES IN THE FIGHT AGAINST SGBV
Martha Mukaiwa – Windhoek, Namibia When post-apocalyptic humans emerge from the radio-active rubble and look back on this year on an iPhone they find in the Covid-speckled dirt, the blacked out social media squares and the influencers posed stonily in front of riot police will attest that 2020 was a year of protest. From the Black Lives Matter movement to #ShutItAllDown and #EndSARS, in the last eleven months, we have… Keep Reading
Gender-based and Sexual Violence (GBSV): A patriarchal problem
– Alna Dall Stromeyer Many theories exist that try to explain the root causes of GBSV. Some argue that the perpetrators of GBSV are dysfunctional, angry, psychopathic men: these are the monsters of our society who prey on the weak. The problem with this theory is that it exonerates all the men who might have violent tendencies but who do not have the guts or the opportunity to exercise them…. Keep Reading
On anger and the ‘official ally checklist’
– Ndapwa Alweendo It was difficult for me to decide who my imagined reader was when I sat down to write this piece. Do I speak to other black people and possibly just encourage them to relive some of the traumas of whiteness with me? Or do I join the seemingly endless number of black people who repeatedly experience the indignity of justifying their own existence? In deciding what our… Keep Reading
Whiteness and being anti-racist
– Ethne Mudge Dear white people – do you know how to be anti-racist? Dear white folks, we aren’t bad people (neither are we good people) for having perpetuated racism our entire lives. All our institutions are built on racism and all of us were socialised into it, but once we know that, we can start to be part of the solution. Everyone’s talking about #blacklivesmatter, but white people like… Keep Reading