Feminist talk

Tracey Naughton started off the session on community media at the Highway Africa conference with an old recording of the ANC’s radio station. As the speakers crackled with an Mkhonto we Sizwe song, delegates sat in silence. The session was a great summary of beginnings of the community radio sector in South Africa. Tracey Naughton and Lumka Mtimde mentioned that they are writing a book on the…

“If you want to connect to internet, you have to come earlier at the office, before the typists come and use the computers” says Bimbola Ayesola, a woman journalist working in Nigeria. This shows the sad reality of newsrooms in Africa. Women journalists still have a few access to ICTs. There have been ICTs workshops during the Highway conference to build African journalists skills. However, there…

During the Know How conference held in Mexico City from August 23-26, the Association for Progressive Communications Women's Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP) issued a call to every grrls, librarians, lecturers, writers, techies, geek grrls, bloggers, emailers, SMSers, advocates, trainers, storytellers, poets, writers, web managers, theorists, graffiti artists, photographers.. to take…

World Press Freedom Day was celebrated on 3rd of May. As new digital communications technologies enable new opportunities for the creation, expression and dissemination of news and perspectives, these spaces are not invincible from the policing of State and other equally impactful, but often submerged, socio-political norms. GenderIT.org explores the gender dimension of freedoms of the freedoms…

Traffic came to a stand still in Mali at the start of the Polycentric World Social Forum (WSF) as about 6000 people marched in Bamako’s Independence Statue through to the stadium called Stade Omini Sports Modibo Keita carrying banners with different solidarity messages saying Another Africa was possible. Campaigns coordinator for Jubilie South Africa Makaoma Lekalakala was happy to see that 70…

World Court of women on resistance to wars, wars of globalisation, and wars against women heard stories in poetic and visual presentations of testimonies of women from all over the world at the Polycentric World Social Forum (WSF) in Bamako.

The African women’s movement, which is meeting at the Bamako World Social Forum (WSF) Feminist Dialogue, have recognised the access to new technologies as one of the strategies, they need to use to advance themselves as movement.

The Bamako Polycentric World Social Forum (WSF) kicked off yesterday with a 70 percent of people being women from all walks of life. The WSF is an event of great importance to African people as a very first opportunity for a collective and democratic expression in their fights against exploitation of people and their resources.

In terms of gender, information communications technologies (ICTs) and the ‘information society’ is slowly creeping into the agendas of women’s movements. It is at a painfully slow rate, and a LOT of work still needs to be done to find political investments in this issue. Some connections can be seen from the development trajectory, and foreseeably, from the perspective of international trade and…

This led me to question the efficacy of such global platforms and processes. A lot of money and effort have been pumped into this Summit, and for the entire seven years of PrepComs as well as Phase I in Geneva during 2003. Where has it all led to?