World Social Forum 2007

Africa: “African Women- The Mirror of the World”

2007-01-18

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wsf2007/39282

Printer friendly version

What would the world be like if it was viewed through the eyes of African women? The Gender & Trade Network in Africa (GENTA) will pose this question to more than 65,000 social movements, people dwelling in slums, and world parliamentarians at the World Social Forum to be held in Nairobi Kenya January 20 – 25, 2007 in Kasarani.
GENDER & TRADE NETWORK IN AFRICA (GENTA

P.O. Box 6655

Johannesburg 2000

South Africa

Phone: 27-11-426-2781

Fax: 27-11-426-2056

E-mail : genta@mail.ngo.za

IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE

“African Women- The Mirror of the World”


What would the world be like if it was viewed through the eyes of African women? The Gender & Trade Network in Africa (GENTA) will pose this question to more than 65,000 social movements, people dwelling in slums, and world parliamentarians at the World Social Forum to be held in Nairobi Kenya January 20 – 25, 2007 in Kasarani.

The backdrop for the World Social Forum 2007 reflects on ‘Africa at 50’ as Ghana turns 50, the oldest independent state in Africa. It is also the commemoration of 200 years since the abolition of slavery. These significant milestones provide a platform to participate in a space called: “African Women- the Mirror of the World”.

African Women- The Mirror of the World is a space for breaking walls of silence, repressive economic models, oppressive political systems to a rebirth of new politics and economics that give Africa and the world new life, new hope, new values and new power relationships based on dignity.

Under the theme “African Women – The Mirror of the World” GENTA has four major events designed as innovative and creative to bring out the nuances of a new political vision and image of the world mirrored through the eyes of African women. African women have accumulated clarity and wisdom informed by their lived experiences. They are prepared to take decisive action to transform and restructure the world economic and political arrangements in favour of the African continent. The World Social Forum in Kenya will showcase women’s ability to articulate a new language and discourse that advances Africa. It will bring women living on the margins to centre stage to articulate their vision for an Africa that uses its natural resources to uplift the African continent. They will express the types of economic markets and international trade Africa needs to sell its raw materials. The space will showcase the capacity that women have to bring about a global confrontation with the dominant discourse, as well as prepare for a confrontation with official Africa which has been co-opted into the dominant discourse of neo-liberalism.

The first event, full of colour entitled “Women in the Market Place: Looking at Trade Through African Women’s Eyes” is a space set up like an African market, using goods such as maize, beans, coffee beans, tea, textiles, and medicinal herbs. It is in this space where International Trade as articulated by the World Trade Organisation will be challenged through a new vision of trade that enables Africa to control prices of its goods and increase the capacity to beneficiate it natural resources. Pillars of economic and trade oppression such as the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA’s) being negotiate by Africa with the European Union will be broken to release voices of transition, songs of resistance that transform the politics and economic systems of Africa to bring about social change.

The second event, “Where Wisdom Resides” will bring together women from different generations to debate and exchange four key questions about official Africa through the eyes of different generations of women. How each generation mentors the next and how new generation’s take these visions forward, will take centre stage mirrored through the eyes of African women.

The third event, women from around the world will converge in a space entitled “The Rhythm of Resistance” Using authentic African methods of communication the space will come alive with dances for resistance, drums that celebrate the many struggles women are waging and winning. The rich oratory tradition of Africa will bring African women’s stories of confrontation. Weaving African symbols through cloth, seeds, food and pictures, GENTA will send their vision declare their campaigns in solidarity with women around the world through African Women’s Eyes.

The fourth event, “Shades and Shadows of Colour” seeks to define dignity through the eyes of those who have been labelled, as slum dwellers, as ‘mere’ women, as homeless, refugees, migrants as indigent. It is defining dignity for those who have been displaced from a place of full humanity and dignity.

African women, confronted with an intensification of institutions, structures, systems, policies and economies that entrench patriarchy, neoliberalism and fundamentalism offer a new opportunity at the World Social Forum to offer a lens that views the world from the vantage point of African women who have paid the cost of failed states, inimical economic and political systems which deepen poverty and widen inequalities.

The collusion between patriarchy, sexism, racism and capitalism has been borne most by women in Africa specifically. The current notion of governance that polishes imperfect surfaces without challenging the fundamentally flawed form does nothing to advance women’s citizenship.

The Gender & Trade Network in Africa (GENTA) invites you to African Women- The Mirror of the World a space for breaking walls of silence, repressive economic models, oppressive political systems to a rebirth of new politics and economics that gives Africa and the world new life, new hope, new values and new power relationships based on dignity.

For more information Contact in Kenya: 254-733-721442

Mobile : Mohau Pheko : 27-82-670-2505 or Lebohang Pheko : 27-84-881-9327