Empowering women, for women and for everyone
Honouring women's achievements and empowerment on 'IWD' seems timelier than ever, in this age of masculinist tech bros. Here are my feminine stories from beyond the West.
Dear readers,
This week, despite all horrors everywhere, wars and nuclear threats, my podcast Spotlight on Africa focuses on Women’s empowerment in Africa, as March marks the start of Women's History Month, with International Women's Day on 8 March.
Just to allow us some optimism in these dark times.
Spotlight on Africa: celebrating female empowerment for Women's History Month
Issued on: 04/03/2025
Here is the podcast episode: https://www.rfi.fr/en/podcasts/spotlight-on-africa/20250304-spotlight-on-africa-celebrating-women-s-empowerment-for-women-s-history-month
It is also available on Apple podcast.
Around the world, and all month in some countries, women are celebrated and recognised for their achievements, whether social, cultural, economic or political.
The time also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.
While the situation for women in parts of Africa is definitely affected by wars, disasters and insecurity, this week, we still want to focus on progress and empowerment.
My first guest is Magalie Lebreton Traoré, an expert in digital transitions on the African continent at Unesco, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
As Unesco leads trainings for women in AI from the five regions of Africa, Magalie is with us to speak about women leading the conversation on high tech and especially artificial intelligence, as the technological leap in AI currently leads the fourth industrial revolution.
And to broaden the conversation, we also receive a curator and two artists from Johannesburg in South Africa, who are organising a special exhibition to highlight the work of artists-mothers and women artists caring for their whole family.
Lara Koseff is a curator at INCCA, the Independent Network for Contemporary Culture & Art in Johannesburg. She has set up the second edition of 'Art After Baby', with the support of the National Arts Council South Africa.
This year, two artists see their work exhibited: Siviwe James and Phumelele Kunene.
The women artists and mothers have been selected to receive support and mentorship in order to complete and exhibit a body of work in their own solo exhibitions at Victoria Yards in Johannesburg until the end of March.
Lara Koseff, Siviwe James and Phumelele Kunene are on the line with us from South Africa.
Here is the podcast episode:
Casualties of war, promoters of peace
When conflict and crisis strike, displacement, hunger, and poverty follow, but all too often women’s rights become the early casualties of war, according to the NGO Oxfam.
As they flee conflict, travel, and settle in refugee camps they are highly vulnerable to all forms of violence. They face exploitation, sexual harassment, and rape; they risk being sold into early or unwanted marriages or resorting to survival sex just to get their basic needs for food, shelter, and transport met.
Still according to Oxfam, one in five refugee or displaced women in humanitarian situations suffer sexual violence, and in countries affected by conflict girls are 2.5 times likelier not to be in school than other girls. An adolescent girl in South Sudan is three times more likely to die in childbirth than to complete primary school. And 60 percent of preventable maternal deaths happen in situations of displacement or conflict.
In Burkina Faso, for instance, where an atmosphere of insecurity pervades, Women and girls are particularly at risk, and the number of women becoming heads of a household without support is on the rise. They can be victims of targeted killings, abductions, banditry, attacks, and psychological violence, Oxfam says.
In South Sudan, millions are still displaced from their homes, and millions more at risk of famine. And sexual violence is used as a weapon of war, with rape, mutilation, and torture rife. Almost 65 percent of women and girls in South Sudan have experienced sexual and/or physical violence—twice the global average, according to the NGO. This is one of the most dangerous places in the world just to be a woman.
Yet research shows that gender equality is the best indicator for ensuring peace, and that if women are involved in a peace process it is 35 percent more likely to last at least 15 years.
Women and social change
March 8 was a key date for me, from an early stage in my life… Even more as a student, when I spent years studying history, and wrote an essay on women in politics to enter my masters as Sciences Po Paris.
By no means do I want women’s rights and needs to be discussed on one day only, or even one month per year, it is an every-day topic and a key one.
My own experience, sadly, only showed me that most women have to empower themselves against the world and that the luckiest ones sometimes find another woman to support them along the way, their mother or a good friend.
I post these links, I write these articles as I still hope this would change and that in a so-not-distant future women will have as much chance as men to succeed or first to not be hurt by men and by our patriarchal society as men have. It is not certain though, in this age of bullying, men’s domination and hyper-violent capitalism, based on competition and individualism. But there is no other way than not giving up.
Women’s rights have improved dramatically in the West only these past 150 years. We’re living a dark age, but surely it won’t last forever, as no political era ever does.
The only gesture that matters now is the sort of person you want to be: an individualistic winner, or someone who believed in a better society, and what you did about it. Deeds not words.
Here below, a few inspirational names.
Exhibitions to see
Barbara Walker : Being Here
Barbara Walker is a British artist described by art historian Eddie Chambers as “one of the most talented, productive and committed artists of her generation.”
Her first major survey exhibition will be shown at Arnolfini, Bristol, this Spring 2025 (08 March - 25 May 2025 ).
British artist Barbara Walker was described as one of the most important British artists working today. Being Here charts the artist’s compelling figurative practice, from the 1990s to our days.
Following a hugely successful run at The Whitworth Being Here presents almost 60 extraordinary artworks, including rarely seen early paintings of Walker’s family, friends and community in her home city of Birmingham, along with her Turner Prize nominated monumental drawing series Burden of Proof (2022-23), which illustrates the impact on the lives of those affected by the Windrush scandal.
“To be an artist to create in times of adversity, is, I believe, to be optimistic. In my work as an artist, I have sought to make ‘positive images’, or perhaps images that will have a positive impact. I love working with people who are not used to having their voices heard. People who are often made visible in only the worst ways. I want to help make people visible in the best ways possible, by creating affirming images that speak of and to humanity.” - Barbara Walker
Barbara Walker: Being Here is accompanied by a programme of workshops, community and live events.
Susanne Valadon, at Centre Pompidou, Paris
The Centre Pompidou in Paris is devoting a monograph to Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938), a bold and iconic artist, and one of the most important of her generation.
She was on the fringes of the dominant trends of her time - cubism and abstract art were in their infancy, while she ardently defended the need to paint reality - placing the nude, both female and male, at the centre of her work and depicting bodies without artifice or voyeurism.
Audrey Albert: Belongers
7 February - 10 May 2025
Ffotogallery, Cardiff, CF24 4EH
An IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund commission in partnership with Ffotogallery.
Leanna and Shannah; Chagossian heritage on the de-privatised and free Pomponette beach in Bel Air, Mauritius, Audrey Albert, 2024.
In a celebration of the multiplicity of Chagossian identities, the first UK solo show by Manchester-based Mauritian-Chagossian artist, Audrey Albert, and a team of close-knit collaborators, Belongers brings visibility to the Chagossian community at a time of instrumentalisation of the Chagos Islands and people by domestic and international military and political forces.
A read:
Framing Liberation: The Photography of Lazhar Mansouri
Shot primarily between the late 1950s through to the 1970s, Algerian photographer Lazhar Mansouri (1932-85) captured everyday scenes including weddings and family gatherings, but the work also serves as a record of the indigenous Amazigh people’s struggle for self-determination and agency.
“Lazhar Mansouri’s photography studio was more than a site for creating images; it was a space where history was both documented and enacted.”
– Bilal Akkouche
Thanks for reading and caring.
take care,
melissa