Africa

All feminists have had to ask themselves in several gatherings and meetings - when can I raise the gender question? Sheena Magenya here reflects on her experiences at AFRISIG 2018, and goes deep into the question of how do we navigate, understand and eventually change such spaces.

The annual Forum on Internet Freedom, Africa brings together people from across the African continent to to deliberate on gaps, concerns and opportunities for advancing privacy, access to information, free expression, non-discrimination and the free flow of information online on the continent. But what about gender perspectives? 

How to start a sex-positive conversation around queerness, sensuality and sexuality, gender expression, and even violence? HOLAAfrica is one platform that shows us how to do it. From pleasure manuals to podcasts to articles, the platform raises and discusses several sensitive issues and concerns relevant to African women, gender non-conforming persons and sexual minorities.

Equity in digital access in Africa is far from being a reality. There is also paucity of women in technology related careers and more broadly in STEM. In this column, Nodumo Dhlamini will explore the necessity for mentoring of women to make them confident users and implementers of ICT tools and solutions.

In Tanzania, even as access to internet has brought changes to the lives of people, there is still a lot to be done to get everyone connected and at the same time ensuring good policies to lay the ground for a safer internet. Rebecca explores legal options to the non consensual sharing of intimate images of women in the country. 

The emerging sub-field of research around gender and digital technology is united in its understanding that gender biases and stereotypes are embedded in technology, and that this reproduces the existing problems around gender parity, gender-based violence, discrimination and exclusion on the internet. This report is a mapping of the research around gender and digital technology in the decade…

The research team from the University of Cape Town (UCT) discuss their use of decolonial feminism in their contribution to feminist politics of knowledge building and centering of participants’ voices in the research and knowledge co-creation with the participants in their research project.

In researching the multiple ways violence against LGBTQIA+ take place in Ethiopia, Martha and S.A. reflected how the broader social, cultural and political environment influence the process and how they work together collaboratively based on shared values and ethics despite the differences in terms of perspective, approaches and emotional response.

This article explores the various decisions that the research teams had to make throughout the process and how being reflexive also means being ready to revise research design, and subsequently open the doors for other ways of doing and knowing.