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Africa’s #MeToo silence
The #MeToo movement led a seminal period in women’s history and feminism. Through millions of tweets, #MeToo created a safe space for women to come forward about their experiences of sexual harassment and sexual violence. This past year their collective voices brought down big Hollywood names, shook America’s elite media circles and forced other industries to take a closer look at how the women within their ranks were treated.
For all its victories, #MeToo has exposed divisions within the feminist movement, with African women almost seeming to fall through the cracks. Senegalese women used their own version of the hashtag, #Doyan (Wolof for “That’s enough!”) and created a platform for women to speak out against patriarchy and gender-based violence.
In some of Africa’s bigger countries, Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya for example, the international hashtag forced some industries and academia to examine sexual harassment within their ranks, but while there have been moments, ultimately little changed.
Women’s experiences across the continent are diverse and creating a comprehensive cross-continental picture is impossible. Yet the manner in which the African Union poorly handled its own #MeToo moment shows just how much work is yet to be done.
What’s more, all of these examples represent the experiences of relatively privileged women, with thousands more remaining silent. African women are facing varying scales of discrimination all at once, from rape as a weapon of war to jobs or diplomas for sex.
While there is still much work to do across Africa, much already has been done. In the last decade, a number of African states have begun passing legislation to protect women against gendered injustices like child marriage and domestic violence. Still, these new laws are only the start: the World Economic Forum found that it will take 135 years to close the gender gap in sub-Saharan Africa, mainly due to a lack of economic and political empowerment.
No single movement can solve all of these myriad challenges, but #MeToo can start by including their experiences and empowering women in these environments to speak up, if it is to be a truly global movement. Any movement that wants to protect women should make an extra effort to listen to the women who are still too scared to speak up.
— Lynsey Chutel, Quartz Johannesburg correspondent
Stories from this week
The untold 100-year old story of Nigeria’s first homegrown modern drug. Very few indigenous Nigerian consumer brands have a century-long wealth of history and patronage. But Uwagbale Edward-Ekpu finds one in Alabukun, an analgesic powder medicine that became one of the longest-running, indigenous pharmaceutical brands in Africa without significant marketing or advertising budgets.
Inside the sprawling Museum of Black Civilizations in Senegal. Launched more than half a century after the idea was first birthed, the Museum of Black Civilizations was imagined as a focal point to document and celebrate artifacts from global black civilizations. Its galleries at the vast 14,000 square-meter museum feature contemporary African art to the trans-Atlantic and trans-Sahara slave trade.
Nigeria’s tech ecosystem is struggling to keep hold of its best software engineers. Nigeria’s nascent tech ecosystem is facing a brain drain as more of its best software developers move to Europe and North America for better pay, quality of life and skill advancement. While the exodus is a validation of the quality of Nigeria’s engineering talent it is likely to lead to a local skills shortage, finds Yomi Kazeem.
High-end fashion gets the headlines but Nigeria’s secondhand markets get the customers. Secondhand clothes markets across Nigeria’s major cities provide millions of low-income earning people with affordable clothing options. Reporting from Lagos, Torinmo Salau dives into, why these markets—often viewed as an impediment to the growth of local fashion retail—cannot be ignored by the industry.
The US should focus on soft power and China cooperation in Africa—not rivalry. In an exclusive op-ed for Quartz Africa, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, argues the Trump administration’s new Africa policy strategy of countering “predatory” practices of China and Russia and attempting to make African nations to pick sides is unlikely to find much success.
The country where counting statistics is a dangerous occupation. On many maps, the Central African Republic is a blank space in the middle of a continent that is already statistically underrepresented. Reliable data taken for granted in other countries—population, for instance—are limited. Lynsey Chutel traveled to the capital Bangui, where a civil war, successive coups, and near-constant violent instability have made data collection a deadly occupation.
South Africa has banned a TV commercial that imagines Africans colonizing Europe. South African advertising agencies have used reincarnation, Africans in space and political satire to stand out in the competitive fried chicken market, but a commercial with reverse colonization proved a step too far for regulators.
Chart of the Week
Togo’s port of Lomé has overtaken Nigeria’s Lagos port as regional leader. Never-ending congestion at Nigeria’s Apapa port in Lagos has resulted in a loss of nearly 30% of container traffic over the last five years. But Nigeria’s loss has proven to be Togo’s gain as reforms and investment to transform the port of Lomé into a regional transit hub are starting to have an impact.
Other Things We Liked
The dangers of NGO-isation of women’s rights in Africa. Over the past 40 years, African women have struggled with the impact of privatization and open-market economies and the NGO-isation of public service. Subsequently, gender rights have been shaped by the objectives of NGOs, Hala Al-Karib writes for Al-Jazeera.
African entrepreneurs are smashing stereotypes in China. Black people in China get used to being stereotyped but things are starting to change. Last month saw the launch of the Black Expo in Shanghai, bringing together entrepreneurs of African and African American origin who are based in China to promote their goods and services to an ever curious Chinese population. Kenrick Davis, writing for Sixth Tone, met some of them.
The growing market for black dolls in Africa and France. There’s been a slow change in attitudes in the global toy industry when it comes to promoting diversity with the dolls young girls play with. But one way those changes have been accelerated has been through e-commerce as African-origin parents and guardians find specialist makers online, reports Sandrine Berthaud-Clair for Le Monde (French).
ICYMI
Postdoctoral fellowship in math and physics. Recent African PhD holders working in areas of mathematical sciences or fundamental theoretical physics can pursue their research interests aimed at advancing science in Africa. (Jan. 31)
The MEST entrepreneurship program. The one-year, graduate-level program gives startup founders training in business, communications and software development, and the opportunity to receive seed funding at the end. (Feb. 8)
Harvard South Africa Fellowship. The fully-funded program allows a year of advanced study for mid-career professionals in one of Harvard’s professional schools or graduate school of arts and sciences. (Apr. 4)
Keep an eye on
Elections in DR Congo (Dec. 30). The polls were postponed after a fire destroyed 80% of voting machines in a crucial vote that could raise already simmering tensions. The election are now set for Dec. 30.
*This brief was produced while listening to Games by Lady Donli feat. GJtheCaesar (Nigeria).
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