Event: Afems Conference 2019, Wits, South Africa (5-7 September)

By Africa in Words on 14 August , 2019 • ( 0 )

African Feminisms (Afems) 2019

Theorising from the Epicentres of our Agency

Wits University

5-7 September 2019

The third edition of the African Feminisms (Afems) conference will happen from the 5-7 September 2019 at Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa, in collaboration with the Department of Literary Studies in English, Rhodes University.

The 2019 theme: Theorising from the Epicentres of our Agency is based on Nigerian Stiwanist Molara Ogundipe’s conversation in 2002 with South African black feminist Desiree Lewis in which Ogundipe states:

For me, social ideas should emerge from a consciousness that thinks of what is beneficial to a human being as a person, not because the ideas occurred or are practiced in Europe or America. We need to overcome our endemic inferiority complex towards Europe and things “white,” successfully implanted since our colonial education and through its curricula. We should think from our epicentres of agency, looking for what is meaningful, progressive and useful to us as Africans, as we enrich ourselves with forerunning ideas from all over the world including Europe and America. … I felt that as concerned African women we needed to focus on our areas of concern, socially and geographically. I am concerned with critical and social transformations of a positive nature in Africa, positive meaning, “being concerned with everything that maximises the quality of life of Africans and their potentials too”.

Photo on Pexels.com

The conference programme will be available soon, in mid-August. Confirmed keynote speakers are Patricia McFadden (Swaziland), Kharnita Mohamed (University of Cape Town) and Oyella Mary Goretty (Uganda). The conference will host creative dialogues with South African curator Natasha Becker and dancer/choreographer Mamela Nyamza, an art exhibition as well as two performance evenings.

Registration closes tomorrow: 15 August! Book here

Find more details on the website: https://afems2018.wixsite.com/afemsconference/afems-2019

The conference is hosted by the Art on our Mind research project run by Prof Sharlene Khan (Wits University) and the Urban Connections and Popular Imaginaries in Africa(UCAPI) research project run by Dr Lynda Spencer (Rhodes University).

Organised by the Department of Visual Arts, Wits University and the Department of Literary Studies in English, Rhodes University