It sounds like a lot of words, black African intersectional feminist, but all these words, in this order are necessary. And, yes, I fully recognise how problematic and limiting labels can be, but this is one label I wear with pride. It lets others know that my every day a feminist life recognises that our social, biological, economic and geographical categorisations, such as race, gender, class, ability, and sexual orientation interact on multiple and simultaneous levels and contribute to systematic injustice and social inequality (Side note 3: Here I am relying on definitions provided by a long line of black intersectional feminists but mainly Kimberlé Crenshaw and Patricia Hill Collins). This label is a warning sign to others that my every day a feminist life resists any and all forms of social justice work that seeks only to address a single form of discrimination or oppression. (Side note 4: This is one example of how I would answer, “what does my every day a feminist life mean for others?”) Most importantly, because this is often overlooked, the label black African intersectional feminist is in direct response to all those who seek to label feminism as un-African. As my mother said, feminism “was not imposed on us [Africans] by the United Nations or by Western feminists, but has an independent history.” That is why this label is necessary – long as it is – it is an abbreviation for the theoretical underpinnings of my feminism and if black African intersectional feminist is the theory then every day a feminist is the practice.

I use the term “every day a feminist” to convey the unbroken and consistent existence of my feminism. (Side note 5: I purposely use “every day” as opposed to “everyday” because there is nothing commonplace or normal about the feminism I practice. Its very existence is to challenge the norm.) It is who I am, it is who I have always been, it is what I do, it is what I have always done, it is what I believe, it is what I have always believed. As Lola Okolosie says of her own identity as a black feminist, the naming happened after the fact. Perhaps this is why my initial reaction was to describe it as exhausting, because 30 something years, every day a feminist can get tiring but it is also something I enjoy. I particularly enjoy the interaction, love and support present within intersectional feminists spaces so yes maybe it is nice too. Both of these words, I guess are ok when it comes to describing this every day a feminist life, but I still think they are not enough. Between nice and exhausting (if this was a spectrum – which I don’t think it is) there is a whole lot more. “Nice” and “exhausting” speak to moments, instances that occur as part of my every day a feminist journey. In thinking of every day a feminist as a lived experience, that has a past, present and future I much prefer Nyaboe Makiya’s conceptualization of feminism as survival. The label is black African intersectional feminist, every day a feminist is how I live this label and I live every day a feminist as an act of survival.

I first came to live in England in 1982 and as a young child the racism I experienced was so unbearable that I would tell my parents I wanted to go back to Kenya because England didn’t like me. Then finally returning to Kenya in 1986 only for my father to be detained without trial by the Kenyan Government. Four years later being back in the UK, this time as asylum seekers/refugees because clearly Kenya didn’t like me either. And we all know how the UK feels about immigrants. This time we lived in a council estate and I attended a failing inner city London school. It was the early 1990s, surrounded by people who looked like me, but just like when I was in Kenya I learned that this was not enough. Other black students would “joke” that I came from Africa on an elephant. A careers advisor, a black woman, told me instead of working towards law school I should, at the end of my GCSEs, consider employment at a supermarket. My good grades be damned because apparently something about me rendered a university education unattainable. Finally attending university and realising that race was not a part of the law curriculum; gender however, was and I was encouraged to think about how the law (according to white feminists) affected me as a woman, because this was apparently the only identity that mattered. Later in life, working in development with white men who insist they cannot be racist because they are helping poor people in Africa. While out at a bar in Lancaster with my siblings a random white woman approaches us and without invitation, conversation or approval on our part takes out her camera and starts to take pictures of us. I confronted her, her response “I thought you were famous”. The list goes on. Initially I couldn’t articulate how I felt about these instances because I was too young. Later on, while at university I would stumble on the works of Collins, Crenshaw, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Angela P. Harris (to name a few) and it all made sense. I understood now why my parents had insisted I only play with black dolls and why my at home reading consisted of nothing but writers of colour. I thought that every time they had stood in and stood up for me was simply because they were my parents. I understood now that while it was of course motivated by parental love, it was a love rooted in black African intersectional feminism. How could I as an adult reject the practice that had helped me survive? I didn’t know any other way to navigate this world, I still don’t know any other way to do so and even if I did I wouldn’t choose any other way.

I am an every day a feminist because that is how I am able to survive, but black African intersectional feminism reminds me that it is not enough for me to survive; others have to survive too and my every day a feminist life calls on me to  (1) support others so that they can survive and (2) make sure that I am not complicit in the un-survivability of others. This is perhaps the most important answer to the question “what does my every day a feminist life mean for others?” In recognizing the intersectionality of identities and systems of oppressions, I am also acknowledging that I can be both a victim and beneficiary of these power structures. Being an every day feminist means that I too, as a western living/educated, middle class heterosexual cis-gendered and able-bodied person, must check my privilege. My every day a feminist approach makes me suspicious of forms of feminism that are not intersectional. My every day feminist stance is unforgiving of human rights artivism that relies on misogyny. My every day feminist life has no patience for “wait your turn” anti-oppression work that deems the struggles of LGTBQI people as not important right now.  White tears will never dampen my every day a feminist life. For those that come at me with “not all white people” and/or “not all men” my every day a feminist voice will yell back “Shut up your face!” And by now, people really should know the answer to the question “why is everything about patriarchy?” but for those who wonder, every day a feminist means every thing through feminism. Honestly though, I am too busy living this every day a feminist life to educate those who continually un-hear the voices of other intersectional feminists.

I was before; I am now and always will be a black African intersectional feminist. I live every day a feminist because the alternatives make my life and the lives of so many other people un-liveable. Every day a feminist, unapologetically.

“new racism that entails individuals saying and doing things that perpetuate racial stereotypes and inequalities, but they do so in such a way that the offender is able to deny being explicitly racist.”

The definition emphasises the privilege of deniability that coded racism bestows on the offender, however it does not fully articulate the impact coded-racism has on the “victim” of racism.  The ambiguity present in coded-racism that allows an offender to deny their wrong doing is the same ambiguity that makes it difficult for those on the receiving end to actually call out well-disguised racism.  Feeling uncertain about whether something/someone is racist, or if someone is using code words, and if so how to address it, is an uncomfortable and lonely place to be.  Yet that is exactly where I find myself every time I watch another Thug Notes video.

Thug Notes Trailer

On the surface of it, the premise of the channel and its videos is very simple.  Each video features, a male African American literary scholar, Sweet Sparky, PhD who provides a summary and analysis of a popular English literature text; a  Cliff Notes for the digital age. However just like any classic work of literature one cannot ignore Thug Note’s subtext; and it is this subtext that I suspect is the cause of my unease.

Despite Sweet Sparky being the only person you see and hear in each video, Napkin Note Productions, a company that aims to create films that “tickle your brain and warm your heart”, are responsible for Thug Notes.  Sweet Sparky is played by actor-turned-comedian Greg Edwards who is supported behind the scenes by a crew that includes Napkin Note founder Jared Bauer (credited as Show Creator, Writer and Executive Producer). The rationale for the project is that, “if education was funny, more kids would want to learn.”  Through this project Napkin Note want to “deliver intelligent summary and analysis of classical literature” and “… to spread the gospel of literature.”  Clearly a significant amount of thought has gone into the creation and execution of this project and while not wanting to take anything away from this, I’m still left with some lingering questions regarding Thug Notes.

For instance were the creators aware of the on-going debate surrounding the use of the word Thug as a racially coded-word? Whilst I am not 100% certain that “Thug” is the new N Word and thus should be considered off-limits; I am of the opinion that some words cannot be understood without exploring their contextual basis.  In trying to establish context within Thug Notes, both as a project and as a YouTube channel, I was immediately drawn to its tagline; “Classic Literature, Original Gangster”.   The phrase “Original Gangster” often abbreviated to ‘OG’ has its roots in late ‘80s, early 90s Hip-Hop.  Thus my inference is that Thug Notes use of the word “thug” is in some way related to hip-hop’s use of the word; a word that the late rapper Tupac Shakur passionately defined as:

When I say ‘Thug Life,’ I mean that shit. Cause these white folks see us as thugs. I don’t care what y’all think I don’t care if you think you a lawyer, if you a man, if you an ‘African-American’. If you whatever the f*ck you think you are. We thugs and n*gg@s to these motherf*ckers… (Transcript via Political BlindSpot)

I think one of the reasons I am uncomfortable with “thug” in the context of Thug Notes and its tagline is that one could very easily replace “lawyer” in Tupac’s statement with “English literary scholar” and the meaning of Tupac’s explanation would remain the same.   At the very least, what is apparent to me is that there is a degree of racist stereotyping that I am certainly not at ease with and none of this is made better by the visuals that accompany Thug Notes.

Sweet Sparky addresses his viewers from what may just as well be Jane Austen’s reading room.  Hardback books fill the shelves behind his period drama style armchair, a decanter of some brown, presumably alcoholic, liquid rests on the side table to his right; and then there is the man himself. More specifically his clothing; a do-rag on his head; an oversize gold chain hanging from his neck, a sleeveless shirt exposing muscular arms,  and bare-legs sitting in lace-less high-top  shoes.  Irrespective of the creators’ intention the visual presented by Thug Notes creates a juxtaposition that perpetuates racist stereotyping i.e. the modern day black brute in an environment that one does not expect to find him in.   It relies on long-standing falsehoods that have positioned black people as intellectually inferior; forgoing the library in order to live the gangster life.  If this is supposed to elicit some sort of “oh, that’s clever!” reaction from the viewer; it had the opposite effect on me.  I wasn’t pleasantly surprised.  I wasn’t surprised.  I felt the same old “hmm…I don’t know…” feeling that so often accompanies instances of coded-racism.

As if Sweet Sparky’s appearance is not enough, how he speaks is designed to reinforce his status as an Original Gangster.  Sentences are punctuated with ‘Na’mean?’ (You know what I mean?), and the occasional ‘bitch’ is thrown in for good measure.  If I were being generous I would say Thug Notes is Rap  Genius’ distant cousin; in that Rap-Genius interprets rap music in to English literature style “prose” and Thug Notes interprets English literature into rap style speak.  In this limited definition both do an excellent job. The meaning is not lost and there is knowledge to be gained.  However, I cannot watch Thug Notes without being reminded of the example bell hooks gave in her book, ‘We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity‘ of a

“middle-class black who had never spoken broken English or a black patois was being forced to assume a “ghetto rap” that signified to his co-workers that he was really black.”

I don’t know Sweet Sparky’s back story but what I do know is that the Napkin Note team decided that best way to make learning funny was through the performance of blackness that relies on stereotypes of black male intellect and masculinity.  Thug Notes explicit purpose may be beneficial and Napkin Notes ‘explicit intentions may be benign and from a social media numbers game perspective, with over 130,600 YouTube subscribers, 10,000 Facebook fans and 3,900+ Twitter followers, it is a success.  However, for me, I still cannot shake away that feeling of unease and discomfort that I get whenever I find myself confronted with coded-racism.

It has been a long while since I considered myself a blogger.  So long in fact that even the claim to being a ‘sometimes blogger’ has started to wear thin.  So, forgive me if I am a little rusty.  A lot has happened in the time between my regular blogging and now. To name a few big changes: I got married, co-founded an ICT4D social enterprise and more recently I have returned to study.

These changes undoubtedly affect a person’s perception and opinions and one’s articulation of the same.  And to add to this, I firmly believe that being a blogger is not just defined by what you write but by your interaction with other blogs and bloggers.  To be a true blogger, one, I believe, has to be both a reader of and a writer of blogs. And boy hasn’t blogging come a long way since those early days?

As I read through old posts, they sound slightly different and I question if that voice, way back in 2005 was “really me” and as I began to formulate new posts I was conscious that perhaps my new posts which reflect the changes I have  been through, when read alongside my old posts may not sound “like me”.  I also thought about the changing blogsphere in particular the Kenyan blogsphere and wondered if I my voice would fit in to this new place.

Then I was reminded of an article by Professor Angela P. Harris on race and gender essentialism that I read as an undergraduate; an article which is, for good reason, one of the most cited law review articles of all time.   Harris challenges the idea that individuals speak with one unified voice; instead she suggests, that we all speak with a “welter of partial, sometimes contradictory, or even antithetical” voices.  She refers to this as “multiple consciousness” and states that this consciousness is not a “final outcome…but a process”.  So as I begin my return to blogging I am comforted by the fact that all my posts, both old and new are still a reflection of who I am; an insight into my  “multiple consciousness”.  My blog is “home to both the  first  and  the  second voices,  and  all  the  voices  in  between.”

So this is it…a brief sound check …as I get ready for my return to blogging…

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Image Source:  p_a_h via Flickr – reproduced under Creative Commons license

Jay is Games Casual Gameplay
Often refered to as JIG Casual Gameplay this is “simply the best selection of (mostly) free casual games you will find on the Web today.” In the year or so that I have been reading JIG I have watched it grow from a one person blog to a group project that has recently completed and announced the winners of the first ever JIG game design competition. There is a real sense of community over at JIG, with reader’s submitting games for review, guest blogging spots and a comment section that provides help for those of us who get stuck on the simplest of games.

Black Gay Blogger
On January 25 2005, after deciding that New Year’s resolutions are “tres gauche,” Karsh (author of bgb.com) came up with a list of 101 things to do before 25th September 2007 i.e. 1001 days after the list was completed. This list covers e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. Karsh really wants to do it all and judging by the number of items he has crossed off he might just get to achieve 101 in 1001. Oh and I can’t mention this blog without mentioning the design – it is beautiful!

tiffany b brown
Tiffany b Brown is the eponymous blogger behind this fantastic web design blog. She describes it as her “personal playground [a] place where [she] experiment[s] with web markup and programming languages….” To me it is a very useful learning tool for all things Internet/Blog/Site design related. (her other blog Black Feminism is equally fantastic)

Lynne D Johnson’s Diary
I don’t consider it an overstatement to refer to Lynne D Johnson as the best Hip Hop blogger in the blogosphere. Prior to listening to the SXSW Blogging While Black Revisted session (of which both Lynne and Tiffany were panelists) and hearing Lynne speak of the abuse she has been subjected to because she was a female Hip-Hop blogger I had no idea how prevalent sexism was within the Hip-Hop blogosphere. Her account of how she handled this abuse was truly inspirational especially after going through her archives later on and actually reading the extent of the attack.

Avalon Star
Possibly the best blog design I have ever seen. It is almost hard to believe that this blog is based on K2. Everything about this site is amazing, even the categories, which according to Bryan Veloso (the man behind the blog) “aren’t like your mother’s category archives!” he does not tell a lie, each category is like a whole new blog. Though it was the site design that won me over, I also enjoy reading this blog because Bryan has a very friendly, conversational style. I particularly liked this post which touches on an issue that am sure affects many bloggers: how to explain to non-blogger friends what we bloggers do.

And that concludes my Blog Day 2006, so till next year – Happy Blog Day.

In the same week that the people of Liberia (and African’s everywhere) celebrate the country’s (and the continent’s) first woman president, Rwanda leads the world in women’s political representation. According to a Hansard Society report, (Women at the Top 2005: Changing Numbers, Changing Politics?) 48.8% of all politicians in Rwanda are women. Mozambique’s figure of 34.8% places them third.

Closer to home, not only does the United Kingdom have to contend falling out of the top 50 (19.8% places them at 51) but they also have to deal with the realisation that they have been out ranked by Iraq (31.5%) and Tunisa.

The report which examines the presence and role of women in political life today is published on Thursday.

[Via The Guardian]

Please dispose of feminine hygiene products in the blue bins provided

This was not the first time I had seen this particular notice, nor was it the first time I had seen notices bearing messages of a similar nature. On this occasion, however, I actually took time not just to read the notice but to think about. I was overcome by a sense of disappointment and to some extent outrage.

I have nothing against notices that urge people to keep public spaces in order, in fact, I am all for them, especially in public toilets. What I am against is the compulsory sanitisation not just of women’s bodies and our emissions but even the language used to describe/discuss our bodies and emissions.

The term “feminine hygiene products� is apparently supposed to refer to tampons and pads (sanitary towels) but the writers of such notices, for reasons only known to them choose to use ambiguous euphemisms. It would undoubtedly seem absurd to them if I turned up every Saturday night with my week’s supply of empty shampoo, conditioner, deodorant and body lotion bottles, yet these are all “feminine hygiene products.�

It fills me with despair that even in a room that is exclusively for the use of women, we can not mention those things that affect us; those things that go to the core of our womanhood.

It is no wonder then, that when the discussion of our “feminine hygiene products� is taken outside of those women only spaces and brought to a wider audience the euphemisms, metaphors and representations go from the ambiguous to the ridiculous. There are two such instances that come to mind, both relate to televised advertisement of pads and tampons.

The first advertising method is often if not always used by various manufacturers of pads to prove how absorbent their product is. It is usually a split screen showing product A (the inferior, less absorbent pad) on one side and product B (the advertisers new and improved product) on the other. A blue liquid is poured onto each product and then a voice instructs us to watch how the blue liquid seeps and spreads all over inferior product A yet in the in case of product B the liquid is contained in the middle of the pad. The overall aim being to prove that product B is far better. The underlying aim however, is to sell us a product without actually having to delve into the so-called yucky-ness of the matter. At least that’s what I think the underlying aim is, because I can not imagine why else they would chose to use a blue liquid when we are all “supposed� to know that the real use of the product is to soak up blood, which I am certain is always red.

I am sure the people who came up with the “blue liquid� idea would say that decency and television licensing standards dictate they use blue as opposed to red. This to me however is bullshit especially when one thinks of the countless times blood and gore are depicted on television.

Everybody knows that we do not emit blue fluid from our body. Any woman who went to change her pad and saw blue stains would possibly die of shock. Likewise any man who cut himself playing football or doing other such manly things only to see blue fluid ooze out would possibly die of shock. It is unnatural; yet what is natural can not be spoken, can not be shown on television. Heaven forbid that the world should know that women bleed red blood! I find this disturbing.

On the other end of the scale are those advertisements, usually for tampons, that show women who are supposedly “on their period� doing all sorts of vigorous activities such as sky-diving and rollerblading. Apparently the power of the product being advertised is so great that not only does it soak up our blood in a discreet manner; it also transforms us into the bionic-woman!

Perhaps these particular adverts are done to empower women? Perhaps they are done to show us and the world that bleeding once a month is not so bad. This is all well and good but I know I never said it was a bad thing! Of course there are some women who experience pain and discomfort but, and I only speak for myself, I would never say I hate my menstrual cycle. It is natural and it shows that my body is working as it should be.

There is so much more I could say on the topic but I leave it at this; a while back a condom manufacturer ran a televised advertising campaign. It started off with a close up of one person dressed in all white in a funny white hat, the camera zoomed out and you saw a few more people all in white. The camera then zoomed so far out that there were a million people all running around. The last scene was taken from such a wide angle that the millions of people no longer looked like people. Instead they looked like tiny white specks all huddled together running around. It was at this point that you realised that collectively they were a (rather accurate) visual representation of seminal fluid filling up a condom. There was not a blue fluid in sight.

Why?

Firstly I am concerned by our national media’s obsession with the personal aspects of Ms Kibaki’s life. This is not to say that I am against coverage of the Kibaki’s. Be it to curb our voyeuristic tendencies or to give us greater insight into another aspect of our leader’s life – it is good to be kept informed. What is not right is when our national media resort to tabloid style journalism.

Kenya does not have a wide range of written press to cater for all audiences. The written news that the majority of Kenyans read, on all matters global and national, is provided predominantly by two newspapers – The Nation and The Standard. We do not have the “luxuryâ€? of choosing whether to opt for the tabloid or broadsheet version of a story. When any newspaper holds as much power as that held by Kenya’s big two I feel they need to be responsible in what they cover and how they cover it.

Most of their coverage on this recent issue regarding Mrs Kibaki revolves around how she dealt with the level of noise emanating from her neighbour’s/tenant’s house. Her neighbour/tenant happens to be outgoing World Bank country leader Mr Makhtar Diop.

Mrs Kibaki has already challenged the accuracy of their information. The manner in which she challenged the media has also been the subject of debate. Mrs Kibaki is said to have “stormed” the media offices and there have been allegations that she slapped a journalist.

At present there is so much she said/he said I do not know who to believe. I can however speak confidently on two things, if Mrs Kibaki did slap the journalist then this aspect needs to be dealt with appropriately. Secondly this is not the first time that our press have got it wrong.

I recall a few months ago when Kenyan bloggers and readers of Thinker’s Room spoke out against the Nation’s decision to print without sufficient credit an item taken from Thinker’s blog. On more than one occassion people the media was labelled as unreliable and unethical, quite a few said they were not suprised by the actions of the press.

Further to this, if Lucy did behave in manner that was inappropriate then surely our nation’s media should be raising the level of debate and focusing on the implications of her behaviour and how it affects Kenyans.

• How does Mrs Kibaki’s behaviour affect us and the daily struggles that we go through?
• Will her reaction affect relationships between Kenya and the World Bank?
• Will Senegal (Diop’s country of origin) sever all ties because a member of our country was (allegedly) rude and offensive towards him?
• Should we be reviewing our Constitution and setting guidlines on the roles and responsibilities of “First Families”?
• What exactly is the correct cause of action when dealing with noisy neighbours and how many Kenyans are aware of their rights in relation to this?

This , a long with questions raised by Kenyan Pundit are a few examples of some of the things that I would like to see in our papers.

Writing this has reminded me of a time when Tony Blair’s son was arrested for being drunk and disorderly. The Guardian an English broadsheet paper raised the level debate while most of the tabloids opted to focus on the fact that Blair’s son told the police his name was Mickey Mouse.

The Nation and The Standard’s preoccupation with whether Mrs Kibaki was wearing pyjamas at the time is in my view very similar to the tabloid’s Mickey Mouse approach.

The pyjama aspect leads me on to something else that disturbs me about this anti-Lucy sentiment. This is not the first time that Mrs Kibaki has come under attack for how she looks and dresses.

In my view Mrs Kibaki has an “every woman� look to her. We may not like the fact that Mrs Kibaki’s weave is not cool. Or that she owns one of those buttock hugging woollen cardigans with brash embroidery. Or that in 2005 she still wears those patent leather “pumps� complete with the stick-on bows. Some of us may still be wondering why she bothers to razor shave her eyebrows only to redraw them (twice as thick) with a charcoal coloured pencil. We may never know the answer to this one. What I do know is that most if not all Kenyan families have an aunt, mother, sister, daughter and/or cousin who proudly leave the house sporting the Lucy Kibak look. I also have a sneaky suspicion that if Mrs Kibaki did get a make over there would be many who accuse of her misspending our money.

It’s not just Mrs Kibaki’s look that is under attack. The way she speaks has been the subject of many jokes. Apparently Mrs Kibaki’s “shrubbing� is one that amuses many of us. I have failed to find an English equivalent for the word “shrubbing�. The best I can do is offer a comparison. In the same way that Japanese people, owing to the nature and structure of their language pronounce “L� as “R� and vice-versa when speaking English, so to does Mrs Kibaki.

Laughing at people who shrub is common in Kenya, yet so many Kenyans shrub and many of those who do shrub, are conscious and at times embarrassed by this. While on the surface it may appear as harmless fun, underlying this ‘humour’ is the racist, classist, elitist notion that an inability to speak and pronounce English like the Queen means that you are backward, illiterate and stupid.

Mrs Kibaki, with her weave and her shrubs in many ways embodies the Kenyan woman.
So while we may laugh and ridicule Mrs Kibaki for her appearance and her ‘bad’ English we are effectively laughing at ourselves. In our jest we reinforce, encourage and perpetuate racist, classist and elitist stereotypes that so many of our people have been fighting against.

Lastly, there has been mention of her husband, our President, Mwai Kibaki being told to take ‘charge of his family’. Am I the only who is incensed by this blatantly sexist and chauvinistic attitude? When a few male politicians were caught kerb-crawling on Nairobi’s Koinange Street I do not recall anyone calling for their wives to step in and take charge of their family. Apparently, there are some who feel that President Kibaki’s inability to control his woman is a sign that he is not a good leader. Excuse me? Since when was a marriage about control?

I am not excusing, defending or encouraging what Mrs Kibaki is alleged to have done or said. I feel very strongly about denying the media their freedom. I also feel strongly about the fact that Mrs Kibaki (allegedly) slapped a reporter. I do not condone violence. I also feel that as Kenya continues to grow and evolve we should examine what we expect from our public figures. But I refuse to be part of those discussions that focus solely on personality, rely on information that may be inaccurate and that is littered with sexist, elitist and often times violent language.

Date: July 30, 2005
Location: TechMart Meeting Center, Santa Clara, CA
Official BlogHer Site: BlogHer.org

This flagship event is open to all bloggers (yes, including men and beginners) nterested in enhancing their online exposure, learning the latest best practices in blogging, networking with other bloggers, and specifically cultivating the female blogging community.

BlogHer Conference ‘05 will provide an open, inclusive forum to:
1. Discuss the role of women within the larger blog community
2. Examine the developing (and debatable) code of blogging ethics
3. Discover how blogging is shrinking the world and amplifying the voices of women worldwide

A few bloggers have come together and have offered to sponsor those who would like to attend but are unable to afford the registration fee and/or accommodation.

Blogerships are available for those who commit to some live blogging – they are looking for bloggers who can blog the opening and closing in languages other than English and everything in between.

Wouldn’t it be good if we could get a KBW member there to blog this in Kiswahili or any of our other languages? Maitha? There other Kiswahili bloggers out there Ndesanjo? Zainub? Anyone…?

Find out more here: BlogHer and Collaboration

In my quest to learn more about how African bloggers are viewed in the blogsphere I went on a mass clicking spree. Jumping from blog to blog I found myself at RConversation reading this:

So how do we get more diverse voices into the blogosphere?
I’d like to hear more suggestions from non-white as well as non-American bloggers.

Maybe it is just me, but I was irritated by that question. This isn’t merely asking where are we. It is a question based on the assumption that:

1. we don’t exist; and
2. we need ‘help’ in being brought into the blogsphere.

I know I am constantly plugging the Kenyan Blog Webring but with good reason. There are currently 36 members blogging from all corners of the globe about a range of issues. Within our small but quickly growing ring we have diversity and more importantly we are already in the blogsphere.

As a black women I know all too well that in many arenas, both offline and online some will want to believe that if they can not see us, we do not exist. In the context of blogs, for as long as google is around nobody has any excuse to label us non-existent.

Having said all this, I also appreciate that we as “other” bloggers need to be proactive in our efforts to get our blogs noticed. With this in mind I continued the random clicking until I reached Pen-Elayne’s blog.

Pen-Elayne has termed March as ‘Estrogen Month‘ and she is giving her readers a “chance to vote on the female bloggers that you believe deserve a wider readership and more linkage.”

I emailed Elayne and used Mshairi’s blog as an example of the amazing contribution that Kenyan women bloggers are making to the blogsphere. Elayne not only responded she also mentioned that she has added the following sites to her Bloglines list under the title Gals in Wating;

• Au Lait(Ms K)
• Mshairi
• Nyakehu
• Pampazuka(Chanuka)
• Pressure Makes Diamond(Sanaa)
• Uaridi

…oh and Mama JunkYard

As you can see we all have ZERO votes. This our chance to change this situation so please get voting and if the blog of your choice is not there – get nominating.

I would love to see the following added to her list;

• AfroMusing
• Guessaurus
• Kenyan Pundit
• Nehanda Dreams
• Scentiments
• Snapshots of New Orleans
• Wituu

The above is just an example…there are so many more.

Thanks to Elayne I have learnt that “the next time some guy asks you where all the female bloggers are”, I should tell them What She Said.

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Voting

I am still learning but according to the latest post at Elayne’s she says:

• We should cast our votes in her comment section. (I just put mine under the latest post)
• When casting votes we need to say why we like a particular blog. ” People reading your comments are much likelier to take to a blog if you tell us a bit about it and what attracts you to it”

“it is not always clear whether the blogger is male or female”.

As I read all this, I found myself thinking back the days of the Bronte’s, when writing was a deemed to be a man’s thing and the only way for a woman writer to succeed was by assuming a male pseudonym. To be honest I didn’t even have to think that far; two fairly recent events have led me to wonder that that perhaps some of our African women bloggers have deliberately assumed androgynous blog identities.

The first event takes me back to the days of ‘Wakili’. Wakili , which is Kiswahili for lawyer, was a handle I created for the purposes of interacting on a Kenyan discussion forum. Most of the time other members mistook me for a man especially since I engaged in discussions that were perceived to be topics for the men i.e anything that fell outside of shopping and pregnancy.

Over the years the forum became increasingly anti-female. Women contributors were (still are) subjected to abuse especially when they ‘trespassed’ into the male arena of politics, law and other seemingly intellectual debates. If a woman raised an objection to an issue that was considered male only, some of the members chose to attack her womanhood as opposed to dealing with the issues she raised.

It was not uncommon for a member to respond with comments such ‘she must be PMS-ing’. Insults like ‘bitch’ and ‘malaya’ (Kiswahili for prostitute) were constantly hurled at women who were deemed to have stepped outside their place. If these insults did not silence us were instructed to ‘find a man’ and ‘get laid’. Some women were clearly considered beyond the cure of a penis and they were referred to as lesbians. At present, quite a few contributors have taken to starting whole topics whose sole purpose is to abuse and degrade women.

Needless to say a lot of women, including myself, got fed up of the verbal violence and opted to leave the forums or remain as lurkers. Thankfully blogs arrived in time to meet my internet addiction.

Unfortunately, while blogs have provided countless of women with our own space to speak as we wish on issues that we consider important; it has done little to change the sexist attitudes of some our men. This is evident in some of the blogs maintained by African men and sadly in some of the comments left behind by men on the blogs maintained by women. This leads me to the second event which comes in the form of a blog entry by a Kenyan male blogger.

The blogger wanted to know why the Kenyan Blog Webring had more female bloggers. According to him,

“I know that women do talk more but if we look at journalism they sure do not write more.”

He did invite the blogsphere to let him know what we thought but at that time I opted not to. I felt there was little more I could say to a person who thinks that Kenyan women bloggers have chosen to blog because we live abroad and have no-one to talk to. Kenyan Pundit did start up a good debate on this.

In light of all this I can’t help but wonder that maybe some of my fellow women bloggers have decided to blog as gender neutral beings because they are tired of being shouted down by men who are uncomfortable with their intellect.

Perhaps there a women bloggers who choose to blog because they can? These women do not want some man to mistake their passion for writing for some unfulfilled need, sexual or otherwise.

It could be that there are African women bloggers who would like a place that allows them to just be without having to deal with the misogynistic views of others.

There are, perhaps, some women who want to rant about something or someone who has enraged them without some man blaming her anger on her biological make up.

I am not really sure why. I am just guessing, thinking aloud.

I do know that behind our names are real women, with real feelings and we will do whatever it takes to make sure that nobody invades our space or attempts to knock our thoughts and views solely on the basis of our sex.