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June 21, 2021

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Today in 1879, Huda Sha’arawi was born. #RxHisto

Today in 1879, Huda Sha’arawi was born. #RxHistory⏳

On 23 June 1879, Huda Sha’arawi was born in Al-Minyā, Egypt. She was an Egyptian feminist leader and nationalist.

Sha’arawi was born into a wealthy and influential family. At thirteen, she was married to her cousin, who was in his 40s. She lived apart from her husband for seven years and furthered her education during that time.

In 1908, Sha’arawi helped found a clinic for underprivileged women and children. It was Egypt’s first secular charity organization run by women. During the 1919 Egyptian Revolution, Sha’arawi led a women’s movement to protest the British occupation of Egypt.

In 1923, she founded the Egyptian Feminist Union (EFU). Egypt had just gained independence, and the EFU sought to cement women’s status as equal citizens in the new country. She caused a controversy when she took off her face veil in public and stomped on it in protest of the harem system that kept women and girls secluded.

Huda Sha’arawi remained president of the EFU for the rest of her life and became the founding president of the Arab Feminist Union in 1945. She died aged 68 in 1947.
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📝: Ibukun Olokode x Ugonna Eronini
📷: Pioneering feminist Huda Shaarawi. Wikimedia Commons

ECOWAS has ruled against Nigeria’s Twitter Ban.

ECOWAS has ruled against Nigeria’s Twitter Ban. #RxNews📡
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Yesterday, the ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja ruled that the Nigerian government under President Buhari’s administration should stop the arrest or prosecution of Twitter users pending the hearing of the lawsuit filed against the government. The suit was filed by local rights group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), and 176 Nigerians.
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Earlier this month, the Nigerian government indefinitely suspended Twitter. This came two days after President Buhari’s tweet threatening to punish regional secessionists was deleted for violating Twitter’s rules. The Nigerian attorney general, General Abubakar Malami, further said those who defied the ban will be prosecuted.
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In response, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) along with 176 other Nigerians, went to court to fight the ban. The court gave the order after hearing arguments from SERAP’s lawyer, Femi Falana, and lawyer to the government, Maimuna Shiru.
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The lawsuit’s applicants argued that the Twitter suspension ‘escalated repression of human rights and unlawfully restricted the rights of Nigerians and other people to freedom of expression, access to information, and media freedom in the country’. The court also ordered the Nigerian government from ‘unlawfully’ imposing sanctions against Twitter and any other social media service provider(s), media houses, radio and television broadcast stations.
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The court was adjourned to 6th July 2021.
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📝: Tomisin, Editorial Assistant

Modern slavery and the search for greener pastures

Modern slavery and the search for greener pastures. #OnSite⚡
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A large number of African migrants leave to find better living conditions abroad but get trafficked and become enslaved. In this essay from our latest issue on Modern Slavery, writer, Prince Fater Audu, discusses the relationship between the dire living conditions of many African countries and modern slavery on the continent.
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According to Prince Fater, although the specific factors prompting the mass migration of Africans to other parts of the world vary from country to country, a general reason is 'the quest to find greener pastures and break loose from the shackles of poverty, violence, and underdevelopment that has plagued the continent'. Prince Fater argues that human trafficking and modern slavery have become sustained in Africa because people are increasingly forced to leave for their own survival to escape violence and war, or for the opportunity to live better lives elsewhere.
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Read the full essay by clicking the link in our bio.
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📝: Prince Fater Audu
📷: A crew from the Migrant Offshore Aid Station search and rescue migrants adrift in the Mediterranean Sea in November 2016. UNHCR / Giuseppe Carotenuto.

Today in 1935, Zulu Sofola was born. #RxHistory⏳

Today in 1935, Zulu Sofola was born. #RxHistory⏳

On 22 June 1935, Nwazuluwa Sofola was born in Issele-Uku, Delta State, Nigeria. Sofola was the first published female Nigerian playwright and dramatist, and the first female professor of arts in Africa.

After graduating from Virginia Union University, with a B.A. in English in 1959, she received her M.A. in drama from the Catholic University of America in 1965. She returned to Nigeria in 1966 and earned her PhD in theatre arts from the University of Ibadan.

Sofola is considered the ‘matriarch of Nigerian theatre’. Her plays explored perceived conflicts between western culture and African value systems. Zulu Sofola wrote 17 plays, 15 of which were published. One of her most popular plays, ‘Wedlock of the Gods’, has been performed in countries around the world.

Sofola died in 1995 aged 60.

Have you read or seen any of her plays? Let us know in our comments!
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📝: Ibukun Olokode x Ugonna Eronini
📷: ZULUSOFOLA.COM

‘Wedlock of the Gods’ —Zulu Sofola w/@omni_alkmst

Zimbabwe’s Tsitsi Dangarembga wins the 2021 Germ

Zimbabwe’s Tsitsi Dangarembga wins the 2021 German Book Trade Peace Prize. #RxNews📡
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Yesterday, the board of Germany's publishers and booksellers association named Zimbabwean author and filmmaker, Tsitsi Dangarembga, the 2021 laureate of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for her book, 'This Mournable Body' (2018). The novel portrays a woman in different phases of her life.
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The Peace Prize, which was created in 1950, is a €25,000 award whose key criterion is ‘an important contribution to peace, humanity, and an understanding among peoples.’
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Beyond her award-winning works as an author and filmmaker, Dangarembga is a renowned activist who is committed to protecting civil liberties and promoting political change in Zimbabwe. On 31 July 2020, Dangarembga was arrested for joining peaceful protests against government corruption. Afterward, her passport was confiscated by Zimbabwean authorities and almost a year later she is still awaiting trial. She is accused of intending to incite public violence and her trial date is set for 22 July.
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Tsitsi Dangarembga is also dedicated to fostering creative industries in her home country. She has established various projects—her production company, Nyerai Films, and the International Images Film Festival for Women in Harare—dedicated to supporting female directors and developing the film industry in Zimbabwe.
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According to the jury of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, Dangarembga was selected for her ‘unique narrative with a universal view in her artistic work and is therefore not only one of the important artists in her country, but also a widely audible voice of Africa in contemporary literature.’
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Despite the challenges she has faced from her activism, Dangarembga describes herself as ‘almost fearless.' She once posted on her social media that: ‘If you want your suffering to end, you have to act. Action comes from hope. This is the principle of faith and action.’
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📝: Mercedes Odunwa, Editorial Assistant
📷: Tsitsi Dangarembga. MATEUSZ ZABOKLICKI

What if your trauma had a name? #OnSite⚡️ As

What if your trauma had a name? #OnSite⚡️

As a boarding school student in Kaduna, Edwin Okolo learned to navigate a life riddled with fear and violence. For a time, his friendship with another student, Iyibo, felt like an oasis. From the moment they met, Edwin admired Iyibo. Iyibo was charismatic and, despite being a junior, moved effortlessly through the school, as though he was untouchable. They became close, too close. Edwin writes in our latest Black Atlantic essay:

‘When my mattress is stolen by seniors, Iyibo offers to share his bunk with me. He has the assistant head boy as his guardian, so seniors pretend not to notice his lush mattress and his rich, downy duvet. I remember our tangle of legs, warm under the duvet, Iyibo’s whispering keeping me awake as he tells me stories of the countries he’s visited… People didn’t love Iyibo, I realize that now, they were fascinated with him. It was strange for someone so young to understand so implicitly the power they had over other people. Iyibo always looked people in the eye, willing them to look back and see that behind his giant pupils, there was no guile, only awakened desire.’

The Black Atlantic is our newest column featuring stories about the Black experience around the world. Read the full essay at the link in our bio.
________________
📝: Edwin Okolo

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