My first lesson in feminism was
That the personal is political
To be vulnerable
That bodies matter and they have matter
Voices of bell hooks & my grandmothers
To know that these are freedom fighters
Multivocalities of the womxnisms
Feminizing means making ubuntu
It is about the humanism of womxnisms
The courage and power of the womb
Shielding the children
We the people
When men are trash
And raping the nation
Feminism is the power that sings
Confronting these truths
Becoming vulnerable
While making sustainable feminist future pasts
Where we have land and love
Where Meme Nanghili Nashima sings to shoot patriarchy
& point us to the divinity of queerness
If this feminism is not queer, it is not for the African
Here our struggles intersect
To strengthen our languages of love
The cry of the migrant
The black matter
Peasant lives matter
The old goes home and children protest
To help us find new paths
To feminize is to teach the revolution
The word of how we will bring back the land
To be vulnerable, again
To be militant and radical
To transgress and disrupt
To bring patriarchy to order
To organize and mobilize
To be intimate and find enjoyment
To have fucking epic sex
To process and reflect
To find the courage to love
To remember and embody
To rise and resist
To take care of the self
To self-curate
To be deviant and divine
To sing and critique
To be resilient
To (un)pack and (re)archive
To write letters to my unborn feminist sons
To play and dance
To become vulnerable, again
To recognize the violent selves
To dismantle and crush toxic walls
To make moments about movement
To teach the meaning of solidarity in practice
To teach indigenous feminisms
As feminists like Pumla Gqola teach us to that…
“While there are many feminist strands, which is to say different kinds of feminism,
there are also many core principles. The commitment to actively oppose and end
patriarchy is one. The recognition that patriarchy works like other systems of
oppression, like racism and capitalism, to value some people and brutalise others is
another area of agreement. Like other systems of oppression, it also requires the
support of many members of the groups it oppresses.”
(Reflecting Rogue: Inside the mind of a feminist).
To teach the poetics of Wangari Maathai, Ida Jimmy, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela,
Sarah Baartman, , Kankundi Ankandi, Nyalo Momtse, Angela Davis, Kakurukaze
Mungunda, Bi Ki Dude, Chiwoniso Maraiere, Gwakapasha Shuumbwa…
