The Voices of African Girls and Young Women Matter!
The 2nd African Girls and Young Women Festival dabbed “I Speak 4 Myself” will go down in history as the emancipation forum for African girls and young women. The festival seeks to ignite young women and girls into action through meaningful engagement, storytelling, and experience sharing. From the 14th-16th June 2022, audacious, bold, and fearless feminists will step out from the norm in Accra Ghana to “speak for themselves”.
Painstakingly, African young women and girls have rarely been granted attention, so much so that they are seldomly integrated in an impactful manner in the women’s rights movement, nor have their voices been leading or adequately embodied in regional spaces. It is this underrepresentation that necessitates a shift in engagement so as to meaningfully engage girls and young women in a way that works for them
Taking into consideration that the rights of girls have been ignored within the women’s rights movement in Africa, the time is ripe for the dignity of their voices to be restored, their views to be reflected and the rhythm of their beliefs to be seen in the most natural form.
The 2nd African Girls and Young Women Festival is therefore timely. Over 50 young women and girls from the African States will take part by showcasing the beauty of their femininity in all their diversities. Determined not to be left behind, the girls are now more than ever alive to the reality that they must be a part of dismantling the disproportionate cycles of deeply entrenched masculinity.
In light of this and in commemoration of the African Day of the Girl Child, FEMNET in partnership with the She Leads and WE LEAD Consortium has deliberately empowered young women and girls to amplify their voices while unpacking their potential to influence, inspire and transform the next generation of women’s rights movement in Africa.
Here are messages from the African Girls and Young Women participants. For more information on the aforementioned email Esther Nyawira via e.nyawira@femnet.or.ke and Imali Ngusale i.ngusale@femnet.or.ke
