Saturday, September 23, 2006

1st Carnival of African Women

The first Carnival of African Women will be held on this site on Monday October 9th. The Carnival is open to everyone registered on the African Women’s Blog Agregator and is a selection of posts on articles of interest to African Women. To participate in the premier Carnival we are asking contributors to write a piece on Blogging and Identity and publish it on their blogs. Please feel free to interpret the topic as broadly as you wish - long, short, a poem, a piece of prose or photos. Once you have done that please register the post at the Carnival site or alternatively send an email to: info at blacklooks (dot) org with the URL of your post before the 6th of October. On 9th October we will publish a roundup of all submitted posts.
We hope that as many African women bloggers as possible will join in the Carnival. Even if you cannot write a piece please link to the site and join the webring. Thanks to everyone.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Face to face with the past

Coming face to face with the past is interesting, distrubing, worrying, makes you realize you are ok as you are.

I met a man who once was a shoulder to cry on with no strings attached at a time of my life when things were so bad, it was hard to see whether i was going or coming. He offered me solace one night when it was so bad...i don't even know why i turned to him...i didn't know him for very long or that well. And for someone who everyone of the women who knew him said didn't know what he was all about, he sure did something for me. he was comfort.

Today though i saw that searching look in his face and then i knew...thank God he was only just a shoulder to cry on. His daughter is beautiful:) And i saw that thing the women who knew him spoke about...it wasn't a sad or happy look, he was just flat. Today that more than anything made me think that, not all the men who come into your life (or women for that matter) are meant to be there always. They serve their purpose in your life and move on. they are just not meant to be for you. And that i can live with.

after all these years of failed relationships and friendships i finally understood that. If i was to write a letter to my younger self, i would say, 'this too shall pass and it will all make sense as part of the rug which is being woven and that represents your life...so it's all good. Even the bad...it's all good. So forgive yourself for poor judgements with men, knowing that it's all part of a story and it will all work out. . .

As an aside; i hope my neighbour hasn't bought a dog...i can hear something similar to a puppy closed off in a small apartment, just whining....argh! this is so against the regulations....but hey whose checking....argh! double argh!

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Gender roundup

The UN -INSTRAW has set up an exciting new tool - the first time ever gender training Wiki visit http://www.un-instraw.org/wiki/training/index.php/Main_Page for more and add to it if you can. It's available in english, french and spanish hopefully with demand it can be made available in other regional languages.

The International Museum of Women (IMOW) has been extended to September 2007! The submissions are interesting because they make it possible to read about the perspectives of women not in one's part of the world. There are a couple of submissions by Kenyan and African sisters. Check it out and also the various requests for submissions. For all those men who wish to speak up on how they are supporters of the work for gender equality there is a chance to make submissions. . .specifically focused on your perspectives.

If you are in Nairobi, please make a point of attending the Nairobi +21 Forum in October. I believe the venue is still the KICC. Now their site's up and running so you can get more info there on the event as well as the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies (NFLS). It is shaping up to be a great opportunity for honest, much needed dialogue among Kenyan women about the state of our Movement, what we have learnt; what we still need to do; discussions of age; class and ethnicity. Coming a little over a year before the 2007 elections in Kenya it is an excellent opportunity to heal in order to get ready for the bruising battle in 2007. It would have been even better to have similar Forums in throughout the region and worldwide. . .perhaps Heinrich Boll Foundation, UNIFEM and Ford Foundatin (main organizers) can do the same in countries they operate in.