YOWLEE Update: Moiyattu Banya (YOWLI 08) on Helping Organize the 2011 YOWLI Monologues

Moiyattu Banya during her monologue performance
Photo Credit: Chiedu Odogwu

Feminist theater is something I have always been involved with and admired. Since my first experience in 2005 during my college years wherein I was a part of Eve Ensler’s, Vagina Monologues, I realized that this was a space that women can tell their stories in a very dynamic and unconventional way to provide for a platform of information sharing, and a network of healing and sisterhood. My experience during the Vagina monologues was an unforgettable one. The experience was my introduction to feminist theater as I learned a lot about putting a script together from start to finish.  However I always felt that the voice of women of color, let alone African women, was limited in the script. A moment of clarity I had was  when I was asked to stage manage “ Yoni Ki Baat”  a show very similar to the Vagina Monologues, but specifically for South Asian Women written by a South Asian woman.  I realized that there needed to be such a script for African women; I yearned for there to be such a space for women like me, for African women. How it would look and who would be in it, I had no idea about, so I made a wish that one day I would be a part of a movement where African women performed a monologues script that represented our voices.

My YOWLI Experience
My wish came to be, when I attended the Young Women's Knowledge and Leadership Institute (YOWLI) conference in 2008. At the end of the conference, myself and a couple of the participants thought it was a great idea to put on the “V monologues” - the Nigerian version of the Vagina Monologues, written and produced by KIND; an organization in Nigeria. The experience was one that we as participants would never forget, and I played an instrumental part in co-producing the show along with my colleagues. I knew more could be done with this concept. After our performance during the cultural night event, the cast talked about how this could be replicated in different spheres, and how could we make monologues even more specific to our experiences. Thus the YOWLI monologues was born.

An Opportunity to Give Back

In March 2011, I received an email inviting me to be a participant and organizer for AWOMI’s event at the United Nations during the Commission on the Status of Women, wherein I was charged to help organize the monologues which we later called the YOWLI monologues. I was very excited to be a part of this process because monologues are something I am extremely passionate about.  I began the process by asking all participants to submit monologues specific to the topic areas of the day, these included climate change, sexual health and reproductive rights, and youth leadership.  A week before the event I worked very closely with AWOMI program coordinator Jemila Abdulai and Nwannekka Nnoli, a colleague of mine from YOWLI 2008, to arrange the monologues together into a script, by editing, and organizing them. The entire process of putting the monologues together initially was very digital and of course with this came challenges, with various time zones and every ones commitment levels it was difficult to get all of the monologues in time. Despite these challenges, the team of participants worked diligently together to send in monologues that were specific to their lives.

Coming Together
The most exciting and powerful moment of the monologues production was when the entire cast came  together in the United States and rehearsals began. I was excited to meet everyone on the cast who were from the recent YOWLI 2010, and my alumnae colleagues from YOWLI 2006 and 2008.  From practicing the monologues repeatedly, to continuously re-editing the script to make it more accustomed to the topics for the panel discussion the participants were a part of, a lot of time and energy went into bringing the script alive. The cast was so engaged not only in our own monologues but specifically in those of our fellow cast members. This I believe played a major role in the energy that people brought to their pieces. After days of practicing the monologues, and in addition to other obligations, everything was ready for debut at the United Nations. The first piece was performed by Esther Sheehama from Namibia titled “Life and Me” which focused on a woman living with HIV and the impact that the climate change has on her health, and overall well being, and its impact on her family. More monologues followed that dealt with very intense topics such as female genital circumcision (FGM), drought, sex trafficking, brain drain and its impact on the global economic crisis. At moments the room was silent, as the crowd listened intensely, at moments the room was filled with laughter, at moments with anger, a combination of valid responses from the crowd. The monologue I recited was written by Nwannekka Nnoli who was not able to attend the conference. I was able to edit versions of the monologue to make it more true to my experience. I performed a monologue titled “Why not pass the baton?” This monologue was the story of a young woman who had returned from the United States after receiving an ivy league degree and was still frustrated because she was not able to get a job, due to corrupt leaders who shuffle positions across the government and other sectors, in her country of origin. The monologues were diverse, engaging, and powerful. They represented the voices of African women, and provided a platform for attendees to ask questions and engage in conversations afterwards.

The Essence of It All

What I took away from this experience was that monologues can help validate anyone’s story, the structure can be replicated into other communities. Monologues can also serve as a means to share information about the challenges and triumphs that a group of people, in this case YOWLI participants, are facing in our communities. We plan on posting the videos of the monologues on You Tube for them to serve as a means for other African women to utilize and make their own to then post on the web or perform in their own communities.  The monologues are something I will continue to be a part of organizing and participating in either through YOWLI or other avenues in Africa. Feminist theater has proven to be a great platform for women and should continue being utilized as another means of having our voices heard in very intentional and focused ways specific to our experiences and voices. 

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Written by Moiyattu Banya. Moiyattu is a YOWLI 2008 graduate from Sierra Leone. She recently helped organize the first ever YOWLI Monologues during the 55th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York.

Creating space for women - Interview with Talent Jumo (YOWLI '08) on YOWLI Zimbabwe

Talent Jumo, YOWLI '08 Grad

What inspired the formation of the Young Women’s Leadership Initiative?

In 2007 a group of young women came together to discuss issues, things that were happening around us. We realised that spaces were getting smaller and most young women weren’t able to participate because of the environment - it was getting volatile. It had also been unfriendly out there for young women to come out and speak. So we thought we should create our own space.

Our focus is young women and leadership, but we have also decided to look at sexual and reproductive health and rights. We felt that it was important for young women to be able to relate to themselves, to know their bodies so that they can gain some form of control over their bodies and their sexuality. It’s only when we are comfortable that we can then manoeuvre into the public space and assert ourselves in those spaces. 

Given all the things that young women are ordinarily concerned about; school, getting a husband, a job, etc; how does YOWLI get young women to think about and actively participate?

The fact that we are talking about our bodies and sexuality is what makes it possible for us to maintain that interest. We are talking about things that are happening to us everyday. In really addressing issues that are affecting us now, and also trying to see how we can live a more meaningful life and be able to participate more fully in other spaces.

So sexuality is an interesting topic for people?

It is. You know people get excited, and when you start talking you never finish. For us we thought we would start talking about issues, which have been deemed ‘sacred cows’. We have players who have been looking at this thematic area for a long time, but not talking about abortion for example. We know that women are aborting. And we know that if a woman wants an abortion they will go ahead and have one. These are the real issues that young women are facing. Issues of lesbianism, bisexuality and being gay, those are issues that we thought we have to talk about it. Issues of sex work: we have a programme where we are helping sex workers to organise through the sisterhood agenda. 

How does the subject of Feminism relate to YOWLI’s work amongst young women?

YOWLI is a feminist organisation. We share the same principles [as feminism], we believe that women have rights; women’s rights are human rights. Human rights are indivisible and they are universal. These are all issues we are pushing through. But because we are at different levels we felt that it would be important to continuously build our own capacities, to strengthen our understanding of feminism, and also to reflect on our lives.

The feminist circle that YOWLI is currently hosting is called the Chimurenga Sisterhood. It’s unique in that it’s not just an academic space. We look at feminism from our lived realities. We want to bring it into our homes and our lives.

Is there a brand of Feminism that may be considered uniquely African?

As a feminist circle we have just started exploring what feminism should be for Africans. I think this feminism for me would be a feminism that [understands] that there is need for us to look at our background and traditions and see the good therein, and be able to build on that, rather than labelling all traditional practices as negative. Take for example the practice of roora, personally I feel that if we do away with roora, we may have trouble. Women may find themselves in huge trouble, where men may feel that women today are worthless. Creating a balance would be for people to be able to exchange gifts. The imbalance comes in because a woman is being equated to a herd of cattle and some cash. 

Would you say this is the beginning of a Zimbabwean Feminist movement?

I believe that feminism is a title that has been stigmatised for a very long time. The arrival of the gender-mainstreaming ideology swept out feminist ideologies. Most women’s groups wanted to be identified with being gender activists and not really feminists. Some people believe that feminist has something to do with being radical extremist pro-abortionists who don’t take time to think. We have had a women’s movement, we have had a gender sector, but I also believe that women’s groups have tended to mainstream gender. Most organisations have taken that approach and used it as an excuse for not really committing resources and time to look at women’s’ empowerment issues. It has watered down the struggle in a way

To find out more about YOWLI Zimbabwe's work and initiatives, check out their website: http://www.pepeta.org/

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Interview & Photo Source: http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/women/101006inzwa2.asp?sector=WOMEN

Blog Action Day 2010 on Water: Post by Jemila (YOWLI '08)

This article was written by YOWLI 2008 graduate and AWOMI regional program coordinator Jemila Abdulai and was originally published on her website.

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Scale of Preference: Water Vs. Oil?
The idea of economics being a social science is no novelty and even though the notion dates back as far as the era of Adam Smith and the other fathers of economics, it still holds true today. It would seem that every being, society or entity is forever in the pursuit of that elusive – or to put it in economic terms, scarce – something. For some select countries like the United States, that elusive or increasingly scarce thing is oil. For most of the world however, and particularly the impoverished world, that commodity is oil's arch-rival, water.

Nothing lasts forever and that applies especially to natural resources that tend to be used up with no thought of their replenishment. The world literally goes crazy because of this commodity oil. All things being equal (ceteris paribus), when global oil prices drop, everyone - with the possible exception of suppliers - rejoices. When the prices rise - as they seem to do more frequently given their increasing scarcity - everyone's a-panicking. Except maybe the suppliers, again. For countries like Senegal where there's a frighteningly high dependence on the earth's black gold for keeping the economy afloat, fluctuations in oil prices wreck havoc on more than just electrical appliances. At the very least however, Senegal is in a pretty okay state when it comes to oil's main competitor: water. 

YOWLEE UPDATE

YOWLEE UPDATE : Esther's inspiring letter

My name is PrettyEsta. I live in a box. Actually, two and a half boxes, inside a bigger box that sits in Namibia. There are people above, below and on all sides that live in their own boxes. You'd think I'd have lots of friends, but the fact is I am totally by myself all the time. Even when I'm standing in the elevator and it's filled with people, I am quite alone, like Siberia, or maybe the Moon. I think I must be on my own planet -- like The Little Prince. I look very much like a normal, attractive woman -- nobody even suspects that I am really an extraterrestrial. If those people had any idea what's really growing inside me, they'd run away screaming with disgust and horror. You see, there's an alien that came in through my back door one day years ago when I wasn't paying attention.

 The fact that I do look so ordinary is, or should be, what's so scary to the men that size me up, on the elevator, in the street, or even in the park. Those poor, unsuspecting suckers who might invite me out for dinner, never knowing or suspecting that next to them sits Typhoid Mary. That's what I feel like -- think about it -- if I were to let one of those guys kiss me, such an innocent, innocent thing, I could be found guilty of attempted murder. I think the prevailing attitude could be nicely summed up by something I heard that cops like to say "You can shoot me or you can stab me but just don't bleed on me."

It is a terrible thing to die from AIDS, but it's also sometimes even harder to live with it. I've lived with it for years, and I've been waiting since my "official" diagnosis  for the other shoe to drop. So if you're thinking that AIDS is a death sentence, think again -- I'm here to tell you that I wait and I wait for something horrible to happen and it never does. I feel so good physically that it's hard to believe that there are billions of killer cells attacking me 24/7. So what am I supposed to do? I tried being up-front but I lost every friend I had. Other people, normal people can't deal with it, it's just too horrible. So how do we go on? It's so hard to have self-confidence, to love oneself, to be a good person, to feel hopeful -- and that's if you're "normal." How do we keep going when all future hope is destroyed by a simple blood test? One day you're part of the human race, and the next you're an outlaw, just like that.

YOWLI 2008 was not only a space to share my life experience but was a home full of love and lots of friends.

 I had this fantasy that I think about whenever I get scared, or feel lonely and sad that’s the love I got at YOWLI 2008 a fantacy of self acceptance. And to be out side the box.

Thank you YOWLI