I’m sharing this space with my friend and sister activist, Sindi Blose, from Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa. She won’t mention the fact that she did an extraordinary job of rocking the Global Village this afternoon with the rest of our women crossing the line. The songs and dancing drew dozens of men and women to our cramped site with huge enthusiasm and nothing but joy and appreciation for the power of their very personal stories of struggle.
I’m part of a group of eight women from Southern Africa who planned a session on us being African women telling our own stories at the Women’s Networking Zone in the Global Village today. When we got to the women’s networking zone I was disappointed by the fact that we were 80% of our audience and there was a loud musical band distracting us so I thought that we won’t be able to share our digital stories with anyone what a waste of time. we decided to sing African songs really loud, that speak about power and unity to fight against injustice on women. Then people started coming in numbers to hear what we have to say.
The experience was empowering for me. It was my first time facilitating at an international AIDS conference. I am more than ready now to attend the rest of the conference and engage critically on issues relating to women especially in Africa.
Lisa again: the most powerful responses to Sindi and the other women came from a Mexican transgender who told me “i can feel the power with these women. I only want to sit here and listen to them all day.” Two African men committed their solidarity — saying that they would do whatever they could to fight “this oppression of their African sisters.”