International Women's Day - African Women Blogging

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There are probably hundreds of blogs by African women on the continent and in the Diaspora so selecting this list was not an easy task. The ones mentioned here are because they are consistent, have been around for over a year [keeping a blog consistently is no easy task], they are exceptional in content and/or style and because they are blogs I read regularly and always enjoy.

Wordsbody a literary and arts blog by Molara Wood for those who want know what is happening in the literary and arts scene in London and Lagos.

Recently she posted an interview with Nigerian writer, Mohammed Sule who recently passed away on the 12th February – on reading in Nigeria….

“Given our reading culture in this country, where those who are creating these problems have little or no time to read, how could the writers really change the ills?
The people who are causing the ills are in the minority while those who are reading are in the majority. So if you are able to reach the majority, if you are able to reach about a million people, they may have different perspectives about the book, but your preaching will get through. And then we are moving forward. Of course, I’m also aware of the poor reaching culture. When I was inprimary school, we had a library where we could read. It was the same in secondary school. And we read a lot. But these days, even some university graduates hardly read. So it is a fundamental problem. But I don’t believe theproblem cannot be solve if all those concerned wake up to their responsibilities.”

Mshairi Kenyan blogger who writes on women’s issues, human rights as well as some of the best poetry online. Mshairi has also been involved with me in setting up the African Women’s blog. On the night of the lunar eclipse she wrote

“As night deepens, thrilled we stand in wonder
in awe, a crystalline sky a mantle of stars.
Spectacularly ascending over the surface
the moon regally glides over earth’s shade
little by little, once a crescent then engulfed
we marvel at moonlight’s luminosity loss. A
lingering darkening an effervescent cerise glow
vivid hues of gray and orange.”

Freedom for Egyptians - “Freedom and Democracy are the only guarantees for human dignity, self-respect and human rights – an important statement if you are an Egyptian – one of the few countries that has imprisoned bloggers. Her comment on the sentencing of Egyptian blogger, Abdel kareem Nabil Soliman Amer

“It is really sad! Egypt is setting a dangerous precedent for trying and sentencing internet writers and bloggers when other countries are working on raising the ceiling of freedom of expression………….And the biggest disaster is that it is not the issue to agree or disagree with Kareem Amer's blog, but the real disappointment is that many people are supporting jailing Kareem, including his family. They do not know that regardless where do they stand on politics or religion, their turn is coming......
I am not shocked but sad.”

Ore’s Notes - I was privileged to work with Ore on the BAWo project last year, supporting and encouraging young Nigerian girls in a blogging project. Without Ore’s hard and determined work the project would not have gotten off the ground. This year Ore has single headedly taken the idea further by applying and receiving funding from Hamrambee. Ore writes about life in Lagos, literature, feminism and technology. On Nigerian newspapers, not an easy decision as there are so many but she goes for…..…..

“My paper of choice then was This Day, mostly because it appeared to be so highly regarded. After trying it out for a few weeks, I realized how much I did not like that paper. So much of the news in This Day (and this is common to a lot of Nigerian newspapers) is focused almost exclusively on politics. Yes, politics affects virtually every sphere of our lives, but there is surely more to report than that. Not being very interested in politics myself, I had to admit to myself that This Day was not the paper for me. I recently tried The Guardian and while I enjoyed that, I remembered that I had read an issue of Business Day sometime last year on a flight to Abuja and actually read it cover to cover.”

Kenyan Pundit - is a Kenyan lawyer living in South Africa and a long time blogger