africa

Between the crisis brought about by the anti-gender backlash, the strength of new voices speaking about intersectionality and gender expression from the LGBTI communities in different parts of the world - NOW marks a moment when we should look at what should be our priorities and concerns in relation to internet and technology.

This article examines the challenges that women's rights and sexual rights activists face in online feminist organising and participation in internet governance decision-making processes in West and Central Africa. It focuses particularly on linguistic barriers, and the expression of sexual or gender non-conforming identities in a context of digital colonisation in the sub-region.

Two years after the initial birth of the Feminist Principles of the Internet, Dhyta helps us frame this edition where we see how feminists put the principles into practice in their own contexts. “As an evolving document, we need to constantly revisit it to make sure that it stays relevant, or else we should clarify, revise or even change it in accordance with the new circumstances and our needs…

Little by little, the number of women participating in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has increased significantly, and their presence in panels and workshops and as participants has brought new insights into the discussion of the different matters that are key in IGF debates.

The Association for Progressive Communications' Caroline Tagny interviewed Chenai Chair, a participant of the Africa Gender and Internet Governance Exchange, on her experience.

It all started a couple of weeks ago when the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) invited me to apply for participation in an exchange with women’s rights, internet rights and sexual rights activists to discuss, exchange and build awareness and understanding of the relationship between gender, women’s rights and internet governance. I had not realized that at end of it, I would not…

I never thought the internet to be knotty. That all I needed was my device of choice, an internet service provider and voila! Get my connection, click, click, click, open up a page, browse through it, close tab, open another, like an update, favorite a tweet, laugh at some memes and move on to the next tab.

Nothing is ever that easy.

In order to strengthen internet governance in Africa, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is organising a series of events to take place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during September 2015. Follow them here.

In the opening session at this year’s Gender and Internet Governance eXchange (gigXAfrica), participants highlighted some key questions they had that they hoped would be answered during the exchange. One participant innocently asked: if the internet is free for all, how are women really marginalized in that space? This is my attempt at a calm response to this question that I am slowly realising…

Tiffany Kagure Mugo and Nyx McLean recently published an article in The IDS Bulletin, The Digital Age: A Feminist Future for the Queer African Woman. The article draws attention to digital communities and how they afford the queer African woman the space to express her lived experience.