[in the art of taking participatory leadership to scale with (queer, trans/two-spirited) indigenus perspectives from the continent to the diaspora of righteousness en, back to(akina babu, watoto na mama wa)Afreeka (with big love) migrashuns]
Wetin next steps, after reaching out to the frontlines of the heart of our dreams, acknowledging dey s/heroes we’ve known from time and wetin those ‘betta practice’ paths of harvesting the powah! of cata(c)lysts, youth social infrastructure collaboratives en the legacies of elders en ancestors in coalition building? ]
[Hadithi? Hadithi? Hadithi njoo! Who among us carry the sage secrets of loving o?
Kesho in the Q_t werd…….b is for black queer resistance, blackness yes en Blockorama as cultural champions of Tdot en others who inspire en nourish we so, whom we are infinitely grateful for…]
Urban Legend: Mr Museveni, what plans do you have for this next term of yours?
Museveni: Well, generally speaking our vision is to consolidate the gains made so far by my government so far, to keep Uganda progressing on track, to discover and exploit even more ways to maximize our natural resources and to further cement the vice-grip I currently have on power until the point that not even Armageddon can unseat me.
Urban Legend: Good luck with that, sir.
[Reposted with overflowing love, respekt en humility from http://wildugandablog.com/ ………Nollywood style…..]
Hadithi? Hadithi? Hadithi njoo……it is stories like these though that inspire so many mo of us, so empowering when comrades and friends we love, respekt en admire, like bombastic kasha are abundantly recognised for their struggles and those of others on the frontline, ni kweli pamoja tunafika 🙂
We are calling for a circle and invite you to join with us. We yearn for safe spaces within which to be authentic, trusting, caring and open to change. We are searching for a way of life that embraces wisdom and compassion as its core principles.
By “wisdom” we mean deep insight into the interdependence of all phenomena, into the ways we are connected and how the strength of each one of us is vital to the whole. By “Compassion” we mean the deep feeling that comes when we recognize our soul’s reflection in another person, when that other person’s pain or joy becomes our own.
We know that the place to begin is within our own hearts and minds…….we want to share our efforts in self discovery, grassroots activism and spiritual inquiry in the company of kindred spirits….
so we invite you to come sit with us in a circle, meeting heart to heart, re-learning from each other’s life experiences and honouring the values that sustain our lives.
This is a place for deep truth telling, for practising a way of relating to each other that can become the norm for all our relationships. This is also a place for recognizing our own unique talents and abilities.
We will pass the talking stick and take turns speaking to our basic inquiry:
How can we continue to survive, hope, dream and thrive during dis time of global tumult? Can you listen from the heart without judgement, without resistance, to the urgencies of a soul longing to be heard? Can you speak from the heart, expressing your truth as you best know it? and will you choose your words carefully, with sensistivity to their impact? Can you express gratitude to those who bear witness to your werds?
Will you sit in silence and wait for deeper thoughts and feelings to rise?
Can you give voice to dis (not-so) new form of community pressing to be re-born?…….
The Ten Constants
No two wisdom circles are alike, yet there are elements that all wisdom circles share.
The wisdom circle is shaped by a set of guidelines called The Ten Constants.
This format has been inspired by councils of indigenous peoples, informed by the legacies of our ancestors and support and dialogue groups, and drawn from our own experience.
We’ ve also investigated group relations theory, mediation techniques and circle-forming traditions such as juma(a) khutbas and Quaker meetings.
We want to help you re-create and sustain your own circle, using the Ten Constants.
A set of guidelines, they also reflect the intentions of a wisdom circle – the shared values and deep purposes common to all wisdom circles, no matter what their individual aims are.
For example, expressing gratitude and acknowledging our interdependence are basic to every wisdom circle. Because it’s useful to learn “the basics” in any endeavour, we’ve devoted a blog post to each of the constants. We ask you to read these posts slowly.
The better you grasp the constants, the more confidence you will feel in leading and participating in your own group
[revised excerpts from Wisdom Circles: A Guide to Self Discovery and Community Building in Small Groups]
[i,S.I.Sprayer: I give thanks for yesterday and tomorrow, I pray that the blessings of yesterday carry into tomorrow… I give thanks for jamii, bless my family, and all those show share their love with and pray for me, and those around me ….. I give thanks for the continued guidance and protection from my ancestors, give thanks for the fruits of co-creating big love gatherings with Bredrin and dadas in solidarity (collectives like Black Queer Resistance and Women’s Health in Women’s Hands); give thanks for the honour of witnessing My Barbarian and sharing space with community as envisioned en invited by Post-Living Ante-Action Theater (PoLAAT) in “The Chamber” of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, give thanks for the spaces between celebrashun, vigils, wisdom circles and all the wondrous possibilities being dreamed, organised and manifested by those spreading love, hope and positivity in abundance….I pray for help in forgiving my enemies, help to love my enemies, and to turn enemies into friends…so much tings to pray for….I pray to be humble, loving, and strong…pray for knowledge and wisdom, and for peace….bless the motherless and fatherless, bless those who are sick, bless our youth coming into their right destinies, bless our elders, bless our freedom fighters and peace makers, bless our healers, bless dunia yetu…]
How do we harvest the resources we have to share with our communities, across time and spaces? How do we harness the powah! of the all those intersections of our diversity to mobilise continental Afrikans and those in the diaspora in re-constitutional-i- sing our political and social systems to sustain not only all Afrikan people’s liberation, but all our living relatives?
[like real tox we all know many gifted en loving folks in our communities that are hungry to gain more balance, grounding en wellbeing while serving the frontlines in their hoods, many of us have be/come familiar with weariness en ‘thick’ skins, with living ‘cheque’ to ‘check’, en sacrificing ‘personal’ time for collective sowing, planting en harvesting bounties that shrink en swell according to imperialist currencies and the commitment of warriors….truthIS there’s always a crisis in the horizon..day before yesterday it was the prime minister spewing hatred in a call to arrest gays and lesbians, and those hours of panic en fear, a few weeks ago it was the (slow) burning of witches, every day it’s the po’ and indigenus people’s struggle]
Real tox: who en where are the ones who are willing to harvest the powah! of our love for Afrika(ns) to rebuild sustaining and sustainable united villages, cities en states of Afreeka that hold us ALL safely? are the questions too massive to reason en organise through, outside of OUR social movements? or are they too specific? what is the appropriate scale to work through on a small-ish blog on the world wide web? what are the right questions to galvanise each other to seek ourselves out and support our family en comrades mo?
in the (t)here en then en now, in solidarity with LGBTTIQ folks in Kenya, what creative sustained resistance and renewal can we magically craft and organise in response to the increasing backlash to Queer/trans communities in East Afrika?
Like that public call of hate for mo’ state-sanctioned homophobia, and quite explicitly for mass allegiance to our persecution…. that kinda shit gets people killed, and Dear Raila, he knows that very well, so today, en tomorrow en the moons en years after, it would be amazing and much needed to hear more voices calling for mo’ than a public retraction, en organise with more bodies to advocate for and serve queer/trans communties all over Afrika
coz this shit is Raila’s hateful call and Bahati’s Bill , Burundi and Rwanda, Nigeria and South Afrika, Ayiti and Jamaica, it’s about 53 African nations (that technically really should be states) denying observer status to the Coalition of African Lesbians and upholding coloniser’s/foreign laws so shamelessly….
the bigger point is, dis solidarity ofcourse is much more than media campaigns or pointing fingers, it’s bout working collectively on sustaining ourselves en our growing movements, en harvesting all the wealth we do have…..hadithi kama
The Western Sahara conflict with Morocco is one of those almost forgotten conflicts. It is one that is an unbelievable 35 years old – and still the Moroccan government remains intransigent. A Moroccan About a World around him reports on recent uprising in one of the camps in Laayoune the main city in occupied Western Sahara. Prior to this King Mohammed VI had accused Algeria of human rights violations against Saharawis in Tindouf camps ignoring his country’s central part in why they are there in the first place.
‘The violence was triggered when a battalion-size security force descended on the camp in the early hours of Monday in an attempt to raze it and disperse its residents using tear gas and water cannons. The protests seeped into Laayoune and resulted in substantial material damage and loss of life as a group of the camp’s residents that an official Ministry of Interior statement described as wanted criminals and subversive agents clashed with the security forces. Black smoke bellowed over the city and debris littered its arteries. The number of people injured and killed could not yet be confirmed. According to the BBC, about seventy people have been injured and over ten have died.’…..read more @ http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/69060
na pia…..
What powah! does reclaiming indigenus knowledge en spirituality have for harvesting all those intersections of our diversity?
….not against flesh en blood
Sister Outsider
check dis….
Mr Odinga on Sunday said that police should arrest anyone found engaging in such behaviours and take appropriate legal action against them.
“We will not tolerate such behaviours in the country. The constitution is very clear on this issue and men or women found engaging in homosexuality will not be spared,” Mr Odinga said.
Listen to Raila
“Any man found engaging in sexual activities with another man should be arrested. Even women found engaging in sexual activities will be arrested,” the premier warned.
Speaking at a public rally at the Kamukunji grounds in his Nairobi’s Kibera constituency on Sunday afternoon, the Prime Minister cited the recent population census results which put the ratio of men to women equal and wondered why people should engage in homosexuality.
“This [homosexual] kind of behaviours will not be tolerated in this country. Men or women found engaging in those acts deserve to be arrested and will be arrested,” he told the crowd.
He said leaders who were propagating rumours of same sex marriages in Kenya during campaigns for the new Constitution had failed miserably because Kenyans did not buy their propaganda.
“Those were lies from leaders who wanted to confuse Kenyans to reject the new law; the Constitution is very clear on that matter. It does not state anywhere that same sex marriage is legal in Kenya,” he added.
The Bill of Rights under chapter four of the new Constitution states that: “Every adult has the right to marry a person of the opposite sex, based on the free consent of the parties.”
A move by Uganda to introduce a Bill calling for long jail terms or death penalty in some cases of homosexuality received international condemnation, with US President Barack Obama describing it as “odious”.
He said: “But surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are, whether it is here in the United States or… more extremely, in odious laws that are being proposed more recently in Uganda.”
But notwithstanding Obama’s remarks, homosexual acts are now illegal in Uganda and attracts jail terms of up to 14 years in prison.
[and that is the story of how Raila tried to score cheap points, and took another brutal blow to his leadership, going to show yet again, what he sealed in ink when he accepted his position as prime minister, that he is not the rightful leader of our beloved country Kenya, maybe the other Agwambo, but dis one here o…..he dun make too much war o, it’s time for him to go O, no? in the spirit of….]
There’s a story I know. It’s about the earth and how it floats in space on the back of a turtle. I’ve heard this story many times, and each time someone tells the story, it changes. Sometimes the change is simply in the voice of the storyteller. Sometimes the change is in the details. Sometimes in the order of events. Other time’s it’s the dialogue or the response of the audience. But in all the telling of the tellers, the world never leaves the turtle’s back. And the turtle never swims away…
[The truth about stories: a Native Narrative]
There’s other hadithi I know, like how I discovered this series of stories a few days ago, that reminded me that around dis time last year, a manifesto of revolushunary intent was quite magically (re)born through the collective wisdom of warrior kings and queens, archived in dis world wide web that we find ourselves meeting in again en again, en practised in many villages en urban spaces..
These articles made me so happy, not because of why they were written (in direct response to the African Commission for Peoples and Human Rights denying ‘observer’ status to the Coalition of African Lesbians) or their content per se, but quite simply because there were so many of them (TEN!) coming from a place of (anti-oppressive) solidarity, which is where the I,Sista.In.Solidarity manifesto came from……
These articles triggered me to reflect much more on the tasks we have of harnessing the power of our intersecting interests and resources.
It made me so happy to consider that it was inevitable that I would read these articles, coz I have to admit to stalking Pambazuka news for the latest on the shifting boundaries of our social movements…the bigger point is, I’m ever more grateful for bredrin en dadas around the world, and significantly, on the continent, who are speaking BACK and working on the necessary elements of truth, justice and peace, with big love.
Check these stories out, and if you are, like me, in the diaspora, consider how you/we could share more resources with our bredrin and dadas on the continent, what strengths can we harness over here to build solidarity not only with LGBTI movements in Afrika, but all progressive social movements? Where do we position ourselves as allies?
Consider what it means as we commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, for queer & trans women in Afrika, for the indigenus women & trans folk of Turtle Island….
‘Pity the nation that has to silence its writers for speaking their minds. Pity the nation that needs to jail those who ask for justice, while communal killers, mass murderers, corporate scamsters, looters, rapists, and those who prey on the poorest of the poor, roam free.’
We say pity that 53 African nation states – and we really need to emphasise this because a few people are deciding about the validity of our lives – feel they have to silence the voices of their innocent citizens who ask for justice and the rights shared by their sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers while ‘communal killers, mass murderers, corporate and political scamsters, looters, rapists, and those who prey on the poorest of the poor, roam free’!
………..
The day the African commission disavowed humanity Fikile Vilakazi and Sibongile Ndashe
Jus one of the many revolushunary organisations that we love, respekt and admire so, the ones that we have grown with en learnt so much from on building communities of (good) practice and the struggle for Afrikan liberation….
these are (some of) the hadithi of the q_t werd [ on the ground]…
the ones that haven’t been published (yet)….
Proposal – Queer African Reader
Project Consultant: Sokari Ekine
Proposed Editors: Sokari Ekine, Hakima Abbas
We are writing to invite you to participate in the publication of an African LGBTI Reader to be published by Pambazuka Press in June 2011. The African LGBTI Reader is being published in response to the increasing homophobia and transphobia across the continent which aims to silence the voices of African Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Intersex people.
The African LGBTI Reader [Working Title] seeks to make a timely intervention by bringing together a collection of writings and artistic works that engage with the struggle for LGBTI liberation and inform sexual orientation and gender variance. The book seeks to engage with primarily an African audience focusing on intersectionality and will include experiences from rural communities, post-conflict situations, religious experience as well that of immigration and displacement.
We are proposing an alternative framework for the book based on a participatory model in which we ask prospective contributors and the broad queer activist community to discuss possible topics to be included that will push analysis and thinking within this distinct and diverse movement across the continent writing from the standpoint of both personal stories and experiences as activists. We feel this is important because of the multi layered issues which exist historically, regionally and politically with regards to sexual orientation and gender variance in Africa as well as the overall struggle for African liberation.
We hope to facilitate the writing of key African LGBTI leaders, activists and thinkers by providing a two week retreat where activists can create the space to reflect, share their ideas and writing, peer review each other’s work, have access to sources and resources provided by prominent academics and the institution. The writing retreat will be fully sponsored and contributors will be provided an honorarium for their writing which will enable them to take the time away from their activities to provide a critically reflective piece.
Possible Topics – not including personal stories, poems, stories
We have identified eight themes which are listed below with a brief summary of each. We are suggesting each of you think about the theme[s] that interest you and suggest specific topics on which you could write or would like to see addressed.
1. WHAT’S IN A LETTER:
We repeatedly use the terms lesbian, gay, bi-sexual transgender and intersex but what do these mean in your own experience, your own community and country? How limiting or inclusive are these labels? Are they appropriate and do they reflect your own experiences? Does the identity cause more problems than the behavior? Does gender variance or gender non-conforming provide a more appropriate entry point for discussion in Africa given silence around all sexualities? How do we organize across definitions? Why should we?
2. RESISTING OPPRESSION – TOWARDS LIBERATION:
What kind of strategies have been used or could be taken up to resist / challenge queer oppression?
Should we be talking about movement-building? What conceptualisations, experiences and visions of movements do we have / should there be?
Should the struggle for LGBTI Rights be framed within a Western construct which sees Rights as instruments and legislation or should the struggle for rights be constructed within a framework of movement building around which the oppressed organise?
How has the reliance on the NGO Industrial complex supported or hindered movement building? If the latter, what possible alternatives are there to organising and fund raising? How can we move towards more collaborative and collective ways of working which support movement building? What kind of strategies have been used or could be taken up to resist / challenge criminalisation and homophobia including that coming from religious institutions and the media? How should we understand and transcend the limits of the NGO-dominated activist space?
3. PINK COLONIALISM AND WESTERN MISSIONARIES:
What are the problematics of internationalising campaigns and how do we work with allies in the West? How do we overcome donor dependence as a movement? Do the donors and bilaterals save us from ourselves? How do we measure victory e.g. in Malawi and Uganda?
4. A CHANGING WORLD: SOUTH AFRICA AND THE BRICS:
Does South Africa have a particular role to play in supporting queer liberation in Africa? Does the shift in global power create opportunity or threat for African queer liberation? What other geo-political factors determine the course for queer liberation?
5. AFRICAN QUEER LIBERATION AND CLASS STRUGGLE:
What are the intersections between the broader social justice movement in Africa and the movement for queer liberation? Why should one care about the other?
6. ARE GAY MEN FEMINISTS?
What political frames are useful in our movement building? While LBT activists have tended towards feminism does it exclude GT men? How do we address patriarchy and sexism in our movements and personal relationships even among women-identified folks? Why do many straight identified African feminists resist taking on queer issues as a feminist issue in Africa?
7. GOD AND QUEER –
INCOMPATIBLE OR INSEPARABLE IN AFRICA
Does the movement have to come from a secular space? Given that many African queer folks identify as religious how do we overcome fundamentalism?
The US right wing church are using Africa as a battleground for queer bashing – why is this effective?
What of countries with majority Muslim populations or Islamic law for queer liberation?
What is liberation theology today from a queer liberation and broader social justice perspective?
What are our strategies here?
Are there existing experiences of this, and what can we learn from there? What are the conceptual, spiritual and strategic challenges that the concept of liberation theology throws up to religious queers?
8. RECONCILING THE PERSONAL WITH THE POLITICAL:
What particular role has been/can be played by those engaged in activism through the creative arts? What has been/is the personal cost to working as social justice activists often working in relative isolation and in hostile environments? How can we better balance our lives as social justice activists with that of social people and the need to care for ourselves?
Submissions can be any of the following: essays, case studies of lived experiences on any of the suggested themes, personal stories, poems, art work, photography, short stories, short plays.
Submissions are welcome from Africans both on the continent and in the diaspora.
This blog is strategically mystic, personal and political. I’ve been sharing pieces of a doc that we (a couple o’ dadas) officially started shooting dis’ summer, these bios of some of the 32 (en then some) folks that we love, respekt and admire so, are a tapestry of all the brilliance and intersections in our diversity, en real tox on the struggle for afrikan liberation.
Dis blog is the (un)official home of “The Q_t werd”: A caravan of us-people stories exploring bio/myth/ologies of (our vision) quests. The riddle of the sphinx is in the 4(+1) bredrin and dadas that are the crux of dis doc’
Molisa wa NyaKale 