Stage 1
13:45 - 14:45
English
Discussion
Everyone
Female
Building African Feminist Solidarity in Digital Spaces

Kurzthese

Tapping the full potential of digital technologies to challenge existing and entrenched narratives around gender roles in African societies. The panel session brings together four experienced feminist digital storytellers from different corners of the continent, each with a different take on what it means to promote gender equality and cross-border solidarity through digital means. This panel will plant a first seed for a new Pan-African network on “digital storytelling, African role models”.

Beschreibung

Digital media have become indispensable tools for advocacy and promoting social change in general and are being used in a variety of ways to improve the situation of women in Africa. It has also become a powerful tool for often marginalized voices in mainstream media to advocate for and build alliances on key feminist issues in Africa. Social media platforms, online video, podcast, blogging, virtual reality, chat-bot and text message based storytelling are some examples of formats of digital engagement, each best suited to transport particular types of content to different audiences in specific local contexts. How can we make best use of these technologies to generate and provide access to new narratives around women and women’s issues aimed to achieve the objectives of gender equality? How do we tell stories that engage from a female and feminist perspective taking into account cultural, educational and infrastructural factors?

After a short keynote by the moderator, the panel will engage in a discussion, touching on issues such as:

- How is female digital storytelling helping reshape the dominant narrative of women in Africa?

- What is the role of digital spaces in creating support systems and solidarity among African feminists across borders?

- How do the choice and blend of digital media formats and platforms works for different target groups? How do we best reach also those on or outside of the fringes of the digital society?

- What does it mean to be an African Feminist and why is this often misunderstood? In what ways are digital tools helping reshape the misconceptions around African Feminism?