Across Africa, women’s realities are defined by overlapping forms of patriarchal, capitalist violence: on a family level, community level and State level. Women continually face sexual and domestic abuse, exclusion from land and inheritance, denial of reproductive rights, unpaid care work, and deepening poverty. Their labour sustains homes, food systems, and entire communities, yet remains invisible and undervalued.

Compounded by this, African women additionally face the catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis from long droughts, devastating cyclones and floods; unpredictable weather patterns that destroy crops and livelihoods, displacement from their homes to increased burdens of caregiving and survival in communities where resources are already scarce. The struggle of African women today requires frontline activists to embody radical Pan-African values, political commitment, and a deep collective awareness to confront and dismantle the interconnected crises we face.

Political Education to Build a Pan African Ecofeminist Movement

Knowledge is the foundation of freedom, and it is from this conviction that WoMin developed Women Learning Liberation (WLL), an 18-month political education course, directed at 60 frontline women activists from six countries, including Cameroon, Guinea Conakry, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, South Africa and Uganda. Through this popular education process, which began in July 2024, the participants turned their experiences into theory, and in this, they found their power together.

The women finally met for the first time in person at the WLL Pan African Gathering in Maputo, Mozambique, to celebrate their journeys of collective learning. Over four days from 2-5 October 2025, participants exchanged their personal experiences, shared traditional medicine and seeds, and spoke truths about the violent extraction tearing through the continent. Their testimonies laid bare their pains and disappointments, but also gave hope that change is possible.

“We started planting to rebuild trees because all these projects have been destroying our forests. This is the message from my community: YES to community rights, NO to stealing of lands, NO to the destruction of our natural resources. YES to the protection of our forests.” – Celine, participant from Cameroon

Through the common herstories of struggle and transformation, the women found strength in the growing awareness of themselves and the world around them.

“We mobilised ourselves and said, ‘What can we do?’ There is no person, no vehicle that is going to pass on this road, even government vehicles couldn’t pass. We blocked the road, until they got us our water! That was us, women! Then they built us a well. Before, women were drinking dirty dirty water, but not anymore. That is our achievement!” – Judith, participant from Uganda

Songs for resistance and connection

Under the Mozambican skies, the WLL Pan African Gathering transformed into something bigger than just a learning space, it became a site of collective dreaming. Together, women wept for what was lost and sang for what could still be reclaimed.

Where women spoke different languages and conversations couldn’t happen, women used songs to connect to each other. Mozambican women, in a solidarity visit, sang to the plenary:

“Women, our march has begun.

Let us move forward.

Where we are coming from,

We’re not going back to.”

– song from Mozambican women

These songs travelled across struggles, languages and borders, filling the space with joy and hope. Voices from the Benet mountains in Uganda travelled to the ancient forests in Cameroon, then to the deserts of Namaqualand in South Africa, after moving through the Ivory Coast and Madagascar.

In their chants, women denounced the enormity of assaults and violations facing their communities and expressed their visions of a future where their collective knowledge and leadership guide Africa’s resistance and liberation from centuries of exploitation.

“These songs symbolise our fight; we’re fighting for food sovereignty. We want to take back everything we’ve lost. As women we can’t just fold our hands, we do our farms and we want to transform what we put in the soil, that’s why we make the shea butter, the attieke… We have placed words of love and hope for us because we’re fighting!” – Josiane, participant from Ivory Coast

Solidarity in Practice

Women’s solidarity came to life not just through shared songs, but also through the exchange of seeds, the teaching of traditional medicine, and the giving of meaningful gifts. These practices created space for participants to recognise the common threads in their experiences.

“We all have the same struggles around the question of land grabs and extractivism in our different communities, and we stand in solidarity with [other African women].” – Sharell, participant from South Africa

African women’s stubborn hope and unwavering solidarity are a testimony to the power of political education in sustaining social movements and organising, and serve as a foundation for a strong Pan African ecofeminist movement.  

“We have a message from our community concerning the fight we have together: Solidarity between women, mutual respect and cooperation between women. The wish is that we help each other, and we should not go back, so that our movement continues and it is beneficial to all African countries.” – Josephine, participant from Madagascar

In December 2025, the first cohort of frontline activists will complete the WLL course. As preparations begin to welcome the second cohort in 2026, WoMin remains committed to supporting African women in their continued struggles for justice and dignity, through popular education.

This inaugural WLL Pan African Gathering was a powerful space for collective resistance and healing. Through shared knowledge and experiences, women reclaimed their role in shaping a just future for Africa.  As custodians of seeds and natural resources, such as forests and rivers, African women fight in the defense of life, of the right to land, territory, the protection of indigenous knowledge, and the right to live in harmony with Nature as pathways to liberation for all.