{"id":60009,"date":"2025-10-28T12:53:43","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T10:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/womin.africa\/?p=60009"},"modified":"2025-10-28T15:11:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:11:03","slug":"leducation-politique-pour-construire-un-mouvement-panafricain-ecofeministe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/womin.africa\/fr\/political-education-to-build-a-pan-african-ecofeminist-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"L'apprentissage de la lib\u00e9ration par les femmes c\u00e9l\u00e8bre son premier rassemblement panafricain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Across Africa, women\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political Education to Build a Pan African Ecofeminist Movement<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Knowledge is the foundation of freedom, and it is from this conviction that WoMin developed Women Learning Liberation (WLL)<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cWe 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.\u201d \u2013 <\/em>Celine, participant from Cameroon<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Through the common herstories <\/em>of struggle and transformation, the women found strength in the growing awareness of themselves and the world around them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cWe mobilised ourselves and said, \u2018What can we do?\u2019 There is no person, no vehicle that is going to pass on this road, even government vehicles couldn\u2019t 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!\u201d – <\/em>Judith, participant from Uganda<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
(Participants in one of the group learning sessions. Photo: WoMin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Songs for resistance and connection<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where women spoke different languages and conversations couldn\u2019t happen, women used songs to connect to each other. Mozambican women, in a solidarity visit, sang to the plenary:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWomen, our march has begun.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us move forward.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where we are coming from,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’re not going back to.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– <\/em>song from Mozambican women<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s resistance and liberation from centuries of exploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cThese songs symbolise our fight; we\u2019re fighting for food sovereignty. We want to take back everything we\u2019ve lost. As women we can\u2019t 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\u2026 We have placed words of love and hope for us because we\u2019re fighting!\u201d – <\/em>Josiane, participant from Ivory Coast<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Solidarity in Practice<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Women\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cWe 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].\u201d – <\/em>Sharell, participant from South Africa<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

African women\u2019s 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.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cWe 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.\u201d – <\/em>Josephine, participant from Madagascar<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00c0 travers les histoires communes de lutte et de transformation, les femmes ont trouv\u00e9 leur force dans la prise de conscience croissante d'elles-m\u00eames et du monde qui les entoure.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":60019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150,162,153],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[229,216],"class_list":["post-60009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-feminist-popular-education","category-latest-news-media"],"authors":[{"term_id":229,"user_id":26,"is_guest":0,"slug":"magdalene-idiang","display_name":"Magdalene Idiang","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/womin.africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-3.png","url2x":"https:\/\/womin.africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-3.png"},"author_category":"1","first_name":"Magdalene","last_name":"Idiang","user_url":"","job_title":"Junior Programme Officer","description":"Magdalene Idiang est une f\u00e9ministe panafricaine, une activiste et une \u00e9crivaine nig\u00e9riane qui s'est engag\u00e9e \u00e0 faire progresser la justice environnementale, climatique et de genre \u00e0 travers le continent. Avec plus de cinq ans d'exp\u00e9rience \u00e0 l'intersection de la construction de mouvements f\u00e9ministes, de campagnes pour la justice environnementale et climatique, de l'\u00e9ducation populaire et de la lib\u00e9ration des femmes, Magdalene a d\u00e9velopp\u00e9 et renforc\u00e9 des r\u00e9seaux au Nig\u00e9ria, en Afrique et dans le monde.\r\n\r\nElle termine actuellement son Master en Leadership et Gouvernance, o\u00f9 sa recherche acad\u00e9mique explore les dynamiques historiques et contemporaines du capitalisme extractif et son impact sur le r\u00f4le des femmes dans la construction de la paix \u00e0 travers l'Afrique."},{"term_id":216,"user_id":8,"is_guest":0,"slug":"eliana-nzualo","display_name":"Eliana N\u2019Zualo","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/18a1cf230435570b28b881d7ca0791f63b2ccd3fd382bb0abd898240a6b1297a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"Eliana","last_name":"N\u2019Zualo","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/womin.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/womin.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/womin.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womin.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womin.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60009"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/womin.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60024,"href":"https:\/\/womin.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60009\/revisions\/60024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womin.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/womin.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womin.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womin.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60009"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womin.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=60009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}