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Alchemical Transmutations: Join the Sawaba Fellowship for Decolonial Feminist Transformation 

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Life-giving organising in this catastrophic era requires us to chart new world political and social maps – Mariame Kaba. Liberation Alliance Africa Collective introduces the Sawaba Fellowship — a space for thinkers, artists, practitioners, activists, and community organisers to come together and engage in deep reflection, discourse, and knowledge production on key issues in pursuing decolonial feminist futures. This fellowship invites us to sketch, doodle, and chant our dreams into existence, bringing life to new ways of thinking, being, and organising. Exploring the theme of Alchemical Transmutations, fellows are invited to unmask coloniality through liberation efforts and challenge its endurance across the dimensions of power, knowledge and being — deconstructing coloniality and repairing relational commitments, thoughts, behaviour, beliefs, and actions.   Alchemical Transmutations in this context concern the exploration of the abundant resources of African conceptual frameworks to critically reflect on all the fundamental aspects of decoloniality of the mind through the lens of exposition, framing, reframing and repair. The fellowship, through its theme, acknowledges that we are fighting against a violent white-Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy, but we are not without the tools to resist. We hold the power, magic, and skillset to reclaim our lives from the indignities oppressive systems have imposed upon us.  Who  Can Apply? We seek passionate, innovative thinkers and creators eager to propose an original project that engages with and contributes to the ongoing fight for decolonial feminist futures.  Sawaba Fellows will receive a stipend of USD 500 per month to support their work, with the possibility of a two-month extension. The fellowship runs for three months, beginning with an in-person gathering in May 2025.  How to Apply To apply, click Sawaba Fellowship to read more about the fellowship theme and how to apply.  Applications are open until March 17th, 2025. Applicants will be notified of the selection results by March 28th, 2025. If you are deeply committed to decolonial feminist politics and anti-imperialist solidarity—or know someone who is—don’t miss this opportunity. Apply now, or share this call with someone who would love it! For any additional information, please contact us at hello@liberationalliance.cmostfrancisidimu.com.

An Invitation to Lock into Revolutionary Hope

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I recently read a poem that described hope as a feather that perches on the soul, sings a tune and never stops. Hope is a global phenomenon that enjoys many definitions and iterations, but what does it mean to lock into the radical, action-oriented, love-directed concept of revolutionary hope? To hope is to have agency, to be willing to live even though everything around us screams death. Hope is the ability to bravely build individual and collective futures on love, community, sacrifice and critical awareness.  Hope is the desire to ask critical questions of normative assumptions and refuse to merely adapt. It shows up as the intentional exploration and intellectual rigour outside knowledge systems that have robbed us of legitimacy. Hope is the rejection of knowledge hegemonies that require us to filter our lived experience through a white supremacist prism. Hope is the refusal to adapt to distorted notions of our identities and the radical action to build new embodied present and pluriversal worlds.  We’re in the middle of a vortex of pain with colonial violence and its resulting poly-crisis, the reinforcement of oligarchs through the bro-ligarchy and fascism’s loss of its very transparent veil. For people on the margins, keeping our eyes on what we know and our hearts on our dreams of liberation seems herculean. Critical consciousness requires us to see the world as an occurrence that can be read, re-read, built, and rebuilt. This task is worthy of our rigour, fervency, transparency, humility and curiosity. We must lock into the revolutionary hope that allows us to engage in non-reactionary world-building—bringing to life the imaginations of a new world that is critically aware of oppression and the need for liberation.  We must become familiar with but unafraid of dominant narratives sustained by the hegemonies of power, which create a distorted worldview and cause a separation between our minds and hearts. This separation is both cognitive and embodied and renders colonised peoples as pawns in global politics and power struggles — this misalignment is a gold mine, and we must deprive them of gold. So, how do we realign with our dreams of liberation in private and public spaces? How do we confront a world that requires docility from us? How do we survive in a world that harvests our despair to fuel the thirst for power? The simple answer is the practice of Revolutionary hope. Revolutionary hope calls us to acknowledge who and where we are in this world and how we fit into the collective. It requires a profound recognition that we cannot live as though our role is simply to adapt. Revolutionary hope is not the blind desire for what was; we must not be caught in the romanticisation of pre-colonial realities. We are invited to alchemise, to know what was, and to build a world that is. We must reject oppression Olympics and identity politics and recognise them for what they are: a wrench in our ability to express and receive solidarity. What is our political awareness and struggle worth if we cannot link arms?   This is a call to critical reflection, recognition and acknowledgement of what this world is, an invitation to meaning-seeking and sense-making, the cultivation and nurturing of care, community, the desire and labour for collective healing and the nourishment of our spirits as we sing our songs and perfect our dance.  Revolutionary hope is knowing that when our oppressors become versed in the songs of our movement, we must pivot and make new songs.  Written by Omolara Oriye, Co-dreamer, Liberation Alliance Africa

The Makings of Revolutionary Hope: A Feminist, pan-African Anthology on Disrupting Colonial Legacies in Africa.

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To be radically alive is to be hopeful — but to hope, one must acknowledge, interrogate and dream. Even though coloniality continues to shape Africa’s systems and structures, while the global north continues to thrive on the inferiorisation of how we learn and live, we are doubling down on revolutionary hope.   In April of 2023, we started a five-part Disrupting Colonial Legacies in Africa series to interrogate the impact of colonial legacies in Africa. We explored colonial legacies of leadership, climate justice, economic justice, philanthropy, and education in Africa, which brought to the fore the importance of holding space for the imaginations of a decolonial, feminist Africa. Check out our latest knowledge product: Library of Perspectives The Makings of Revolutionary Hope anthology is a collection of our reflections, feelings, hopes, and dreams inspired by the conversations from the  Disrupting Colonial Legacies series.  In the anthology, we adopt a storytelling approach to create the afro- futuristic city of Leluji. This city embodies feminist principles of interconnectedness, collaborative wisdom, and empathy in leadership and how that manifests in the education landscape, the leadership structure, the wealth distribution system, and knowledge transfer.  We humanise this imaginative exploration through the lives of three friends whose ancestry goes back to ancient times in Africa and whose individual identity is birthed and held in their sense of sisterhood, friendship, and community.  Infused with poems, essays, and artwork from African feminists, the anthology enriches the tapestry of our liberated dreams and revolutionary hope.  Download the anthology here.

Weaving Liberatory Actions: Reflections from the #ShiftThePower Global Summit

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The GFCF #ShiftThePower global summit took place at the Agora Center in Bogota in December 2023. The global summit served as a platform for creating “good collisions” and establishing connections among individuals shaping people-centred practices. These practices are driven from the grassroots, and the summit also brought together those leading experiments and efforts to shift power within the existing system. This summit marked the culmination of various global activities. Conversations leading to the summit explored questions about how power can and should be transferred to communities, the practical implications of this shift, and the role of current philanthropic practices. What was also useful to these conversations was the #ShiftThePower manifesto as a guide and declaration of what we mean when we imagine communities in charge of their own development and producing a flourishing and safe life.  Check out our latest knowledge product: Library of Perspectives For us at Liberation Alliance Africa, we focused our energies on exploring decolonial feminist philanthropy in West Africa. As part of the #ShiftThePower movement, we delved into the role of power in the institutionalisation of philanthropic practices in West Africa, investigating those who benefit from the current structures and those who do not and proposing ways to reshape the philanthropic system to be more locally-owned and locally-led. The summit hosted 700 participants from around the world and was organised with care. Through the Buckets, Lightning talks, moments to rest, connect, and find some joy in the sweetness of the locally produced chocolates and coffee; the experience was thoughtfully curated and is reflected upon in this piece. Reimagining Governance and Structures: Where did you first learn about governance and structures?  In a Bucket session on reimagining systems, organisational structures, and governance using arts and storytelling as a way to learn about governance. We reflected on our early encounters with governance. The session prompted a shift in thinking about governance practices, bringing to light negative practices internalised over time. I realised many of us learned about governance and structures from our private and family lives, sometimes resulting in disempowerment – raising a crucial question: what governance practices might inadvertently make them feel powerless or angry in building power with communities? Power to the Ones with the Stories Stories are everywhere; sometimes, we are storytellers or storyweavers. When we decide to share stories from our communities, we must examine that our process inspires courage and the power of togetherness. If your storytelling advocacy does not centre the storytellers, step back or step down to reshape your organising. When we share stories from our communities, how do we honour their voices, experiences, emotions and names?  Are philanthropic organisations dismantling power structures or are they sustaining the power imbalance with their current donor practices? – Ambika Satkunanathan  During the Lightning talks on Day Two, Ambika’s bold question challenged the audience, including representatives from bilateral/multilateral donor organisations, foundations, corporations and private philanthropic individuals. I found the session interesting and audacious to discuss the negative impact of the current philanthropic practices in building and sustaining a funding system that is locally-owned and locally-led. We discussed power and privilege and who benefits the most from donor-grantee relationships. The session further validates the questions we asked ourselves at Liberation Alliance Africa when we spoke with feminist organisers in West Africa about the current philanthropic practices in the region. Our discussion with them produced the report we titled Reclaiming Agency: Dreaming of a Decolonial Feminist Philanthropy in West Africa. The Lightning talks propelled us, and I hope especially those on the grantmaking side, to commit to reshaping the current funding practices and be consciously aware of the power imbalances and take actions which sometimes means listening to the communities their money is going to.  Hope is a strategy, and we must embrace Hope as much as we embrace power. – Marie-Rose Romain Mu  When Marie-Rose started talking about Hope, I was like, whatttt ma’am!!! I tell you, it was a sermon and a critical delivery to raise our consciousness and demand that we remember Hope as our ancestral identity. Her submission resounds our audacity to dream and reminds us that the process to #ShiftThePower starts from recognising the power within us. In an impassioned closing, Marie-Rose called us to lean into the warmth, strength and sustenance that Hope brings.  In conclusion, this reflection piece extends intellectual solidarity and love to friends I dined with, danced with, laughed with, and exchanged liberatory thoughts and dreams. As the movement progresses, the collective journey continues with audacity, Hope, and a commitment to reshaping power dynamics for a more just and equitable world. Onwards we go! By Oluwatobiloba Ayodele, Co-dreamer, Liberation Alliance Africa

Building a Community of Practice that Translates Concerns into Action

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In the face of massive pushback by anti-rights agents who are well funded and united in opposing the freedom of women and gender-diverse persons, it has never been more necessary to work in harmony and consolidate efforts amongst activists, CSOs, funding and development partners, researchers, leading experts, support institutions, strategic government and political allies, judicial officers, and academia. 

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