6th of February is the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. There are often various themes used to illustrate where the global battle again the practice of FGM stands at any given time. For example, the theme for 6th of February 2016 was “Achieving the new Global Goals through the elimination of Female Genital Mutilation by 2030.” However, current statistics casts doubt on the possibility of achieving this. It is estimated that at least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone some form of FGM. If current trends continue, 15 million additional girls between ages 15 and 19 will be subjected to FGM by 2030. Therefore it seems that despite the best intentions of global civil society, the international community is still losing the war against FGM.
‘Lost Voices’ by D Simpson & S Bostley
“To tell me you know my pain is to stab yourself in the leg because you saw me get shot. We have two different wounds, and looking at yours does nothing to heal mine.
You know nothing of silence until someone who cannot know your pain tells you how to fix it.”
The Danger of a Single Story – C N Adichie
This TED talk was given by Chimamanda Adichie in 2009. Here is a full transcript. Below are some excerpts. I have since used this talk in my teaching. The conversations I have had with students about our perspectives of the world and where we stand and the limited vision of what we know and how we know… have been fascinating. In addition to this, I am often surprised about how many of my students have NOT heard the talk before it popped up on my assigned reading list. So if you have not heard it yet either… have a listen… tell a friend. Maybe if we all stepped away from single stories, we COULD regain a kind of paradise.
We Are Still Here: The Names and Peoples that Survived Imperialism
I absolutely love spoken-word poetry. There is something very musical, elemental, and earthy about it. Almost spiritual. This is one of my favourites. Here you have three speakers carrying what are deemed by some to be unpronounceable names. Names deemed to be unpronounceable are not merely matters to do with the slight offence of going through life being misnamed. The indignity of not being considered worthy of having your name remembered. There is also real material impact that comes with these sorts of names. Research done in the UK shows that to get the same number of interviews as someone with an Anglo-Saxon name, if you were Nigerian or South Asian, you had to send out 80% more applications. This spoken word piece is a reminder for everyone with an ‘unforgettable’ name. Your name has a history. Your name is a history. Names such as these are a ‘cache for memories, lost histories and songs.’ Your name has a reason. It was given to you to let those who wanted to make us vanish know that we are still here. Your name was given to you so that you would never forget that.
TURNING BACK THE TIDE
“The people of Africa have bought into the narrative of their own helplessness, when history proves we are no such thing.”
Source: TURNING BACK THE TIDE
We Are Forever Africa: David Diop, Love, and the Bitter Taste of Liberty
David Léon Mandessi Diop was born in 1927 in Bordeaux, France, to a Senegalese father and a Cameroonian mother. During his literary career, he was a proponent of Negritude. This was a political philosophy/literary movement whose scholars included statesman-poet Leopold Sedar Senghor. Negritude was a reaction to the French colonial administrative policy of assimilation; this policy was predicated on the belief that Africans possessed neither culture nor history and, therefore, French culture could be used to civilise them. Negritude desired a deep and almost essentialist re-grounding of Africans in the history, values, and cultures of the Black people, while being open to friendship with other civilisations. The poem below by Diop reflects those values. David Diop died in an aeroplane crash in 1960. He was 33.
More Than Medals: What Athletics Teaches Us About Being Human
For the avoidance of doubt in this blog post ‘Athletics’ means ‘competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking’. i.e., track and field.
So it is the end of a year of ups and downs for athletics – a fantastic IAAF World Championships in Beijing and a new chairperson to head the IAAF, but doping sits among these achievements like 20 uninvited ex-girlfriends frowning in the front row at the wedding reception. However, I still believe we should all love athletics. My arguments will be swift and to the point [ahem!]
A Tale of Two Vallettas…. and Climate Change
