Feminists

"At the turn of the century, Sara Estela Ramírez, the Villarreal sisters, Leonor Villegas de Magnón, Jovita Idar and the staff members of La Voz de la Mujer and Pluma Roja were organic intellectuals of their times who revealed different discursive positionings of women within their societies, positionings informed by the master narratives of nationalism, religion and anarchism. Until now these women's work as publishers and their written contributions have remained virtually unrecognized. Either because of political affiliations or gender discrimination, their work has not been recognized in Mexico. In the United States, these factors, as well as linguistic biases, have relegated their work to oblivion. These women's stories and their publishing efforts, nonetheless, capture the realities of a people, the significance of whose daily existence transcends the limitations imposed by political and national borders."

"The U.S. -Mexico borderland saw mexicanas fighting for the revolution, often with the PLM, and also to win justice for tejanos. They included Sara Estela Ramírez, who lived in Laredo and became known to thousands of tejanos as a labor organizer, human rights activist and poet. She launched a revolutionary feminist newspaper, Aurora, in 1904. She died in 1910 at the age of 29 but her unique, visionary poetry rings true today."

"Twenty-four years of noble struggle against so many morbid germs that would annihilate the collective effort, that terribly and vilely devote themselves to devouring mutualism"

"twenty-four years of joining souls through the principle of humanity, through the sentiment of innate altruism in the heart, and altruism that permits us to fulfill our obligation to our beloved comrade"

"That is mutualism, a noble mission of truth, sublime and holy mission mission of charity that nations ignore or have forgotten; nations, whose workers are dispersed, segregated, strangers to each other, and . . . how many times, sad to say, more than strangers, subject to ruinous enmities, that workers’ element divides instead of seeking [union], becomes offended instead of giving aid and, no, rejects with hatred its own [members] , rather than embracing [all workers] with love; [workers] reject each other without seeing that their blood and their anguish kneaded together become the bitter bread that they devour together; without seeing that their arms are what sustain the industry of nations, their richness and their greatness."

"I don’t care what people say though, the book’s champion declared. It is beautiful writing"

"I am from a background of women who are activists"

"As writers we do it for the love of the art, but to then get nothing out of it while every street corner is littered with your books, it is heartbreaking and demoralising"

"Some were chiefs. My grandmother was a chief’s wife who influenced the chief in good governance. I had an aunt born in Bulawayo who married a foreigner in 1936. She started the burial societies. My paternal men were moneymakers, my maternal men were chiefs. I have always done things in my own way, since primary school"

"Vampires that suck your shadow and confidence."

"This is what is happening in our society and people tend to shy away from talking about it. So as a writer I have found a niche"

"I was once housed, fed and protected by prostitutes when my life was in danger because of my activism during the liberation struggle. Up to that time I had not paid much attention to prostitutes as human beings"

"Aftrica is an oral culture. The orality of things is selective—we choose what we talk about. Black people in a black community are expected to behave in a certain way. Someone asked me ‘Are you still black"

"Gender rights and women rights ought to be understood and implemented holistically. You cannot ask women what right to have; they should enjoy all rights, rights to their reproductive health, leadership, education, food among other rights."

"Issues of sexual reproductive health continue to be a major challenge in Africa, especially issues that regard safe abortions, where there are issues brought about by religion, patriarchy, culture among other aspects."

"When we see African Union putting women rights at the centre of their deliberations, it has taken our push and advocacy over previous years."

"We continue to see women miss out on human rights due to lack of due attention."

"In Rwanda, there is good political will in terms of gender equality and women’s rights thanks to the President who advances women’s rights and is a believer in gender equality."

"Actually in most countries, women wish to get half of what Rwanda has."

"We need to have men understand gender equality and cease to be oppressors and perpetrators. This will increase the involvement of human rights affairs."

"I believe in speaking for those who can’t speak for themselves. In the 1970s I was rescued by these women, by sex workers. Those people had a heart. They were women, mothers and sisters. They really felt for people. If a man wrote it, he wouldn’t understand how it worked. These women never have the time to sit and write their experiences. They are too shameful, too embarrassing"

"For us girls, there were no praises, just criticism"

"As African women, we don’t have to live up to other people’s expectations. We too can question the status quo"

"I’m a human being; there isn’t any number of cows that will determine my value"

"It’s possible to question cultural practices if they don’t align with our values"

"My mother took her place very firmly as a leader in many structures, though in the"

"We must remember that there were radical outlets for women in indigenous African cultures, and in our colonised societies, contact with Europe brought with it the inheritance of European movements and social concerns. So there were inheritors of the British suffragette movement in Nigeria, while my mother, a teacher's college professor, was a practitioner of many of the radical ideas of the Victorian period about women. My perceptions of gender hierarchies were sharp growing up. I was raised with a male sibling as well as female and male wards living with my mother. I was much of a tomboy then. I did not have any important position in my nuclear family of five children, meaning I was neither first nor last boy or girl. No position! I could also see that boys had advantages, even though my progressive mother made all the boys in her house, including my other brothers, do housework. They learned to sew, knit and embroider! She also made us share the housework with the house help or servants. She said her children could not grow up spoilt while others learnt to be effective and efficient. So from very young I had a healthy attitude towards class differences, having been raised to respect everybody in the work they did.Gender hierarchies were so sharp for me that I always wondered as a pre-teen whether marriage was a good idea. Many folktales and other forms of informal educational modes existed to help prepare women for accepting male dominance in marriage. I saw marriage in the Christian world I was in as restrictive, though my mother was a suffragette, if there was any such thing. I say "Christian" world because I could also see that women in the local, unWesternised society around us had different values and freedoms. Within Yoruba marriage, the woman was culturally expected to defer to the husband. Yet Christian marriage restricted Yoruba women of my mother's generation in an unusual way (dress, freedom of movement, association, and gainful work outside the home beyond the financial control of the husband). There were dignifying and structurally important roles for women in Yoruba culture, even within its patriarchal assumptions, and some would say, androgynous cultural practices and cosmology of the Yoruba, expressed in the philosophical fount to the culture that Ifa Divination Poetry with its thousands of verses. One argument is that women were weighted equally with men as human beings, but had to defer to men in certain contexts, while men deferred in others."

"The liberation of women is conceived as the desire of women to reduce men to housekeepers. Since most men despise manual work for feudal and middle class reasons, women’s liberation is feared as an effort by women to ‘feminise’ men, that is, degrade them."

"What we want in Africa is social transformation. It is not about warring with men, the reversal of role, or doing to men whatever women think that men have been doing for centuries, but it is trying to build a harmonious society."

"The transformation of African society is the responsibility of both men and women and it is also in their interest."

"The oppression of women, economic or personal, is not solely a White-Black Race confrontation although the oppression of Black Women is deeply tied to the variable of race in the history of imperialism."

"Yes, we are proud, to be Rwandese So proud that we would burn our breasts like Ndabaga."

"Feminism is about granting women the grace to be angry about their trauma and pains the way they choose to, and being sympathetic enough to ask why they are angry and genuinely listen and understand their point of view."

"To embrace “WHAT” I AM TO MANY NOT “WHO” I AM."

"I am a product of the hurt, chained, restless and once hopeless, but your grammar is wrong, there’s no full stop so don’t force it."

"Poetry has the ability to open up the space for many Rwandans to participate in conversations about social issues, mainly those that are taboo."

"People do not understand how fast a culture can disappear without art especially a country whose culture is art in itself."

"Poetry can push our boundaries of “speech freedom”, which will allow us to encourage a generation of critical thinkers."

"I hope my writing can help people to see life in a different light and encourage mental emancipation."

"It’s been a tremendous honour to work with such strong young women because they continue to teach and push me in various ways."

"That I am that color USUALLY ARTISTICALLY COMPATIBLE with that of ancient the walls."

"Poetry is some people’s source of income."

"I have always held the firm conviction that Africans has the most generous communities in the world, and our culture of local philanthropy is very strong. It is not what we acquire a result of influences from elsewhere.The very rich tradition of indigenous philanthropy therefore should be nurtured to enable us create lasting Institutions and structure for the sustainable growth and development of our communities."

"All of us here have a sphere of influence we can operate from. Let us use our spaces wisely and purposefully. Let us all rise and set our sights on all the great things we know we can accomplish. Let us stop being complacent. Let us move out of our comfort zones. Let us stop passing things on to the next person. You are the person. You are the change."

"As women, regardless of our class, geographical location or educational status, we should be aware that we do not operate in a vacuum. We function within a context of patriarchal norms and values, which have been firmly entrenched over time, and which continue to be validated through culture, traditions and religious beliefs."

"Ekiti State became the first State in the country to domesticate the National Gender Policy."

"It is about squandering the commonwealth of the people, ostensibly for the benefit of the people but ultimately for the good of only a select few."

"Sadly, the combination of poverty and ignorance is toxic and deadly."

"Ultimately, it is the fabric that binds us together as a community of people that will unravel, when we can no longer talk to one another in civility, when young people can abuse their elders at will in the anonymity of cyber space, and when reputations built over years of hard work and service get tarnished with one stroke of the keys."

"We need to keep mentoring young women in ways that nurture them and prepare them for the harsh world of business, politics and public life. In doing this, we need to be able to set an example for them because they will practice what they see and not what they hear from us."