Marked as one of the largest protests against sexual and gender-based violence in the country, the protest was a response many believe is an escalation of murders of women.  In 2023, the organization Femicide Count recorded 152 killings, equating to one woman every three days. The majority of these women are victims of intimate partner violence. 

Following the protests, ANWO looked at articles that cite numbers like 90 women killed over 3 years and 500 women killed in 7 years. Although, it is unnerving, this isn’t femicide – a massive targeting of women because they are women. 

Unfortunately the murder of African women is part of the overall colonial violence that African people endure under the colonial mode of production.

Colonized women endure heightened violence under colonialism 

A December 2023 article in The Root reported that black women were 30% of all crime victims in Chicago in 2022.  Black women victims constituted 67,000 of the 270,000 crimes reported in Chicago that year. In a system that does not value black people and black women even less, these statistics are on trend with all other trends that show horrible conditions faced by African people. 

According to Frantz Fanon, an African psychiatrist who tracked violence during direct French colonialism in Algeria and the resulting Algerian revolution,  violence among the colonized was high until the national liberation struggle redirected that violence. The effects of colonialism instigate horizontal and vertical violence.    

ANWO is overwhelmingly opposed to gender-based violence and killings of women because they are women. Although the fourteen documented murders of African women in Kenya since the start of the year seems like an alarming increase; in a country of 53 million, it’s minute and possibly in line with all other murders happening in the country including the murders of men, children, and non-gender-conforming persons.

Even though Kenya has one of the highest quality of living in Africa, the biggest threat to women in Kenya is that they live under neo-colonial democracy. Kenya is aligning itself with the U.S. and other Western imperialist nations by doing their bidding. Such as answering the call of the U.S.-influenced United Nations by sending the Kenyan police force to Haiti, to police other African people. In addition to this, Kenya’s Labour Ministry sent 1,500 farm workers to Israel to fill the agriculture gaps caused by the Palestinian resistance.  Essentially making Kenyan laborers “scabs,” to undermine Palestinian resistance.

Ultimately, if African women in Kenya want to end the violence they experience, they must become anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist and contend with the overall colonial nature of their government which foments violence inside their country and in other places around the world.

This comes as no surprise since the decision leaked in May. Since then, many women have demonstrated their opposition to this impending reversal, while others began building legal opposition to abortion barriers in their states. 

ANWO recognizes that this decision will undoubtedly have a huge impact on African and other colonized women.  But we also understand that this is just one of the many forms of attacks on our ability to produce and reproduce life for ourselves. 

The fight to ensure we can truly make decisions about our bodies and rights to reproduce cannot be fully won under colonial capitalism.  This system of oppression and exploitation has robbed us, for centuries, of our motherhood and our humanity through the violence of slavery, colonialism, Apartheid, Jim Crow, and every other iteration of colonial assault we can name. 

In 2022, we are still fighting against the kidnapping and transfer of our children.  Mothers are losing their rights while the colonial state decides the fate of our children.  This happens to hundreds of African mothers every day.

Enough is enough! The time is long overdue to mount a formidable anti-colonial response to the ongoing attacks on the rights of women.  For African women, who have long been subjected to the worst forms of colonially imposed contradictions, there is no other time than now to show your support for ANWO and join the revolutionary efforts to build us up.  We will not let anyone speak for us.  

ANWO is the voice of African women who are fighting back against the terror of white power, the colonial terror that has been unleashed upon us for centuries.  

At the point when ANWO became involved, the APSP investigators had already collected evidence from the victim, an indigenous woman, and the accused; and made a determination that resulted in Muambi Tangu being expelled from the African People’s Socialist Party and removed from his post in InPDUM.

ANWO stands in complete unity with the decision made by the Party.  While we will not go into the details of the incident, it was clear from the testimony of both parties that boundaries were crossed when the accused imposed his will on the victim.

The thoroughness of the investigation and the consideration given to all the facts, confirm that the African People’s Socialist Party is truly creating a new world dedicated to ending the oppression of African and other colonized people.

What we expect from leaders in the fight to end colonial domination is to destroy all traces of the colonizer in us.  This includes rejecting harmful tendencies that have been used as a method of control and oppression; particularly when it comes to the special oppression of African and other colonized women.  

As colonized African and indigenous women our experience under domestic colonialism is one wrought with sexual violence, hyper-sexualization, and sexual exploitation.

We serious are stamping out this colonial behavior. We must refuse to keep quiet, especially, when it involves someone who claims to be a leader in the fight for our liberation. Silence does not give us the opportunity to struggle against behaviors that threaten our ability to make the revolution.

As we fight for a world free from colonial terror, we expect that our efforts we will destroy the tendencies of the colonizer within the oppressed colonized masses.  It will be through these efforts that we will build a world where the special oppression of African women will be no more and the liberation of colonized people around the world will mean the complete and total eradication of the colonizer outside and inside of us. 

Following this past April, a viral video of the brutal assault of an African woman flooded the internet, displaying the sexually connotative attack by three white male officers violently grabbing twenty-five-year-old Chikesia Clemons and aggressively forcing her to the ground where they proceeded to straddle her and expose her breast while attempting to detain her. The use of aggressive force was expressed in the video as the cop blatantly stated that he was “about to break your arm” after Chikesia asked what he was doing to her.

The widely circulated video was recorded by Chikesia’s friend Canita Adams, she witnessed the entire attack and stood in Chikesia’s defense against the vicious police. It was stated by a Waffle House spokesman that prior to the attack, there was an altercation between white Waitresses and Chikesia and her friends, thus justifying the call for police.

It was captured on the establishment’s surveillance camera that Chikesia and Canita Adams did indeed engage in this altercation after having been told to pay for plastic utensils that Chikesia requested from those employees. It was stated by both Canita Adams and Chikesia Clemons that the white women employees were very rude when first addressing them and throughout their stay continued to provoke them. After having been told to pay for the plastic utensils, Chikesia Clemons told the employee that she wasn’t familiar with any establishment requiring payment for plastic utensils.

She further requested for the district manager’s card so she could file a complaint on one of the waitresses. As Chikesia waited for the number, these white women instead called the police on both of the African women.

The vile molestation committed against Chikesia by the state officers is nothing new to the horrifying experience African women have historically faced by this colonialist State.

Our circumstance as a colonized African people results in a lack of power over our black lives; let alone our own black bodies, which are brutalized and abused in every way possible by the State.

African women’s bodies have been manipulated as a tool by the colonialist state and the colonial white population to further prove our lack of power and reinforce its grotesque imperialist force.

African women continue to be sexually assaulted by colonial cops in many more scenarios.

Daniel Holtzclaw was a police officer in Oklahoma City, who was convicted for targeting  poor and working class African women within their communities with the motive to rape and sexually assault them between 2013 and 2014.

There was also the recent case of Sherita Dixon-Cole, an African woman in Waxahachie, Texas who was raped by a cop after rejecting his request for sex in exchange for her release in detainment.

While African women continue to endure this colonial attack of sexual assault, white women remain quiet and align with the State, as they too are the oppressors of African people.

Just as it was showcased in the video at the Waffle House, it was white women who called the cops on the African women and as Chikesia was being molested, the white women sat aside and watched, thus proving their true stance as the oppressor alongside white men who committed the sexual assault.

This is why the African National Women’s Organization says there’s no such thing as “women in general”.

There are in fact women of the oppressor nation who live at the expense of oppressed women and owe reparations to women of oppressed nations.

The false narrative of “unifying all women” under feminism and against the fight of patriarchy is a hindrance to the fight for freedom of the African nation.

Focusing on the critical realities of African women to be a result of patriarchy, instead of addressing the historical political basis of colonialism, the violent assault on Africa and theft of African people by Europeans, is a waste of time.

The relationship between white women and African women is defined by the parasitic capitalist social system which can only be resolved through the complete demolishment of this colonial system and through reparations, So we say unity through reparations!

The African National Women’s Organization lifts up the resistance of African women.

We have been organizing since 2015 to bring African women into the African liberation fight that will free us from the shackles of colonial bondage.

We lift up the political theory of African Internationalism that puts revolutionary practical science into the hands of poor and working class Africans!

We unite with the Black is Back Coalition’s demand for Black Community Control of the Police!

We are members of the African National Women’s Organization (ANWO), an international organization founded in 2015 as a strategy of the African People’s Socialist Party to address the special oppression that black women face under colonialism.

Colonialism is the domination of a people (the colonized)  by another people (the colonizer) for financial and/or political benefit. Colonialism is forged  and  upheld with violence. It is parasitic to its core.

The colonized  never benefit under colonialism and often experience various contradictions due to this parasitic relationship – the colonizer living off the colonized.

ANWO organizes with the understanding that colonialism is not of the past but, today, represents itself in the lives of African people all over the world. In the U.S., colonialism has been identified as U.S. domestic colonialism, which explains the tanks in the streets of Ferguson, mass incarceration of black people, gentrification of poor black communities, and the murders of black people every 28 hours.

We believe that in order for African people and specifically African women to break the parasitic relationship with our historic colonial oppressors(white people)  we have to organize for leadership and participation in the overall struggle for African freedom.

However, when our attention should be directed toward fighting against colonial oppression – white power – we are forced to confront the effects of colonialism inside the black community, in the form of sexual violence.

Dozens of black women on campus have named a black male athlete   in several acts of sexual  violence, including rape. The parties that he throws are often the scene of many of these violations.  These women have been afraid of stepping forward for fear of being alienated, maligned and dubbed as liars by our community.  We have heard their stories and are of the opinion that they are telling the truth.

We have sat down with our fellow  brother to get him to understand the severity of his behavior, yet he responded with arrogance and intimidation.  He accused us of targeting him because he is a popular black man on campus which is false. He accused us of retaliation, because of his choice to date white girls. That’s not true.

We are exposing him now because his behavior is harmful to half the population of black people on campus (black women, especially) and we want/need him to stop. That is our only motivation.

We do not take lightly the position that we have been put in, to accuse a black man of rape. Historically it has been our brothers, fathers, uncles who have been hung, burned,  and castrated  by the white power state and white vigilantes as a result of false allegations.  Therefore, we have no interest, in participating in the false accusation of a black man; despite his claim that we are targeting him because of jealousy and because he is a black man.

We say this while recognizing that the sexual violation of black women is part of the same history that often gets written off as a horrible thing of the past, when in fact these acts of violence continue from outside and within colonized African communities.

We find it disgusting that we have to take on THIS issue, on a majority white campus, where the basis of power rest in the hands of white people;instead of challenging the white power structure itself.

But we will take it on, because it is a barrier that must be destroyed, if we ever hope to have a  world free from oppression in all forms.

When we interact with black men, we have expectations of safety and respect. We expect black men to be just as cognizant about the trauma of sexual violence and objectification that black women have inherited as result of our enslavement and colonization, just as we as black women are aware and knowledgeable of the history of lynching and police murders that happen to black men, predominantly.

However when we’ve spoken to a few black men about this issue, we see reluctance to stand with us, because that would mean not attending the “only black parties on campus”. We have to really convince them that this is a problem.  It trivializes the very violent acts that have been committed against us and more specifically, furthermore it traumatizes the  women who have been victimized by this man.

We just find it outrageous that someone would try to rationalize supporting a predator just because he throws “good” parties.

We are your sisters, your community and will always stand in your defense.  We just ask for the same in return. Stand with us. Participate in discussions and actions  that will contribute to eliminating harmful behaviors.

We will continue to urge the women to come forward and say what he has done.  ANWO and the entire movement are here for  African women and will organize to end the victimization of African women and of African people overall.

We plan to convene forums on this issue and will continue to help this brother  and  other African men to stop his harmful behavior. But if he does not, we will make it very uncomfortable for him on campus.

ANWO Statement to Black students at UCSB.pdf (172KB)

This is a quote from an African woman, Ro’Shawndra Earvin, a fourth year student at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), who was sexually assaulted in the Isla Vista community just outside campus in January 2017. Isla Vista is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Santa Barbara County, California, where most students who attend UCSB live.

As African students, we make up about five percent of the campus population and although we pay the same tuition and student fees as everyone else, the university does not allocate us a proportionate amount of resources as it does our white counterparts. A prime example of this is reflected in how UCSB handled Ro’Shawndra’s rape case. According to Ro’Shawndra, the university violated her rights after she was raped in Isla Vista back in January by not providing her sufficient and adequate resources or assistance.

Because she lacked adequate resources and support from the university, the District Attorney’s office dismissed her case due to insufficient evidence. During a protest held by Ro’Shawndra in March, she asserted that “Accountability is going to be held where our money goes,” and that is the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Last year The Princeton Review ranked UCSB as the eighth happiest school in America. The same year, The Tab, a mostly white liberal site that covers college and youth culture, wrote an article celebrating the ranking, entitled “UCSB is the eighth happiest school in America.”

In the article, the writer praises the claim that UCSB is a utopia by stating that, “If that’s not something that makes you proud to be a Gaucho [UCSB’s mascot] then I don’t know what is [sic].” The article also goes further to claim  that “Not only are we all surrounded by the natural beauty of Santa Barbara, but we have an impeccable campus, over 300 days of sunshine and the big blue ocean right at our front door.”

The Tab article reflected the experience of the White students on campus. The same White students who benefit and live off the stolen land and resources of African and indigenous people. The University of California Santa Barbara is built on land that was stolen from indigenous people, whom white settler colonists have sought to exterminate in the ongoing genocide that started in the 15th century.

The Tab article reflected the experience of the White students on campus. The same White students who benefit and live off the stolen land and resources of African and indigenous people. The University of California Santa Barbara is built on land that was stolen from indigenous people, whom white settler colonists have sought to exterminate in the ongoing genocide that started in the 15th century.

The article goes further to ask, “What else does a person need to be happy at their school?” Well as a colonized African student on this campus, I need freedom. The same freedom that was stolen from African people 600 years ago when we were forcibly brought to this hemisphere as slaves and subsequently colonized in Africa. As an African on this campus, I am not happy because not only do I pay thousands of dollars yearly for a colonial Eurocentric education; I also have to deal with white students calling me “nigger” as they drive pass me on the streets of  Isla Vista. As a result of the destruction of African life and knowledge systems through colonialism and parasitic capitalism Africans have been forced to see these institutions as a path to “making it out” of colonial conditions. But what is “making it out” when the police could stop, arrest and murder you on the streets on your way home from school because you are African, similar to how they murdered Michael Brown Jr., or violated countless other minoritized students in IV?

The rape and looting of Africa and African people began  centuries ago when Europeans kidnapped us from our land and made us slaves in America, the Caribbean, Central and South America, lands that were seized from the indigenous people through the same form of violence. The live of African people under colonialism is a life filled with rapine and violence. Institutions like UCSB sustain and propagate this cannibalism.

When Ro’Shawndra stood up as her own counsel after she was drugged and raped, she assumed the role of the state, gathering evidence and making her case, on her own behalf. However,  the  case was not only rejected by the District Attorney’s office due to “insufficient evidence,” but it was also mishandled in several ways by UCSB, according to Ro’Shawndra. We understand that this is  the kind of relationship that African, indigenous and other minoritized people have with the state; wherein the police are there only to enforce the law in ways that seek to protect and serve the white community. These are the same police that arrest people on the sidewalks of Isla Vista for “looking” intoxicated, and raid parties for noise complaints by white neighbors but claim to not have sufficient evidence when an African woman is raped.

That is why we demand Black Community Control of Police, a strategy under which the sexual assault of African people will be taken seriously and investigated at the behest of the victim and the African community at large.

UCSB undergraduates pay about thirty thousand dollars per year to attend this institution, and pay the most student fees in comparison to all the other “UCs” such as UCLA and UC Berkeley, both campuses that fall under the University of California umbrella. With that being said, the UCSB campus resources, including UC Santa Barbara Police Department, was still unable to handle Ro’Shawndra’s case. These are public facts, which Ro’Shawndra shared in her meeting with the Associated Students Senators on campus. She totally lacks of faith in the institution that “washed its hands off her.”

On the third of May 2017, Ro’Shawndra led a night sit-in with a list of demands to UCSB. Ro’ Shawndra demanded reparations for the ways this institution failed her and all the other African students who pay thousands of dollars to come here but are met with mediocre resources and a colonial curriculum. Some of her demands included that her tuition debt be paid in full, the freedom to transfer to a different UC for her last remaining quarter, and access to a survivor resource center in the future.

ANWO unites in solidarity with Ro’Shawndra Earvin in her demands! We demand that the university meets all her demands and that the US and all other imperialist nations that have looted, murdered and raped African people and resources pay reparations to African people!

UHURU!

Demands

Here are the 12 demands:

1)   Create and fund a Survivor Resource Center which must include and provide the following:

1. A full-time Director who is responsible for the management of the Survivor Resource Center, along with staff that will be attentive and sensitive to student needs
2.  Survivor-specific legal services that will connect them to the correct resources and aid them through the legal processes of reporting
3.  Accurate statistical from the university and each police department with jurisdiction over Isla Vista and UCSB. This data will consist of information about reported sexual assaults, interpersonal violence, stalking, domestic violence, and other forms of gender-based violence on and off campus. This information must be provided and updated on a regular basis, both monthly and annually. This information must also be disseminated on campus, in Isla Vista, and throughout the greater Santa Barbara area.
4. Student paid positions that will assist in day-to-day operations, as well as lead programming efforts to spread awareness among the student body and throughout the off campus community (Isla Vista)
5. Assist and/or provide survivors with timely transportation to and from hospitals, campus departments, county offices, and other locations that the survivor need to attend.
6. Coordinate all resources for survivors of sexual assault in their self care/healing process, including housing and counseling services, in a timely manner
7. Provide trainings* for OSL organizations on campus, that include bystander intervention, cultural competency, as well as information on campus resources for survivors
8. Trainings may include but are not limited to; Care Connect, Queer Connect, Title IX, Green Dot Bystander Training, Cultural Competency.

2)   Counseling and Psychological Services must provide adequate and timely mental health services to survivors and their families, and coordinate with the Survivor Resource Center in order to enforce priority scheduling for timely intakes.

3)   Update and sign Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) between UCPD and Isla Vista Foot Patrol, as well as other local bodies of law enforcement, to include the following:

1. Mandatory sensitive trainings on sexual assault/interpersonal violence which address race, gender, class, and sexuality
2. Jurisdiction and protocol as to how cases are managed
3. Investigation into previous and current mismanaged cases of sexual assault reporting by law enforcement officials

4)   Work with UC Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara City College to develop a way for SBCC to be more transparent about students who have been disciplined for Title IX violations regarding current or former students, and work in conjunction in order to prosecute and process sexual assault cases that happen between students from both campuses.

5)   Develop incentives for faculty and other academics to develop courses and conduct research studying the culture of rape in Isla Vista, such as research grants and support from the Academic Senate.

6)   Work with the Isla Vista Community Services District to develop a report card for government institutions and law enforcement agencies, for behaviors and education surrounding rape and sexual assault in Isla Vista, including:

• Documenting how many incidences have occurred in Isla Vista
• Accounting how many community meetings and events have been held to promote education

7)   Create a policy modification to Title IX Campus Implementation, which allows sexual assault survivors to transfer to a different educational institution if they desire.

8)   Work with local government to fund increased lighting and improved infrastructure in Isla Vista, specifically on Slough Road, in order to make it a safer environment for residents.

9)    Organize a meeting with all UC Chancellors on our UC Santa Barbara campus to develop system-wide level changes, reflecting the resources that are needed in every campus.

10)  Add Queer Connect (a CARE Project) to reporting and trainings in order to make queer and trans* folks safe and their reporting process private in order to protect them. In any process be certain that queer and trans  survivors’ correct pronouns are  used in communication and in any and all paperwork regarding their assault.

11) Demand that UC President conduct yearly UC tours, where they will hold a public Sexual Assault/Sexual Violence Town Hall at every single UC campus once per year, in order to hold them publicly accountable and provide spaces for students to directly communicate demands and grievances to UCOP and to the UC-wide administration.

12) Demand that Chancellor Yang and his office continuously update students publicly about the progress being made on these demands.

If adequate progress is not made or if this is not properly communicated to students, the university administration must make a donation to the Survivor Fund and to survivor-related resources on campus.

We will develop a process to ensure that the following personal demands of Ro’Shawndra Aquilla Earvin are met:

1. Have tuition debt paid for in full.
2. Summer and Fall UC transfer
3. Access Resource Center in the future

Agreed, in consultation with the Academic Senate.

FGM is the removing or altering of the external genitalia of girls and young women, which is a centuries-old practice that predates modern religion.

Supporters of this practice provide various reasons for maintaining it, often citing cultural traditions. Opponents of FGM provide a long list of medical and moral reasons why it should end.

Whatever the medical or cultural reasons given for or against FGM, the African National Women’s Organization (ANWO) is clear that, at its core, female genital mutilation further limits the freedom of African women and girls who are already suffering under colonial domination.

Therefore, we unite with the African People’s Socialist Party’s position to end the mutilation of women that reads:

“African women also find themselves locked into backward social practices that have assumed the weight of culture. Genital mutilation is one of the most obvious of such practices.

“While there is a debate on whether this practice was introduced into Africa by Arabs or other external forces, the fact remains that genital mutilation is a brutal method used in attempt to guarantee male inheritance rights by limiting the sexual freedom of women.”

The most severe form of female genital mutilation removes the clitoris and labia, and sews closed the vaginal opening. This ensures that girls stay virgins before marriage and loyal to a husband after marriage.

The vagina is cut opened only for marital intercourse and may even be sewn up again and repeated several times to prevent the woman from having intercourse with anyone else.

It is a violent, nasty, backward practice that needs to be stamped out completely. It still continues today, however, because of colonial exploitation.

Female genital mutilation persists because of colonial exploitation

It is not surprising then, that FGM is mostly practiced in places where parasitic capitalist exploitation and colonial oppression has ravaged the population––mostly in Africa and places in the Middle East.

By stealing the labor and resources of the colonized, the people are prevented from moving away from outdated traditions that make little sense.

We are forced to stay ignorant and steeped in mysticism when medical proof exists that can debunk many of the reasons given for continuing the practice––namely that cutting contributes to good health.

While the exploiters use science and technology to remove minerals by the tons, many of our people don’t have access to the information that can show that the labia protects the vagina.

But, more than just a question of “cleanliness” and guaranteeing male inheritance, the genital mutilation of African girls reaches far beyond the girl and the man she is forced to marry.

Female genital mutilation is a lucrative business for many practitioners whose ability to support themselves and their families depends on performing this heinous act.

It is also a way of securing financial security for the girl and her family, since a girl who has undergone the “cutting” brings a higher bride price.

Because many populations have few economic options, the barter and trade of a woman’s sex is the economic center of entire communities.

Under capitalism, women are considered currency.

Whether exploited as “sex workers” or because of culture, the value of women, especially colonized and African women, becomes liquid.

We are traded for goods, services, sex, food, money and anything else you can imagine.

FGM, however, cannot be fixed in a bubble. It is just one symptom of colonialism.

In order to end FGM entirely, we have to make a struggle to destroy colonial domination.

The struggle against colonialism and the perpetuation of genital mutilation of young girls

Colonialism is a brutal and terroristic system used by imperialism to oppress much of the world’s people.

Since Europe’s attack on Africa, millions of Africans have been displaced, killed and maimed in Europe’s hunt for labor, land and resources.

For example, in the 23 years (1885-1908) Leopold II [of Belgium] ruled the Congo, he massacred 10 million Africans by cutting off their hands and genitals, flogging them to death, starving them into forced labor, holding children ransom and burning villages.

In the territories known as the Americas and Canada, the native populations were nearly wiped out when white settlers’ thirst for land and resources led them to murder, kidnap and rape Indigenous and African people.

Today, imperialism demands the necessity of colonialism to sustain itself in countries throughout the world.

Therefore, the violence of FGM, as sickening as it is, is miniscule compared to the overall violence of colonial crusades of occupation.

This does not mean we shouldn’t challenge it. We should.

However, we must also understand it within the context and the subsequent struggle against colonialism as a strategy to end the oppressive practice.

Socialism is key to eradicating FGM

Not only should we end colonialism by destroying capitalism, we have to replace capitalism with socialism to ensure the forward progression of society.

Socialism is when the workers control the State and own the means of production.

That way there can be an assurance of a redistribution of wealth, which contributes to a more equal society.

It is an opposite system to that of capitalism, which exploits much of the world’s people.

Under socialism, women and men will be jolted out of the fog of mysticism and economic depravity and driven toward a future that will require the rapid development of the people.

Practices that had previously been the only source of economic stability will fade away as society is opened up to new opportunities.

Worker-owned production will ensure that both women and men can make a living contributing to the development of our nation.

A worker-controlled State will implement policies that restrict backward practices that harm sectors of the population.

Communist vs petit bourgeoisie leaders on the issue of female genital mutilation

One of the best examples of what a socialist, anti-colonial government can do to stamp out oppressive practices toward women, is that of Thomas Sankara.

Sankara was the Communist President of Burkina Faso from 1983 until colonial agents killed him in 1987.

His government railed against the oppression of women, outlawing genital mutilation of girls and women, polygamy, forced marriages and elevated women to leadership positions.

After his murder and the neocolonial takeover of Burkina Faso, policies restricting FGM where all but forgotten until it was outlawed again in 1996. There is little evidence, however, to show that the new restriction has stopped the practice.

Nearly 71 percent of women and girls in Burkino Faso are victims of FGM, according to a 2008 UNICEF report.

Compare Sankara’s policies to nationalist leaders who positioned themselves as anti-colonialist and black nationalists but have not taken on a socialist agenda.

Their only interest is to replace the white oppressors with themselves and maintain many of the same policies of oppression.

Some nationalists have historically supported the continuation of FGM in response to what was considered an attack on African traditions by European colonizers.

Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya endorsed genital mutilation as a form of nationalist resistance to European colonial domination.

In 1938 he wrote in Facing Mount Kenya: “No proper Kikuyu would dream of marrying a girl who has not been circumcised—this operation is regarded as a conditio sine qua non for the whole teaching of tribal law, religion and morality.”

Rooted in tribalism, this statement can only be described as counter-revolutionary.

Without a socialist, anti-colonialist, anti-capitalist agenda, ending FGM and all other symptoms of capitalist colonialism will be impossible.

That is why we say that freedom for all women means making a revolution.

At our 2015 founding conferences in Washington D.C and London, UK, the African National Women’s Organization united on a resolution to develop political education campaigns to eradicate the prevalence of female genital mutilation in our communities.

We continue to uphold the resolution and aim to do more around the issue.

We will do all that it takes to ensure that we clear the fog, as we actively participate in various struggles that contribute the destruction of capitalism.

Explore our website or contact us at info@anwouhuru.org to learn more about what we do.

Join ANWO!
End the genital mutilation of women!
Destroy Capitalism!