Opening Ceremony: 3rd Kwame Nkrumah Festival

Prof Esi Sutherland-Addy is the Chair of the Panafest's International Board of Trustees. she is uniquely well placed to discuss the cultural, political and pedagogic possibilities and power of festivals. From the Caribbean Carnivals across the diaspora to demonstrate popular...

Who and What Define ‘African Culture’?

"Culture is often defined by the powerful and the rich, rulers, and patriarchs, but African liberation theorists re-define it more inclusively as 'the whole way of life of the people'. As a leading African feminist thinker who has contributed significantly...

Pan African Perspectives on Pandemics

Winnie Byanyima was the youngest most forward looking of Uganda's MP's and was popularly elected three times in succession, before she became a public civil servant, first at the African Union, and later within the UN system. As a survivor...

Pan Africanism, Black, African and Feminist Radical Thought

This plenary panel sets the scene for the ensuing days of the Festival by addressing the latest theorizations of Black and African radical theoretical traditions, and how these are advanced by anti-imperialist and anti-racist feminism theory. This panel examines the...

Masculinity and Misogyny in African Theory, Culture andPractice

"Under this topic, this session will consider the concept of the African Masculinity and its accompanying tculture of misogyny and violence towards women which are often justified in the name of ""African Culture and widely tolerated in heteronomative social relations...

Birth Justice and Maternal Health in Africa and the Diaspora

Pregnant women of African descent in the U.S., Caribbean and Africa are caught between malign neglect and coercion; routinely denied access to affordable and culturally competent prenatal care, and simultaneously subjected to state coercion and unwanted medical interventions. As a...

#BlackLivesMatter and #EndSARS

Black and African youth movements have become increasingly resistance to the violent suppression of freedom by the military and police forces on both sides of the Atlantic. Activists from #EndSARS and#Black Live Matter movements meet to discuss their respective movements,...

Gender, Decolonization and Intellectual Property

This session will highilght the importance of the law as a tool for decolonization and feminism by examining the possibilities and limitations of intellectual property laws. Currently corporate entities are able to utilize IP rights, and draw the benefits that...

Trading African Cultural Products across Borders

The focus in this session will be on shedding the spotlight on the trade in African Cultural products and Creative Prowess such as arts, fashion, technology. The contributors will also share their experiences of engaging in commercial activities between African...

Market Queens: Transnational Traders

The Market Queens of Makola Market share their experiences as transnational traders who play important role in Ghana's key commercial institutions with a view to understanding the complex subtleties of their activities, and how they organize women's resistance to structural...

Production of Cultural Technologies

This session is devoted to the demonstration of technologies associated with music -the Zimbabwan Mbira and the Ghanaian Seprewa - and the local production of chocolate two sisters. These examples defy the global monopolization and definition of 'value' by Western...

African Languages, Cultural Identities and the Next Generation

"This session will seek to explore the multi-dimensional peculiarities of the many African Languages and their roles in communicating and preserving African belief systems, values and customs, also with respect to how instrumental they are in fashioning and projecting cultural...

Indigenous Healings Arts and Herbal Medicine

As many as 80% of Africans rely on indigenous remedies because of thier relative afforabilty. Vaccine apartheid is only the latest illustration of global inequality in access to Western medicine. At the same time indigenous plants and herbs are being...

Feminist Africa Facing the Future and Townhall

Feminist Africa is back! The continent's first open access digital journal of gender and women's studies, was initiated at the African Gender Institute following a continent-wide consultation held in year 2000. Hosted at the University of Cape Town until 2017,...

Towards a Cultural Economy for African Liberation

"The internationally renowned historian and higher education expert Professor Paul Zeleza will address the challenges of liberating African culture from colonial heritage and the necessity of challenging the current commodification, appropriation and extraction of African culture through an inequitable global...

Alternative Business Models for African Cultural Production: Showcasing Cooperative Enterprises

The session will showcase examples of successful cooperatives from different regions of the congtinent. Reflective presentations by members of leading cooperatives will discuss cooperative strategies and practices, their achievements and accomplishments, and the major challenges they have faced. Presenters will...

Gender and Women’s Studies as Feminist Strategy

"In the early 1990s only 4% of Africa's professoriate were women, and while this number has steadily increased, especially in administrative appointments, there are still few women in top research professorships. Feminist academics have established gender and women's studies programs,...

Pan African Trade Policy

"With a goal towards examining the challenges that the current global economy presents to enabling factors that will allow for the creation of an exclusive continental commercial atmosphere with unrestricted movements for business entities and ventures of African origin, this...

COVID-19, Feminism and the Pandemic

Following up on the Peoples Vaccine campaigner's and Head of UN AIDS, Winnie Byanyima's address on the Pandemic in Pan African persepctive, this panel is convened by Akosua Darkwah, Editor of the forthcoming Issue of Feminsit AFrica on the subject...

Pan Africanism, Feminism, Youth and the Arts: Post-COVID Transition and The Future We Want

What Does it Mean to Africanize the University?

This session will provide an exposition into the process and significance of facilitating a revolutionised reconstruction of tertiary education with a view towards situating the African culture, realities, narratives and context in African universities, the pinnacle of formal knowledge sharing...

The Politics of Beauty and the African Body

"This session will center around the evolution of beauty practices and body perceptiveness in the African context to critically consider the various beauty standards prevailing in heteronormative consumer societies that have emerged since the end of direct colonial rule. The...

Left Feminist Biographies

Following the screening of biograhical documentaries on Lorraine Hansberry and Ama Ata Aidoo, this panel brings together several of the worlds most accomplished feminist biographiers to discuss the lessons that we can draw from the lives and experiences of some...

African Cinematic Resistance to Western Hegemony

Since inception, Africa’s independent film industry has overturned colonial and racial capitalist distortion of Africa, Africans and African relations of gender and sexuality.

Interview with Bernadine Evaristo

Nigerian-British author Bernardine Evaristo, the first African to win the the Booker prize for fiction, joins Abena Busia on live zoom to discuss her life and work, and to share the thinking that led her to write her powerful and...

Play Reading: Médayè

Publishing Africa: Decolonial Strategies and Feminist Methodologies

This promises to be an exciting discussion, as it brings together a panel of great minds with extensive knowledge and experiences in publishing drawn from across the continent. Presenters will share insights and new ideas that emerge from the many...

21st Century Feminist Social Movements and Struggles

The visibility of women on the frontlines of today's struggles for decolonisation, democratisation, economic justice and emancipation draw attention to women’s leadership and the feminist agendas of Africa’s 21st Century struggles. Feminist scholars draw on their understanding of the long...

Lessons in Nurturing Feminist Leadership and Transformation on the Continent

Many people tend to misconstrue the concept of feminism, it implications for leadership, decolonization and the transformation of the continent. Veteran feminist organizers and leaders Hope Chigudu, Paula Fray and Member of Parliament of Uganda, representing Mbarara City 2021-2026, Rita...

Revolutionizing the Child – Literature for the Next Generation

"Educate a man and you educate a man, educate a woman and you educate the next generation" This panel explores the role and possibilities of children's literature for bringing about more just and equitable societies that have been imagined since...

Feminist African Theory, Culture and Practice

This session will feature leading feminist theorists and activists who refuse to separate their radical ideas from their actions and practices . It focuses on the emergence and re-emergence of women's ideas and movements for freedom in the African region,...

Feminist and Pan Africanist Literature

African and Caribbean Feminisms

What comes to mind when you hear the word Feminist? Discussing this and the pan African literary imagination are panellists Eintou Pearl Springer, Attillah Springer, Virginia Phiri, Lia Viera, and Donna Aza Weir-Soley on the Hannah Kudjoe Stage on the...

Beyond the Single Story: Performance and the Arts for the Liberation of Africans

The goal is to change the stereotypical, one-dimensional perspective that the Western media has painted Africans to be. This session should catalyze creatives into telling and making an art of original African stories. Gcina Mhlophe is our speaker, and she...

Feminism and Pan Africanism

Women matter! There can be no true liberation without women's liberation, long recognised to be a central aspect in freedom struggles. The conversation in between feminism and pan Africanism is needed to ensure the necessary bridging between the dual struggles...

Dialogue on Gender and Sexuality in African Futurism

"How does the African Futurist genre (re)imagine gender norms, sexual identities, and issues of feminism on the continent? The contributors to a forthcoming issue of Feminsit Africa will explore questions of gender and sexuality in “African Futurism,” a term that...

The Future of African Farming: Agri-business of agri-culture?

How does Gender, Land and Agriculture connect as a theme in the African context of delivering the next generation?

Building a Pan-African Cooperative Economy:Social Transformation viaCooperative Practices

The Pan African dream is not achievable without a thriving Economy. At this session we will explorewhat is takes to build and strengthen the cooperative sector on the continent. Open discussion on future strategies will be facilitated by Adotey Bing-Pappoe,...

Radical Anti-Colonial and Pan-African Publishing in the Digital Era

Future planning session on the radical possibilities for anti-colonial, pan-African and feminist publishing that accrue from digitalization. How can Africans take advantage of digital technologies. Participants are invited to consult and share, with open discussion facilitated by two of AFrica's...

Invisible Giants

How do Giants become invisible? Are giants not supposed to be visible? The paradox of this title will be explored at this round table session, facilitated by Marie-Helene Ndiaye and Coumba Toure on the final day, 24th of September

Re-creating and Re-strategizing: The Radical Future of PanAfricanism

"Action without thought is empty, thought without action is blind" This final plenary discussion brings formidable radical activist intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora together share and discuss reflections on the future possibilities for more revolutionary, feminist and pan African...

Archiving for the Next Generation: What should aPan African Peoples ArchiveLook Like?

Facilitated by two leading anti-imperialist archives, Nathaniel Moore from the Freedom ARchives in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Judith Opoku-Boateng the session invites participants to share experiences that highlight the possibilities for new and digital ways of archiving the...

Closing Ceremony: What Next for Pan-African Movements?

Keynote speaker AND Nkrumahist Dr Akwasi Aidoo reflects on the conceptualization and delivery of this years festival theme, and set the tone for follow-up activities and projects that will leverage 21st century pan-African, women's and youth mobilizations to a new...