I am a feminist trainer, leading workshops on empowerment, development and gender and security sector reform. I have a passion for oral herstories; collecting the life stories of older African women as a means of documenting women’s testimony and experience. I also use my camera to document women’s activism and lives of African women. Over the years I have initiated and been part of various programs and initiatives to provide safe spaces, increased knowledge platforms, and supportive resources to sustain these initiatives, such as Mentoring and Development camps for girls, and the Resource Center for Black Women in Zurich, Switzerland which I co-founded and which is now in its seventeenth year. I am also a politician, and the first Black woman to run for a parliament seat in Switzerland. My political work is my base for promoting racial and equality in Switzerland and Europe, especially for Black and Migrant women. I am a mother of two wonderful daughters and four fascinating goddaughters, who are all part of the dynamic legacy we are creating for African women on the continent and in the Diaspora.

I believe in, practice and promote feminist values and principles unconditionally, with no “ifs” or “buts!” I am inspired by other women who go the distance in the promotion of feminist values and beliefs, genuinely living their private lives as they do their public ones.

We still face the struggle to sustain basic human rights for all African women against a backdrop of hardcore patriarchy, in all its varied forms, and amidst rising fundamentalism. As African women, we are also constantly having to play catch-up with basic technology, easily available in other parts of the world. This has at times hindered the speed of our activism.

In the vision of an African feminist future, shared by myself and many others, I see a world where all human rights for women and men are promoted, recognised and practiced. The African continent has experienced far too many armed conflicts, and it is clear that we need peace building and security sector reform that includes women on all levels. In my training work I have also seen the incredible value of supporting new leadership and for training successive generations in the principles of African feminism.