Africa, an emerging continent: The role of African women in the transformation

The XI edition of Festa DAfrica, the International Festival of African Cultures, takes place in Rome this year, from April 7 to April 23. The festival, whose aim is to celebrate the African cultural heritage, this year focuses on the role of African women in shaping this new and changing continent. This 2013 edition, therefore, is entirely dedicated to women: artists, writers, intellectuals and journalists that, in the course of the opening ceremony, have presented their views regarding the transformation of Africa and their role in this change, as well as their considerations on liberty of expression and self determination.The opening conference, held at Luiss University on Monday 8th April 2013, was chaired by LUISS university professor Linda Lombardo, and has seen the presence of Sebastiano Maffettone who gave Welcome Speech, along with festival director Daniela Giordano and her Excellence M.me Janine Tagliante-Saracino, Ambassador of Cote DIvoire. A number of African writers and journalists have participated in the meeting too. The conference began with the welcome speech by Sebastiano Maffettone, Director of LUISS Universitys department of Political Science. In his interesting presentation, he mainly focused on his direct experience with the African culture which, according to him, entails the presence of many clichs by western populations. We tend to think that African countries are inferior to other countries, but this is not the case. African people are full of resources, and, as the conference shows, women occupy a prominent role in the continents continuous transformation. As a matter of fact, they have solved many problems. Prof. Maffettone afrmed that the presence of women is important and has to be granted with liberty of expression, freedom and equality. This is the only way to implement the societys common good. LUISS professor Linda Lombardo, of American origin, talked about the genesis of the festival, which was directed by Daniela Giordano. The meaning of Festa dAfrica consists in highlighting the transformation that is taking place in Africa and in understanding our cultural differences with those of the continent. Prof. Lombardo said:Africa is emerging. The continent is the second biggest one in dimension and population: there is not just one Africa, but many of them, because of the high number of languages spoken (more than 2000) and ethnic variety. She pointed out that in the last decades, this continent has seen a major ascent of a new generation of women, ready to change the countries they live in. And this is true: many women are now part of national parliaments, and in 2012 the rst woman in African history, Joyce Banda, was elected prime minister, winning the Nobel Prize for peace.The conference should have seen the presence of Her Excellency M.me Henriette Diabat, Great Chancellor of Cote dIvoire, but she could not be present due to problems linked to governmental affairs. Nevertheless, her speech was read out loud by her ambassador, M.me Janine Tagliante- Saracino. Women are increasingly gaining importance in our world. In the 60% of the families, women are the bearers not only of tradition, but also of peace and justice. They are, she writes, creators of innovation. This insight is undoubtedly true, as remarked also by Daniela Giordano. After this speech, views about change and culture were provided by a number of African women and University professors. Ersilia Francesca, professor of gender politics of North Africa at Universit degli Studi di Napoli, provided some insights regarding empowerment

of women in Africa: discrimination against them, submission to men, forced separation from children and so on. These negative aspects are changing, and women are gaining more and more freedom. The literacy level is increasing, although the participation level in the job market is still low.Following her speech, Renata Pepicelli, from Universit di Bologna spoke, and she focused her attention on women activism in Africa. Through continuous struggles, women are trying to claim their rights, just as feminists did in the last century in Europe. To be fair, Africans dont want to be called feminists, since the term is directly linked to the European Feminist movements, and Europeans were violent colonisers. Franoise Kankindi, president of Bene Rwanda Onlus, has talked about the genocide that took place in Rwanda a few years ago, between Hutu and Tutsi. The body of women became battleelds in those days, she recalled. But today, women have the power to change the destiny of the world: in fact, in many countries there is a minimum number of women required in parliaments. On the other hand, Mariantonietta Saracino, from Universit di Roma La Sapienza, provided an account about literature on the gure of the African woman. Starting from Doring Lessing, she listed many female writers that have contributed to changing Africa, such as Buchi Emecheta and Flora Nwapa. The conference terminated with the intervention of Igiaba Scego, a black Italian from Somalia. She has told her touching story of an Italian girl that feels a strong attachment to the land of her parents, Somalia, which she dreams of visiting again to discover all the secrets of Mogadishu, a city once conquered by Italians with improper acts of violence. The conference had the aim of conveying a vision of the present world throught the eyes of African women, and it has done so clearly and deeply. The pictures of the populations shown, the emphatic accounts of the young artists, their stories, their insights about freedom and discrimination have made us all feel like we could almost touch womens power to change the world. It has also contributed to eliminate some prejudices that, as Western colonisers, we had. Forinstance, a good number of African countries have more women in parliament than European nations.. and not just that. A great emphasis has been placed on Arabian countries and their religion, leaving not much room for central and sub-Saharan countries, as well as for the role of indigenous African women and their role in shaping the new continent. These topics need to be further pursued, why not, in next years festival.For the moment, it sufces to know that women really are bearers of innovation and change, and that their actions are shaping, slowly but actively, a new world.