‘AFRICAN FEMINISMS GATHERING: SHAPING FEMINIST FUTURES’

Shaping Feminist Futures invites you to explore how feminist knowledge is created, remembered, and shared across Africa, the diaspora, and Europe and to join artists, scholars, curators and activists to reflect on feminist histories while we imagine newfutures together.

Enjoy three days of conversations, performances, exhibitions, and workshops!

Gathering Day 1

Thursday, 22 October

Time

Session

Description

From
17:30

Exhibition Open for Individual Viewing

Explore the exhibition at your own pace and discover artistic, archival, and diasporic perspectives on African feminisms.

18:00

Welcome & Opening

Welcome remarks by Prof. Natasha A. Kelly and Dr. Nadine Siegert

Okwui Enwezor Distinguished Lecture
Worlding: Carrying the Sun on Our Backs
with Syowia Kyambi. Laudatio by PD. Dr. Pepetual Mforbe Chiangong.

A multimedia lecture blending sound, image, memory, and storytelling. Syowia Kyambi reflects on sustainability, collaboration, and survival while inviting audiences to imagine new ways of being and creating together.

Exhibition Opening & Guided Tour
Beyond the Sweet and Obvious: African Feminisms Refracted
with curator Natasha A. Kelly and participating artists

Inspired by Nigerian artist Colette Omogbai's call for a “new way of looking,” the exhibition brings together contemporary artworks, archives, and diasporic histories. Through unexpected connections and conversations between works and collections, it explores how feminist knowledge is produced, embodied, inherited, and transformed.

Social

The evening continues with conversation and light snacks - a space to unwind, connect and settle into the Gathering.

Gathering Day 2

Friday, 23 October

Time

Session

Description

09:30 - 10:00

Opening Ritual & Morning Tea

Start the day with tea, reflection, and informal exchange in a welcoming atmosphere of connection and collective presence.

10:00 - 12:00

Institutional Refractions:
Authority, Access and Accountability
Panel discussion

How can museums, archives, and universities become more equitable and accountable? This panel explores feminist approaches to knowledge production, cultural memory, and institutional change.

Speakers:
Solange Musanganya 
Stella Nyanzi 

Moderation:
Aisha Camara

12:00 - 12:30

Time to visit the exhibition independently.

12:30 - 13.30

Learn about the work of the Congolese feminist movement Bisobasi Telema and its efforts to advance women's rights, challenge inequality, and promote social transformation.

Presentation by Elsie Ndio Lotendo

14:30 - 15:00

The Mona Lisa Syndrome
Performance Lecture

Through storytelling, audio, and personal archives, Lubi Barre reflects on childhood, motherhood, memory, and belonging across generations and continents.

by Lubi Barre and Sons

15:00 - 17:00

Diasporic Refractions: Memory, Movement and Feminist Worldmaking
Panel discussion

Writers, scholars, and artists explore how feminist ideas travel across borders, histories, and communities, creating new forms of connection, imagination, and belonging.

Speakers:
Giramata 
Lubi Barre 
Cassandra Mark-Thiesen 

Moderation:
Aisha Camara

Gathering Day 3

Saturday, 24 October

Time

Session

Description

09:30 - 10:00

Opening Ritual & Morning Tea

A shared morning moment to gather, reflect, and prepare for the day's conversations and workshops.

10:00 - 12:00

Archival Refractions: Bodies, Memory and Transgenerational Knowledge
Panel Discussion

Artists, researchers, and archivists discuss archives as living sites of memory and power, asking how knowledge is preserved, shared, embodied, and passed between generations.

Speakers:
Ndidi Dike 
Ken Aïcha Sy 
Mmakhotso Lamola

Moderation:
Aicha Camara

 

13:00 - 17:00

Archival Futures Lab

An interactive workshop programme inviting participants to imagine new possibilities for archives, libraries, and knowledge-sharing practices.

1. Zine-Making Workshop
Facilitated by Gloria Kiconco

Create a feminist zine through collage, writing, and visual storytelling while exploring alternative ways of documenting personal and collective histories.

2. Future Lab: Vision Tank – Feminist Futures for the Library
Facilitated by Nouria Natalie Asfaha

Reimagine the Afro-diasporic library as a living space for decolonial learning, community exchange, and collective knowledge-making.

3. Imagining African Feminist Archives
Facilitated by Madeline J. Bass

Explore African and Black diasporic feminist approaches to memory, preservation, and archiving through discussion and creative experimentation.

4. Pungwe Listening: Listening to the Archive Facilitated by Memory Biwa and Robert Machiri

Experience sound as a living archive through collective listening, conversation, and reflection on memory, movement, solidarity, and resistance.

Workshop Registration:
Please register via hoaf@goethe.de and include the title of your chosen workshop in the subject line.

17:00 - 18:30

Gathering Reflections, Future Directions
Closing Session

Participants come together to share insights, questions, and ideas emerging from the Gathering and explore how they might shape future feminist collaborations and archival practices.

Moderation:
Aicha Camara

18:30 - 20:00

Pungwe Listening: From the Archive to the Dancefloor
Music

Celebrate the end of the Gathering with music, movement, and dance. Inspired by the Pungwe tradition, archival sounds are transformed into a vibrant shared experience that brings memories and conversations to life.

Closing DJ Party with
Memory Biwa
Robert Machiri

Our Partners