African Women's Day

African Women's Day

Campaign illustration for Oxfam International.

Often society tells us the African womxn belongs to everyone but herself. In art and the media, the African womxn’s body may be depicted in ways that are divorced from nuanced reality; used as a political canvas for bold statements, caricatured for comedy, and/or fetishized. These projections serve the purpose of everyone but the African womxn. To depict a joyful African womxn using her voice with beauty and grace for her own pleasure, is to go against the grain. This is to show a different type of strength than what is expected of the African womxn. There is strength in freeing yourself of the burdens of other people’s expectations, taking full ownership of your body as it is (and even tattooing it if you like), choosing happiness and fulfilment, shining like the sun, and never dimming your light for anyone.