Centre for Women and Gender Studies - Nelson Mandela University

Book Recommendation:

Jessica Horn’s African Feminist Praxis: Cartographies of Liberatory Worldmaking is a gift to the movement and a sharp lens into how we live feminism in Africa.✨ A powerful and timely collection, grounded in love, resistance, and revolutionary clarity. African feminists have always been doing the work—Horn shows us how and why, revealing the ways in which African Feminist Work does this through a liberatory worldmaking.

A must-read for this generation and the next.📚

The Dr Brigalia Bam Institutional Public Lecture returns with the theme “When Hens Begin to Crow: Preparing Women to Govern” ✨

This year’s lecture brings together Brigitte Mabandla, Dr Yaliwe Clarke, Zingiswa Losi, and Glancina Mokone- formidable leaders whose work spans human rights, feminist activism, labour justice, and transformative law.

Together, they will reflect on women’s leadership as a transformative force, explore strategies for shifting power, and challenge the structures that hold inequality in place.

📢 18 days to go until this powerful conversation takes centre stage.

The Department of African Feminist Studies is excited to invite you to our student-led panel discussion. Please note the venue change. All details are on the invite.

Happy Women’s Day✨

Today we honour the extraordinary women whose voices, leadership, and courage continue to inspire change and shape our future. 💛💙

May we celebrate their achievements, learn from their resilience, and commit to creating a world where every woman’s potential can flourish.

You are invited to the launch of ‘Nontsizi Mgqwetho: The Poet of the People (1919–1929)’ by Thulani Mkhize.

Hosted by UKZN Press and Nelson Mandela University’s Faculty of Humanities, the event will celebrate the life and work of Nontsizi Mgqwetho, the only known female poet to write in South Africa’s early black newspapers.

📅 Thursday, 7 August 2025

🕟 16h30 for 17h00

📍 Ocean Sciences Conference Centre, Nelson Mandela University

Everyone is welcome.

Some key moments from Prof S. N. Nyeck’s thought-provoking lecture 🧠.

The discussion unpacked intersectionality as a self-consuming metaphor, using the ouroboros to reflect on how the concept can turn inward on itself.

Prof Nyeck also drew on Black Panther (2018) to explore identity, power, and the tension between cultural preservation and global connection 🌍.

The Centre for Women and Gender Studies invites you to an open lecture with Prof S. N. Nyeck: ‘Intersectionality, a Self-Consuming Metaphor? Oroboros-isng the Idea’

Prof Nyeck will engage questions of governance, gender, sexuality, and African-centred q***r ethics — drawing from their multidisciplinary work and latest publication African(a) Q***r Presence.

25 July 2025 | 16:00–17:30
Science Centre Teaching Lab, Ocean Science Campus

For enquiries or to RSVP, please contact Asafika Mbilini ([email protected])

Some key moments from the third and final day of the 2025 , captured in portrait.

The day opened with a brilliant keynote by Dr Kharnita Mohamed on epistemic silencing and debility — unpacking the structures that shape knowledge and being in the academy. It continued with sharp presentations on legal solidarity and justice after GBV, and closed with African Feminist Bookworlds in conversation with Babalwa Magoqwana and Liezille Jean Jacobs on Inyathi Ibuzwa Kwabaphambili and ROCKLANDS.

Day Two of the 2025 Afems Conference was filled with bold ideas and thoughtful exchange.

Dr Abosede Priscilla Ipadeola opened with a powerful keynote on African women, philosophy, and epistemic silencing. Prof Pumla Gqola and Nadja Ofuatey-Alazard shared a dynamic conversation on curatorial practice and diasporic feminist work.

The day closed with Xoliswa Sithole’s phenomenal film ‘Standing on Their Shoulders’, honouring the legacy of women’s resistance in South Africa.

Day One of the 2025 Afems Conference has come to a close. From powerful presentations to open, honest conversations — it’s been a full day of learning, reflection, and connection. 👏🏾

We’re ready for Day Two. ✨

Save the Date 📌

Join us for the Dr Brigalia Bam Institutional Public Lecture

🗓 29 August 2025 | 🕑 14:00

📍 North Campus Conference Centre

More details to follow — stay tuned!