Amina Doherty is an African-Caribbean feminist and women’s rights advocate. Her work is centered on raising awareness for social justice through movement-building and innovative approaches to philanthropy. Her work takes many forms: art exhibitions, community programmes, cultural events and grant-making initiatives. She is committed to promoting justice and working towards social change through the intersection of art, culture and activism. Nancy Onyango caught up with her on the sidelines of the Black Feminisms Forum (BFF), held in Bahia, Brazil in September 2016 ahead of the 13th Association for Women’s Rights in Development forum. They talked about what it means to be a feminist, collective self-care and the importance of listening to each other’s struggles.Amina Doherty is an African-Caribbean feminist and women’s rights advocate. Her work is centered on raising awareness for social justice through movement-building and innovative approaches to philanthropy. Her work takes many forms: art exhibitions, community programmes, cultural events and grant-making initiatives. She is committed to promoting justice and working towards social change through the intersection of art, culture and activism. Nancy Onyango caught up with her on the sidelines of the Black Feminisms Forum (BFF), held in Bahia, Brazil in September 2016 ahead of the 13th Association for Women’s Rights in Development forum. They talked about what it means to be a feminist, collective self-care and the importance of listening to each other’s struggles.
Nancy Onyango (NO): Can you tell us a bit about who you are?
Amina Doherty (AD): I am a Nigerian feminist who lives in and has grown up in the Caribbean, so I call myself an African-Caribbean feminist. I came into my feminism as a young woman, as an African woman, as an African woman living in the Caribbean and, coupled with that, encountering my own Blackness in a way that I had never experienced before when I first went to university in Canada.
So, all of these intersections of my identity really formed my understanding of feminism and what it means to be a feminist in a very difficult world, particularly for women. I would say that my feminism has in many ways been inspired by the women in my family, and when I say ‘family’ I do mean my biological family but also my chosen family; my political family. So there are women like my mother and my grandmothers, who have inspired me in so many ways, as did all the other women in my family, but also the folks who are in my political family. There are so many amazing African and Caribbean feminists who have pushed me to really challenge my articulation of feminism. I think that is one of the most important things about building feminist communities: creating spaces where you can share knowledge. It really does help further your own understanding.
My feminism has also been inspired very much by Caribbean feminists, women like Peggy Antrobus – who, in my mind, is one of the grandmothers of the Caribbean feminist movement – and younger women, like Tonya Haynes, who commit to teaching younger women about feminism in both academic and community-led spaces. There are so many people who have inspired my understanding of feminism as a political project that seeks to liberate all people.
As I have grown in my understanding of feminism, I have begun to expand what feminism means and looks like to me and to really centre the pluralities. So I can’t talk about feminism and only talk about women. My feminism is inclusive of all people.
So that’s a bit about who I am, it’s a bit about who inspires me and how I articulate the politics that define what I believe in and what I fight for.
NO: Earlier this morning, I was listening to Angela Davis’s keynote speech during the 17th Steve Bantu Biko memorial lecture that was delivered at the University of South Africa. She talked about legacies and unfinished struggles, and it is interesting that you recently launched the Black Feminisms Forum, which in some respect aims to address exactly that. Would you mind weighing in on that?
AD: I will talk a little bit about the history of the Black Feminisms Forum before I tackle what it means going forward. The Black Feminisms Forum, though hosted by AWID, has been organised and convened by a collective of people called the Black Feminisms Forum Working Group. What I have loved the most about this working group is that it is a transnational, intergenerational group, so we had members of the working group who are as young as 15 and as old as 69 or 70, who are coming from places like the United States, Colombia, from across the continent (Africa) and the Caribbean.
What it has allowed us to do is to articulate Black feminisms with all of the multiplicities; to engage around what it means to be Black and living in Colombia, working on land rights; to be a young feminist going to high school and living in West Africa; or to be an older feminist who has been part of the civil rights movement in the United States, or to be based in the United States and working on amplifying the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement.
What it has allowed us to do over the past year is to have conversations about what it would mean to convene a space for 200-plus Black feminists coming from multiple places, and what it would mean to create a space for us to talk to each other; for us to learn from each other; for us not to be limited by the borders and boundaries that have kept us apart. I often say if we were successful only in convening that group, then I would still be happy because we have learnt so much about struggles in many different places and to really articulate what solidarity means and what it could look like if we begin to work on a much broader level.
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