‘Telling our own stories’: African women blogging for social change

Abstract

This article explores how African women have embraced the blogging phenomenon, and how blogs can be used to promote women's equality and empowerment. One of the reasons frequently cited for a lack of interest by African women in information and communications technologies (ICTs) is the lack of content available that is relevant to their needs. Blogging provides a way for women to become active creators and disseminators of knowledge, writing about what is important to them. As we explore how African women are using blogs, we will also examine the obstacles to blogging, and why some women are not attracted to the technology.

Notes

1. www.fantsuam.org. See also www.apc.org/english/hafkin/2001/haf_winner.shtml (last accessed June 2007) for details of the Bayanloco Community Learning Centre.

2. www.wougnet.org.

3. www.knowledgehouseafrica.org.

4. SMS or Short Message Service enables people send text messages from one mobile phone to another. This service is supported by most digital mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs).

5. www.fahamu.org.

6. A podcast is a digital media file – this could include audio or video – that is distributed over the Internet for playback on portable media players and personal computers.

7. ‘Afrigator’: www.afrigator.com; ‘Amatomu’: www.amatomu.com; ‘BlogAfrica’: www.blogafrica.org; ‘Kenyan Unlimited’: www.kenyaunlimited.com; ‘Nigerian Blog Aggregator’: www.nigerianbloggers.com; ‘reBlog’: African Women's Blogs: www.africanwomenblogs.com/africanwomen.html.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Oreoluwa Somolu

Oreoluwa Somolu is founder of Blogs for African Women (BAWo), which works to encourage African women to become more active users of technology. Prior to this, she worked for several years in the United States at an educational non-for-profit organisation on a number of projects, which explored the interplay between gender and technology and sought to attract more girls and women to study and work in science and technology-related fields. She is co-author of Making the Most of On-line Learning: An Introduction to Learning on the Internet (http://www2.edc.org/gdi/publications_SR/making_FULLBOOK.pdf). She has a Bachelors degree in economics from Essex University, UK, and a Masters degree in analysis, design, and management of information systems from the London School of Economics and Political Science