Weekend Magazine: What inspired you to create Ms.Afropolitan?
Minna Salami: I started writing Ms.Afropolitan in 2010. I was driven by a need to contribute, and to some extent introduce, mainstream commentary about African popular culture from a clearly feminist perspective. Blogs about African society were male-dominant and the feminist blogs I came across were Eurocentric. Most of the African feminist writing I encountered was either academic or fiction writing.
It was brilliant work…but I longed to read popular cultural commentary about Africa from a feminist angle and commentary about feminism from an African angle. Not finding much, I set up Ms.Afropolitan. In a sense I was writing what I wanted to read. I realise these things in hindsight at the time, it was just an obsessive need to write myself into being.
WM: Can you give us an insight to the general concept of Ms. Afropolitan?
Salami: In a nutshell, Ms.Afropolitan is a blog about Africa from a feminist angle and feminism from an African angle.
WM: Since your write-ups are mostly about African feminism, how would you define African feminism?
Salami: African feminism is feminism by and for African women. That is to say it is a tool that women of African heritage can use for feminist activism, theorising, healing etc. Feminists want to end male dominance and African feminism looks particularly at how patriarchy manifests in African societies. African feminism is also able to particularly look to African history and traditions to discover indigenous ways of resistance. I think of African feminism as a network in many ways; women from the continent and the Diaspora figuring out together how to grow the feminist network and how to end the oppression of women, which go hand in hand.
WM: From your own personal view and write-ups where would you want women to be placed in the society?
Salami: Let me first say that the most desirable, liberating thing for human beings, men and women, is self-realisation. When we are able to live our lives fully, and to be the highest version of ourselves, we feel confident and contented. And a society consisting of self-realised individuals is able to develop and progress rapidly. With that said, I believe that women should have the same tools to self-realisation as men do. At the moment we certainly do not.
WM: Since you started your blog, has it served as a voice to the government, Africa and the world at large?
Salami: I wouldn’t say that it has served as a voice to government per se. But my blog has reached audiences in government positions in Africa and Europe.
WM: What message are you passing to readers from your blog, especially women?
Salami: I hope that my blog inspires more women and men to become feminists, not just for the sake of it, but because they come to understand that the world will be a more enjoyable and harmonious place if women and men complement each other in utter equality. I also hope that my blog inspires Africans to seek to understand deeply the philosophies that govern our continent.
WM: To many being a feminist is perceived as women revolting, or wanting to rub shoulders with the menfolk, what is your take on this?
Salami: My take is that this is precisely what feminism is. It is indeed about women revolting from the shackles of male tyranny and being on par with men as we are in the eyes of God.
WM: In your poem about Nigeria you say: “My relationship with Nigeria is an emotionally abusive one that I will never stop returning in.” Can you explain that line and what your relationship with Nigeria is?
Salami: What I mean with that metaphor is that like someone whose partner does not look after them, who hurts, assaults and deceives them, and yet they still stay with them. So too do I love Nigeria.
WM: What are your desires for Nigeria?
Salami: My desire for Nigeria is that we experience a consciousness revolution. That we awaken to the treasures of our culture and history. Imagine if you were able to peel a skin off Nigeria to reveal a new, if familiar, terrain.
Imagine that underneath this layer of skin, the ‘new’ Nigeria would be magical but real, mythical but historical, a country waiting to be discovered only this time by Nigerians ourselves. Imagine the astonishment we might feel at finding all that we have taken for granted, or overlooked.
WM: Your blog has bagged many awards, which do you hold dearest and why?
Salami: Every award or recognition I receive, I hold dear. It is encouraging and motivating to receive the acknowledgement that your work has value to someone.
