Students attend Yaka! Baka! Conference in Zambia

Three young female students from Chancellor College recently attended the Yaka! Baka! Feminist Arts Festival in Zambia, from 25th to 28th April, 2019. It was organized by the Katswe Sisterhood and Pepeta Africa. The theme was “Getting turned on for social justice”. It involved participants from Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia.

The students included Phindu Banda, Taonga Msowoya and Tadala Chizimba. “The idea was to create a movement of feminists that is focused on social justice and is working together to achieve various goals”, Banda pointed out.

The main part of the conference involved the identification of issues deemed of high priority for the feminist movement and for social justice. There were panel discussions that revealed issues to do with economic empowerment, culture, education, legal systems and sexual harassment, among others.

“With regard to Chancellor College, we were looking at the lack of policies that can support empowerment, and how that affects the work of the women’s directorate, with regard to the safety of female students on campus”, said Banda.

The students have returned from the festival with a sense of direction, having identified interventions that have been carried out in other countries to create more vibrant feminist movements and create a safer space.