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For too long, women of African ancestry have been guilted into shame and shamed into grief only to be given lines written by others for solace. We co-created this edition as a reflection of the ever-dynamic and actively resilient mosaic we know to be embodied in each daughter of the Horn. In the questions we’ve asked ourselves and each other, we find the answer always rooted in our untold histories, experiences and everyday realities. Both questions and answers always recentre the question of belongingness and identity in the form of – “I am because you are” – Ubuntu. 

In the context of the ongoing war, displacement, and political chaos, these contributions in one way or another questioned, what do internationally adopted institutional resolutions on “Women, Peace and Security” offer us – as women – when they engage us from a position of futile political equations and statistical information, that violates the spirit and essence of our human experience?  Until we, as African women, recognise that there is no postcolonial/decolonial “women, peace and security” institution or practice from somewhere else, and begin to explore resources we have in our corner among Africans, any attempt at addressing our holistic healing or our collective liberation will be rendered obsolete.

The journey of this edition is our reckoning with that recognition. We invite you to join the conversation and #AskMoreQuestions.

In this edition:

  • Editorial – On Holding Half the Sky: Stories of Resilience

  • Of the things war did to us

  • Resilience through internet research: Reflections on conducting research with front-line defenders in the Horn of Africa

  • Poem: Sad & lonely

  • Poem: The womb's curse

  • [Podcast] Stories of resilience: Daughters of the Horn using digital spaces for activism

  • Rapt

  • Tigray: Life beneath the sealed skies

  • RED: A documentary exploring the cost of menstruation

  • The war on time

Read the full edition here.

Cover image: Illustration by Kashushu for GenderIT.org