The first Webinar (online seminar) of our Governance for Development in Africa Webinar Series will premiere on the 19th of February 2019 at 5pm GMT.

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the Centre of African Studies at SOAS and SOAS Radio are delighted to announce that the speaker for our first webinar will be Dr Sehin Teferra, who completed her PhD at SOAS Univeristy of London in 2015 under the Mo Ibrahim Foundation PhD Scholarship programme.

Sehin Teferra, a Mo Ibrahim Scholar (2010-2013) is the co-founder of ‘Setaweet’, a contemporary Ethiopian feminist movement. Setaweet was formulated while Sehin was a PhD Candidate in Gender Studies at SOAS (2015), and took root as an informal collective of Ethiopian feminists who gather monthly to co-learn and support one another. These Setaweet Circles have taken place on themes as diverse as feminist relationships , ‘Hijab as a Feminist Choice’ and building Strategic Sisterhood.

Setaweet gatherings have since branched into quarterly Open Sessions which are open to women and men and which feature published authors or public personalities who discuss aspects of Ethiopian culture and literature from a feminist perspective. The theme for the Open Sessions for the current Ethiopian year is ‘Women and the Ethiopian Arts.’

Furthermore, Setaweet leads or takes part in periodic campaigns such as Arif Abbat, a photo competition and exhibition of engaged fatherhood, and Pagume Activism, an online campaign against sexism held every year during the five days of the last month of the Ethiopian year (August-September). Most recently, to mark this year’s 16-Days of Activism Against Violence, Setaweet co-hosted ‘What She Wore’, a display of outfits worn by survivors at the time of their rape which sparked a deep conversation on media platforms on the contribution of victim-blaming to rape culture in Ethiopia.

Lastly, Setaweet has in the last four years emerged as a leading actor in the small but vibrant women’s rights movement in Ethiopia and has co-convened a series of sessions where women’s rights activists have formulated their demands of our government which is in the middle of a deep reform process.

In this webinar, Dr Teferra will reflect on her personal journey in feminist activism in Ethiopia, and the lessons that she has learnt in leading a growing movement, with its myriad of challenges and opportunities to effect change to a more equal Ethiopia.

The online event will be chaired by Professor Fareda Banda, current CAS chair and expert on law, gender and women’s rights.

Find out more and reserve your place through the eventbrite site here:
bit.ly/GDAIwebinar1-DrSehinTeferra

Format of the Webinar Series:

The format will be an hour-long-event, comprising of a 30 minutes lecture, 10 minutes for the chair’s question and 20 minutes open Q&A through the live chat.
Most of the webinars will be live at 5pm GMT in order to allow as many people as possible across the African continent and Europe to attend.
The platform we will use is BbCollab (Blackboard Collaboration). Prerequisite is either computer or tablet or smartphone (some might try to join via telephone–audio only)-the session should open in most browsers. More detailed information on how to join will be given when registering on the Eventbrite site of the webinar.
The recorded event will later be available on our Governance in Africa youtube channel and on our Governance in Africa website.

 

Watch the recorded webinar here: