I feel proud to be an African woman
All my ancestors were born here
True daughters of the world, queen
My Africa”
Today we are here to celebrate Africa’s Women’s Day, 31st of July. This date was nominated by the African Union while meeting in Tanzania in 1962, to celebrate the struggle of African women.
On that day, the African Women’s Organization was created, PAWO. That is a symbolism of the need for strengthening the struggle of African women and the African continent. We’ve been part of that struggle for revolution, fighting against colonialism and all forms of occupation.
Today, we are here and we still need to unite our voices and all our forces to fight against the new forms of colonialism, capitalism, imperialism, and racism that are manifesting in many ways, controlling our territories, controlling our bodies, controlling our minds, controlling even the food that we eat, and determining who should be free, who should be happy, and who should be living.
We are together and we call upon each one of us, in our communities, nations, and territories to unite our voices, to celebrate what we have achieved with the revolution and independence. But knowing that we need to continue in the struggle, because the same enemy of yesterday is here again, in our countries, our nations, and our communities, in different clothes. We are not free until Sahara, all the people of Sahara, and the nation of Sahara are free.
In this context of controlling of our democratic institutions, controlling of our nations through the power of transnational corporations and all forms of domination, I call upon all of us to repeat the words of our revolutionary leaders, women and men, to say, the struggle continues.
And while I raise the flag of the World March of Women, I want to remain and say, we continue on the march until all women are free, fighting for our land, fighting for our food systems, fighting for our food sovereignty, fighting for agroecology.And we proclaim feminist economy as the tool for liberating women in Africa and all over the world. We will be on the march until all women are free!
Graça Samo lives in Mozambique and coordinates the International Secretariat of the World March of Women.
