WHAT IS IT: AfroWomenProject is a socio-cultural project whose aim is to showcase Sub-Saharan African women’s poetry in order to give women a chance to express – through their verses – their own stories, tragedies, hopes.
WHO: founder of the project is Antonella Sinopoli, journalist, Africanist, video maker, video editor, editor of the online newspaper Voci Globali. The latter, with the same-name Association for Social Promotion, is editor of the project. Voci Globali publishes articles on human rights, migration, social issues, with a focus on the African Continent. AWP is one of the educational and cultural project of the Association.
WHY: we believe that only through listening we will be able to overcome ignorance, stereotypes and prejudices on Africa and Africans. Moreover, the art scene (especially the one of poetry, slam and spoken word) in African countries is rich and precious; we strongly believe it should be available to a wider audience.
HOW: women’s poems are published on AWP through a multilingual platform – in English, French and Italian; on AWP’s YouTube channel; they are recited and quoted in meetings, conferences, shows and workshops; radio programmes, national and international press articles, festivals.
Meeting the poets means taking the time to get to know each other, first of all. Then the poets introduce themselves on video and recite a selection of their poems while being recorded. The poems are published in the original language along with video and audio recordings, and get translated into Italian by professional women translators.
STATUS OF THE PROJECT: We started from Ghana, then we travelled to Togo, Ivory Coast, Uganda and Tanzania. We have met and recorded 11 Ghanaian poets for a total of 34 poems, 9 Togolese poets and slameuses for a total of 28 poems, 10 Ivorian poets and slameuses for a total of 32 poems, 12 Ugandan poets (36 poems), 11 Tanzanian poets (35 poems). We have also selected a few Sudanese poets and have created a Guests section on our website with interviews to women poets from different Sub-Saharan countries.
GOALS: Our goal is to promote African female artists’ poetry, slam poetry and spoken word both in Italy and abroad through meetings and events organized by Voci Globali in collaboration with publishing houses, bookshops, cultural institutions, women’s associations, schools and universities, newspapers. New partnerships are welcome in order to financially support the project and make it grow.