About
I started writing Black Looks back in June 2004 after a number of abandoned blog attempts under different names. At the time I only had a broad idea that I wanted to primarily focus on anything to do with African Women - a very broad term for a whole continent - and the African Diaspora that is socially, politically, racially, culturally, ethnically and sexually diverse. I also wanted to look at human rights, to challenge stereotypes and discuss issues such as gender, sexuality and racism and how these are constructed and manipulated by culture. These are areas that can make people feel uncomfortable because they reach to our core. They often reveal the hidden truths deep within ourselves. Talking about racism and ethnicity and sexuality can be threatening because they require people to consider the possibility that they may have racist or homophobic feelings and attitudes.
I have chosen to write about a range of issues that I have experienced directly or indirectly in my offline life such as gender violence, racism, sexuality, HIV/AIDS and cancer. I view the world as moving further and further to the right with American hegemony contaminating the global space. I wanted to write from a radical and progressive standpoint challenging not only the right but also the liberal community, the so capitalism with a friendly face which is an oxymoron to say the least.
Maintaining the Black Looks project has become a greater challenge involving more and more of time than I can possibly commit to unless I give up paid work altogether. Since November, I have invited a number of other bloggers and writers to contribute to Black Looks from time to time and I thank all the contributors past and present for wanting to participate. Some have their own blogs, some do not. But we do have in common is we are all progressives, Africanists and activists with a strong belief in the power of the pen to bring about change.
Sokari Ekine
I also contribute regularly to:
Pambazuka News: Weekly Forum for Social Justice in Africa
African Path,
Kabissa: Space for Change in Africa;
Taking Place,
The F-Word
Guest blogged at at Angry Black Woman and Sabbah’s Blog;
My Newsvine Space;
Global Voices
Black Looks Blog Awards
2008: Runner Up, Best International Feminist Blog
2007:
2006: Finalist, Best International Blog.
2006: Winner, People’s Choice Best Blog in English:
CONTRIBUTORS
The following writers have contributed to Black Looks at various times over the past 4 years.
Annie Quarcoopome - is from Ghana and is a university student based in the US but presently studying French Caribbean Literature in Martinique.
Kameelah Rasheed - is a graduate student at Standford Univeristy. She spent 2007 as a Fulbright scholar attending Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Kym Platt - is also based in the US and works in the media and advertising.
Askthisblackwoman
Chinwe Azubuike is a contemporary African Poet regarded as a strong female contemporary voice from Africa, born in Nigeria. An indegene of Imo State, she is the daughter of the late Wisdom Azubuike who served in the Biafran War, and Mary Azubuike, her mother.
Chinwe’s humble beginnings were a far cry from the literary educated class of poets- born into a relatively poor family. Over the past decade she has gradually crafted her own powerful voice and found a unique style of no-nonsense writing that comes directly from her heart- seeing herself as a spokeswoman for Nigeria’s deprived underclass.
The bulk of her work, which is reflected in her poetry, focuses on female issues; of love, life and torture with specific references to ethnic family traditions in Nigeria and West Africa.
Her meteoric rise in African literary circles came about following a talk she was invited to give on female circumcision for the BBC World Service in 2004. Since then, she has given various readings and spoken candidly on various radio stations in the capital. Her work, which includes a worldwide campaign for women, against the victimization and deprivation of human rights of “the Widow” in Nigeria- an issue borne out of her own bitter experience when her father sadly passed away, has been published in various online publications and offline magazines in London and throughout the world.
Rethabile Masilo - is a Lesotho blogger presently living in Paris. He blogs at
Sotho and Poéfrika, a group blog for poets and writers - a creative venture for for creative people, Africans, non-Africans, black, white, colourful, writers about African issues. Or about life, simply.
Annwen Bates is a South African cultural theorist who is living and working in an ivory tower amongst the aloes. She lives in Capetown.
Andile Mngxitama is South African activist in the Landless Peoples’ Movement (LPM), a group he was instrumental in organizing. Andile has published extensively on the issue of land reform, and other pressing Pan-African issues. He is co-editor of Biko Lives -Conversations and Contestations with Gibson and Alexander, forthcoming this year.
Del Hornbuckle is a librarian and member of the Progressive Librarians Association - her website is Dogonland.;
