Africa's Feminist Thinkers | Awino Okech | Unpublished Work

Awino Okech - I was born and raised in Kenya. I began my engagement with community development work right after high school, through an apprenticeship with a local Kenyan organization KEFEADO based in Kisumu, Kenya. I had an opportunity to work alongside other educationalists on a one year programme that dealt with the questions of enrolment, retention and completion of school by girls. Having completed high school in what was a considered a school in rural Kenya, the multiplicity of issues that young women in Busia and later Migori (both administrative districts in Kenya) where the project was replicated was for me a far cry from what I had experienced and had then considered ‘suffering'. I can safely argue that my interest in women's rights begun at this point. Alongside these long term interventions where we also worked closely with the government's education machinery, KEFEADO ran community based campaigns during the annual global campaign for education and was a leading voice around the 16 days of activism in the region (Nyanza). We also actively contributed to the formation and development of grassroots women's movements.

I was later invited to do a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Nairobi where I subsequently specialized in Political Science. During my four years in Nairobi, I worked and later become one of the lead trainers with Amani Peoples Theatre, a civil society organization established by young people to articulate young people's position and non-violent contribution to the peace building processes as a result of some of the first politically motivated ethnic/land clashes. These were occasioned by the introduction of a multi party regime in Kenya in the 1990's. Building on my experiences from KEFEADO, I was part of the team that developed successful gender and peace building community training modules that were implemented across Kenya by the organization and in partnership with other civil society groups. This work later led me to conduct workshops with other theatre and development practitioners in Sudan, Tanzania, Germany, Poland, Austria, Czech, Germany, Israel and Denmark.

I embarked on a post graduate degree in Gender Studies in 2005. Having spoken about women's rights for close to ten years, it was refreshing to engage with the theory and praxis of feminism; African feminism in particular, alongside mentors at the University of Cape Town's African Gender Institute. During my Masters programme, I became part of one of the few Feminist theatre collectives in Cape Town and South Africa – The Mothertongue Project. The Mothertongue project which was initiated by a pair of Cape Town born and raised women theatre practitioners continues to devise cutting edge theatre productions that draw on women's personal stories. They believe in the centrality of the survivors or ‘livers' of the stories in the creation, devising and rehearsal process of any of their theatre productions. During my three years with the organization, we developed a separate wing to the organizations work which was the applied theatre work. We implemented three major projects within the Cape Town area. One was in partnership with a Kenyan organization and it explored contemporary rites of passage for young women. We were primarily interested in excavating the ways in which femininity is constructed, particularly in inner city settlements where notions of tradition and culture as they are anthropologically conceived are non existent. Modern traditions and praxis emerge and are imbued with meaning by young women. We were also keen to show the opportunities that theatre and the arts provide as a tool for activism particularly when dealing with deeply personal and sensitive experiences. Aspects of this two year project formed part of the investigation for my masters' research. We also piloted an arts based project on the intersections between violence against women and HIV/AIDS in one of South Africa 's largest black townships and which incidentally has the highest statistics of rape in the country – Khayelitsha. We worked with women refugees in Cape Town exploring xenophobia, trafficking and integration. All of these processes culminated at one point or another into full fledged theatre productions, mini applied theatre processes as advocacy tools and were also actively used by the institutions we partnered with in the course of their campaigns.

I am a founding member of the African Network of Young Peace builders. Established in 2000, the network comprises individuals and organizations working in the field of peace and conflict transformation in Africa. I also serve on the Feminist Africa Editorial Advisory Board, which is an internationally constituted advisory board. Feminist Africa is a recognized scholarly publication accredited by the South African Ministry of Education and produced bi-annually by the African Gender Institute.

I am currently based in Nairobi , Kenya , pursuing my Doctoral degree with the University of Cape Town 's African Gender Institute. A holder of the Steve Biko Leadership fellowship, my research interests continue to lie in exploring the intersections between the idea of culture, tradition and the constructions of femininity in Africa today. My current research locus is Kenya with a focus on the practice of wife inheritance amongst the Luo. I continue to be actively engaged in civil society discourses particularly those related to women's rights. Firmly believing in the fostering the nexus between academic research and ‘practical' activism, I constantly find ways through which my work will inform my research and vice and versa. I am also interested in informing as well as being informed by discourses currently being produced by emerging and growing younger feminist voices from the African Continent.

Unpublished Work

Okech, Awino, 2005. Review of The Closest of Strangers: South African women's life writing edited Judith Lutge Coullie in Feminist Africa (5), 2005 Sexual Cultures, pg 142-146. Cape Town, African Gender Institute

Okech Awino. 2005. Rite of Being: An Enquiry into Puberty Transition Practices amongst Young Women in Manenberg, Honors Dissertation submitted to the African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town.

Okech Awino. 2007a. She is also playing; she is also wearing the mask that I am wearing: Investigating the gendered dynamics of implementing a forum theatre project for young women in Manenberg Masters Dissertation submitted to the African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town.

Okech Awino. 2007b. AWID: Building Feminist Movements and Organizations: A Case Study of Groots Kenya. A Study Commissioned by AWID.

Okech Awino. 2007c. Theatre for Development: A cul de sac? A paper presented at the 50th Annual FIRT-IFTR (International Federation for Theatre Research) Conference in Stellenbosch – July 2007.

Okech Awino, 2007d: Exploring the intersections between violence against women and HIV/AIDS through arts. Exchange on HIV/AIDS, Sexuality and Gender, Amsterdam, Royal Tropical Institute

Okech Awino, 2007e. In Conversation: As a woman [in politics], you have to work twice as hard as the average man: in Feminist Africa (9) Rethinking Universities II. pg 105-112. Cape Town, African Gender Institute.