Afro-Italian Feminists Speak: On Citizenship, Activism and Politics

 

(Left to right) Images of activists Susanna Owusu Twumwah, Kwanza Musi Dos Santos, Mistura Allison, and Selam Tesfai.

Four Afro-Italian feminists share their perspectives on citizenship, politics, and activism in Italy.

On Sunday, July 18th, 2021 from 12:30-2:30 PM EST/6:30-8:30 PM CET, Black Women Radicals hosted the online event, “Afro-Italian Feminists Speak: On Citizenship, Activism, and Politics”. The conversation featured Susanna Owusu Twumwah, Kwanza Musi Dos Santos, Selam Tesfai, and Mistura Allison who are resisting and organizing for intersectional racial justice in Italy and in the African Diaspora.

Italy is a popular tourist site and while the country promotes a global image of being “inclusive” of its denizens, this conversation will focus on the viewpoints of Afro-Italian feminists who will give critical insights about Italy’s anti-Black policies and the historical erasure of Black communities in the country. Moreover, this conversation interrogated how Afro-Italian feminists are fighting for the rights and dignity of Afro-Italians, African migrants, and Afro-descendants in Italy and how they use politics, art, culture, and more to ensure their voices are heard in Italy and beyond.

This event is a part of Black Women Radicals “Afrofeminisms in Europe Series” , which is a political interrogation, meditation, and celebration of Afrofeminisms and Black Feminisms in Europe.

 

Watch ”Afro-Italian Feminists Speak: On Citizenship, Activism, and Politics” on Youtube.

About the panelists:

Susanna Owusu Twumwah (she/her) is a Ghanaian born in Italy. She is currently a postgraduate student in the MA Migration and Diaspora studies at the School of Oriental and African studies and has a BA in International Cooperation and Development Studies at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. She is a Development, Diversity and Diaspora consultant for national and international organisations. She has 4 years’ experience working as a communication specialist for the “National Summit of Diasporas” which was funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation. Her job there allowed her to come into constant contact with some of the innovative entrepreneurial and associative experiences carried out by diasporas organisations in Italy over the past 20 years. She is an activist fighting against all forms of discriminations in Italy, through the valorization of arts, music, culture, together with a network of youth associations, and has created a referential entity for all young people of foreign origins in order to build an inclusive society thanks to the understanding of diversity as a richness, rather than a default. She is also really interested in sharing knowledge about Black people, Blackness, and about the many diasporic consciousnesses in Italy. You can follow Susanna on Instagram here.

Kwanza Musi Dos Santos (she/her) is an italian-afrobrazilian activist raised in Rome, co-founder of the cultural association QuestaèRoma that since 2013 fights to erase any form of discrimination through culture and art. She holds a bachelor degree in political science and international relations at Roma Tre University, and she is currently completing a master in management of cultural diversity at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. She organizes conferences and wokshops on diversity and inclusion with a special focus on racialized people and intersectionality, and she collaborates as a consultant for enterprises and interracial adoptions organizations. Lately, she has taught about Black Italy at the previous three editions of the Black Europe Summer School in Amsterdam and she was featured on Vice News Documentary about “Black Lives Matter in Italy”. You can follow Kwanza on Instagram here.

Selam Tesfai (she/her) was born and raised in Milan. Her father, a marxist involved in the Eritrean Liberation Front and her mother a wise pragmatic african woman, moved in Milan in the middle of the '70s. If people would ask her what she does, she wouldn't know what to say, but people like definitions so she says: I'm a human right activist. She's a member of Cantiere, a political organization based in Milan, a rebellious community of people that daily fight to take back their rights and live with dignity against a system that would better like to rip everybody apart. Her aim is to keep this community alive. Mistura Allison (she/her) is the founder of ashikọ - she's an independent researcher, curator and art historian. She has delivered projects with the National Gallery in Rome,Victoria & Albert Museum, Venice Biennale and Serendipity. Mistura's practice on the curation of cultural heritage has ignited a natural advocacy for diversity in the arts and its programming. You can follow Selam on Instagram here.

Mistura Allison (she/her) is the founder of ashikọ - she's an independent researcher, curator and art historian. She has delivered projects with the National Gallery in Rome, Victoria & Albert Museum, Venice Biennale and Serendipity. Mistura's practice on the curation of cultural heritage has ignited a natural advocacy for diversity in the arts and its programming. You can follow Mistura on Instagram here.

 

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