the goal is to bring use a story behind the news. we wrote about unbiased information for 3 months. the, this is dw news africa coming up on the program, women and matt, how equal are they in africa? women's voices from across the continent and from different fields. when we hear from one of africa's tech giants on the challenges she face even getting a bank account. also coming up, we need to know during our curator who has made it her mission to share the art of african women with the world. can feminism even be african we ask one of the advocates leading thinkers and get her views on in quality. and it's place on the content plus scan, women, be champion fighter. we need

a box or from gone up who's punch lance, harder than most. she's taking home a world title and says that's not just when it's a move the i'm michael ok. welcome to the program of how wide is ethic is gender gap. averaging out all of africa's diverse nations is something of a blunt tool, but it does provide a picture. and the africa gender index did the math for the score, 100 percent would mean full equality with many african women or a long way from that. but let's take a look at how close they come. in 2023 african women score just over 50 percent. so only half way to complete gender equality across economic, social, and public leadership areas. a sobering statistic, it showed only

a slight improvement from 48.6 percent in 2019. but there is some light in the darkness. the highest score in countries on the continent may be was rank higher as with 88 percent. the report cause that the african champion of gender equality tonya, was due to a gender equality giant scores. 82 percent. it's constitution guarantees equal pay for women and men and wanda scores almost 80 percent. the report says it has a strong political will for gender equality that might have something to do with the fact that 61 percent of rwanda is electric representatives or women. but elsewhere the landscape is less promising. take the extent to which men and women participate equally in decision making and politics, government and business that has improved slightly,

but that rate is so slow it would take until 2063 for african women to achieve full equality. a 10 segment isn't be i forget the numbers suggest the way you answer that might depend on where you are. but what do people say to african women at least feel equal to that? i'm on of my own on i believe on my 7. i can't feed on my own. i don't depend on month. old style doesn't mean you can set on your own, or you can compare yourself with the mind. know men and women. i know it's a quiet, let's start even with employment. when people go for interviews, a lot of times a lot of women are fixed just because maybe the manager sees these. we may not pray to the boy child is left alone. i think socially for example, going on for work kind of hard to find them in useful. mean, when you go to a restaurant, usually the wages will talk to them in

a to the woman that movie. i come be close to my mom a month on the whole team and we will see does do some aspects of that. then i think we're doing the same thing and i don't see that there is that different, like cute to to have a mind or teaching. i need to defend the lead this these. so because what are monica and do i, we went, i need to be our 1st guest is one of the advocates most well known and technology entrepreneurs and influential female business leaders. rebecca known strong, a prominent figure in her home countries, camera room, often features on the list of the most powerful business people in africa, splitting her time between washington dc. and while she is the founder and ceo of apps tech and runs the tech incubator, active space, it's known for her work promoting technology in africa. she also serves as the chair of freelance, a network of over $300.00 innovation centers across the cotton. and rebecca and

known chung joins me now from to a welcome and meant becca. thank you. thank you so much for having me. it's a pleasure. i'm pretty sure no one gets to where you are by heating the brakes. no, you hit the gas and you hit it again. but i wonder whether in the months or many years before joining the tech industry and launching apps tech, you ever paused as an african woman and wondered whether you could really pursue success in an industry with very few africans. and very few women actually i, i didn't think about, i think i might not have realized how big, how great the challenges. i think from a technical perspective, because i've been tech, we always believe that ticket re equalizer. right? because when you're downloading these days, if you're downloading an app from your phone, you're not going to check to see,

is it a woman that created? it isn't an african that created it. so that, that, that allows a lot of inclusion in, in technology. but what i didn't realize were some of the other, this is still a business, right? as a business 1st name intact. and that's when i saw really understood that i was a black african woman because it is very different to uh, the effects entrepreneur. then just a key, i want to talk a little bit more about that. you launch apps tech in 1999. so you have to secure funding, hire staff, we know over clients. how did you deal with, frankly, not looking like a what a great many people would expect a founder and ceo to look like. so,

what i did realize is that you put the product 1st, and so i hit right. so it was aspect, it was in rebecca nonchalance company. right. so for instance, my business card didn't have a title, so i could be a, an engineer. i could be a sales person. i could be anything the client wanted me to be to get the signature . and so i, i was hiding, like i built a brand, i built a beautiful website that looked like a big business. and i just worked there as an employee of this big multinational. there was 4 people. uh i, i was just a staff member. and that is much easier of a sell that and with the hey, here's a ceo that wants to and she's not does not look like a tech ceo. but then when it came to anything financial it you,

you talked about raising money. it wasn't just raising money is just opening your bank account and the struggle i have to now and so just keep it open and was unbelievable. the biggest challenge is, for instance here in cameron, i mean, i mean when, when we are a subsidiary at the local branch, a multinational one of the biggest banks in the world. they wouldn't not letting me in because they said this is a business way. we don't do a private, you know, and so i was like, i've been out of business and they're like, yeah, but used to small rebecca, you do business globally in the west as well as africa or their particular challenges. a woman might face that or distinct to africa, or are they more or less universal? as you know, unfortunately, i think they're universal and the same challenges i've had here in africa

are the same challenges that i've had in the us. and they're not the ones that i expected. i think, you know, we, we always think of technology is this great equalizer. i believed that i could, you know, as long as i could do the test, as long as i was able to deliver, it didn't matter where it came from. and so, you know, i, i was very surprised. i'm more more in the financial and the business side of, for instance, you know, opening your bank account does not seem like a challenge, but then it was a challenge just not even in access to finance and became challenges and again food in the west and in in, in africa, so you don't have to make do without and figure out how to run your business, you know, generating yeah, your revenue directly. so i think it's a, it's

a general challenge that women are not as seen should be worthy of the money. like one thing i hate and if the word micro finance, if you remember, if you think about it, you never hear about micro finance. when it involves, man, it's always a program for women. that oh a micro finance program. so we can give them $50.00 or $100.00 to go, you know, support their business. but you know, when, when a woman it means to $1000000.00 or $10000000.00, all of a sudden there's nothing for her. and i hope that the business address women are better mattress with money. it's been freeman. you know, it dawned on me, the professional success you've enjoyed would qualify you in many minds as an african feminist. and yet there are some who believe feminism is an african. what

would you say? oh, i think african women are the there the are the real feminist. i think it had demonstrated, it doesn't show itself in the same way. and i think it's not as militants, but african women are peers. if you look at the, the numbers there are more african does a higher percentage of women entrepreneurs in applicant than anywhere else in the world. and so we are running businesses, we're running households, and we're making decisions. but, but, but perhaps not in this team militants way. and they, you know, maybe not as overly but, but i think african women are, are coming to buying a nature. but, but, but we're talking about fighting for, you know, for women's actual grades and, and, and not to what has been received as for feminism now, which is an

t mail, which is, which is not an african, about rebecca known chung, many, many facts. thank you. thank you so much for having me. interesting me. thank you so much. i a do not curious artsy next and curator other in relation a re, well, was once described by fashion magazine vote as one of the coolest women in lagos. she's also made a business out of art. her really gallery showcases the best african artist in lagos, los angeles, and linda. my name is edna relation. i oh, i am the font. oh really? we have 3 locations. one here in lagos, los angeles, and in london. we've been in existence for about 10 years now, so we're contemporary, i got me. so i started curious and maybe showing up about 15 years ago, i had moved back to the manager and from the us where i was,

i've been working as an accountant on auditory before as far. and so in come in to manager, back to the manager. i was really just curious about the saying, i was curious about the pre existing is i want to spend a little time in the office to do so i'll visit them. and i just got a new data space, extra base to be free. and so set up with a couple things, additions really and then graduates that aside from the gallery, the dallas funding, so if you buy somebody, and so yes, i've been exposed to that environment of this is shipped to me it's it's of was a good title, mind for me, cbs understand the ford and the 5 are and see on the festivals and all just of defense that are tradition that we need in date to date. i was excited to meet on

this in the past. well, i am the guy that represents sports. midland, i was a sites as a woman, i do have a bias, so let's see my access. and just because i understand what do you use to be a woman? i understand the expectations that people have to mail access, you know, whether they can or cannot succeed in the, in the space. and so not so much trying to prove them wrong, but just almost trying to just be a platform that can elevate women. we don't have enough stories of what it means to be in my office individual. i don't think they get their mission. and i like to now was look, is in that is she has a condition called p c o s. and we find that even though women can connect with

a walk, a man, i also educated and licensed by the work the 1st time she said that we said i work in retire the way we, she had visualized representation was she was showing some of the positions and pushed shows, i have what it takes when she gets in source, it starts to feel pain. and for the 1st time, you know, of a mind walked in and said, you know, while this is me being able to on, in a way, understand what my wife, critically injured because my wife has passed us and i just never heard of it in the sense that some stories are best sold by women because we and what do you to leave it in a wheelchair the we say we have 3 major drivers for you and i wouldn't know that it's more than that . so contracts, right. and you can never run out of stories if one,

just from one country, let's talk about the entire region. so we kinda need to as much as we can. well, i think the con, messages say is that not because i'm one of the is, you know, we have diverse service, our diverse perspective and i checked. the challenge to us is how do we share that as best as we can. and that's what we strive to do every day. and so it's one thing to be here locally, some of that tends to be able to take the walk internationally and share those distance events and nationally. and that's for me is the reason why, if i could open in all around that, i was because i feel like the stories i was on, the stories needs to shift. and now back to the question we posed at the beginning of the show. can feminism be african? we borrowed that indelicate question from the title of our next guess. latest book . you just allow me is a nigerian finish social critic,

an author. her books central has knowledge of black feminist approach for everyone . and can feminism be african, provide insights into the role of gender and women, the content and municipal ami joins me now. welcome to dw news, africa. thank you very much. a pleasure at mena. it's no coincidence. we began to show, asking the question, confirming is in the african, it's the provocative title of your latest book, which immediately got me thinking a couple of things. first, when we talk about feminist, we in the west, rarely think of africans. even those of us who are african and 2nd, there must be a pervasive sense. feminism itself is somehow on african is a reaction like mine what you intended when you came up with the title, as it is indeed michael. um, there's been

a flurry and a kind of unprecedented interest in feminism in the west and around the world. you could say in the past decade or so, a lot of time and his literature has been published. and a lot of this literature is actually what we call interest sectional, meaning that it is considering race of costs as well as gender to varying degrees. and yet i'm, it's this kind of unprecedented interest in feminist literature and feminism at large. there is an absence of the african feminist perspective of african feminist voices. and so that was one key motivation in writing. this book was to, to, to share that african perspective and to share the kind of worldview that emerges. when we look at some of them from an african perspective. i'm sorry, i'm just recovering from a, from

a flu virus. and i am this to your 2nd point about this perception, this, this opinion, a false opinion that feminism is, quote, unquote, on african, that isn't deed, also a key motivation behind my book. so, so the, the idea that feminism is on african is an idea that informs what has been one of the vos tests, largest backlash is against the feminist movement. since its inception, it is a backlash that has been taking place in the african continent and the diaspora for many decades now, it's a very harmful destructive, untiring narrative that is constantly propagated in order to disabled the feminist work that is being done in the continent on the die scratch with this unwarranted claim that feminism is on african. so yes i wrote this book because we

wanted to, to engage with that question and to, to disprove it. what is it for? oh, so i think i know the answer to my next question, but i want to make it very clear to viewers and give you a chance to say your piece and to your own question. can feminism in fact the african? well, it depends. this is still because of course there is feminism in africa, but what it depends on is actually to a large extent, what we mean when we say african, what do we mean? and one of the things that i show in the book is that actually whips the word africa, or african. and when we was thinking about african identity, we are in fact conflating. it's a great extent with male identity, with masculinity. so many of the ways in which we have defined notions of africa, nest in, in contemporary africa. so since most african countries getting to independence,

let's say, starting from the 1950s on words. this very notion of african nest has been defined from the specials of masculine identity. and so actually if that is the case, if that is how we define african, then when we ask is feminism can be african, it becomes a much more complex picture than what it might initially seem like. and that is also why i wrote this book to address this very disturbing fact that african, this is so much translated with masculinity as a nigerian finish thinker with a trans national perspective. how do your personal experience is shape your understanding of feminism in africa? and what's the message you hope readers will take from your book? i mean, personal background of course shapes my perceptions of feminism in the continent.

but i think above, oh my, my african feminist perspective was formed from my living and growing up and being shaped in, in the african continent, specifically in, in lagos and my dear. yeah. and perceiving the culture that i was surrounded by and the ways in which it is uh, you know, a, a beautiful culture that i, that i love, but also the very many ways in which it is a harmful culture to work out girls and women. and that is really the source of my feminist work. so i hope that it will be a read that is eye opening and also one that provides readers with a new lexicon of sorts, which, which we can continue to build a, an africa that has agency and autonomy. and in which books it's women. and it's man

can prosper and be part of shaping the future of the world at large. understood, it's been a pleasure. that's the author and commentator mina salami. many thanks. thank you to gone and next and the story of abigail corte, who is become a world champion bantam wake boxer and her nations pride and joy. but while becoming a fighter, she found she had to battle far more powerful opponents than those she faced in the ring. the naysayers who insist women can't be fighters. a abigail clause to cook lottie has books to away to the top and from the she can clearly see the contribution made by all the female fight to city on that level. there were women in boxing before i ventured into the support they were with the national team . but at that time, women on the national team were not allowed to travel outside of ghana. but her

achievements with the black boom is the national team, made history for her country and made quality proud. well, i became the 1st woman box or to travel outside down on the ticket of the black bombers, just like i have become the 1st lady to win a world title for donna. i know she has been checked on along the way, including by her brother and to train a. it is, it's actually a nickel. if you put title is a big deal for interest which way and the gym, the community, the nation. i'm gonna, i'm, i'm africa. i'm the world at large, i will be awarded because it is not easy to in. and i like that rockwell which i know i've gotten in woman and the ones that you die dry, but that will also some holding her back. even concerned family members. she says, who had never seen a female books a mean like it was my ads and siblings didn't like it when i started boxing them about they would come here to big my coach not to let me become

a box or what he told them. i'm a good fighter and that i will do well on the low to as a salary, as a coach at gulls, books tournament, an advocacy project for young women. she says that qualities winning a well title means a lot of books isn't gonna even the mailbox is when the fight with non africans. it's very difficult for them to win because they have and lots more personalities and equipment that we do. so it's, that's on inspiring story and we are really happy qualities own take away from her . well, title is as simple as it is, inspiring, young girls should know they can succeed in sports and in math to the obstacles. she says, this isn't just a when it's a movement and that's it for now. be sure to check out our other stores on d, w dot com slash traffic up for on social media. just search for dw news applicant.

we'll see you next time, bye for now. the

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5 years. often, we remember when the world stops march 8th on dw, the data over the news license. the then a watershed moment for your the presence of your paying commission issues and stuff . warning as a new leaders gather for emergency summit, the future of european defense and support for ukraine top the agenda. also on the program. russian russian miss, i'll destroys the hotel in central ukraine. it's that killed several people in these rescue as rising to save thousands injured by the blast under us noon of pro defense to an unknown fate. you're feeding alonza touches down near the moon, south pole. as the control room struggles to maintain contact.