Amina Mama

Amina Mama (born 19 September 1958) is a Nigerian-British writer, feminist and academic. Her main areas of focus have been post-colonial, militarist and gender issues. She has lived in Africa, Europe, and North America, and worked to build relationships between feminist intellectuals across the globe.

Quotes

• There are lots of things to be done by ourselves. We can welcome our diasporans, but they can’t save us. We must together embark on efforts to continue towards liberation which requires economic as well as political and cultural change."

• “What that means is they are no longer trafficking our bodies. They’re focusing on our minds, and this is where culture and the way we style our cultural development, and our tourism is very important. We must not style it in a way that perpetuates myths, like the white people freed us. No, they did not.”

• "We still have to emancipate our children and inform them about the proud history of struggles that pushed the white people to engage in emancipation, not because they wanted us to be liberated, but because they realized they needed to transform the ways and strategies of domination from brute force to succulent means."

• “We may be emancipated, but we are not emancipated enough because we cannot protect ourselves or enrich ourselves. We are the richest continent on the planet, with 30 per cent of the world’s mineral sources, and yet we remain the poorest continent"

• “we want more than emancipation. We will mark emancipation to remind ourselves that the true path is liberation, and that freedom is not given. Our governments could be doing better but it would only be better if we push them.” Africa needs real liberation Prof. Mama

• "Feminism is about more than just advocating for women's rights; it's about challenging and transforming the systems of power and privilege that oppress us all."

• "We must resist the notion that there is only one way to be a woman, one way to be African, and one way to be human."

• “Can we re-shape our consumer appetites and desires to build up a Pan-African cultural economy with the infrastructure and resources to unlock African talents and direct them to the advancement of Africans?” Professor Amina Mama as the fourth occupant of the Kwame Nkrumah Chair in African Studies.