Soma is initiated and led by feminist women and its programme is couched in feminist approaches and ethos. Our current mission is to permeate feminist ethos into mainstream literature, as well as cultural and popular media, by working with knowledge producers through using creative and cultural forms. We draw inspiration from the feminist sisterhood around the world, and are an active part of the transformative feminist movement building network in Tanzania. We are an active member of the Wanawake Fahari Yetu-Historia Yetu Coalition hosted by the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP), which closely collaborates with Women Fund Tanzania (WFT), to which we bring our unique experience of working with a network of mainstream experts in multimedia storytelling, documenting and archiving using a variety of genres and avantgarde media approaches. We are therefore strategically positioned to become a bridge between those with stories to tell but may not have the skills to render them in ways appealing to the wider public, with those seeking to tell a new emancipatory story, but may not know where to eke it from. We believe that the different components within the Multimedia Feminist Storytelling, Documentation and Archiving Project will help us get closer to widening the support for transformative feminism around the country.
The Multimedia Feminist Storytelling, Documentation and Archiving Project has several undertakings that are under it which include two research projects, a multimedia feminist challenge, and an online talk show in the form of a feminist concept hub. The two research projects are a capacity assessment of the use of multimedia tools by feminist organizations in the Coalition, and a research project on the role of individuals and feminist organizations in advocating for the creation and implementation of feminist legislature in Tanzania since independence.
1. Multimedia Feminist Capacity Assessment Research Project
We are currently attempting to track the capacities of feminist organizations in Tanzania in their use of multimedia resources to share their work with mainstream audiences. A part of this research will include investigating how mainstream media outlets reach audiences and comparing how far they are similar or differ to the methods applied by feminist organizations in their use of multimedia tools to garner support from society. This is an important task for the Coalition as our organizations seek to improve the lives of women in the country, not only economically, and in regard to their well-being, but also in reference to societal perceptions of our roles in the private and public arenas. As one of the main aims of feminist organizations is to help educate society, the role of the media is at the centre of it all. We seek to find where the gaps are in our multimedia approaches, and to fill them in a way that allows Coalition members to reach wider audiences, in a manner that permits transformative feminist thinking, to become a part of the mainstream.
Measuring how our organizations use multimedia tools and how far our reach is will sanction us to set better agendas regarding public discourse, and the relationship we have with the beneficiaries of our programmes. We have selected 5 feminist organizations (including Soma) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to be a part of the piloting process of this capacity assessment. Only 5 organizations are to participate formally as we are just at the beginning of a process that will go on for a longer period of time. We hope that the methods that we are to pioneer can be used to enrich the entire community of feminist organizations and allow us to streamline our messages, goals, and projects better to the Tanzanian audience. The end result of this project is to be the creation and completion of a report on the capacities for multimedia usage by feminist organizations in Tanzania, that portrays the successes as well as gaps in the use of these tools in the transformative feminist movement. We hope that this report will allow us to work more efficiently in spreading the messages of the platform in Tanzania. Soma, on behalf of the platform, also seeks to create a feminist archive online that will have all the multimedia projects run by feminist organizations in Tanzania in one space, hence ensuring further public exposure for and collaborations by groups dedicated to transformative feminism (all the end products of the Multimedia Feminist Storytelling, Documentation and Archiving Project are to be featured in this online space).
2. Feminist Legislature Documentation and Archiving Research Project
This project seeks to dive deep into the archival research of parliamentary documents, so as to track the creation and implementation of feminist legislature in Tanzania since independence. We expect the Hansard approach to allow us to see the dynamics in Parliament in regard to the discussions that took place during the time. We are aware that official documentation cannot tell the full story, which is why we seek to also conduct interviews with individuals (such as people that were members of Parliament or activists during the passing of these laws), so as to fill in the gaps within the narratives that we collect. We are narrowing it down to a few monumental laws that truly marked the feminist movement in Tanzania and are studying how these historical moments came into being. Tracking the creation and implementation of feminist legislature will allow us to document and archive these historic moments, thus adding them to a feminist archiving database to be accessed by members of the Coalition and Platform, students, academics, artists, budding feminists and more. Once added to the database (online feminist archive), this information will be a part of the history of the feminist movement in Tanzania. We hope that the methods that we are to forge can be used to enrich the entire community of feminist organizations. The end result of this project is to be the creation and completion of a report on the activities of individuals and organizations in the creation and implementation of feminist legislature since Tanzanian independence. This research and the eventual completed report will showcase key historic moments in the feminist movement in the country. We hope that this report will allow us to highlight the existence of the transformative powers within the feminist movement. This report will also be on the online feminist archive.
3. The Hadithi Zetu Challenge
The purpose of the Hadithi Zetu Challenge is to support the production of original creative works on feminist issues by young promising female Tanzanian storytellers. It is a research and creative project whereby the storyteller, using any creative form (genre) and media tool of their choice must conduct research in either Dar es Salaam, Dodoma or Shinyanga, creating an original piece of creative work in the process, that highlights the efforts made by grassroots organizations in Tanzania. The aforementioned areas have been selected as they are where feminist activism is taking place led by members of the Feminist Herstory Coalition. Participants are to follow the dynamics of these efforts, which include the changes, impacts, challenges and lived experiences as expressed and observed among individuals and relations at the grassroots level that are inclusive of women and men, girls and children, people and social and governance institutions. This challenge particularly seeks to amplify voices and perspectives from young women that address the major political, social, and economic issues affecting African women in ways that are original, accessible, and engaging to a variety of audiences. The aim of this challenge is to produce works that will be attractive and ‘sellable’ to wider audiences, while propagating feminist ethos and a reimagined society in which unequal gender relations are unwelcome. Selected applicants will be creative individuals who can show reason to convince the selection jury that they can produce powerful works of creative expression that are relevant to transformative feminist movement building in Tanzania, while also appealing to the general public. Selected candidates will receive financial support from Soma to research and create original work over a 3 month period based on their own interpretation of the overall theme of this challenge. End products will also be subjected to a selection process whereby the best will be translated into a children’s piece.
4. Vavagaa online television
As a part of our Multimedia Feminist Storytelling, Documentation and Archiving Project, we are creating a Feminist Concept Hub through an Online Talk Show to function as a platform, whereby women will get a chance to discuss the ways in which their lives are impacted by several gender issues, while in the process, dispelling intersecting neo-liberal and patriarchal myths that conspire to give feminism ‘a bad name’. The confirmed hosts of the show are Eluka Chelu Kibona, Dr. Jacqueline Mgumia and Mary Ndaro. The production director is Dr. Vicensia Shule. There will be a wide range of guests from all walks of life to help diversify the reach as well as the very nature of the show.
Potential Topics for the Show:
1. What gives feminism a bad name? or rather what is attractive about feminism? What sort of things are people unsure of in regard to feminist approaches?
2. Sexploitation– this topic will involve sexual content including considering the implementation of abortion law vs its reality in Tanzania. In our society, sex talk remains a taboo. There are myths in the society that designate sex as bad which is untrue, the focus should rather about teaching young people to be safe and discerning with their choices.
3. The myth of idleness in women—In reality, who is really more idle, men or women? (Je, wanawake wamebweteka?). There are campaigns which appear to attempt to motivate women with slogans such as “wanawake msibweteke tokeni ndani na tuamke’’, while there are no such campaigns for men. Women do work but their contribution is not as recognized as such which has a lot to do with the fact that majority of what is considered “women’s work” is in the informal sector.
4. Leadership in women– there is an expectation that woman must be perfect in order to be leaders and role models, which is a double standard as men are not held to the same regard. Women are held to a different standard in comparison to men, why is that so?
6. Financial Management- Most women use money they have received from men on leisurely activities rather than on investments. We could have a segment that encourages women, if they have decided to either fully or partially depend on a man, to use that economic support to create something that will allow them to increase their (financial) independence. Women who are independent are considered by society as “honorary men”—why is that so?
We will be posting regular updates on the various sub-projects under the Multimedia Feminist Storytelling, Documentation and Archiving Project, so for more information, please keep visiting our website and social media pages (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram)