Deadline: 24 November 2023
The Initiative Sankofa d’Afrique de l’Ouest (ISDAO) is inviting you to share your reflections on the past, present, and future of LGBTQI+ organizing in West Africa. What can history teach us? What happened at the emergence of the movement? How did the community work? How were people organized? Where are we today? What does LGBTQI community mobilization look like? How is the movement organized? What does our present situation show us?
For this third issue, the theme is The West African LGBTQI Movement: Past, Present, Future.
With the rise of fundamentalist anti-gender and anti-LGBTQI groups, the feminist and LGBTQI movements are at a crucial point, and there’s a need to strategize and take collective action to ensure the dignity and freedom of LGBTQI people.
In the spirit of Sankofa, they recognize the importance of looking to the past to make positive progress. By looking back at the history, they can gain a deeper appreciation for the work that has been done, learn from our mistakes, name our traumas, and use that knowledge to build a stronger movement.
Funding Information
- Contributors whose work is selected to be featured in the issue will receive a $150 stipend.
Criteria
- They encourage original submissions from LGBTQI+ persons, activists, allies, writers, and/or academics from all over West Africa at any stage of their careers.
- This call is not limited to the current ISDAO focal countries in the region, but to the whole of West Africa in general.
- The submissions must be non-fiction and can be in the form of personal essays, autobiographical essays, opinion editorials, social commentary, memoirs, or academic papers. The submissions must also be connected to the theme of the issue.
- Word count: Maximum of 2000 words. Submissions of over 2000 words will not be considered.
- Note: They do not accept fiction or poetry submissions.
For more information, visit ISDAO.
