Women And Resistance

EP 1 Mbokomu - She Who Troubles Heaven | Women And Resistance

Mbokomu, the Ancestor Goddess of the Ngombe What if the first woman on Earth wasn’t a passive creation — but a divine disruptor? What if she were sent down not because she was weak, but because she was too powerful to be contained? This week on Women and Resistance, hosts Aya Fubara Eneli Esq. and Adesoji Iginla dive deep into one of Central Africa’s most captivating and under-explored mythological figures: Mbokomu, the ancestor goddess of the Ngombe people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Daughter of the supreme creator god Akongo, the first gardener, the mother of all humanity — and, depending on who you ask, the reason time itself sometimes slows to a crawl. In this enlightening episode, Mbokomu shares profound African creation stories, emphasising the importance of remembering our roots, cultivating harmony, and understanding our spiritual connection to the universe.  Through rich narratives from the Congo and Yoruba traditions, listeners are invited to reconnect with ancestral wisdom and embrace their role in nurturing life. We unpack the Ngombe creation myth and ask the questions that Western scholarship often doesn’t: What does it mean that the origin of humanity in this tradition is a woman who caused problems? How do African cosmologies encode ideas of female agency, ecological sovereignty, and ancestral power? And what happens to those stories when colonialism arrives to burn the archive? From the Congo River basin to the mountains of Venus — yes, Venus — Mbokomu’s name echoes across centuries and galaxies. We also connect her story to the very real struggles of Congolese women today: from Maria N’koi’s 1915 insurrection against Belgian colonial rule, to the extraordinary courage of modern activists like Julienne Lusenge fighting sexual violence in the DRC. This is mythology as resistance. This is ancestry as armour.  Takeaways *African cosmology and creation stories *The role of Mbokomu as the first woman and gardener *The spiritual significance of rivers and water in African traditions *The story of Obatala and the creation of Earth in Yoruba mythology *The impact of colonisation on African oral traditions and knowledge *The importance of remembering and reconnecting with ancestral wisdom Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Mbokomu's Legacy 01:44 The Essence of Creation and Nurturing Life 03:39 The Journey from Heaven to Earth 05:44 The First Garden and Humanity's Roots 07:45 Resilience and the Philosophy of Creation 09:49 The Impact of Displacement and Spiritual Exhaustion 11:50 The Role of Memory and Storytelling 13:56 African Cosmologies and Cultural Survival 16:14 The Importance of Understanding Our Origins 22:48 The Sky Kingdom and Olorun's Creation 24:07 Obatala's Quest for Purpose 26:00 The Descent to Earth 28:52 The Birth of Ife 31:21 Obatala's Creation of Humanity 34:36 The Role of the Chameleon and Divine Intervention 37:00 The Dogon People and Their Wisdom 41:22 Yurugu's Arrogance and the Consequences 47:58 The Seeds of Destruction 50:35 The Call to Remember and Reconnect Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2448293/fan_mail/new] Welcome  to Women and Resistance, a powerful podcast where we honour the courage, resilience, and revolutionary spirit of women across the globe. Hosted by Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla... You're listening to Women and Resistance with Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla—where we honour the voices of women who have shaped history through courage and defiance...Now, back to the conversation. That’s it for this episode of Women and Resistance. Thank you for joining us in amplifying the voices of women who challenge injustice and change the course of history. Be sure to subscribe, share, and continue the conversation. Together We Honour the past, act in the present, and shape the future. Until next time, stay inspired and stay in resistance!

Season 4 Review - 12 Voices That Refused To Be Silent | Women And Resistance

🎙️ SEASON 4 REVIEW | Women & Resistance Podcast They resisted empires, fought colonial armies, rebuilt broken communities, and wrote words that outlived every system that tried to erase them.  In this special review episode, hosts Adesoji Iginla and Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq., look back at the twelve extraordinary women featured this season — women whose courage, sacrifice, and genius shaped history across four continents. From Sarah Baartman to Yaa Asantewaa. From Ida B. Wells to Audre Lorde. From the shores of Senegal to the lecture halls of London. Their silence was never an option — and neither is ours. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ IN THIS EPISODE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ► Sarah Baartman — Khoikhoi woman, colonised body, enduring sovereignty ► Ellen Kuzwayo — Social worker, writer, and architect of community under apartheid ► Sarah Parker Remond — Black abolitionist who took on the British Empire ► La Mulâtresse Solitude — Freedom fighter, executed the morning after giving birth ► Victoria Santa Cruz — Poet and choreographer of Afro-Peruvian reclamation ► Queen Mother Moore — Nearly a century of organising for reparations and Pan-Africanism ► Yvonne Vera — Zimbabwe's most luminous novelist, writing the bodies history forgot ► Fannie Lou Hamer — Sharecropper's daughter who made Congress listen ► Ndaté Yalla Mbodj — The last great warrior queen of Waalo, Senegal ► Ida B. Wells — Journalist, anti-lynching crusader, and unbreakable truth-teller ► Audre Lorde — Poet, warrior, and architect of intersectional thought ► Yaa Asantewaa — Queen Mother who led the last great Asante resistance ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Key Takeaways ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ *Stories of 12 remarkable women across season 4 *Themes of resistance, resilience, and empowerment *Challenges in researching and representing women's stories *Tools and strategies used by women for resistance *Impact of historical and contemporary struggles ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Chapters ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 Introduction to Women and Resistance Podcast 02:34 Inspiration Behind Women and Resistance 05:13 Challenges in Portraying Historical Figures 10:32 Emotional Impact of the Stories 15:49 Selection Process for Featured Women 21:15 Current Issues and Historical Context 22:14 The Reality of Women's Struggles Today 24:38 Understanding the Impact of Patriarchy 27:04 Lessons from Historical Figures 28:58 The Quest for Reparations 32:04 Addressing Myths and Taboos 34:52 The Power of Different Tools in Activism 38:18 Intergenerational Responsibility and Mentorship 40:39 The Role of Spirituality in Resistance 46:30 Exploring Audre Lorde's Legacy 50:50 The Importance of Healing in Activism 52:49 Surprising Stories of Influential Women 56:21 Addressing Male Violence and Its Impact 01:01:38 Embracing Authenticity in Representation Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2448293/fan_mail/new] Welcome  to Women and Resistance, a powerful podcast where we honour the courage, resilience, and revolutionary spirit of women across the globe. Hosted by Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla... You're listening to Women and Resistance with Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla—where we honour the voices of women who have shaped history through courage and defiance...Now, back to the conversation. That’s it for this episode of Women and Resistance. Thank you for joining us in amplifying the voices of women who challenge injustice and change the course of history. Be sure to subscribe, share, and continue the conversation. Together We Honour the past, act in the present, and shape the future. Until next time, stay inspired and stay in resistance!

EP 12 Sarah Baartman - She Was Never Just a Body | Women And Resistance

What does it mean to resist when the whole world has decided your body is a spectacle?  In this episode Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. and Adesoji Iginla sit with one of the most shattering stories in the long history of Black women’s resistance: the life of Saartjie (Sarah) Baartman, a Khoikhoi woman from the Eastern Cape of South Africa, who was taken to Europe in 1810, exhibited as a freak show attraction under the racist name “Hottentot Venus,” and whose remains were not returned to her homeland until 2002 nearly 200 years after her death. This episode explores the life and legacy of Sarah Baartman (played by Aya), a woman whose story highlights the brutal history of racial exploitation, dehumanisation, and resistance. Through her narrative, we reflect on the ongoing fight for human dignity and the importance of remembering and honouring our history. But Saartjie Baartman’s story is not simply a tragedy. It is a story of a woman who kept her tortoise-shell necklace across oceans, who refused to fully undress for European scientists even when offered money, who spoke five languages, danced her people's traditions, and played music until the end. It is a story of the Khoikhoi people who had already survived centuries of colonial violence before she was born. And it is a story of poets, activists, scholars, lawyers, and heads of state who refused to let her remain dishonoured. ► IN THIS EPISODE: *The Khoikhoi world Sarah was born into — and what colonialism had already stolen from her people *How she ended up in London and Paris, and what the historical record does and does not tell us about her consent *The court case of 1810: abolitionist theatre or genuine advocacy? *The science of dehumanisation: how Georges Cuvier and European “scientists” weaponised her body *The long fight to bring her home — from Nelson Mandela’s request to Diana Ferrus’s poem that changed French law *What her story reveals about the Black female body as a contested political site — then and now *Contemporary resonances: from the Williams sisters to Kim Kardashian, and why these comparisons matter *What resistance looked like from inside Saartjie’s own skin  Takeaways *The life of Sarah Bateman and her historical context *The brutal exploitation and dehumanisation of Black bodies in history *The ongoing fight for racial justice and human dignity *The importance of remembering and honouring marginalised histories Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Sarah Baartman's Story 01:47 The Early Life of Sarah Baartman 03:18 Colonial Exploitation and the Journey to Europe 04:39 The Exhibition and Objectification of Sarah Baartman 06:32 The Legal Battle and Public Perception 07:49 Life in Europe and the Struggles of Identity 09:32 The Dehumanisation and Racial Science 10:54 The Legacy of Sarah Baartman 14:11 The Struggles of Identity and Huma Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2448293/fan_mail/new] Welcome  to Women and Resistance, a powerful podcast where we honour the courage, resilience, and revolutionary spirit of women across the globe. Hosted by Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla... You're listening to Women and Resistance with Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla—where we honour the voices of women who have shaped history through courage and defiance...Now, back to the conversation. That’s it for this episode of Women and Resistance. Thank you for joining us in amplifying the voices of women who challenge injustice and change the course of history. Be sure to subscribe, share, and continue the conversation. Together We Honour the past, act in the present, and shape the future. Until next time, stay inspired and stay in resistance!

EP 11 Mama Soweto: Ellen Kuzwayo & Grammar of Resistance | Women And Resistance

She was a teacher who refused to teach poison. A social worker who went to prison for housing rights. A writer who threw stones with her mouth. A politician who entered Parliament at 79. Her name was Ellen Kuzwayo — and the world called her Mama Soweto. In this episode of the Women and Resistance Podcast, hosts Adesoji Iginla and Aya Fubara Eneli Esq. sit with the extraordinary life of Nnoseng Ellen Kate Kuzwayo (1914–2006) — South African freedom fighter, author, community leader, and one of the most complete embodiments of Afrocentric resistance the modern world has ever witnessed. From the fertile red soil of Thaba Nchu to the burning streets of Soweto. From a classroom she walked away from on moral grounds to a prison cell she walked out of unbroken. From the first autobiography ever published by a Black South African woman to the floor of South Africa's first multiracial Parliament — Ellen Kuzwayo's life is not just an inspiration. It is an instruction. In this episode, we explore: ✊🏾 How a family's political heritage becomes a child's destiny ✊🏾 The 1953 Bantu Education Act and the courage it takes to refuse complicity ✊🏾 Domestic violence, liberation movements, and the double bind of Black womanhood ✊🏾 The 1976 Soweto Uprising and Ellen's detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act ✊🏾 Call Me Woman — the landmark autobiography that made her the first Black person to win South Africa's CNA Literary Award ✊🏾 What Ellen Kuzwayo's 91-year arc teaches us about the long game of resistance This is a conversation about land, language, identity, community, and the radical act of writing yourself into the historical record — because if you don't say it, it may not get said. Keywords *Childhood during apartheid *Education under colonial rule and apartheid *Women's struggle within the anti-apartheid movement *Land dispossession and family history *Activism, storytelling, and legacy Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Women and Resistance 00:56 Ellen Kuzwayo: A Life of Resistance 14:07 The Struggles of Marriage and Domestic Violence 18:21 The Journey to Freedom 24:33 Education as a Tool for Liberation 26:21 The Transition from Education to Social Work 27:30 Personal Struggles and the Fight for Freedom 31:57 Finding My Voice in Adversity 32:56 The Impact of the Bantu Education Act 33:39 Community Organising and Social Work 35:40 The Struggles of Women in Apartheid 37:00 Documenting Our History Through Film 39:10 The Soweto Uprising and Activism 41:41 Testifying for Truth and Reconciliation 42:54 Building Infrastructure for Change 43:44 Literary Achievements and Recognition 45:18 Entering Politics at 79 46:38 A Lifetime of Resistance and Legacy Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2448293/fan_mail/new] Welcome  to Women and Resistance, a powerful podcast where we honour the courage, resilience, and revolutionary spirit of women across the globe. Hosted by Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla... You're listening to Women and Resistance with Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla—where we honour the voices of women who have shaped history through courage and defiance...Now, back to the conversation. That’s it for this episode of Women and Resistance. Thank you for joining us in amplifying the voices of women who challenge injustice and change the course of history. Be sure to subscribe, share, and continue the conversation. Together We Honour the past, act in the present, and shape the future. Until next time, stay inspired and stay in resistance!

EP 10 Sarah Parker Remond - Carried Freedom Across Oceans | Women And Resistance

She crossed the Atlantic in a winter storm. She was pushed down a staircase for sitting where she chose. She was denied a visa, expelled from schools she'd passed the entrance exams to enter, and told — by an entire nation — that her skin made her less than human. And then she stood before 2,000 people in Edinburgh, Scotland, and made them listen. Meet Sarah Parker Remond (1826–1894), an abolitionist, transatlantic activist, suffragist, and physician. Born free in Salem, Massachusetts, she delivered her first anti-slavery speech at 16, sued a Boston theatre for segregation and won in 1853 — decades before Rosa Parks and went on to become one of the most powerful Black female orators of the 19th century. Then she crossed an ocean and became even more. In this episode of Women and Resistance, hosts Aya Fubara Eneli Esq. and Adesoji Iginla take a deep, Afrocentric dive into a life that most history books forgot to mention — tracing Sarah's journey from the abolitionist households of Salem, to the packed lecture halls of Manchester and Edinburgh, to the medical schools of Florence, Italy, where she earned her physician's degree at age 42 and practiced medicine for over 20 years. Takeaways *How the Remond family built a dynasty of Black excellence, entrepreneurship, and resistance across generations *Why Sarah's decision to publicly name the sexual exploitation of enslaved Black women was one of the most radical acts of her era *What it means that a Black American woman had to cross an ocean to feel received as a full human being — and what that still echoes today *The connection between her 19th-century supply chain arguments to British cotton workers and modern corporate accountability movements *Why she — and her sisters — chose permanent exile in Italy over return to the country they had devoted their lives to liberating Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Women in Resistance Podcast 01:25 The Legacy of Sarah Redmond 02:07 Aya Fubara's Background and Influences 05:04 The Fight for Freedom and Education 08:17 Experiences of Discrimination and Resilience 12:59 Activism and the Anti-Slavery Movement 16:37 Lecturing Across Borders 19:33 Challenging Prejudice and Speaking Truth 21:23 The Intersection of Race and Gender Issues 22:25 The Plight of Enslaved Women 23:02 Advocacy and Education in Britain 24:52 Geopolitics and the Civil War 27:00 Post-Civil War Advocacy 28:37 Life in Europe and Medical Practice 29:32 Reflections on Slavery and Society 35:47 Continuing the Fight for Freedom Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2448293/fan_mail/new] Welcome  to Women and Resistance, a powerful podcast where we honour the courage, resilience, and revolutionary spirit of women across the globe. Hosted by Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla... You're listening to Women and Resistance with Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla—where we honour the voices of women who have shaped history through courage and defiance...Now, back to the conversation. That’s it for this episode of Women and Resistance. Thank you for joining us in amplifying the voices of women who challenge injustice and change the course of history. Be sure to subscribe, share, and continue the conversation. Together We Honour the past, act in the present, and shape the future. Until next time, stay inspired and stay in resistance!