Today, on July 31, we celebrate African Women’s Day, consecrated by the Conference of African Women in Dar Es Salaam in 1962, even before the liberation of African colonies under Portuguese rule, but already in the bustle of their demands for the self-determination of peoples, constitution of the independent parties PAIGC, MPLA and FRELIMO and one year after the outbreak of the Armed Struggle for National Liberation of Angola in 1961.
The role of African women and their contribution to the National Liberation Struggles remain scarcely studied, as well as their strength in the construction of independent societies before and after the democratic opening. And I begin by talking about the Liberation Struggles because their spirit needs to be recovered in order to face the challenges of the 21st century: progressive advance of fascist forces of colonial ideology, which are also misogynistic, sexist forces and which attack the conquests for gender equality ; attack on the laicization of the state, which affects democracy itself, hostage to religious views that often drive citizens away from politics and put important social achievements into perspective; climate change and pandemics that mainly affect women and their productive force on the African continent and beyond, with women being the most vulnerable population to disease – if we think about the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, which can originate COVID-19, we see that women tend to be the most infected and precisely because they are the most affected by the structural inequalities in our societies.
*Legislator of the Assembly of the Portuguese Republic
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