Graffiti to promote Women’s Rights in Jozi!

From July 5th to July 11th Caramundo participated with Rede Nami in the Man Up! Campaign to combat Violence against Women in Johannesburg, South Africa during the FIFA World Cup. Anarkia (Panmela Castro) and Anouk Piket where invited to give a workshop on the methodology to combat violence against women using graffiti in Brazil.

The New York - USA based organization Man Up! invited over 100 delegates from all the Americas, African countries and some Arab countries that suffer from high rates of violation against women, to develop common strategies and support youth from all those regions to implement new projects on grassroots level that focus on women’s rights.

The Man Up! Campaign was organized during the World Cup on purpose to call international attention for women’s rights violations world wide and work closely together in this campaign with soccer players of several different international teams.

Anarkia, founder of the freshly launched Feminist Artists Network NAMI was invited to facilitate a workshop for the delegates that where working on their own project proposals. Rede Nami and Caramundo are known for their experiences in using arts to direct subjects that are difficult to discuss or are neglected due to taboos. In the months prior to the campaign in South Africa, Anarkia had been preparing the launch of the network with Caramundo and in less than a month the network found great response within the female urban artists scene – especially of Rio de Janeiro.

Women’s Rights in Brazil anno 2010

Despite women’s successful push for constitutional rights in the twentieth century, Brazil is currently still struggling with the implementation of gender equality on cultural level. Legal changes in the Constitution can’t transform an entire set of societal attitudes and practices, embedded in Brazilian culture.

Women in Brazil are culturally and socially speaking still inferior to men (think of economical position, social status, household, violence, sexual abuse, etc.). Apart from this, other factors also form an obstacle in the long road to gender equality in Brazil: the lack of women’s rights organizations and the lack of efficient tools for empowerment.

Rede Nami

Many young, urban, feminist artists were concerned about the entrenched stereotypical attitudes and behaviors towards women and decided to create a feminist network that would be capable of reinforcing the positive role of women in society. Rede Nami was born. Individual artists are now incorporated in a unified network that consisted of a head (idea), a body (structure) and movement (action). The members of Rede Nami are young, involved, serious and determined. They are dedicated to promoting women’s rights through art.

Panmela: “We play an important part in the fight against the innumerable cases of violence that women suffer; domestic violence; rape and infantile prostitution; no full control over your own body; an inaccessible health care system of low quality; female wages being lower than male wages; triple hours of working; total responsibility of housekeeping and raising children; difficulty of penetration into public spaces of authority; difficulty to obtain professions that are considered ‘masculine’”.
She is determined in teaching her acquired knowledge on how to treat these subjects within circles of women who have never thought they’d have even a possibility to change their position. In Brazil and abroad.

“We are female citizens and we are proud of being female.” She states. “We feel responsible for transforming cultural stereotypes about women and we are dedicated to improve the social position of women in contemporary society.”

We are female citizens and we are proud of being female.

The Man Up! Campaign found valuable support in the workshop Panmela and Anouk gave for the delegates. It is interesting to see that other young and determined delegates will follow the footsteps of Rede Nami and show the guts to confront cultural habits in their own countries, organizing powerful networks such as Nami.

Johannesburg Adventures!

The objective to paint a great mural in Johannesburg calling attention for the combat against Violence against Women was difficult to realize. Although graffiti is not very difficult in Johannesburg - compared to our earlier trips to Durban, where graffiti is treated as a very bad and illegal crime – it wasn’t easy to find a suitable wall in the short period of a week. The “wall-spotting” could have been a greater success if we’d have some extra time.

Local writers Rasty, Angel, Black, Hope76 and others where very dedicated in accompanying Anarkia and Anouk in their search. But in the end Anarkia ended up painting a last minute wall in the dark…and a quick wall on an early Saturday morning before heading to the airport. An excellent reason to come back once more and do it all over again…with more time, more walls and more time for absolute dedication!

We discovered we really love South Africa!

For pictures click here
More info: Man Up!