A reflection
As we are drawn to the end of my blog series, I’d like to pause and reflect on my journey.
At the beginning, I was convinced I had a good knowledge about the topic, especially as I had strong ties to Africa, since both my parents were from Africa. However, as the weeks progressed, I realised how wrong I was and how multi-layered and complex this topic actually was.
In Week 1, After reading Wainana’s article, I was positive I wouldn’t fall into the same trap of seeing African women as a disappointment and those who hinder the process of development. But as the blogs unfolded, I couldn’t help but focus on struggles which these women faced when collecting water and the negative physical, economic and social impacts this posed on them. I realise this was because most of the discourse I read, were written by scholars from the Global North who rarely focused on the positive experiences. I learnt how impactful the stereotypes that Wainana had mentioned really are, and how much change is still needed to be done to dismantle them.
Throughout this journey, I’ve battled with different emotions, from confusion, to anger, to disgust. When reading about the increasing creation of women friendly initiatives, it bought my immense joy to see the improvements made by global organisations to improve the participation of women in policy making decisions. However, when I realised COP27 only had 7 female participants, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of hopelessness, and made me question whether improvement was actually being done. Furthermore, initially I found it challenging to write the blogs as I had never blogged before and didn’t know how formal/informal the style of writing should be. However, as the blogs gained momentum I started to get used to it and developed my own writing style.
As my series comes to an end, I’d like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn about this topic. It has really opened my eyes and made me appreciate and value the safe and quick access to water I have here in London. I have sought to remain conscious of my positionality as a first generation British Indian and will continue to read and educate myself and those around me about this topic.
Although I have only scraped the surface of this topic, I hope in my lifetime I am able to see more participation of African women and see their empowerment in their own continent.
In Week 1, After reading Wainana’s article, I was positive I wouldn’t fall into the same trap of seeing African women as a disappointment and those who hinder the process of development. But as the blogs unfolded, I couldn’t help but focus on struggles which these women faced when collecting water and the negative physical, economic and social impacts this posed on them. I realise this was because most of the discourse I read, were written by scholars from the Global North who rarely focused on the positive experiences. I learnt how impactful the stereotypes that Wainana had mentioned really are, and how much change is still needed to be done to dismantle them.
Throughout this journey, I’ve battled with different emotions, from confusion, to anger, to disgust. When reading about the increasing creation of women friendly initiatives, it bought my immense joy to see the improvements made by global organisations to improve the participation of women in policy making decisions. However, when I realised COP27 only had 7 female participants, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of hopelessness, and made me question whether improvement was actually being done. Furthermore, initially I found it challenging to write the blogs as I had never blogged before and didn’t know how formal/informal the style of writing should be. However, as the blogs gained momentum I started to get used to it and developed my own writing style.
As my series comes to an end, I’d like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn about this topic. It has really opened my eyes and made me appreciate and value the safe and quick access to water I have here in London. I have sought to remain conscious of my positionality as a first generation British Indian and will continue to read and educate myself and those around me about this topic.
Although I have only scraped the surface of this topic, I hope in my lifetime I am able to see more participation of African women and see their empowerment in their own continent.
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