Founding Declaration of the International Network of Afrofeminist Voices (RIVAS)

Within the framework of the meeting "Afro-descendant Women: Resistance or Resilience?" convened by the Nelson Mandela Chair of Afro-descendant Studies and the CLACSO Working Group on Afro-descendants and counter-hegemonic proposalsBased in Havana, Cuba, the International Network of Afrofeminist Voices (RIVAS) emerges.

The event took place from March 8 to 11, 2023, via digital platforms, with the participation of 127 anti-racist activists, researchers, and representatives of organizations and institutions from seventeen countries (Angola, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Cuba, Spain, Ghana, Haiti, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Dominican Republic, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Uruguay). The gathering paid tribute to the Afro-Brazilian leader Marielle Franco and to the women murdered during the International Decade for People of African Descent.

During the three days of the forum, the diverse and committed participation of those who, driven by the need to ensure the continuity of this space for struggle at an international level, decided to join forces to create a network, was noteworthy. They addressed a pressing issue that has become a current imperative for making Afro-descendant women visible at all stages of their lives, across intersections, and in all their territorial spaces.

We take into consideration as legal foundations normative instruments of significant importance for women and Afro-descendant peoples, among which the following stand out: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, 1979); the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (2002); UN General Assembly Resolution 68/237 for the proclamation of the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024); and Resolution 75/314 of the UN General Assembly for the proclamation of the Permanent Forum for People of African Descent (2021).

We are interested in highlighting, but above all in eradicating, the conditions of inequality and the structural and systemic racism that persist in our societies. Afro-descendant women find ourselves at the intersection of oppression based on class, “race,” gender, age, territory, migration, disability, and diversity worldwide. When we rise up, we integrate into our struggles the confrontation of all systems of oppression, beyond the lines of skin color, gender, and territorial borders. From a decolonial, intersectional, and complexity analysis perspective, we see that multiple systems of oppression intersect, converging on sex, “race,” social class, economics, politics, and culture, as components of the various mechanisms of structural racism, which has aimed at the unequal distribution of power and economic resources globally. In this sense, racism has been a structuring and structuring factor of the poverty of certain population groups, categorized as “inferior” in relation to others.

According to the express wishes of the participants, the general objectives of RIVAS are:

• To make visible the Afro-feminist voices, highlighting our historical role from the maroon genealogies, ancestral knowledge, leadership, individual-collective productions and articulated political action.
• Promote the autonomy of Afro-descendant women, in its three dimensions: economic, physical and for decision-making.
• Establish alliances with people, movements, networks, projects, academies and other forms of organization committed to this anti-racist agenda.

These objectives underpin the common platform for collective affirmation and the recognition of knowledge, promoting unity of action based on diversity. It will be a space for intergenerational encounters and learning for all voices. An open, flexible, dialogical, and evolving process.

From RIVAS, we will develop and promote initiatives with the support of various committed stakeholders, the active participation of new generations and families as an expression of the sustainability of this initiative. The main areas of action are:

1. Anti-racist, Afro-feminist, non-sexist training aimed at the research and dissemination of Afrocentric knowledge that contributes to the strengthening of African, Afro-diasporic and Global South ancestral knowledge, healing, arts and practices; through the articulation of academies and social activism.
2. Autonomy of Afro-descendant women and their allies, based on empowerment, strengthening of leadership and guaranteeing a dignified life free from violence.
3. Recovery and visibility of our history, cosmology, religiosity and syncretism, based on Afro-epistemologies and Maroon pedagogies.
4. Promotion and demand of rights as part of the Afro-descendant peoples and compliance with the commitments and international agendas of the UN consistent with our cause.
5. Food sovereignty, environmental rights, community health and preservation of the territory.
6. Gender, with an intersectional approach, human rights and education for peace with social and environmental justice.

At RIVAS, we fight for inclusion and unity in diversity, convening and participating in spaces for dialogue and action with other platforms that share similar objectives. To champion these voices, one must be committed to these endeavors. We are inclusive, we are diverse, but at the heart of our movement must be those Afro-feminist, African, and Afro-diasporic voices from Latin America, the Caribbean, North America, Africa, and Europe.

Following the commitments of the International Decade for People of African Descent and the agenda adopted in Durban, we call upon all institutional and non-institutional actors obligated to work towards its implementation to develop actions that strengthen this agenda and the initiatives proposed herein. We also invite the various networks, organizations, collectives, and all individuals committed to this perspective to join us in developing actions and to continue placing our voices and goals at the forefront.

March 14th 2023
CLACSO Working Group
Afro-descendants and counter-hegemonic proposals [+]

Signatories

Catarina Esmeralda Chingufo Nunda. Angola
Karina Bidaseca. Argentina
Tixa Cámera. Argentina
Romina Duré Melgarejo. Argentina
South-South Programme, CLACSO. Argentina
Afro-Latin American Women's Gathering (TeMA). Argentina
Sandy Grecia Salazar Pinto. Bolivia
Claudia Miranda. Brazil
Michele Lopes da Silva Alves. Brazil
Carioca Network of Ethnoeducators. Brazil
Project Nucleus of African and Afro-Brazilian Language and Culture Studies of the University of Bahia, Brazil
Michel Ange Joseph. Chile
Yafza Tamara Reyes Muñoz. Chile
Leydis Cañete Valdés. Colombia
Leidy Cañate Valdés. Colombia
Almer Humpies. Colombia
Anny Ocoro Longo. Colombia-Argentina
Liliana Parra-Valencia. Colombia-Brazil
Rosa Campoalegre Septien. Cuba
Dainery Rodríguez Aulet. Cuba
Felicitas Regla López Sotolongo. Cuba
Nancy Silega Goulet. Cuba
Ana Belkis Perdomo Cáceres. Cuba
Rebeca Emilia Hernández Mezonet. Cuba
Paula Haydée Guillarón Carrillo. Cuba
Dixie Edith Trinquete Díaz. Cuba
Maritza López McBean. Cuba
Kenya Serrano. Cuba
Mercedes Cuesta, Dublin, Cuba
Melvys Isabel Matas Miranda. Cuba
Susel Abat Fis. Cuba
Hildelisa Leal Díaz. Cuba
Yaquelínn Sánchez Morales. Cuba
Moraima López McBean. Cuba
Damayanti Matos Abreu. Cuba
María Fidelia Díaz Reyes. Cuba
Gisela Arandia Covarrubias. Cuba
Norma Rita Guillart Limonta. Cuba
Lucila Insua Brindis. Cuba
Yoanka Roney. Cuba
Miriam Lay Williams. Cuba
Nelia María Páez Vives. Cuba
Ludmila Poidevin Argudín. Cuba
Trilce Ross. Cuba
Georgina Torriente. Cuba
Geidys Hernández. Cuba
Rosario Bango De Roux. Cuba
María Milagros Febles Elejalde. Cuba
Lucía García Ajete. Cuba
Xiomara Calderón Arteaga. Cuba
Diorkenys Salazar Goulet. Cuba
Iliana Pérez Nariño. Cuba
Valia Esther Miranda Montesinos. Cuba
Carlos Jhoan Corrales Silega. Cuba
Martha Yamila De La O Tellez. Cuba
Myosotis Hidalgo Font. Cuba
María Isabel López Pretel. Cuba
Yanet Dorticos Torriente. Cuba
Xiomara Calderón Arteaga
Sonia Esperanza. Colombia
Yan Michel Duarte Ajete. Cuba
Monica Guillard Bennett. Cuba
María Teresa Martínez Echevarría. Cuba
Rosa Elena Encinas Hurtado. Cuba
Rosa Elena Encinas Hurtado. Cuba
Milagros Sofia Cuesta Casañas. Cuba
Nelson Mandela Chair of Afro-descendant Studies. Cuba
Afro-descendant Neighborhood Network Against Racism and Racial Discrimination. Cuba
Network of Afro-Latin American, Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women. Cuba Chapter
Identities and Diversity Section (SERES) of the Cuban Society of Psychology. Cuba
Afrovida. Cuba
Afro-diverse. Cuba
Josep Alsina Mastmijá. Spain
José Toledo Alcalde. Spain
Luisa Julia Foster Breal. Ghana
Lina Rosa. Mexico
Palomo, Mexico
Elia Aveldaño. Mexico
Tania M. Roque Medel. Mexico
Xóchitl Georgina García. Mexico
Malva Marina Carrera Vega. Mexico
Malva Marina Carrera Vega. Mexico
Katherine Isabel Herazo González. Mexico
Afro Collective Marielle Franco. Mexico
José Octavio Toledo, Mayor of Peru
Ana Bela Loureiro. Portugal
Esthefany V. Polanco. Dominican Republic
Gandi López. Dominican Republic
Helena Cosma da Graça Fonseca Veloso. São Tomé e Príncipe
Elizabeth Suárez García. Uruguay
Foundation for the Research of Legal and Social Sciences (CIJYS). Chile
Nusur South-South Center for Postcolonial, Performative, Afro-Diasporic Identities and Feminisms Studies, Eidaes Unsam
Chair of Sociology and Postcolonial Studies: Gender, Ethnicity, and Subaltern Subjects, FSOC-UBA
Uniafro Unsam Program

This text expresses the position of the aforementioned Working Group and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.