Ntokozo Yingwana. (2018). “We Fit in the Society by Force”: Sex Work and Feminism in Africa. Meridians, 17 (2): 279–295. Duke University Press [OPEN ACCESS for first 3-months]. Abstract: What does it mean to be an African sex worker feminist? In answering this question this essay draws from two qualitative studies with two African sex…
Category: activism
Why migration patterns are so important to designing responses to HIV
Significant strides have been made in the global response to HIV. But there is an urgent need to rethink the ways that prevention and treatment programmes are developed and implemented. There is a body of knowledge that highlights the important role of migration and mobility in mediating the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite this, current responses fail to…
Sex work evidence symposium at House of Commons
#DecriminaliseSexWork Hey look what I found – a video of me speaking at the decriminalisation of sex work evidence symposium at the House of Commons (yes, the UK parliament), which was organised by the English Collective of Prostitutes last year. I was representing the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce. I’m told the summary video of this symposium…
#Storymakers2016: 24-Hours “Round the World” Twitter chat
I recently took part in this #Storymakers2016 #SouthernAfrican Twitter chat on ‘How do you make storytelling a part of your organisation’s culture?’. I shared my experience of facilitating digitalstorytelling workshops, co-producing the ‘In Her Heels‘ sensitisation training toolkit/ story-card game, and co-editing the publication ‘Sex Workers and Sex Work in South Africa: A Guide for Journalists and…
“Prostitution is a human right,” said nobody ever
[First published on the Why Dev website on 21 August 2015.] By Cheryl Overs & Ntokozo Yingwana You may have seen the Twitter storm that surrounded the recent Amnesty International bi-annual International Council Meeting in Dublin last week, where delegates discussed a range of issues and, among other things, adopted a resolution that calls for the decriminalisation…
SexDev photo-project
As you might already know, I’m currently doing a Masters in Gender and Development at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), at the University of Sussex. This semester I took the Sexuality and Development module. One of the exercises we had for this module is a photo-project. We were given disposable cameras for three weeks and asked to…
#PECANS2015 presentation, ‘Impact of criminalisation on South African sex workers’ lives’
Recently I had (for the first time) the opportunity to present my scholar-activism work in an academic forum. On the 4th of March the PECANS (Postgraduate and Early Career Academics Network of Scholars) hosted a workshop on the theme: ‘Sexual Rights, Social Justice: What’s Law Got To Do With It?’ in Brighton (UK). I presented…
Reflections on the ‘Theoretical Perspectives in Gender and Development’
Looking back at this term of ‘Theoretical Perspectives in Gender and Development’ lectures/seminars I find it hard to pin down one major learning. One thing for sure though – I now see the world a little bit differently to when we started the module back in September. To illustrate what I mean by this I’ll discuss…
Boundaries of feminist empowerment
While starting my Masters in Gender and Development at the Institute of Development Studies, I’m also completing my Honours research project at the University of Cape Town, looking at ‘Sex Work and Feminism: What it means to be an African sex worker feminist in Cape Town’. Working with a sex worker feminists’ group called ‘AWAKE! Women…
‘In Her Heels’ launch on Women’s day, at the Artscape Women/Humanity Arts Festival
On Women’s Day (9th) the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) and the South African national movement of sex workers Sisonke launched the ‘In Her Heels’ toolkit, at the Artscape Women/Humanity Arts Festival. ‘In Her Heels’ is a sensitisation training tool that puts participants in sex workers’ heels – using story cards and different…
Nuances of Sex, Gender and Development 