What six African journalists want you to read this 8M

At Planeta Futuro we try to place the speaker where we believe it is most necessary.

In this 8M we thought it should be on African women, often far from the information focus.

That is why we have asked journalists from different parts of the continent to become editors of the section for a day.

They have had a free rein to decide how and what or who they write about.

They have presented their topics at the first meeting of this newspaper and have taken charge of our weekly

newsletter

.

The illustration that accompanies this special, in which the protagonists of the reports appear, is also signed by an African illustrator: Safara Wanjagi, a Kenyan author of

collages

like these others.

African journalists have taken the floor this 8M and this is the result of their look at a reality that they know well:

Fake pills and water injections instead of contraceptives in Kenya

An illegal birth control pill, called Sophia, which is still sold in Kenya.

Claret Adhiambo

Claret Adhiambo writes about the problem with contraceptives in Kenya: with hospitals in supply problems and many taboos, some women in the informal neighborhood of Mathare end up resorting to illegal pills that are dangerous and ineffective.

A testimony from the report is from a twenty-year-old woman who became pregnant after she was injected with a supposed contraceptive.

It was water.

Aisha Subeir, paving the way with a camera in Somalia

Aisha Subeir, working on sports coverage.Bilan Media

Hinda Abdi Mohamoud is the deputy director of Bilan Media, a groundbreaking media outlet in Somalia where only female reporters work.

She, as Bilan's representative, has chosen to tell the story of another journalist who is her inspiration: Aisha Subeir, a 23-year-old Somali camerawoman and photographer, who started recording with her cell phone and who, despite having to put up with sexist comments (and even stones), now dreams of training other women in a profession dominated by men.

The author of the report is Farhio Mohamed Hussein.

Senegalese women socialize their savings to overcome the crisis with a centenary common fund

Repayment of a microcredit, in a file photo.

Philippe Lissac (Getty Images)

Borso Tall chose a system of loans between women as the story to highlight this 8M.

The

tontine

can be a lifeline for women in a politically turbulent country with serious job insecurity.

Marieme, who works as a cleaner, puts 1000 CFA every week, of her salary of 50,000 a month, into one of these groups.

Savings help you start businesses, pay for bus trips, or simply make ends meet.

Female radio owners in Nigeria, a rarity in a world still dominated by men

Recording of a program on the Nigerian radio station Radio Now. Yahaya Mamman Aliyu

Ruona Meyer was interested in the few dozen women who own radio stations in Nigeria.

Everything for these entrepreneurs is a battle.

It took the founder of Radio Now 95.3 FM, for example, more than a year to be accepted into the WhatsApp group of the rest of the industry leaders.

And, despite this, these women achieve things.

Especially interesting is the case of Omalicha 91.1 FM and what they call their CUSH (Press Until Something Happens) campaign: they have gotten local politicians to fix roads or bring drinking water to forgotten communities.

In a country where journalists suffer from pressure and repression, small battles also matter.

Breaking the stigma and shame of menstruation in Congo

Reusable pads distributed in some schools in Bukavu (DRC) by the NGO Uweko Afrika Initiative, and which help students continue attending class when they have their period.Courtesy of Douce Namwezi

“Before, when I had my period, I locked myself at home and hated being a woman,” says one of the teenagers interviewed in this story by Douce Namwezi.

But something is changing among girls in six schools in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where a local organization has created women's clubs for students to talk in confidence about sexual health, intimate hygiene and other topics that concern them.

The initiative has also begun to reduce school absenteeism.

What women have achieved and what we still lack in Mozambique

Women at a meeting of community members in a village in Nampula, Mozambique.Alamy Stock Photo

Eva Trindade, a Mozambican television journalist, wanted to reflect on the long journey of women's rights activists in her country.

But she also wanted to look at the path ahead, legally and socially.

Mozambique faces serious problems of gender violence and has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, despite a law that prohibits it since 2019. A long way to go.

Coordination:

Raquel Seco.

Edition:

Alejandra Agudo, Ana Carbajosa, Beatriz Lecumberri, Patricia R. Blanco, Raquel Seco.

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