Beyond the North Star: Women of the South Rewriting Freedom
From Nigeria to Abya Yala, from India to the favelas of Brazil, women of the Global South have long been redefining what freedom means. Not as something granted, but as something reclaimed: from the ruins of empire, from the margins of history, and from the languages they tried to silence in our mothers.
Lélia Gonzalez and Amefricanity
In Brazil, Lélia Gonzalez called us Amefricans: daughters of Africa and Abya Yala, living proof that so-called “Latin America” was never only Latin. Amefricanity invites us to rebuild identity from the wisdom of the peoples who survived and who keep dreaming the world anew.
Lilla Watson: solidarity is kinship
Lilla Watson, a Murri elder from Queensland, Australia, reminds us that solidarity is not charity, it is kinship. Her words guide movements that seek repair rather than pity, and mutual liberation rather than applause.
Nawal El Saadawi: the body as political territory
In Egypt, feminist writer and physician Nawal El Saadawi showed that controlling women’s sexuality and bodies is the first mechanism of political and economic control. Her courage helps us see how patriarchy, religion and capitalism intertwine to limit freedom across the Global South and beyond.
Amina Mama: resistance beyond parliaments
In Nigeria, feminist thinker Amina Mama shows how militarism and colonial power still shape women’s lives, and how resistance grows not only in parliaments but in community kitchens, art collectives and sisterhoods that cross borders.
Julia Suryakusuma and State Motherhood
In Indonesia, writer and scholar Julia Suryakusuma critiques Ibuism, the “State Motherhood” used to impose political and patriarchal control over women’s bodies and autonomy. Her work exposes the authoritarian legacy that still marks Southeast Asia and challenges us to seek freedom outside militarized structures.
Kamla Bhasin: feminism as an ancient song
In India, poet and educator Kamla Bhasin taught us that feminism is not a Western import but an ancient song of freedom. With laughter and anger, simplicity and strength, she reminded us that feminism can also be joyful: dancing while we dismantle the system is a right too.
Rita Segato: tenderness as resistance
From Argentina, Rita Segato warns that gender violence is not a private matter but a colonial war waged on bodies that refuse to obey. She helps us name patriarchy as a structure of conquest and recognize tenderness as a form of resistance.
A constellation around the South
Together, these women form a constellation. Not around the North Star, but around the South, where liberation is not a destination, it is a direction. Their work asks us to unlearn what we think we know about freedom, to decenter the North, and to listen to the South as a teacher, not a student.
At OGA Voices, we share these stories because they show that knowledge is not neutral and that history can be repaired. Their words invite us to see activism as regeneration: collective care, ancestral memory, ecological wisdom and radical empathy.
To read and listen further
- Lélia Gonzalez: The Revolution of Thought and Anti-Colonial Healing
- Lilla Watson: Your Liberation Is Bound Up with Mine
- Nawal El Saadawi: The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World
- Amina Mama: Beyond the Masks: Race, Gender and Subjectivity
- Julia Suryakusuma: Sex, Power, and Society: State Motherhood in Indonesia
- Kamla Bhasin: What Is Patriarchy?
- Rita Segato: The War Against Women
Keep exploring at OGA Voices.
How to carry these voices forward
- Read and share these women’s work in your own community, and let their words travel across borders.
- Listen to local movements led by women, Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities in your region.
- Notice how colonial patterns still shape everyday choices, and what you can unlearn.
- Make room for the South: cite, translate, collaborate and give credit. Liberation is not a solo project, it is a chorus.
At OGA, we believe that to challenge the status quo, we first have to relearn how to listen to the world: in many languages, many stories and one shared pulse. 🌿
OGA Voices is a platform dedicated to voices that challenge established narratives and open space for fairer futures. Lélia Gonzalez, Lilla Watson, Nawal El Saadawi, Amina Mama, Julia Suryakusuma, Kamla Bhasin and Rita Segato belong to this group. Each one, from her own territory, showed that freedom does not come from the North: it is built in the South, collectively, in our own words.
