As we start our symposium, to mark our gathering together, Toni Stuart reads from Krotoa-Eva’s suite – a cape jazz poem in three movements. With Stuart’s powerful words still in our ears, Nancy Jouwe tells us of her work to bring legacies of slavery into public consciousness in the Netherlands, and to advocate for the recognition of the legacies of colonialism both in the metropoles and the colonies. Ruvimbo Tenga then draws us into spaces where further work of uncovering needs to happen, as she speaks about her advocacy for sex workers and reminds us of how women’s bodies continue to be co-opted into social, political and economic power plays.
Toni Giselle Stuart
Toni Giselle Stuart is a poet, performer & creative facilitator. Her work includes Krotoa-Eva’s Suite – a cape jazz poem in three movements with filmmaker Kurt Orderson Poetry, Paramedics and Film with filmmaker/health researcher Leanne Brady (2018); What the Water Remembers at Woordfees (2020); forgetting and memory with vangile gantsho & Vusumzi Ngxande, at the Virtual National Arts Festival (2020). She has an MA Writer/Teacher (Distinction) from Goldsmiths, University of London, where she was a 2014/2015 Chevening Scholar.
Watch Toni Stuart’s Krotoa-Eva Suite performed as an invocation to the symposium
Nancy Jouwe
Nancy Jouwe is a cultural historian and works as a freelance researcher, public speaker, publicist and sometimes cultural producer/curator. She is interested in intersectionality, postcolonial and decolonial theorizing, art and heritage.
Jouwe teaches at the Master of Fine Arts, Utrecht School of the Arts and at Amsterdam University College. As a researcher, she is currently working on an investigation of the history of slavery in Utrecht, commissioned by the municipality of Utrecht.
She has published articles and books on postcolonial cultural and social movements and Dutch slavery history, including Caleidoscopische Visies. De zwarte, migranten, vluchtelingen vrouwenbeweging in Nederland. (2001), Paradijsvogels in de Polder. 50 jaar Papoea’s in Nederland (2012), Gids Slavernijverleden Nederland, Netherlands Slavery Heritage Guide (LM Publishers, 2019) and Amsterdam en de slavernij in Oost en West. Het Amsterdam Onderzoek (Uniekboek/Spectrum, 2020). She is president of BAK, Basis voor Actuele Kunst and was co-founder of art platform Framer Framed.
Watch Nancy Jouwe’s session
Ruvimbo Tenga
Born in Zimbabwe, Ruvimbo Tenga is a nomad, an activist and a freelance consultant. She is a former Western Cape Media Liaison for Sisonke/SWEAT and a Sisonke member. Her current work centres around advocating for the decriminalisation of sex work in South Africa and she sits as vicechair of the SWEAT board, is a former founding steering committee member of Asijiki Coalition for the decriminalisation of sex work in South Africa, a member of the Sex worker theatre and streeting committee member (which is part of the Global Grace Project), and sits on the Sisonke Siyaphambili LGBTI Organisation (SISLO) Board. Her interests are in the formulation process of spaces and organisations and she has worked closely with organisations such as SWEAT, Women’s Legal Centre, Sonke Gender Justice, Triangle Project (where she was a former LGBTI Refugees safe space leader) and PASSOP LGBTI. She has co-authored, published and has been part of documentaries on various platforms. Tenga is passionate about research, facilitation and consults for various organisations focusing on sex work, LGBTI, migration and feminism.
She seeks for all things spiritual and ancestral, is an artist and a designer, and uses recycled materials to design jewellery. Tenga is currently based in Cape Town.
Watch Ruvimbo Tenga’s session
Lynn Michelle Abrahams
Lynn Michelle Abrahams was born and raised in Bellville South. She completed her matric at Kasselsvlei Comprehensive High School in 1989 after which she obtained her HOD, BED and Masters from the University of the Western Cape. She has a BA Honours in Heritage from the University of the Witwatersrand and is currently a PHD candidate at the University of South Africa. Lynn works as a Social History Curator at Iziko Museums of SA and have a specific interest South Africa’s heritage landscape post 1994, zooming into the transformation of the sector as well as resistance and liberation heritage.