![]() | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(April 2024) |
Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah | |
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Born | London, England |
Nationality | Ghanaian |
Occupation(s) | Writer, blogger, communications specialist |
Known for | Writing on women's rights and sexuality |
Notable work | The Sex Lives of African Women |
Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah is a Ghanaian feminist writer and blogger. She co-founded award-winning blog Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women and has written for The Guardian and Open Democracy . Sekyiamah is the Director for Communications manager at the Association for Women's Rights in Development and a member of the Black Feminism Forum Working Group which organised the historic first Black Feminist Forum in Bahia, Brazil. [1]
Sekyiamah was born in London, England, to Ghanaian parents, and grew up in Ghana. [2] She has a diploma in performance coaching and a certificate in conflict mediation and has worked as a life coach and a public speaker. [3]
She was also awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in communications and cultural studies by the University of North London and a Master of Science degree in gender and development from the London School of Economics and Political Science. [3] She has also worked as a leadership trainer for London's Metropolitan Police. [3]
Sekyiamah co-founded the blog, Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women, to help widen discussion of sex and sexuality by African women and provide a forum for them to talk openly. [4] [5] She won the best overall blog and best activist blog prizes at the 2013 Ghana Blogging and Social Media Awards and best overall blog again in 2014. [4] In March 2011, she was recognised by Arise magazine as one of "Ghana's Change Makers". [3] Sekyiamah is the convener for Fab Fem, a feminist group that meets regularly in Accra. [3]
Sekyiamah has written articles for The Guardian , This Is Africa and Open Democracy . [5] [6] [7] She wrote the Communications Handbook for Women’s Rights Organisations and has had short stories published in anthologies in many countries. [8] Sekyiamah has written widely on the sexuality of African women and has also had an article ("Standpoint: Adventures from Our Bedrooms – Blogging about diverse erotic experiences") published in the peer-reviewed academic journal Feminist Africa . [5] [9]
Sekyiamah works as the Director of Communications at the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID). [7] She is a member of the Black Feminism Forum Working Group. [10] She co-authored Creating Spaces and Amplifying Voices: The First Ten Years of the African Women's Development Fund on the early history of the fund. [8] She also wrote Women Leading Africa: Conversations with Inspirational African Women, a collection of interviews with women from across Africa on topics including feminism, politics and the arts that came about through her work with the AWDF. [3] [8] [11]
Sekyiamah was a speaker at the 2015 Writivism Festival in Kampala, Uganda, and the 2016 Aké Arts and Book Festival in Abeokuta, Nigeria. [12] [13]
In 2021, Sekyiamah had an anthology entitled The Sex Lives of African Women published by Dialogue, [2] [14] described in a review by Margaret Busby as "an extraordinarily dynamic work". [15] A stage adaptation was subsequently performed in Nairobi, Kenya. [16]
In December 2022, she was named on the BBC's 100 Women list as one of the world's inspiring and influential women of the year. [17]