Sylvia Arthur

Blog

  • What solidarity looks like

    What solidarity looks like

    I can’t lie – this picture brings a tear to my eye. This is what Pan-African and Diaspora solidarity looks like. At the centre, on the laptop via Zoom, is Noor Salah H. Elfaki, a Sudanese writer and one of our 2025 LOATAD Black Atlantic residents. Standing behind her, and seated beside her, are members… Read more

  • The political and the personal

    The political and the personal

    I recently spent time in Togo, in its coastal capital, Lomé, where I had the privilege of speaking with/listening to 23 everyday women over 60 whose lives have been irrevocably impacted by the vicissitudes of the country’s postcolonial politics. Since Togo’s independence from France in 1960 (it was previously colonised by Germany and then partitioned… Read more

  • Ford Global Fellowship!

    Ford Global Fellowship!

    I’m delighted to have been selected as a 2024 Ford Global Fellow!  Along with 25 other emerging leaders from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East, we will be supported by the Ford Foundation to intensify our work in advancing social justice in our communities and in our countries to create a more equitable… Read more

  • Marielle Still Presente, 6 Years On…

    Marielle Still Presente, 6 Years On…

    TW: Today marks the sixth anniversary of the assassination of Marielle Franco (1979-2018), the Afro-Brazilian politician who, along with her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes, was killed in Rio de Janeiro while returning from a meeting titled, “Young Black Women Moving [Power] Structures.” In 2016, Franco ran for a seat on the Rio de Janeiro city… Read more

  • Tracking down the last survivors of the Bengal famine (BBC News)

    Tracking down the last survivors of the Bengal famine (BBC News)

    I’m deeply moved by this story about survivors of the Bengal famine and the profound work that Sailen Sarkar has been doing over the last few years travelling around the Bengali countryside gathering their first-hand accounts. “Sailen has now gathered more than 60 eyewitness accounts. In most cases, the people he says he talked to… Read more

  • Language and Memory in Gambia’s Ghana Town

    Language and Memory in Gambia’s Ghana Town

    Wherever I’ve been on my journey along the coast of West Africa, I’ve encountered communities of Ghanaians who for generations have lived in the country they now call home. These are women whose parents came with them as children from immediate post-independence Ghana and who are now in their 60s and 70s with memories of… Read more