The 2021 Feminist Connect (Femcon) took place this summer again, from the 25.- 30.6.21 in Meuchfitz. Femcon is a refugee women feminist festival organised by Women in Exile, NINA-women in action Hamburg, Flit Solidarity Africa and their BIPoC and white supporters. We use this space for reunion, to learn, to inform, to chill and to get to meet women joining for the first time.
Last year, this festival took place in a smaller way in Hamburg because of the corona lockdown rules. This year around 60 women and children gathered in Meuchfitz again and enjoyed the countryside with a full programme of empowerment workshops.
This networking’s meeting goal is to provide a space for women who are negatively affected by racism to exchange, debate and gain knowledge on politics.
Some of the of the workshops were not only empowering but also educative, for example, the: “Decolonize Plant Medicine” and “German colonial history”. These two workshops were interconnected in the sense that colonialism has played a very big role in the past and present to the exploitation of the global south.
It was amazing to learn how much we know about plant medicine from our families and communities from our home origins. How we can use some of the plants around us for healing before we rush to scientifically produced medicines. We practiced what Angela Davis said: “Self–care and healing and attention to the body and the spiritual dimension—all of this is now a part of radical social justice movement.”
It was clear that the German education system is racist and probably afraid to fully include colonial history in their education. Present and past knowledge contributed by people from the global south is ignored. A good example is “Wilhem Anton Amo” the first known philosopher and jurist of African origin in Germany.
The children had a full programme of their own with workshops, playing in pools, walking-tours, horse/bicycle riding and lots of fun. The dedicated childcare group made it possible for the children to learn and enjoy as much as the adults.
