On June 25th, 2026, we held the 34th session of our Political Economy Teach-in Series: “From Dakar to the World: Feminist Artivism, Memory, and Decolonial Futures in a Fragmented World” with Dr Rama Salla Dieng.

Six decades after FESMAN 66, the First World Festival of Black Arts remains a landmark moment for Black cultural affirmation, liberation, identity and belonging. Its intellectual and artistic legacies continue to shape contemporary justice movements across Africa and the Global South. Feminist artists, activists and cultural practitioners are reclaiming art as a political space where collective memory is sustained, power is critically interrogated, and transformative resistance is imagined. In a world marked by geopolitical fragmentation, democratic backsliding, entrenched structural inequality, and technological disruption, feminist artivism is a vital form of political engagement. Through visual art, film, performance, literature, and digital activism, women contest dominant epistemologies, recover suppressed histories, expand political participation, and build Pan-African and transnational solidarities. This session explored how anti-colonial and Pan-African cultural and intellectual traditions inform contemporary feminist praxis, showing artistic production as both resistance and a creative force for reimagining justice and emancipatory political futures across borders.

Dr Rama Salla Dieng is a political scientist and international development specialist whose work focuses on democratic governance, African feminist movements, racial capitalism, and political economy in Senegal and across the African continent. She is the recipient of the 2025 Paula Kantor Award for Excellence in Field Research, presented by the International Center for Research on Women. Dr Dieng is the founding Director of the CINEFEMFEST African Feminist Film, Photo and Research Festival, an innovative platform dedicated to advancing African feminist scholarship, cultural production, and social transformation through the arts.

Our South Feminist Political Economy Teach-in Series aims to strengthen intergenerational dialogue and build a cross-regional feminist constituency. The series covers various topics to interrogate and strengthen understanding of issues shaping conditions in the Global South.

We have curated a special reading list of resources on the topic of this session, available on our South Feminist Knowledge Hub. It is designed to deepen your understanding of the themes and inspire meaningful discussion – featuring powerful contributions from authors and thinkers across the Global South.