Women's Day Declaration - African and African Diaspora (AAD) Conference “Return to Africa”

Women's Day Declaration - African and African Diaspora (AAD) Conference “Return to Africa”

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Fri, 10/30/2026 - 14:38

In Partnership with Pan African Women’s Ecumenical Empowerment Network (PAWEEN).

Johannesburg, South Africa, October 26, 2026

“You are the God who sees me.” (Genesis 16:13)

We, African women and women and girls of the African diaspora, gathered in South Africa on the occasion of the Pan-African Conference “Return to Africa,” recognize this gathering as part of a long history/herstory of memory, resistance, faith, organizing, and collective action.

We gather remembering that no history/herstory of freedom begins from scratch.

Today, we carry the memory of the women who came before us. African women and girls who were enslaved, displaced, silenced, and separated from their families; women who confronted colonialism, war, militarism and its continuities; women who sustained communities, preserved cultures, transmitted knowledge, and built networks of care under conditions of profound inequality.

We also carry the memory of women and girls who transformed suffering into organizing, faith into public action, and resistance into…