REVEAL! Women’s Comics East Africa—UK was supported by the a British Council International Collaborationgrant and it is a partnership between graphic novelist, comics scholar Dr Nicola Streeten, director of UK-based LDComics CIC (LDC) and artist, Arts Journalist Msanii Kimani wa Wanjiru, director/Curator-in-Chief of Kymsnet Media Network, Kenya (KMN).
REVEAL! EXTENSION emerged from delivery of REVEAL! activity in 2022. When East African REVEAL! artists joined together in Kenya, they visited the Il’laramatak Community Concerns (ICC) group led by Mama Agnes Leina, a climate change campaigner and gender activist in Kajiado county. During this visit, Mama Agnes not only explained about their work in uplifting their members’ economically, she also took time to expound to the artists how climate crisis is intertwined with gender and their work.
She pointed out that as the drought-ravaged their land left cattle with nothing to graze and dying, (the artists witnessed this when we came across carcasses strewn all over in one of the homestead on their way to meet the group), the traditional livelihood for many families were decimated. To survive or even restock their animals (if and when the rains started and better times returned) alternative income, for some the families, came from payment received from marriages of their daughter(s) as bride price.
However, to marry, a girl must be recognised as a ‘woman’. She explained that this status only comes through genital circumcision or Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). We can therefore trace a route from hunger – caused by climate change, to the female circumcision of daughters at an increasingly younger age, sometimes 14 years old.
What are alternative options for such examples of climate crisis impact? How can debate and reflection on such issues take place transformatively? What is the role of art, specifically comics in this process? How can we connect such experiences in Kenya to those of us living in the UK? Our approach in REVEAL! is that storying small everydayexperiences can be a way to engage with wider issues. Comparing and sharing cross culturally can highlight our similarities and guide our understanding of difference. This offers potential for empowerment. Our conviction is that comics is an accessible art form, a valuable communication tool. We are committed to the loosest definition of ‘comics’ as combining text and image (even this is not essential).
For the REVEAL! EXTENSION we (Dr Nicola & Msanii Kimani) invited individual REVEAL! artists to work with specific partner organisations in Kenya and the UK. In the UK, Dr Nicola commissioned Nancy ArtMusic to run comics workshops with a group of community members introduced to us by African Advocacy Foundation and Red Ribbon Living Well CIC. She was suppoprted in delivery by LDC artist Wallis Eates. It is from this activity that we have collected the wonderful pages of this comic to share with you.
In Kenya, Msanii Kimani worked with 3 talented REVEAL! artists Chela Yego, Karolina Wambui and Felistus Thairu to run the comics workshop with the ICC women and the Three Tales: Nalotuesha, Nemaiyan and Namunyakwas born.
Enjoy reading these stories. You can now download the comic book. Click here to download.
