WomanFest Ghana is a one-day festival that explores and challenges narratives around women and girls in Ghana today. Inspired by Equatorial Guinean writer, Trifonia Melibea Obono’s controversial novel, La Bastarda, Woman Fest recognises that stories - whether newspaper headlines or Nollywood movies, popular song lyrics or popular fiction - are the bedrock of our beliefs, and can either reinforce gender-biased cultural systems or help change them.

Featuring culturally-relevant film screenings, discussions and panels, workshops, games and creative play, music and other fun, engaging activities, WomanFest Ghana is a provocative, interactive, and practical festival. It is particularly aimed at women and girls from marginalised communities who are usually excluded from such events and conversations.

It will show attendees of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds how to use their agency and creativity to transform the stories we tell of African women and girls in the next decade and beyond.

Objectives

• To promote an awareness and understanding of issues affecting women in Ghana today and how they’re represented, and misrepresented, in the media
• To encourage improved media literacy among women and girls in Ghana
• To stimulate a conversation around gender and representation that can continue in homes and communities across the country
• To empower women and girls with the knowledge and tools to assert their agency and lead a happier, more assertive life
• To foster community among women and girls of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

The festival will be held at the Library Of Africa and The African Diaspora (LOATAD) in Accra, Ghana, in March 2021, to coincide with International Women's Month. It will be the first time the festival will take place.