The African women’s blogsphere this week · Global Voices
Nish Matenjwa

Virtual cartwheels are perhaps our only last recourse as apparently African women are (still) invisible.
Black Looks writes about an recent article in the Guardian where  the founder of the Carnival of Feminists  cannot find our blogs. In a post entitled Aint I a Woman???, Black Looks says:
That's odd because  I have been published on the carnival at least once; Black Looks is listed on Feministing and other blogs that go under the label of “feminist” – I am no longer sure what exactly that means and those who carry the label need to give it some reflection; there is a comprehensive list of African women bloggers on my blog roll – not exactly hard to find; a simple technorati or google blog search will come up with African women's blogs as will Global Voices Online – every week…
Over the past week, African women, visible or not, have been writing about a wide and varied list of issues that range from the impossible dream of a paperless office to the need for equal representation in government.
Uaridi  calls upon her own personal experience to ask ’what price beauty’ for women who wear high heels and links the pain endured to the long outlawed Chinese foot binding ritual. She writes:
What prize beauty if after 30 or so years of wearing high heels, you have chronic back pain, calluses, heel pain, bunions, hammertoes, ingrown toenails and you can never wear low heels because your feet and legs conform to the shape of high heels. I personally know 2 women who can no longer wear flat shoes! Is this beauty or torture?
Some sections are in French and English, however, Fleur is pleased to learn that a wikipedia exists in Lingala – a language spoken in the Congo and provides various links for people interested in learning the language.
Although she says  ’we would only see a partial eclipse here in Lagos’, Ore goes all poetic after the recent eclipse and writes:
I saw something of the eclipse. I was tripped by how dark it got and when I saw the moon partially cover the sun, I was awed beyond belief. How I would have loved to have been in the path of the total eclipse.
Black Looks has just returned from the 26th International Gay & Lesbian Association  where discussions and workshops were held around lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. Africa was represented by activists from South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria and Tunisia. The two issues that most concerned the Africa group were the homosexuality trials in Cameroon and the case of the proposed legislation to ban advocay and support of LGBT rights in Nigeria.
Demonstrating the possibility that a a paperless office is probably an unattainable dream, Pilgrimage to self counts the 12 pieces of paper generated by a fairly simple transaction – one claim.
To ensure representation in parliament, women should ‘start believing and voting for their own’ Kamundulio writes. ’The fewer women are in government the fewer issues that concern us will be taken seriously’ she continues and also says ‘Women voters need to understand that women can make good leaders if given a chance.’
Afromusing who is soon becoming the Kenyan bloggers ‘environmental issues’ guru has posted information on  how to set up your own solar water pump from a shallow spring. This system, which looks easy enough to set up, requires no batteries.
Feminist African Sister comments on a recent dance in Nairobi celebrating International Women's Day..She questioned the style of dancing which had young girls “ gyrating in an extremely and highly sexualised manner”.  She wonders
To what extent should the feminist movement especially that populated by younger women, embrace and give space to these sort of expressions – be they art, dance or written word? For example, should the word bitch have any place in our spaces, considering its use in media and society to demean, belittle, abuse and disempower women and girls?