Sarah Mukasa and Kenyan senator, musician, and disability rights advocate Crystal Asige./Photo; Courtesy
Across Africa, conversations about women’s leadership often focus on representation, how many women occupy positions in parliament, lead institutions, or influence policy.
But for many feminist thinkers and activists, the deeper challenge lies not simply in increasing representation, but in transforming the structures that determine who gets to lead in the first place.
This idea framed a recent conversation hosted by the Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment at Wits Business School.
The discussion brought together Ugandan feminist organizer Sarah Mukasa and Kenyan senator, musician, and disability rights advocate Crystal Asige.
Together, they reflected on the personal experiences that shaped their activism and the broader political shifts redefining power across the continent.
From Independence to Feminist Consciousness
For Mukasa, her political awareness grew out of the optimism and contradictions that followed African independence movements.
“I was born just after independence in my country, Uganda, so I was very much aware of all the euphoria and the hope and the coming together of people to build the nation,” she said.
Yet that optimism coexisted with an uncomfortable reality: women who had participated in liberation struggles were often sidelined once new governments were formed.
“I was also acutely aware of how much limited space there was for women,” Mukasa explained, noting that women who had contributed significantly to independence efforts were frequently excluded from political decision-making.
Witnessing these dynamics both publicly and within her own family pushed her to question the status quo. Over time, those questions evolved into a deeper feminist consciousness and collective organizing.
“We as African women knew there was something we needed to do,” she said. “We needed to find a space for ourselves, to recognize ourselves as fully human.”
Mukasa’s political thinking later expanded through experiences abroad, where Africans often encountered stereotypes that framed the continent as dependent or incapable.
“The ethos at the time was that we speak for ourselves on issues of our concern,” she said, emphasizing the importance of Africans shaping their own narratives and political agendas.
Personal Experience as a Catalyst for Leadership
For Asige, activism emerged through a different pathway: her personal experience of acquiring a visual disability. That moment transformed how society treated her and reshaped her political outlook.
“My activism is definitely shaped by my personal experience, my disability primarily,” she said, reflecting on how that experience deepened her understanding of exclusion and representation.
The shift in how people perceived her was immediate.
“When I acquired my visual disability, it made me invisible almost overnight,” she explained.
Rather than accepting that invisibility, Asige chose to confront it.
The experience sharpened her awareness of marginalized voices and strengthened her resolve to advocate for those often excluded from public life.
That awareness ultimately led her into Kenya’s Parliament in 2022, where she entered with a determination to challenge entrenched perceptions about women and disability in leadership spaces.
“I came into Parliament in 2022 with a huge resolve to say we can no longer see young women, especially those with disabilities, as just the furniture,” she said.
Youth Activism and the Politics of Accountability
The discussion also reflected on the growing influence of youth movements in shaping democratic accountability across Africa.
In Kenya, that influence became visible during the youth-led protests of 2024 over a controversial finance bill.
“Last year was a crazy time for a lot of Kenyans, all Kenyans, even those in the diaspora,” Asige recalled.
The protests were largely driven by Gen-Z activists mobilizing online and in the streets, highlighting the frustrations of younger generations navigating economic pressure and political disillusionment.
“We had the Gen-Z uprising because of a punitive finance bill that many Kenyans felt would oppress them for the next financial year and years to come,” she said.
At the height of the demonstrations, protesters stormed the parliamentary grounds, creating a moment of intense confrontation between political institutions and the citizens they represent.
“Young people were able to storm the Parliament grounds, and everyone was in a panic,” Asige said.
The events forced lawmakers to confront the realities of public anger and democratic accountability in real time.
“When you are meeting your employer who is the electorate face-to-face, that’s when you really know the business,” she reflected.
Challenging Power Structures
For Mukasa, the broader lesson from these experiences is that feminist activism continues to play a crucial role in reshaping political systems across Africa.
Historically, she noted, women have often been excluded from decision-making even after contributing significantly to national struggles.
Yet those exclusions have also fueled the growth of feminist organizing.
“Just because this is the way things are is not good for the continent,” Mukasa said, arguing that African societies cannot afford to sideline capable women from leadership and governance.
Instead, feminist movements across the continent have increasingly focused on challenging the structures that produce inequality in the first place.
Rethinking Leadership in Africa
For Asige, the path forward lies in redefining leadership itself.
Her message to young women and marginalized communities is not simply about seeking acceptance within existing systems but about recognizing their own power.
“We are not people who want a seat at the table,” she said. “We are the table.”
The statement captures a broader shift taking place across African politics.
As younger leaders and activists step into public life, they are increasingly questioning the assumptions that have shaped governance for decades.
Rather than adapting to structures that exclude them, many are seeking to reshape those systems entirely.
As Africa continues to navigate generational change, democratic pressures, and expanding civic activism, voices like Mukasa and Asige suggest that the future of leadership on the continent may depend less on who occupies positions of power and more on how power itself is imagined and exercised.
Source: Adapted from a discussion featuring Crystal Asige and Sarah Mukasa, hosted by the Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment at Wits Business School as part of their series on Conversations on African Philanthropy
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