Feminism has no effect if it doesn't leave the paper or the electronic pages where it rightly rails against injustice, inequality, and inhumanity.

It acquires a new dimension when it steps into the realm of practical, everyday lives, which are so many and so much in need of feminist, fair-minded lucidity.

Feminism is also not separate from diversity and inclusion. Feminism in society is about ensuring that, in every day and in every interaction, there is respect, justice and liberty for every human being who is part of it.

Many women, many individuals, are tired of living with their mouths tight and their chests oppressed, without space for their thoughts to wander freely and differently, and without space for their voices to exist.

Afrolis (www.afrolis.pt) is a digital information project that aims to value and praise the work of black and racialized women professionals, thus contributing to a much-needed change in perceptions about the reality of these women in Portugal and around the world.

With an editorial team led by black and racialized women, and through different formats such as articles, podcasts, videocasts and audiodramas, the public has access to information on current affairs produced by a dynamic and creative collective that, endowed with freedom, will weave narratives in its own name, integrating specificities and truly embracing the diversity that makes up Portuguese society and which is so often camouflaged and standardized be the powers that be, perpetuating erroneous, obsolete and manipulative beliefs about people, their origins, characteristics and, well, their essence.

Next April, Afrolis will celebrate its tenth anniversary and its legacy is already discernible and relevant to the groups of people directly involved, as well as to the others, playing the worthy role of a social alert. It's worth getting to know Afrolis in more detail.

Carla Fernandes, the project's director, writer, translator, journalist and cultural producer, leads the collective employing knowledge, professionalism and resilience in the path she traces with mastery.

Poetry brought us together for the first time, and the mutual celebration of both, our shared status as women and our literary achievements, has kept the connection alive.

I, therefore, celebrate Afrolis by wishing it a long and expressive life as a fundamental agent for the changes that are coming and for the ones that are already here.

More information: https://afrolis.pt/

Cláudia Gomes Oliveira

1 March 2024