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The COVID-19 pandemic affected the world like no other disease, triggering a global economic and social crisis. While parts of economic and social life stand still as a result of lockdown measures, millions of people continue to face serious hardships. Women in particular face compounded burdens: they are overrepresented as health care workers, often continue to perform the majority of unpaid care work in households, and face higher risks of economic insecurity and increased exposure to violence, exploitation, abuse, or harassment.
It has repeatedly been said that the pandemic, like a magnifying glass, places additional focus and threats on those parts of the economy and society which were already in crisis or under strain prior to the outbreak of COVID-19. This is just as, if not even more so the case in Africa. Reflecting on this reality, the Voices of Resilience series sponsored by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung zooms in for a closer look especially on women and feminist struggles seeking to change their communities for the better. While state institutions and governments became either paralysed or frenetically invented aid programs which seemed to take forever to reach people in need, women activists organized themselves, fighting the effects of the pandemic with engagement and resilience.
The three books provide unique insight into the manifold struggles women face at the grassroots level in Uganda and in Kenya as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through text and photos, the books provide a vivid picture of the beauty of these women and the hardships of their everyday lives—but most importantly, it shows the creativity, courage, and resilience with which they meet these challenges and rise above them. They pay tribute to business solutions, activist struggles, challenges, and successes on a professional and personal level. Above all, they amplify the voices of women from a part of the world that is largely overlooked in the mainstream media.