Year End Message of Healing, Caring and Solidarity to Black and Minoritised Women from Imkaan

This year has witnessed the wide-scale collision of deep rooted oppressions in our society – racism and other structural inequalities in all realms of life, institutions and organisations surfaced in a manner that forced us to look at the harms and challenged us not to look away.

COVID 19 was a mirror showing us how death and disease disproportionately impacted Black and Minoritised communities and communities subjected to intersectional oppression. At Imkaan we called for a reimagining of our spaces, social and economic systems, of our political will and participation and of our solidarity and good will towards one another. We did not want to come out of this period the same way that we entered it. We called for meaningful transformation, to end exclusion of migrant women and others with insecure immigration status, an end to a politics driven by xenophobia and racial hatred.  We invested our energies, alongside sister organisations into the Anti-Racism Charter for the Violence against Women and Girls sector.

How do we bring this year to a close and hope for a better one next year in the face of a harsh economic reality where resources will be tight? What are the correct words for the Black and Minoritised women and girls’ sector that will be encouraging knowing that their services are coming up for tender next year? As always, Imkaan will be on the forefront of our collective political solidarity, mobilisation and movement building. The reimagining is possible and this is where we must come together, lead the change we seek and raise a collective voices/consciousness to create a pathway forward.

In Sister Outsider, Audre Lorde wrote,

“Certainly there are vey real differences between us of race, age and sex. But it is not those differences between us that are separating us. It is rather our refusal to recognise those differences and to examine the distortions which result from our minimising them and their effects upon human behaviour and expectation. Racism, the belief in the inherent superiority of one race over all others and thereby the right of dominance. Sexism, the belief in the inherent superiority of one sex over the other and thereby the right to dominance. Ageism. Heterosexism. Elitism. Classism. It is a lifetime pursuit for each of us to extract these distortions from our living experience at the same time as we recognise, reclaim and define those differences upon which they are imposed.”

We thank all of our supporters, collaborators and colleagues who have worked alongside with us this year to ease the burden of this heavy task. We thank our members whose struggle is continuous and whose courage in the face of hostile environments gives us strength. From all of us at Imkaan we wish you healing, care and solidarity.