Funmi Olonisakin Quotes

As a scholar, mentor and activist I am constantly inspired by seeing the incredible talent that exists in the next generation of African feminist leaders and witnessing unfolding opportunities for them to unleash that talent and potential.

I call myself a feminist because I promote and defend the rights of women to realise their fullest potential, free from the oppression of patriarchy in all its forms.

The aim is to observe the complex and dynamic nature of how peace, development, and conflict are interpreted, reimagined, and reinterpreted by different people across age, gender, and social status.

I head a policy research unit at Kings College London on conflict, security and development, direct a peace and security Fellowship programme for African women and teach.

Advances in science and technology are critical drivers of war and peace in the future, and determinants of where power lies, who has agency, and how that agency is exercised are underpinned by this.

We need to promote participation of self-identified feminists in strategic political, social and economic institutions. Simultaneously, we need to strengthen our collective knowledge building and the effective dissemination of that knowledge.

I have worked for many years in the field of international security, a field populated largely by male experts and often dominated by male-led military and security establishments.

African Leadership Centre (ALC) in Nairobi is working towards building this understanding by focusing its 10-year research agenda on one central question: How will perspectives of peace and the state change among those who will govern the world in 2050.

I also contribute to efforts to create spaces for the development of that potential. The work is by no means easy.

Building institutions and norms for future peace requires considering the ground realities of people and places who are often marginalised in global decision-making.

Covid has affected and impacted everything and some of the impacts will be permanent. It will play out on the issues and questions that are affecting people’s lives and living in the most immediate way.

The programme exposes African women to current thinking and national, regional and international institutions involved in tackling conflict, peace and security in Africa.

I have aimed to make my own contributions through creating a fellowship programme that offers opportunities for young African women to competently and confidently articulate feminist ideas for change in order to champion change in the male dominated spaces that shape their lives.