New photo exhibition documents the invaluable contribution of Southern African seed guardians to food and seed sovereignty and struggle.
On 23 May 2024, the International Institute of Social Studies opened the Southern African Rural Women's Assembly Seed Guardians exhibition.
The exhibition is a window into the lives and struggles of the seed guardians of the Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA). It documents their invaluable contribution to food and seed sovereignty and struggle to ensure the recognition of women small-scale farmers, peasants and producers in policy frameworks that protect the rights to seed, land and food.
The exhibition organizers, Dr Donna Andrews and Dr Daniel Chavez, spoke about the women in the RWA and why their role as seed guardians is so important.
Several of the seed guardians also joined the opening live via zoom and were able to talk about their work and expriences protecting the rights to seed, land and food in their communities.
The exhibition will remain at ISS until the end of July when it will move on to other locations in Europe, Africa and the Americas.
About the Rural Women's Assembly
The Rural Women’s Assembly is one of the world’s most innovative and dynamic social movements. RWA is an independent and self-organized network of small-scale women farmers and peasant producers from across the Southern Africa region. In 2009, 250 women came together and established RWA with the slogan Guardians of Land, Life and Love. A decade later, with a membership of over 150,000 women, their chant has been expanded to Guardians of Land, Life, Seeds and Love.
Impressions of the opening
Women agriculturalists in Africa
The exhibition also saw the launch of the new edition of ISS journal DevISSues on the theme of female agriculturalists in Africa.
Alongside an article by Andrews and Chavez on the RWA Seed Guardians, the issue also inlcudes two other themed articles; one by Maya Krishnan on the impacts on women of partnerships in agriculture value chains and another by Eunice Wangari on Maasai pastoralist women's agency in navigating climate variability and gender inequality.
Together these articles zoom in on how women use their agency to address inequality.