Lena Anyuolo on community libraries and grassroots organising, queering the internet

by by the Whose Knowledge?

Episode 24 of Whose Voices? podcast, in collaboration with Femininja Podcast [FEMNET] | November 29, 2023

Lena Anyuolo on community libraries and grassroots organising, queering the internet

Reviewed by Soizic Pénicaud

Intro: Welcome to the Femininja Podcast. This series was co-curated and co-hosted with our friends at Whose Knowledge?. These episodes were recorded during the “Decolonizing the Internet - East Africa” gathering in Lusaka, Zambia. Welcome everybody to today's podcast. I'm Youlendree Appasamy, the communications associate for the #VisibleWikiWomen campaign at Whose Knowledge?, and my lovely co-host today is…

Kerubo Onsoti: Kerubo Onsoti from FEMNET, and I work there as the digital media officer.

Youlendree Appasamy: And our wonderful guest is…

Lena Anuyolo: Lena Anuyolo, a poet, writer, social justice activist, and digital content creator. My affiliation is to Ukombozi Library in Nairobi, Kenya.

Youlendree Appasamy: Okay, cool. Well, I think something I'm really interested in is: what is your day to day, or how does that look like as a poet, a creative, a librarian (laughs)?

Lena Anyuolo: Okay. My day-to-day is… there's really no formula to how my day begins. So, it depends on if I have a project. If there's work I have to do, I do that. I like to take a lot of walks. They ignite my creativity. I journal a lot, that's where I also draw my content from. It grounds me. My day to day is, I try as much as possible to be compassionate with myself and to try and find ways in which I can transform a lot of the anger and rage that is within me, against oppression, against just all this nonsense in the world, into something useful. That's my day to day.

Youlendree Appasamy: And could you maybe tell us a bit more about the library, how it came into being, maybe what kind of work you're interested in? Because I think, for a lot of us, going to the library when you're a small child is such a beautiful place to just escape what's happening. And if you're lucky enough to go to a well- stocked library, you can travel and learn so much just through reading the books that are there. And so libraries for me have always been this place of calm, of resting, of being able to be yourself or find out more about yourself. So yeah, I'd love to hear more about your library practices.

Lena Anyuolo: Okay, so, like you, I've really loved libraries. They're my sanctuary. They keep me… I really love them. I love the quiet. Most of the time, I actually fall asleep in very quiet libraries, but that’s okay! So, the Ukombozi Library is a radical, Pan-African community library. The books that are there are mostly on leftist history, leftist literature, feminist history, feminist literature. There's a huge section on Kenyan history that isn't taught in books. That space really affirmed me because, for once, I really felt like there's somewhere I can go and impact change in the world. The main programs that we're involved in are conscious raising sessions with social justice centers that are based in informal settlements. So the social justice centers are an organic movement of grassroots human rights organizations in 26 informal settlements all around Kenya and also in Nairobi. So we just go there and make people aware of the superstructure of capitalism, of patriarchy, and what can be done to change, to effect change, and what are the methods of reform that we can use towards a revolution that is lasting and sustainable for everybody.

Youlendree Appasamy: I think when I heard of the work that you were doing, it reminded me of a Zimbabwean artist who has shown quite a lot in South Africa, and he has this space called “the library”. And it's a whole room that's full of records of African musicians and it has pamphlets, zines, revolutionary posters, and it's free to access for anybody to come into the space and you can just look around, you can listen to the records. It's just a space for you to both learn but also relax from the kind of oppressions we face in the world. And it sounds like it's very similar, in the same energy and the same spirit, that you are taking this library project.

Lena Anyuolo: So yes, it's actually quite similar. We do have a lot of room and space for artists, for creatives to come and express themselves and share their work.

Youlendree Appasamy: And in the work that you're doing, so we're talking about leftism, we're talking about capitalism, we're talking about patriarchy and that awareness raising through the library. But how does decolonizing fit into that and how would you conceive of decolonizing through the work you're doing?

Lena Anyuolo: That's a good question. So, in the beginning, when we were thinking about forming study groups and study cells, we were thinking about the environments that we were going to go into. These are places where people live from hand to mouth. So to actually ask someone to sit down and read, let's say, Angela Davis, it's just so tough. And even if you have time sometimes to go through all that, to interpret some of that work can be difficult. So our aspect of decolonizing is that first of all, we do our best to understand that text. And then when we go out into the community, it's not a didactic exchange of “we have come to tell you all the issues that you have”, but “how can we contextualize the knowledge that has been created by oppressed people all over the world to liberate themselves? How can we place it within our context in Mathare, in Kayole, and to change our conditions?” So we try our best to have an exchange together and anything we generate. If it's reports, if it's study papers, it's freely available. If someone can turn it into a song, then it’ll be turned into a song. If it can be turned into a play, it's turned into a play. So we don't just look at knowledge in terms of text. It can be very, very many things.

Youlendree Appasamy: That's beautiful, and it sounds really collaborative as well. And one of the central meanings of decolonizing for me, is understanding that people are knowledges and that we embody a lot of different kinds of lived experiences that are just as important as whether we could, let's say, read, or if we've gone to university or whatever. And those things are just as important and valuable in the work that we do. And I think my second question over here is about how the online space factors into your work and how the internet factors into your work, especially thinking through different kinds of media that's not just text.

Lena Anuyolo: Okay, so how that impacts my work. I'll speak… cause I come from, maybe, I straddle both sides. I straddle corporate where I have to work as a digital marketer and there are businesses that I'm working with. And then on this other side of an activist. The experiences are sometimes jarringly different, but then I can see the interconnectedness. As a digital marketer, I see that there's so many restrictions in terms of who can access some of the opportunities that are there. There are things, for example, with the algorithms on Google that can prevent me from marketing myself, but there are people who have maybe bigger budgets for advertising who can get more jobs, yet the Internet should be a free space for everyone to do their work. In terms of building up my skills, I find that sometimes the courses are difficult to access because of cost and also the technical language that is used. And that's why I was really, really encouraged by Carolyne Ekyarisiima's project to make coding much simpler. I was like, yes, I have to plug into that because I'm really curious about that. As an activist, I find that some of the ideas that I want to express might be policed. So I really, really think about what I want to share, yet I feel like I want to be boundless, but the space I'm in and knowing that maybe the level of solidarity that my comrades can give is limited. For example, if I'm arrested and the police don't take me to a police station, then it's difficult for my comrades to find me. So I can't be reckless about what I share online, and put myself in danger and my comrades in danger, and put them in a situation where they're going to be helpless. So it's a very tough balancing act. It gets to my head sometimes, like, oh my gosh, I want to scream! I'm so tired, I want to switch off all the internet, all the social media, because sometimes it makes me so anxious, but I need it for my work. And that's why Decolonizing the internet is such, I mean, it has re-energized me, you don't even know! I'm so happy to be within this convening because there's an Internet that we can make that is pleasurable, that is joyful, and that is safe, and that's where I want to exist and express myself without having to think about anything.

Youlendree Appasamy: So onto this internet that's pleasurable and joyful and it's created by us for us: how have you experienced the past few days at DTI East Africa, and I guess maybe you could speak through some of your expectations coming into the space and did we meet them, how was it, what were your experiences like at the convening?

Lena Ayuolo: They have certainly surpassed all my expectations, all my dreams. (Hosts: “aw!”). It's true, I'm not gassing you up. It's actually really true, because when I came, I was so nervous. The first day, I was so homesick, I slept I think for 12 hours. I slept from seven, I woke up at seven the following day. And I was so nervous. I didn't know who I was going to meet. And I was so happy that I saw some familiar faces. I'd known them online, but I'd never actually met them in person. My expectation was to learn and be joyful. And I have learned a lot. Like yesterday, I spent five hours with Kelly, almost, I think it was from 3:00 PM till seven, six or seven, learning how to edit a Wikipedia page. And I did edit. I put Ukombozi Library on Wikipedia.

Youlendree Appasamy: Yes! Amazing!

Lena Anyuolo: Yeah. So I'm really happy I got to do that. I met Shi [Kang'ethe], who just really helped to push me out of my shell. Because if I hadn't interacted with her like that, I wouldn't have been as open with my art as I was today. Today has been the happiest day of my life, also, my life till now, till this moment. Of course, I'll have other happy moments. But today was really happy. I looked good, I slayed, everyone looked good, and I was able to spread my art and meet many, many new different people and make new connections. So it has been very, very healing, and when I say healing, I mean it really, truly healing my mind, my soul, my everything. I'm so happy to be around feminists. I really am so happy, so much. Yeah.

Youlendree Appasamy: Aw, oh man. Let's just end the interview there! The podcast is over now (laughs). That's so great to hear that these kinds of spaces do these things. And in our previous interviews with people and our previous podcasts, that's been how we all feel, that these spaces are so vital. They're necessary. They give you more motivation to continue in the work that you're doing. They affirm the past work that you've been doing. And it also connects you with other people that you may not have known before, but it's a feminist space and we greet each other, we laugh, we share our drinks (laughs), and maybe most of us didn't know each other coming into it. And there's just a kind of solidarity and a friendship and a connection that comes from being feminists that are located in Africa. As we were joking earlier, over lunch, Africa is one country (laughs)! So yeah, I don't know.

Kerubo Onsoti: I'd like to ask about Ukombozi. Where is it located in Nairobi?

Lena Anyuolo: Okay. Ukombozi Library is located along University Way. It's right opposite the University of Nairobi. It's on the second floor, in between Kingsway Tyres and Nairobi Safari Club. I know that's a lot to process (laughs), but because the corridor is so non-descript, the first time I went to Ukombozi, I passed it like five times, and I got so frustrated, I was like “I can't find this place”! So you have to, that's why I've described it like that.

Kerubo Onsoti: Yeah, you named it Ukombozi because of the Swahili?

Lena Anyuolo: Yes, “ukombozi”, “kukomboa”, means “to liberate”. And we have the tools to liberate us. No one is going to come and liberate. You just have to free your mind. It's a tough process, but you have to believe it. Because James Baldwin said, when you read books, you find that in your suffering, you're not alone. You always think your suffering is unprecedented until you read, and then you find “I'm not alone”. So we just have to be in solidarity with each other. Yeah.

Kerubo Onsoti: Yeah, that's good. I love that.

Youlendree Appasamy: That's why we need more community libraries and more public libraries! (laugh)

Kerubo Onsoti: And maybe, I think maybe, I'd just like to ask: from where you're seated, what do you imagine a decolonized internet would look like moving forward? What would you like to see more of? Even coming from DTI, we've had, on internet freedom, the sessions that we had, how do you imagine that space will look like for you?

Lena Anyuolo: So I would like to see a lot more of queer content, and queer also even beyond personal expression, even queer as political expression, queerness that subverts any oppression also. So that's what I'd like to see more of. I'd like to see a safer space online. And safer, not necessarily through litigation or legislation or laws, because those same laws can again be used against us, but through community solidarity. If something happens to Len in SA, she knows that she's not alone. There are hashtags that we can start or solidarity that we can give each other online. Mutual aid. In 2020, we did a really big protest together as young people and we fundraised through mutual aid. There was no funding, just by sharing the word online. And even activists who were arrested were bailed out by people, like, normal Kenyans, not any big funder who came to help us, it was Kenyans, and we would not have done that without Twitter. And we organized online and the cops didn't even know who was doing the protest, so they just were arresting people. It was so funny. Sometimes you're standing actually next to a cop and they don't know you're the one doing the protest, because there was no branding, we were just organizing online. And I saw that the University of Zambia students did the same thing during the election. They also organized a protest online. (Hosts: “Wow”). So it's a just internet, and it's an internet that centers queerness and that subverts all oppression for real. Yeah.

Kerubo Onsoti: Thank you. Thank you. I love that. Yeah.

Youlendree Appasamy: I think that querying the internet, that comes with an inherent sense of safety. We spoke to Arya in one of our podcast episodes, and Arya was talking about how the internet could be this utopian space of freedom of expression, however you self-identify, and just kind of moving away from the online world being shaped by the offline world and the oppressions we face here. So I think it speaks very clearly also to your point of just an internet with more queer content and queer people feeling safe and joyful to express whatever they want to online. I wanted to find out from you more about what your experiences on a colonized internet would look like. AKA, the internet we're sitting with right now. So you were talking a bit about how you've been organizing protests online. How has those experiences been facing the internet harassment and online kind of unsafety?

Lena Anyuolo: It's been very scary. In fact, after 2020, I had to take a break, and I'm kind of still taking a break, because… this conference is what is slowly edging me back into actively participating in a radical political space because when we were organizing online, our phones were hacked, and sometimes cops would be outside the door. And it was very, very scary, honestly. And even during the protest, some of us were arrested, as I mentioned before, and when the police arrested us, they were telling us that “we don't have anything to do” and “today's the day they send us to heaven”… and it's an unmarked car. (Hosts: “oh my gosh”). Yeah, it was very scary. So when we actually got to the police station, I was like: “thank you, my gosh, at least I can tell people I'm in a police station, I've been booked, so they can't do any funny business right now.” So that has been the experience with online harassment. A lot of us had to get off the internet and lie low for a bit. So that has been my experience as an activist online. Personally, I've experienced cyberbullying. When I came out, I thought most of us actually come out on the internet first to our friends sometimes. So when I came out I was bullied and that was not a very good experience. Also, it traumatized me for a bit and I got off IG, Instagram. So now is when I'm slowly coming back, but I'm always scared about what I post. I don't know how someone will react to it. So I really don't like the internet as it is now, but as Anasuya said in the beginning of the sessions, it's a mix. There's some good things and there's some bad things. Because in the good way, I was able to meet all of you and we are sharing pictures, there's #VisibleWikiWomen, we can edit Wikipedia articles also, we can protest online on hashtags. And then there's also that side, which is bad. So we can use the existing structures to dismantle the structure completely in the end.

Youlendree Appasamy: And it's about dismantling the whole structure and not taking this with us into this wonderful queer internet we want to have. So what were some of your takeaways in terms of what are the alternatives we are building or what are the things we're going to dismantle? So these are your takeaways from the convening in general or even any of the FIFAfrica panels that you went to today.

Lena Anyuolo: I really enjoyed the panel on the internet and human rights at FIFA. There was Natasha Simma of Simma Africa. There was Jerry [inaudible], there was Nancy Mandabileat, and there was Victor from CIPESA. So it was a really vibrant panel. We talked about some of the legal issues and how artists can position themselves to petition censorship online and keep themselves safe online with existing laws. In fact, today I learned that there’s a UN declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 protects the freedom of expression. So I did not know that. And for example, in Kenya, international laws are applicable in Kenya, so we can use that. I did not know that that can be used. I really also liked what you said on Monday about building our own undersea cables. Because I was really shocked that the current undersea cables of the internet are built on Cecil Rhodes Telegraph. I was like, it blew my mind. It blew my mind. It made me angry. It shifted my mood down a bit and I was like, oh my gosh, we really have to change that nonsense. And I also really liked Carolyne Ekyarisiima's project because we can now build websites where the user experience is inclusive to all different kinds of people. People who are neurodivergent, people who are disabled. So we can build our own things and we have it. It's a little hard, I know, but for real, we can change. And if it's too tough for us, we can teach younger people and even young ones, as young as even 10 years old, so that by the time they are aged, they've just done amazing things.

Youlendree Appasamy: Yeah, we're definitely like do it yourself feminists, do it with other people feminists.We're going to be building those undersea cables! (Laughs). Yeah. Yeah. And I think what Kelly was talking about with the telegraph lines and the railway travel as well as the post office and how those were the colonial communications networks and channels, and how a lot of our online infrastructure just directly follows those colonial architectures. It was mind blowing when I figured that out as well. Considering everything colonialism has done, it's shaping what our future looks like online. So this is a space in our conversation. If there's anything else you'd like to talk about that we haven't covered, maybe a poem you'd like to share with us and for our listeners, here's your space and your time!

Lena Anyuolo: So I do have a poem I'd like to read. It's from my collection of poems, my first collection, it's called Rage and Bloom, and it's the diary of an activist through the human rights space. And it is my reflection of being a community organizer and just being a queer person in the world. It's titled Rage and Bloom. And the reason it's titled Rage and Bloom is because of course I go through very different emotions within that human rights space. And sometimes I'm angry, sometimes I've despaired, sometimes I'm bitter. But in the end, I'm very optimistic that we can build futures based on care and solidarity. And the poem I'll read is called Virago. Virago is Kiswahili for the little things that we have. And I also saw on Pinterest, I don’t know if it's true, I can't verify it, but I saw on Pinterest that it can also mean a very strong woman. So, I'll read it then. Maybe I can give more context about it afterwards.

Virago. Dawn breaks with the tears of Isis, or purple light, or the color of royalty. In a concentration camp, there are too many unspoken words, and festering wounds on infected toes and injured hearts. Memory is formless, slipping through the cracks of our lives and in the spaces between the sheets of these metal tents, echoing past the borders of this containment camp that is over a hundred years old, surrounded by a congregation of gunmen. This silent song, drawing those in the business of the tears of Mathare to try on development project after development project like a pile of T-shirts in Gikomba. So I asked the son of God in the weaning late of daybreak, what is solidarity?

So, Mathare in Nairobi was the base of the Kenya Land and Freedom army, and it was a quarry, and Mathare has existed for a hundred years. So when you come to Nairobi, you see all the buildings, they're from the stones and the labor of Mathare, and Mathare is that way because the Mau Mau used to organize, the Kenya Land and Freedom Army used to organize from Mathare. And that's why I say that it's a containment camp that is over a hundred years old. When I say “to try on development project after development project, like a pile of T-shirts in Gikomba”, I'm speaking to how very many people try to come and exploit poor people, common people, with maybe sometimes academic projects that those people cannot access later, or projects that they'll say will improve their lives, but it doesn't improve their lives. That's why I ask “what is solidarity” with all these people, if there is no class analysis of why Mathare is the way it is. But Virago, like all common people all over the world, like all oppressed people all over the world, we are the majority and we have the power to dismantle these structures that oppress us. Viva!

Youlendree Appasamy: Viva, yes! Lena, thank you! It almost felt like a religious quiet to settle over us as we were listening to you. Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. Also, if our listeners want to purchase a copy, please plug yourself. How can we support you?

Lena Anyuolo: Yes, I get excited and then I forget. Okay. So how you can purchase a copy? Currently, you can DM me on my Twitter handle. It's @LAnyuolo. If you are international, you can purchase the book from Nuria Books, N-U-R-I-A, then books. If you purchase it from that website, it can be shipped to you wherever you are. Yeah, those are the two places at the moment. So personally through me, on my Twitter handle at @LAnyuolo, on my Instagram, it's @ragebloompoetry. And for international shipping, it's on Nuria Books, N-U-R-I-A books. Thank you.

Youlendree Appasamy: Cool. Thank you. Okay, well, thank you so much for joining us today and for just sharing with us all of the amazing community activism and work you're doing, your ideas for an internet future and just for connecting with us in the space.

Lena Anyuolo: Thank you so much for having me.

Femininja outro: Hey, thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much for joining us for the Femininja Podcast. We really believe and trust that you have enjoyed our conversations and they have pricked some thinking, some kind of wanting to find out more about feminism, about patriarchy, and what is the role for each one of us in detonating patriarchy and proudly and boldly claiming ourselves as feminists. So stay tuned, keep following us and engage with us on FEMNET’s website, www.femnet.org. Thank you.

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