About the Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA)
The Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA) is an independent and self-organised rural movement of smallholder women farmers and peasant producers from across the Southern Africa region. In 2009, 250 rural women established RWA with the slogan Guardians of Land, Life and Love. More than a decade later, RWA has a membership of over 150,000 active in ten countries in the region, still guided by the same chant. RWA is firmly rooted within the countryside, built through struggle (i) to protect traditional seeds and local knowledge against corporate capture; (ii) for land, climate justice and food sovereignty; (iii) to resist all forms of patriarchy while working to build conscious women’s leadership and the confidence to stand up and speak for themselves.
The team in charge of the research, design and production of the exhibition consists of three activist scholars:
Dr Daniel Chavez: Coordinator of the GreenPaths Project at the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute (TNI) and is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg.
Dr Donna Andrews: Senior Researcher at The EthicsLab, University of Cape Town, and a former Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg (2020-2023).
Dr Suzall Timm: Lecturer at the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies of the University of Johannesburg.