MsAfropolitan Feminism. Africa. Pop Culture. Identity. Race.

MsAfropolitan (miss Afropolitan) is the award-winning blog of Minna Salami, blogger, writer and commentator on African feminism, society and popular culture.

Founder of the MsAfropolitan Boutique, selling design by women of African heritage.

12 November 2010 ~ 3 Comments

MsAfropolitan Boutique interview series – Rayo Balogun, founder of Lela

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TweetThe mission of the MsAfropolitan Boutique is to showcase and offer a handpicked range of products made by African Diaspora women on a rotating basis. Visit us here. As part of my journey to achieving this goal, I’ve met many inspiring women whose stories I want to share with you in an interview series features which [...]

08 November 2010 ~ 9 Comments

On ‘Runaway’ by Kanye West

On ‘Runaway’ by Kanye West

TweetAfter a shopping round in town today I decided it was about time I watched the video that has the high street in plumes, namely ‘Runaway’ by Kanye West. My head is now fuzzed with thoughts about chicken breasts and I’m vegetarian, so it’s not because I want some KFC The short story is that I [...]

02 November 2010 ~ 19 Comments

Will the politically incorrect Obama please stand up?

Will the politically incorrect Obama please stand up?

TweetObama is so P.C. (politically correct) he makes me think of Boris Johnson as a revolutionary. I know – black people have no need to moan about racism anymore in this ‘post-racial’ world of ours. We have reached equal racial status now. Whether black, white, Asian or Jewish, none of us have to deal with [...]

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29 October 2010 ~ 10 Comments

MsAfropolitan Boutique interview series – Agnes Kuye, founder of Senga K designs

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TweetThe mission of the MsAfropolitan Boutique is to showcase and offer a handpicked range of products made by African Diaspora women on a rotating basis. Visit us here. As part of my journey to achieving this goal, I’ve met such inspiring women whose stories I want to share with you in an interview series features which [...]

24 October 2010 ~ 14 Comments

This post is not about masturbation

This post is not about masturbation

TweetFrom the first time someone says, Who do you think you are? we learn how to repress ~ Lauryn Hill I have a new category on the blog. It’s called self release and will contain posts that have to do with personal development. I’m calling it self release rather than self help as the latter [...]

18 October 2010 ~ 11 Comments

MsAfropolitan Boutique Interview Series – Shiri Achu of Shiri Achu Art

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TweetThe mission of the MsAfropolitan Boutique is to showcase and offer a handpicked range of products made by African Diaspora women on a rotating basis. Visit us here. As part of my journey to achieving this goal, I’ve met such inspiring women whose stories I want to share with you in an interview series features [...]

14 October 2010 ~ 15 Comments

African Women’s Decade 2010-2020 official launch

African Women’s Decade 2010-2020 official launch

TweetIt’s the launch of the African Women’s Decade 2010-2020 today. Yes, a whole decade dedicated to us, recognized by the UN (United Nations) and AU (African Union) and supported by a manifesto called the Maputo protocol. Did you know about it? No? Shame on you. OK, it’s not actually your fault, after all we have [...]

11 October 2010 ~ 10 Comments

MsAfropolitan Boutique Interview Series – Hazel Aggrey-Orleans, founder of Eki Orleans

MsAfropolitan Boutique Interview Series – Hazel Aggrey-Orleans, founder of Eki Orleans

TweetThe mission of the MsAfropolitan Boutique is to showcase and offer a handpicked range of products made by African Diaspora women on a rotating basis. Visit us here. As part of my journey to achieving this goal, I’ve met such inspiring women whose stories I want to share with you in an interview series feature. [...]

06 October 2010 ~ 12 Comments

Energy vampires

Energy vampires

TweetAlthough I was posting about black hair, I recently wrote about emotionally draining people, who suck your energy like a sponge. I said: …such ‘drainage’ shows up in life not as a relevance to who they are, but to who you are; as an opportunity to create a relationship with how you react to situations. [...]

01 October 2010 ~ 3 Comments

‘The Naija Factor’ is crippling Nigerian women, but…

‘The Naija Factor’ is crippling Nigerian women, but…

Tweet(Cross-posted on Nigerian’s Talk) Let’s face it, when it comes to the state of our country, we Nigerians are like infants refusing to admit that we’ve pooped. How else can we explain that despite being such an aware group of people, we also are collectively so complacent? After all, Nigeria surpasses many nations in submerging [...]

24 September 2010 ~ 11 Comments

Friends with benefits

Friends with benefits

TweetTo me, having friends with benefits, is a bit like being on benefits and having no friends. Perhaps this comparison also works when we think of the relationship Africa has with the West. This week 192 leaders of nations gathered in UN Headquarters to discuss the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Brief history for those who [...]

19 September 2010 ~ 25 Comments

7 things that happened this week

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Tweet1. MsAfropolitan was featured on some great websites. There was an interview for the Twenty Ten Club Blog, which is a club that connects, inspires and supports Black female business owners. MsAfropolitan was also featured as one of the ‘Women of Webster’, Webster Magazine being a men’s lifestyle magazine doing some admirable work on redefining the [...]

15 September 2010 ~ 25 Comments

True values are never at risk

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TweetI’m not religious but I believe religion has enriched my life. I grew up in Lagos, Nigeria in what might be considered a typical African family home. It was a two story house with a three-bedroom flat on the top floor, and another similar flat on ground level. In the back compound there were two [...]

08 September 2010 ~ 17 Comments

A tribute to the black hair conversation

A tribute to the black hair conversation

TweetSome people can be emotionally draining. They don’t necessarily mean to be, but their energy somehow manages to soak yours up leaving you drained of flavour like that last scoop of ice cream you’ve had in the freezer for a wee while too long. Recently I had such encounters and instead of feeling less affected [...]

02 September 2010 ~ 19 Comments

7 female Afropolitan style icons

7 female Afropolitan style icons

TweetBeauty is composed of an eternal, invariable element whose quantity is extremely difficult to determine, and a relative element which might be, either by turns or all at once, period, fashion, moral, passion ~ Jean-Luc Godard When it comes to beauty, all women have to find a way to feel adequate and love themselves amidst [...]

25 August 2010 ~ 21 Comments

Too afrocentric for you?

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TweetI was recently interviewed for a TV programme, and one of the questions I was asked who MsAfropolitan is about. I have a love-hate relationship with this question. Reason being that MsAfropolitan is me, but I also think the ethos of MsAfropolitan suits anyone who relates to Afropolitanism and to Africa in one way or [...]

19 August 2010 ~ 11 Comments

Feeling down is a part of happiness

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Tweet I started writing this post feeling down. That’s the last part of this post, a bit pathetic. Like many, I’ve developed an online attention disorder. My attention span online is 140 seconds and I don’t even have the patience to convert that into minutes. It’s no surprise that my attention span has reduced so [...]

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11 August 2010 ~ 13 Comments

The MsAfropolitan Boutique launches in tribute of the African Women’s Decade

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TweetIt is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it. ~Voltaire The African Women’s Decade 2010-2020 was recently launched in the UK by WILPF in conjunction with the Gender Studies department at SOAS (School of African and Oriental Studies). I attended for three reasons: [...]

05 August 2010 ~ 22 Comments

Smart women should watch porn

Smart women should watch porn

Tweet I probably should not title a blog post like this. After all, both my parents and maybe even some of my friends parents and who knows, maybe their parents parents read my blog. However, with the news of Laurence Fishburne’s daughter, Montana Fishburne (aka Chippy D), deciding to go into the porn industry at [...]

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30 July 2010 ~ 11 Comments

How not to write a killer-post

How not to write a killer-post

Tweet When you blog you get to write what they call killer posts. This label is perhaps a tad of an overstatement, because quite simply what writing a killer post means is you’ve written a post that’s so good it goes bananas in google rankings and make you famous over night because it’s so informative [...]

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23 July 2010 ~ 17 Comments

Young woman, Old woman

Young woman, Old woman

TweetIs there anything good about ageing? I spent a week in Finland this month, with my grandmother, in an elderly home amidst woods and lakes, and I must say, there’s something about being in a home for the elderly, a stillness that should be a part of younger life too. I don’t mean to glamorize old [...]

19 July 2010 ~ 22 Comments

Big butts are in fashion

Big butts are in fashion

Tweet‘White America’ has now caught up with the idea that a pert posterior is a turn on. After years of skinny being in fashion, this summer, even Hollywood agrees that if your hindquarter looks anything like Kim Kardashian’s or Beyonce’s then you are an official owner of summer 2010’s hottest trend. Madonna’s daughter, Lourdes, loves [...]

14 July 2010 ~ 12 Comments

Patience, are you really a virtue?

TweetChildren are planning to take over the world in a movement called poto. How else can you explain that a few weeks ago on a London train a small boy continuously shouted the word ‘poto‘. Fast forward a few weeks to this past Saturday on a flight to Finland another child sat behind me and [...]

08 July 2010 ~ 4 Comments

‘Children of War’ Inspired by ‘Beasts of no Nation’ by Uzodinma Iweala

‘Children of War’ Inspired by ‘Beasts of no Nation’ by Uzodinma Iweala

Tweet I am remembering the night when the war is starting. Even before they are arriving to killing us the air is feeling sticky like okra and people are not happying. I am sensing that something is wrong but my mother and father is saying that everything will be fine. But if everything will be [...]

05 July 2010 ~ 3 Comments

7 facts to love about Ghana

7 facts to love about Ghana

Tweet The World Cup is almost over, and not to disregard whichever country ends up taking the trophy (g’wan Germany), but there is one country which I will remember as the real winner of the event – Ghana. I make this claim on the basis that Ghana was the first African country to make it [...]

30 June 2010 ~ 11 Comments

How not to come out of the closet

How not to come out of the closet

Tweet   For many years I’ve kept this secret, but I’m now ready to get out of the closet and reveal that I am straight. Yes, heterosexual. I know, I know, it’s controversial for a woman to be straight nowadays, but I’ll try to cope with the discerning looks from passersby when I walk hand in [...]

24 June 2010 ~ 25 Comments

Fashion is not for African women

Fashion is not for African women

TweetDespite the ‘trend’ for black models, racism in the fashion industry is still fashionable. Last week I attended the intelligence squared Fashion Maketh Woman debate. For the motion was the stylish team consisting of Madelaine Levy, Britt Lintner and Paula Reed (style director of Grazia in an Oscar de la Renta frock on the evening) [...]

18 June 2010 ~ 34 Comments

Mixed race girls have issues – part 3 of 3

Mixed race girls have issues – part 3 of 3

TweetMixed race girls have issues because when we define ourselves ‘mixed race’, we refer to race. I’m trying to pay attention to how many times I say ‘race’ whilst talking about myself. This past week I’ve used the word at least five times. (Note, I’ve just used the word race 4 times already) Inevitably using [...]

14 June 2010 ~ 17 Comments

American Apparel joins the black hair debate

American Apparel joins the black hair debate

TweetSo in short – Zeitgeist brand American Apparel prefers Solange to Beyonce. Following the recent revelation that when it comes to staff the company is more interested in the natural hair look than what they wrongly referred to as the trashy look, there’s been a lot of hoo ha about American Apparel having policies on [...]

08 June 2010 ~ 18 Comments

Affair advice

Affair advice

Tweet You find out that your friends partner is having an affair. If you tell them you risk ruining their relationship, however, they might not split up, then you’ll become the archenemy to their happiness. Then again if you don’t tell him/her, you’ll start avoiding your friend. What would you do, would you rely on [...]

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