Natasha Msonza (Stash) is a Zimbabwean human rights activist. She blogs about technology, gender, human rights, digital security, social justice and whatever other things she cares about. She is passionate about life, women empowerment, friends and family, and is currently working on a novel she hopes to finish before the armageddon. Natasha holds a Bsc Media Studies Degree, a Diploma in Human Rights and Human Development and a Masters Degree in Development Studies. She is exploring her creative side and has a flare for design and layout. She specialises in intranet strategy, web content management, information architecture and usability. In the past Natasha contributed her writing to Kubatana.net, an online community for Zimbabwe activists and the NCA Africa blog forum. Natasha reads widely and learns to play Mbira in her spare time.
Stashsays 
Dear Stash,
my name is Damaris Maria and I am a postgraduate student in the Erasmus Mundus Global Studies Master’s Program. At the moment I am writing my master’s thesis on blogs written by African women that deal with topics of gender equality and women’s empowerment. My aim is to shed light on a discourse that is in my view often underrepresented in western feminist discussions where voices from women of color in general and from African women in particular remain often either unheard or misunderstood.
My particular research interests are the concepts of gender equality of female African bloggers and their relationships to western feminism.
I found your blog following the blogrolls of other blogs that were listed in blog search engines. Your blog is one of eleven blogs that I am going to analyze for my master’s thesis with a content analysis. I chose your blog because it is very elaborate and talks about many topics related to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Of course I would also be very interested in your direct opinion on your blogging activity and issues of gender equality. For that, it would be very kind of you if you could help me by filling out the questionnaire following this link https://www.umfrageonline.com/s/81410d5 . The questionnaire consists of 23 questions and some of them can be answered very quickly. If you prefer, we could also make an appointment for a Skype talk.
Your answers will of course only be used for academic purposes. You can indicate in the last question whether it would be ok for you if I link your answers with your blog name (not your real name of course) in my master’s thesis or whether you want your answers to be completely anonymous. Please answer before the 15th of June so that your answers can be included in the thesis.
If you have any questions, please contact me. Thank you very much for you precious time!
Your’s sincerely,
Damaris Maria
Hi Stash,
Here’s some information that might be useful to your readers. The Africa Portal was launched November 25, 2010.(www.africaportal.org)
The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) today announces the launch of the Africa Portal.
The Africa Portal is an online knowledge resource offering researchers and opinion leaders a forum to share their insights on Africa and publish their work on pressing areas of concern to policymakers and the public. It aims to fill the gap in accessibility to research and information on policy issues on the continent.
A key feature of the Africa Portal is the online library collection holding over 2,500 books, journals, and digital documents related to African policy issues. The entire online repository is open access and available for free full-text download. A portion of the digital documents housed in the library have been digitized for the first time as an undertaking of the Africa Portal project.
The project is a collaborative undertaking between CIGI, Makerere University in Kampala, and the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg.
ciao,
i’d like see african authors on my blog (www.marcoddmfoto.blogspot.com); can you help me?
Marco