Human Rights Practice Student Jessica Nwafor becomes a Finalist at the Tucson Festival of Books Literary Award Competition
The University of Arizona will host the Tucson Festival of Books again from March 4-5, 2023. Details of the 2023 book festival can be found at http://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org/. The Tucson Festival of Books Literary Award competition happens several months before the book festival, and selected finalists are invited to participate in the 2023 Tucson Festival of Books Masters Workshop from March 6-7, 2023.
Jessica Ojiugo Nwafor’s Creative Non-Fiction piece, Somewhere in my Home Country, earned her a spot as a finalist in the Tucson Festival of Books Literary Award competition amongst over 600 submissions. Jessica is pursuing a Gender-Based Violence Certification in the Human Rights Practice program while a full-time student in the Master of Development Practice (MDP) at UA. She ties her inspiration for Somewhere in my Home Country to her Femicide/Feminicide human rights class. Femicide/Feminicide is an intentional killing with a gender-related motivation.
Jessica wrote the following about her story:
“The piece was my final project for the Femicide. I was motivated to write the piece during week 5 of the Femicide course. The topic for the week was "Recounting Femicide," and the week's assignment required students to narrate how Femicide data are represented in any country at the global and regional level. My investigations showed that Nigeria, my home country, had no global Femicide data, and the numbers currently reported at the national level seemed unbelievable, especially with the prevalence of economic-motivated Femicide (trading of female organs in the country). Underreporting of Femicide in Nigeria is fueled mainly by its flawed definition. My piece attempts to modify the definition of the perpetrator beyond the person who commits the direct act of killing. Therefore, society is women's killers.”
“Set in Nigeria, the creative nonfiction piece aims to criticize approaches for handling violence against women, especially in cases that lead to Femicide. Victim blaming is used to justify women's experiences of violence while ignoring cultural subjugation and structural challenges (including state actors' behaviors) that plunge women into death. It highlights that a woman's death is a process that starts from her experiences of violence, death itself, to society's actions/reactions after her death.”