Writing a piece on the politics of becoming intellectual - something that so many African women are terrified of - made me realise what a rare opportunity I had been presented with to say some of the things that I have thought and felt passionately about, lived through and marvelled at for the past three decades of activist politics - as a nationalist and later as a radical feminist - within the context of anti-colonial and now anti-patriarchal global feminist resistance. All sorts of experiences and anecdotes came to mind as I searched for an entry into the exceptional adventure of actually writing about what it feels like (in an abstract and emotional sense) - to think and act as an African female person who has positioned herself within a radical political tradition that does not compromise on the inalienable principles of dignity, personal integrity and justice.