The BHR Group Digital Rights Careers Newsletter - Issue 20

Mar 01, 2024

Dear Colleagues:

This month’s guest practitioner – Mazuba Haanyama, Director of Community Engagement & Advocacy for Africa, Middle East & Turkey at Meta – shares so many insights in her answers that you’ll need to stop for a moment at each one to sufficiently absorb, reflect on, and appreciate the wisdom. Then you can return to reading, before doing that all over again at the next pearl.

I asked Mazuba, with whom I’ve had the honor work for a number of years, about how she does what she does, how she continues advocating for digital rights and human rights more broadly. She says that fatigue and fear are “real experiences inside of this type of work, but…when we find community and learn practices of joy, there is more energy for the work.”

The theme of community and service is woven through her values and her work, and you even see it called out in her role at Meta where she leads community engagement and advocacy. Mazuba says, “I am guided by a deep sense of mutual accountability to myself and to the communities I belong to and to those I serve. I believe deeply in the power of community and solidarity. I think about the role social movements have played in creating change and am constantly inspired by this.”

She shares some hard truths too, like how she answers the question about things she’s encountered but didn’t expect: “I hadn’t expected the role of imagination to feel as hampered as it can sometimes feel inside the sector.” Hmmm, ironic in this most innovative of industries, yet so true so often. She does, however, note what can be achieved through community engagement and advocacy: “I think there is something magical that happens when we bring different voices and experiences together to learn and build with one another.”

I can’t do this justice with just a few quotes, you’ll have to read it for yourself. Remember to read, stop, absorb, reflect, and appreciate and then continue on. Thank you Mazuba for your inspiring work in digital rights and well beyond.

Michael Samway
The Business and Human Rights Group
Website: www.thebhrgroup.com

Guest Spotlight: Mazuba Haanyama

Mazuba Haanyama is currently the Director of Community Engagement & Advocacy, Public Policy for Africa, Middle East & Turkey at Meta (formerly Facebook). She has long-standing experience as a feminist activist working across Africa with and for women’s & LGBTI movements. She believes firmly in the power of the collective imagination in forging paths of liberation.

What are some of the most formative periods or events in your life that shaped your work in technology and human rights?

I have had many formative experiences that have shaped the work I choose to do and how I choose to do it. I think most notably, my university experience stands out as one of the first experiences that enabled me to articulate my interests and passions with some clarity. I studied at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. I initially majored in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and soon discovered Economics was not my flavour of choice and changed my majors to Politics and Gender Studies. Gender Studies gave me language to understand some of the major socio-political movements that had shaped many of my experiences as a child. It also gave me, community – a safe place to learn and form theory and practice about structures that are often both invisible and wildly apparent in our everyday lives. Working at the intersection of technology and human rights, having a sound understanding and vocabulary for the structural inequalities that govern many of our lives, has been extremely useful both as resistance and survival in my work.

How do you continue doing what you do, pushing and advocating for digital rights, and human rights more broadly?

I guess the question is more, why wouldn’t I continue. As Audre Lorde so aptly put it “We can learn to work and speak when we are afraid in the same way we have learned to work and speak when we are tired. For we have been socialized to respect fear more than our own needs for language and definition, and while we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us.” - this is not to say both fatigue and fear are not real experiences inside of this type of work, but it is to say, when we find community and learn practices of joy, there is more energy for the work.

Who are some people or an individual you’ve met during your work in this field who have had profound influence on your work? And in what way?

Oh my, so many people! I have been abundantly blessed with incredible leaders who have inspired me at work, motivated me and reminded me of who I am. When I worked at the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, Sisonke Msimang was the Executive Director at the time. She was a force of nature. I had never seen a woman seem so clearly sure of herself, fully embodied in her experience, while also articulating her vulnerabilities. Knowing she existed and could work as a leader of this major foundation and parent and be a mentor and be scared and still be learning was a novel idea to me that still shapes how I think about leadership.
Another leader, who you are very familiar with Michael, is Ebele Okobi. When I first interviewed for a position at Meta, then Facebook, I had this incredibly illuminating conversation with Ebele that felt like I was talking to a sister - friend - mentor all at once. She asked me what my purpose was and not in any cheesy way, she genuinely wanted to know what I was about and why I thought I was here on this earth. This bust my brain, of course, I had never had an interview like this. Then after almost an hour of conversation, I knew that she would play an incredible part in shaping what I could imagine as possible for my life. I then had the profound privilege of working with her as my Manager for the next 2 years –which was entirely remarkable. Ebele is so many things I believe, to so many people but to me she has been a reminder of the entire magic, spectacularness and possibility of black women and why we absolutely need to harness, support and care for one another, because blazing new pathways for ourselves and others often comes at a major cost and the more we stand in solidarity the more we can shelter one another.

What are some of the values, broadly speaking, that guide you in this field or in life more broadly?

I would say the values that guide me in this work are the same values that guide me in life. I am an African Feminist scholar and practitioner, which for me means I endeavor to understand power and how it operates in our lives in an attempt to create more spaces of liberation. I am guided by a deep sense of mutual accountability to myself and to the communities I belong to and to those I serve. I believe deeply in the power of community and solidarity. I think about the role social movements have played in creating change and am constantly inspired by this. I am guided by a guttural sense of empathy and compassion for people. This world can be a hard place where I think more of us are trying to survive it intact, than those who are trying to destroy it. Maybe finally, I think radical love is imperative for our movements. If we do not love ourselves and each other, what are we fighting for? In June Jordan’s words “I believe that love is the single, true prosperity of any moment.”

What’s a specific event when you feel like your team’s or organization’s work (or your own work) was able to make a significant impact in the field of digital rights?

I think my team and I have done a lot of work that feels important and significant over the years. Some of which may not always be visible. I think much of our work aims to support communities and organizations that are at the forefront of community organizing and tech and policy. That being said, we did have the privilege of recently launching several projects on Human Rights Day last year, to enhance online safety and freedom of expression in the Africa, Middle East, and Türkiye regions. You can find more information about them on the Defenders Safe website.

What are some ways you think the technology, policy, and human rights fields can become more diverse, inclusive, and equitable in composition, policy topics, learning, and advocacy?

I think this is a great question. When we build from the margins as opposed to the center we inadvertently become more diverse and inclusive. However, this takes concerted effort. It means looking for the people and the stories and the organizations that may not always be front and center, but do exist. As an unspoken rule, I often think that if our work aims to speak to the concerns of those that are most marginalized, then we will be solving for everyone. Centering the margins is hardly ever easy but it remains necessary.

What are some of the non-mainstream sources you turn to when building knowledge or keeping informed on tech, policy, and human rights related issues? And what sources do you follow to keep current on the latest happenings in technology and politics today?

Broadly speaking I try to focus or point my learning in the direction of community organizing. I think community organizing has so much to teach us about policy and human rights and the intersection of tech. I generally believe communities retain the knowledge and expertise to prosper, it is just a matter of making that knowledge seen and heard. Time permitting, I like to inundate myself with literature and knowledge from black and brown women as I understand the ways in which these kinds of knowledge and knowing have been suppressed and I work, like many others, to surface this knowledge and learn from this knowledge.

What’s an event or period professionally from which you’ve learned a great deal, either about yourself or about a topic or a way of doing things/advocating?

The BHR Group Digital Rights Careers Newsletter

The BHR Group Digital Rights Careers Newsletter - Issue 20

Guest Spotlight: Mazuba Haanyama

Positions in Policy, Law, and Digital Rights

Civil Society/Non-Profits

Press/Media

Academia

International Organizations

Think Tanks/Research Institutions

Government

Industry

Industry Associations

Firms/Consultancies