Damn Etu: When Words Become Resistance

There are some voices you hear, and there are others you feel.

During my time in Windhoek, Namibia, for the 2026 Weavers Forum, I encountered one of those voices: Damn Etu — Frieda Etuhole

A Namibian spoken-word poet, writer, editor and performance artist, Damn Etu brings a rawness to her work that refuses to allow words to simply sit on a page. Her poetry carries memory, vulnerability, politics, womanhood, identity and the complicated realities of being seen, heard and silenced.

I first experienced her powerful presence at the opening of the Weavers Forum, a Pan-African feminist convening held in Windhoek from 5–8 August 2026 and co-convened by FEMNET, Nawi Afrifem Collective and Akina Mama wa Afrika. The Forum created a space for feminist thinkers, organisers and creatives to imagine economies rooted in care, justice and collective sovereignty and poetry and creative practice were deliberately recognised as part of that political work.

As I watched Damn Etu perform, I was reminded of something I deeply believe:

Art is not separate from our politics.

Sometimes a poem can say what a policy paper cannot. Sometimes a voice on a stage can reach the places that theory struggles to enter. Sometimes storytelling gives us the language to name what we have inherited, what we have survived, and the futures we are still trying to imagine.

Damn Etu's creative journey reflects this power. Her work has appeared in Doek! Literary Magazine, and she has built an independent creative practice that brings poetry and performance into living, breathing spaces.

In this episode, I sit down with Damn Etu to explore the woman behind the words.

We talk about poetry, performance, vulnerability, memory, womanhood, identity and the courage it takes to reclaim your voice. We explore what happens when the things that once silenced us become the very material through which we create, speak and resist.

This is a conversation about what it means to take up space through art.

To turn pain into language.

To turn memory into story.

To turn a voice into resistance and to understand that our creative work can be both deeply personal and profoundly political.

This conversation stayed with me long after the Weavers Forum ended, because sometimes the first act of resistance is simply refusing to remain silent.

When a woman speaks, the world has no choice but to listen.

Follow Damn Etu and explore her work:

Instagram: @damn_etu
Website: Damn Etu

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:05

Welcome to Speaking Through My World with Rosie Wither, part of the Feminist Frontlines Initiative, where we use the microphone as a tool for justice. This is a space where my three passions of women, Africa, and the arts meet in conversation. To storytelling, healing, reflections, and courageous dialogues, with amplified voices, preserve her story, and explore the issues that are shaping our lives, communities, and our continent. Thank you for listening. Let's speak to my world. So in this episode, it's about celebrating our voices, our bodies, who we are, and I am so, so, so blessed to have a powerful, powerful voice that hails from Namibia, met her at the Weavers Forum in Namibia, and her introduction was to poetry.

SPEAKER_03 1:14

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Yes, you absolutely. Um, and just for my listeners, I mean, she opened up the Weavers Forum and then invited us to a live performance on stage. And what I love about the arts is that it doesn't matter what language you're speaking in. If somebody is meant to be on stage, the message that they're conveying comes across. And you speak and you do poetry in your native tongue, um, but we all resonated in our own way. So before we even get to that, as African women, we've always been told, be quiet, be docile, keep it down. How did you find your voice?

SPEAKER_03 2:00

Uh okay, that's a very I like the question because now it makes me think of last year. I was in the same position when I was doing preparing for my Terex talk, and um my best friend forced me to do it because she felt like, girl, it's about time you do something. So I was like, okay, fine, you know what? This is a challenge I can take on. And uh part of uh my talk was um finding my voice, so it's from silence to stage and finding my voice and how I found it. And uh a lot of the contribution to me having found my voice was really because I had a community of women who raised me, and I I mentioned this a lot. Uh, the women that raised me uh from my street where I grew up in Socorround, they had a big role to play in the kind of woman that I turned out to be and the kind of especially the kind of poetry that I do. Uh, because a lot of it is uh I am very passionate about telling township stories, everyday stories that everybody can relate to. But I think my core passion is truly telling women-related stories and women-related issues and obviously talking about them. Um, throughout my activism life, so to say, and uh being in a space where I can write about women, I've always been at the forefront of many protests, I've always been in front of the camera talking about women. But for my poetry, truly, the women that raised me in Sokomun, they had a big role to play. And I've written poetry for them, I've spoken about them. And I'm not sure if you were in the room when I did the piece yesterday. Yeah, yes. So that very specific piece, those women are also the women I talk about in my TEDx talk, but that they really gave me a voice because um a lot of the experiences that they had, nobody was really there for them to speak up. And as I grew, I'm realizing that all these experiences that um um the women that are surrounding me now, people of women of my age, women that are also slightly older than me, these are the conversations that they are having. But we are having it amongst each other, but not really disseminating the information as to broaden the conversation with everybody else. So I decided, you know what, instead of just sitting, let me write about it in my poetry. And surprisingly enough, there are a lot of women who come to me and they're crying, and I never really know what to do, so I just hold them, and I guess it's it's it's a good thing because then it means I'm giving I'm holding space for them to cry and uh let it all out, and it's a good thing that they resonate, and maybe also that there is somebody who slightly understands what they are going through.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Yeah, but I think it's also and I and I saw that last night because you know I love it when people acknowledge women, number one, but also particularly their mothers, and as much as it's holding space for women, you're also celebrating all of us, yes, our sexiness, everything, all of it.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

Um also coming from an Oshiwambo um background, so in Namibia we have uh I think 14 ethnic groups. I could be in under correction, and um in in the Oshiwambo dialect, we have way more. So we have uh Oshiwanyama, uh Oshindonga, Oshimbalani, Oshi Kwambi, Oshinangera, uh Kualusi, and Kolongari, we have seven. And of these seven, I'm from the Osh, Oshiwanyama, Ovaquanyama people, but most of the traditional and cultural aspects are all the same, and in the sense that women celebrating each other didn't really involve knowing anything about your body much. Most of what we knew we learned from our mothers, but even so, in a space where it came from a place of having to hide it, be shameful about it, even your periods, it it it was uh a thing of okay, you are coming of age now, this is how you do it. And I think back in the day, women were not allowed to even serve cook for the household, never mind for the husband when you're on your periods. And I could never really understand why that was the issue because I'm just on my periods, like it's it's not a big deal like that. And I remember though there was a conversation that my friends and I were having where we uh it it's I'm not I I don't want to come off as being disrespectful, but and I think we also mentioned this in the talking like do we actually think our mothers even know anything about pleasure? And it it put us in a position where okay, fine, I'm thinking about my mom like that, but also it's putting you in a position to think about how far have women come to actually have these conversations? Yeah, like if if I were to have this conversation with my mom, would she have any idea on what I'm talking about? Would she have some input into it? Or it's just is she merely existing in this marriage for so long just for the pleasure of my dad?

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Yeah, when or would she be would she even realize that she's allowed to have that pleasure?

SPEAKER_03 7:19

Yes, so all these conversations are very important, and like you said, we don't necessarily just have to talk about the issues and the trauma of women, but how do we celebrate women? How do we make sure that women are comfortable in their skin? And how do we make sure that wherever you are, there is a sister that's willing to assist you through a specific journey, be it you are trying to figure out how to be a woman, how to dress like a woman, how to think like a woman, everything that is positive about being a woman. Some of these conversations we hardly have in. So I try to bring them out in my poetry. Um, but also apart from that, um we have a local newspaper called the New Era newspaper, and I've been writing for them since 2019. My blog is called Mabutu Conversations. So Mabutu is slang for girl back in high school. Yeah, they'll say, No, I'm who who's Mabutu, that means you're who's girl. But then again, it was also a very um weird word to use, and I think it's one of those where you have to really use it with yourself in order to claim it and uh look at how it's slightly derogatory to say. So that's why I made it my conversation to say no. We are talking about women conversations the bad, the ugly, the good. And I've received my fair backlash.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

I'm sure, I'm sure. But but but that's the thing about the feminist journey is is that a lot of the time it's about us reclaiming the hordes that are thrown at us, you know. So whether it is taking reclaiming the word slut or queer or whatever it is, so that they they who have put those on us don't have ownership anymore.

SPEAKER_03 9:06

Yes, and they don't have the power over us. So most of it, I remember my very, I think it's my second or third article, it was titled condoms in my purse. Oh my goodness. I think even my aunt calls, she's like, is this what you're doing in Ventug? I'm like, but I'm advocating for women to practice safe sex because the article was um primarily about women having to carry condoms in your purse. It's a practice that I did when I think I got accustomed to Sister Namabia, which is an organization in Ventuk that um uh caters to feminists, women, everything women-centered. So I I I think somebody mentioned it one time and I realized, but this is actually good because that time when you you are young, you're going out clubbing, and you end up with whoever you end up. But are you being safe? Yeah, because most of these men's safety is not their number one priority. So, how do you make sure that you are safe? And it's not I had to constantly defend that I'm not saying I'm going to look for sex, I'm just saying if the opportunity arrives, I'm in a space where I can say I'm able to protect myself. Yeah, because I was cognizant of the fact that condoms are free in the hospital, sometimes at school. So that article, who I was called all sorts of names, which gave me that I made my point. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

Now you guys know, and you know, it that also speaks to like another level of bodily autonomy. So we don't people want to police our bodies, but when we're trying to be responsible or hold ourselves accountable, they still want to police our bodies.

SPEAKER_03 10:42

Yes, you still want to put so where do you want me to be with the body that's mine? Yeah, so I think that's also very important to know when to put your foot down. Doesn't matter what space you find yourself in as a woman, if it means having to defend your belief surrounding your body, that's very important. And I think we don't really get a lot of um spaces where women are supported to say, listen, this is the idea, or this is uh the the idea that we're sitting with, and this is your right to a certain aspect, whether it's abortion, whether it's uh sex health reproductive rights, or whether it's just how to behave as a woman in society or be you, yeah, exactly. Yeah, so I try to be that voice, and I love that I get backlash for it.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Well, I was just gonna say, so when you get the backlash or when you get the criticism, you know you're on the right track. You're ruffling feathers, girl.

SPEAKER_03 11:44

Oh, a lot of it. I'm through text, through email, through comments, everywhere. And I'm just like, that means you read the whole article. Yeah, I'm very happy you did. No, please tell your sisters about it. Yeah, tell them. So, but then again, like you said, it doesn't really just stop there. I speak about how the genetic is a social construct, and again, also the men do come in, of course, but I also speak about how to. I think my latest article was um what to expect when you turn 30. But then I changed that there's nothing to expect when you turn 30, you are just a 30-year-old woman. Exactly the same when you turn 40 and 50. Okay, maybe your frontal look slightly slightly develops, and you are able to make better choices, especially with maybe your love life or just your priorities in life. Yeah, but other than that, you are still the same woman that you are, you're still the kind person that you are. You still all have a dream, you still have to have aspirations. It is your life doesn't end at 30 because yeah, who will marry you in your 30? Somebody who loves 30-year-olds and love. I don't know. There will always be somebody for you, and also that article, I had a lot of women who's like, you are. I remember one texted me, I I needed to read this because for the past few days I've been thinking about I'm turning 34 and I don't have a relationship, I'm still struggling with my degree, I have a kid, but the the the father is not present, and she's still trying to figure life out. And I thought the fact that you are cognizant of the fact that these are the things that you need to do, priorities, yes, you're in a good space. Time is such a weird construct because now you think you have none of it left, and then you turn 40 and you're like, Why was I so worried? Yeah, so all these I mean, yeah, I think when we were 20, we we did think like, Oh my goodness, it's gonna be the end of the world.

SPEAKER_02 13:48

But you see, and that that then speaks to why they want to always always silence us, why they don't want us to use our activism or advocacy through our art form, because it's gonna resonate with with people like that. Yes, um, and people who are gonna question. Yes, you know, let's let's talk about the art scene and and the the creative aspect in in Namibia. Where is it at in your opinion?

SPEAKER_03 14:11

Uh the creativity, there are a lot of creatives in Namibia. I think our biggest issue currently is uh monetization, especially with content creation.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:26

Because I mean the the technology has taken over on how we become creative and so forth. So a lot of creatives in Namibia are doing uh going the content creation way, influencing way. Um but also myself included, I'm doing uh videos now to adding visuals to my poetry. But then again, even if you upload this on TikTok, YouTube, we are not being paid because our population is very small. But it's also it's an African content problem, also. Yes, but it's not to say that there isn't talent in Namibia, there's a lot of talent, even with uh within the poetry space, they are constantly emerging poets who are doing amazing work. Maybe not uh putting it on the internet, but um, I've had a lot of poets come to my some of my shows. Yeah, we saw it last night, which is great. Yes, and you you hear these people's working like this is actually really good work. But what do we do to elevate these people in the creative space? Sorry, there isn't much being done, truly. It's like being a creative in Namibia, you have to have an A to five. Yeah, you really have to have an A to five. It's either to I I we're actually having this conversation sometime last week with a friend of mine. We made it a gig, and we're saying there are two options of being a creative in Namibia. Either you are creative with an A to five, or you are creative who's doing it purely out of passion. Yeah, and when you do it from a space of passion, that means you need to carry yourself financially. You need to make sure that you you know how to so you need to also educate yourself on how to pitch for proposals, how to write proposals, how to do an elevator pitch, which a lot of creatives uh maybe don't really put in the work because they have an eight to five to supplement when it there's a backfall. But for people who are doing creative work as your job fully and how you live in it, there's a there's a lot of work that goes into it in order for you to be able to sustain yourself. Yeah, and for poetry, um I I my I think for me, what has helped me as a poet, I network a lot and I get to I get to be invited to uh con conferences like the Weavers Forum, I get to perform for corporates and I get to do weddings, but it all started with having to put myself out there. Yeah, you really have to put yourself out there if you want to win as a creative in the country in Arabia.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

But but but that speaks to also just being an artist, and so it's about knowing yourself and not in an ego-driven way, but it's knowing yourself of doing that, and so how did you find that person?

SPEAKER_03 17:14

Do you know how I started writing poetry? So, how I started writing, it's my poetry journey is has a bit of cliche moments, and then there are moments where I really had to okay, I needed to have a push. But um, the first time I picked up a poetry book was I was in grade seven. I was sweeping a class, and then I still have the book, the anthology, I still have it, and I picked up that book and I started writing um the I copied the poetry from there into my my diary. I used to keep journals, and then I started try to emulate the the the wording into my own way. Oh wow. So that's how I started writing, but that was just for me because I was doing journaling. So in high school, this one guy approached me and said, you know what? I want to write a letter to my girlfriend, but I don't know how to say. So I I started writing poetry in high school for guys who didn't know how to get girls, who didn't know how to get girls. This is actually a lucrative business. I'm gonna do this, and that's how I survived most of my high school. I could I had money for snacks and stuff like that. I could buy myself beds, entrepreneurship and the best. Yes, but I when I came to university, that was 2014. Um, poetry was still buzzing. We had uh the warehouse theater, and we had the boiler room with the theater school. I think there was a big resurgence of of creativeness and art and poetry and hip-hop. So we used to congregate at the warehouse theater. We had spoken word every first Wednesday of every month. So that happened every day, and we had to audition uh in front of uh the guys who've been doing poetry for a while, and they would give us feedback saying, Oh, maybe improve this, maybe do this, maybe do that. And then COVID happened. So when COVID happened, um uh uh uh I with this other guy, we started running a poetry thing together, and uh it lasted for five years until sometime last year. Then I decided, you know what? I've been doing this with other people for so long. Let me give it a try. Okay, honestly speaking, my best friend had a big role to play in it because she was like, if you don't do it, okay, she threatened me, it wasn't a nice threat.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

So I suppose we need those type of friends, you know.

SPEAKER_03 19:40

Yes, I I really did, I really did need it, and um, so when last year I had my brain launch, and I was still nervous. Yo, I was nervous out of my mind, and I was telling her, okay, what if the people don't like my work, but they've already seen my work on social media? What will happen? And she said, if you don't calm down, I'm going to slap you. She really said that to me. So I was like, okay. And uh I had a full house. I think I had over 300 people, 300 plus people. Wow. And some people were standing, some people didn't have a place to sit, and I think that put me in a position of like, okay, this is really my calling, this is really who I am. I'm a storyteller. People come out to listen to me tell the same story a million times. So why not better myself? But I I have constant mentors. Um, okay, I have one, and my best friend, she doesn't really count as an official mentor. So I have people who I go to for uh for a lot of guidance, especially if I'm researching a certain topic that I I feel like, you know what, I want to really write about this. How do I go about it?

SPEAKER_01 20:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:51

So they sit with me and tell me no, because a lot of the stuff that I write is very cultural, and uh some of the people that I want to write about, they're like, you're not allowed to say this. That person, rather put it this way, so they help me a lot. Yes, so I I I I had to learn to ask for help, yeah, because usually I would just wing it and it's my work, you can't say anything about it. And it's a good thing that don't police creative's work because then it takes out the intended message. The authenticity also. The authenticity, yes. But sometimes I feel like it's okay to ask people for help so that they can guide you so that the message is received the way you intend it to be received on the other end.

SPEAKER_02 21:37

Because also that speaks to the responsibility we have as as artists is that yes, we could we own our own work, but make sure that what is put out is as accurate as possible.

SPEAKER_03 21:47

Yes, yeah, yes, very true. And uh, I remember I had to um I had to do a piece for for uh the Groot Institute recently, and they wanted to talk about uh um indigenous knowledge and reclaiming indigenous knowledge bay but also reparations um making sure that we go back to the African way of life in South Africa and I wanted to go the African Queen route so I couldn't just mention any other queen so I had to do my research uh I had to reach out to the people in those specific countries that I know my friends and say is this really what she did she do this she didn't do this okay and then they would tell me no rather put this one there then it's it's it's received easier and better and people who are from that certain country will even understand where you are coming from yeah so all these things but I also go to to I think I put I really put myself out there and uh I think my motto for this year was rather do it and you know get an answer get a no get that they've done it yes so I was like whether they don't want to hear my voice I want to speak absolutely so I'm I'm I I sign myself up for things that I know I'll regret but I'll still be on my way regretting it but I'll still pitch up yeah and I'll still uh speak up and I try to be in rooms with people who have knowledge that can fill my cup and uh by this is sometimes I'll ask a question that I think is stupid but then it opens up a lot of conversations and I learn even more from that. So I attend pitch nights and I learn how to pitch and I learn and I teach myself how to go into certain spaces and talk to people who I know can help me maybe through funding through collaborations through opportunities all this things yeah but the artistic hustler yes I think that's my new name yeah I like that's my new title but let's talk about your name and how did how did that come about damn etu so I had a I had a lot of names before I arrived at this one I even had Echo as a name at one point it's pretty powerful and my my one of my friends loved it and until now it's just like I don't know understand why you changed your name and I'm like it's okay so one of my names is Etuhole and it's a name given to me by uh my late best friend from high school she passed on and she used to say that you love people too much. So Etule means she loves us and I was just like okay she's like yeah she she started calling me to hole and I was like okay girl such one is fine so I stuck with it and uh and then I shorted it to Etu. So it became my stage name. So I went on stage and I performed and then somebody said damn etu and I was like listen that is a good name yeah I'm gonna steal it and I'm gonna use it and I've been running with it since and the reception is actually I've I've never met somebody that knows me from poetry that has never said damn eighty oh my god it's damn eti uh yeah it is I the power of creating a good brand yes yeah and I and I I think it has it's it's been doing well especially the brand in its uh itself I've um I've been teaching uh high school poetry to kids and uh last two years ago we did a tour around the country with uh one of uh our biggest um flower brands uh Top Scorner and uh those so they they are the Milly Mill brand amazing yeah so they I think for their corporate social resolvability and also tapping into the creative state they were releasing a new instant flavor of porridge and they wanted the kids to write about what they think this flavor is so we went around 10 schools in the country and the kids did some amazing poetry and there was a a kid who did poetry in Oshuambo brilliant and I was just in awe that there's hope for Namibian poetry. Yeah so definitely yes a lot of that has come from damn it and I mean also last night with people just getting up on stage I think that's incredibly powerful because you hardly see that nowadays so in the in the performance last night you also mentioned you're going down to the coast you got a few shows what's next in the pipeline so I have I have uh I think three events lined up uh one is is not so uh fully there yet because I'm still waiting for my people to give me the go-ahead but uh it's about it's called Okwitanga but okitanga is uh an Oshipayama word or it's an Oshiwambo word it's just pronounced differently depending on pronunciation and um it means praise poetry so it is praise poetry so what I want to do is I want to host uh like a one-day event where especially in the Oshiwambo culture praise poetry is I think in most African cultures praise poetry is used to talk about your lineage your clan some praise they are cows because that's where the wealth is some praise uh just normal ordinary praising uh depending on what you're talking about could be the weather could be your mom could be your lover anything in that line but I feel like it's a lost kind of art and not a lot of people are practicing it as it was back in the day. Yeah and now that I think of it there's only one lady she passed now her name um I forgot her her her government name now but her name was Nangilinashima Nangilinashima is it means with turtle and tortoise if I have to yeah directly translate it it that's literally what it uh with yeah with turtle and tortoise and she was a brilliant brilliant praise poet and uh she spoke about sexuality she she spoke about uh LGDBQ and mind you that was back then wow and a lot of people argue that we didn't have gay people back then I'm like they did exist been around for years and why I love her so much she uh she's she was one of the artists who uh sexually liberated so she spoke about how no man could keep her no man could handle her she spoke about how she had two husbands at one point oh I love her I I really she she passed before I could meet her but I really take a lot from her work there's not really a lot of it that's documented and that's primarily why I want to have the one day event to also document this knowledge I think we spoke about it today that there's a need to archive the African knowledge that's left now to and through our lens through our voices. Yes through our voices and one way to do it is through the Oshwambo or the Oshwambo language or any other language that you that you speak but what I want to do is I want to have the morning where there's um women and men who teach the anybody that's interested how Oki Tanga came about what you can do with it how to do it what to not talk about all those things and then during the afternoon we have a many traditional people are selling the traditional food there's a bit of performances and then in the evening we sit around the fire with elders and we converse on any topic that resonates with the art of Okitanga so my fingers across yes my fingers across together yes yes yes yes they will so that's the one event and then I'm planning to have an event in um in in the coast so I think that will be the 9th of October if I'm not mistaken but it's in Swakabund where I grew up and uh it's at um a center it's Costec so arts and crafts that's what they teach but they also teach other things but it's primarily it's for arts and craft and they want to liven up the place again so I think let's do a collaboration bring the people there and they can see what we can do with the place. And then my last show I want to have it in Ventuk and uh hopefully maybe sometime in November where it's warmer everybody can wear summer dresses you're out want to have it in the courtyard and you know you can sip cocktails or you listen and just have a really good time.

SPEAKER_02 30:50

Yeah and celebrate ourselves yes and celebrate yourself celebrate your achievement and it's gonna be towards the end of the year celebrate what you've achieved throughout the year how you've carried yourself and allow yourself to be present yeah yeah and and celebrate you yes and celebrate you damn etu so the whole the whole phrase is damn etu in cloud soul unfiltered ah beautiful awful thank you thank you for your voice thank you for showing up my pleasure and when I mean showing up not for this podcast but for showing up for you um you know a lot of us because with the Reavers forum coming from different countries and seeing that and and experiencing that of just another aspect of the feminist um her story uh is incredibly powerful so thank you thank you thank you and for my listeners I will also add on the social media handles where you can follow them keep us posted on the other events so of course we can also just help promote and so forth. All right and until next time stay blessed