ISSUE 007 // FUFU & DADELS

We’ve seen that you decided to take it a step further - and now FUFU & DADELS is not only “ The podcast where WOC keep it 100% real” but also a cross-media platform and creative production house. What made you guys take this step and how has it been so far?

For a long time we have had the ambition to tell stories from more perspectives than just our own. We now use the audio platform we have built to not only showcase the inherent vastness of our rich cultures as founders with various backgrounds, but also to showcase how other young creative talents give voice to their talents as they get to create through our platform. We also believe there are multiple ways of telling an audio story.  For season 2, we will be playing with multiple forms of narrative storytelling, recurring themed formats and our favourite guest presenters. By going from an interview Podcast that mainly focused on interviewing dope womxn and movements to adding narrative stories and series, we get a chance to discuss the content our audience loves more in depth. We can’t wait to share the outcome of all of that with y’all!

 What’s an important lesson you guys have learned throughout your journey with FUFU & DADELS? 

MUNGANYENDE: I unlearned a lot of my own perfectionism. I used to get in my head a lot about what a perfect creative process and product might look like. That perfectionism often manifested in writer's block, getting creatively stuck or being persuaded into doing things to please others. I now know that perfectionism and progress can’t share the same seat. What is most important is the inherent value you see in yourself and the place from which you create the work: that place must be at all times intentional and unshakable.

SÜHEYLA: Pfew, I have learned so much. I have learned about the technical process of making audio stories. Which can vary from writing a script to neatly editing an episode ( I still haven’t mastered the latter haha). But I also learned so much about myself and about my family through the series I’ve been working on about me, my Turkish/Armenian/Dutch background and about them. I also learned so much from our guests and the works they create, and the experiences they have. I also learned what it takes to run a platform. To be responsible for the creative content, the visual looks, the teamwork. It’s been a really great journey so far.

ALIDA: I’ve just started so perhaps ask me again in a few months ahahaha. Answering it from a perspective of someone that has just joined I’m mainly focussed in taking it all in. In being present in everything we create and being as authentic and intentional as i can be with my contribution to FD. 

“ I now know that perfectionism and progress can’t share the same seat. What is most important is the inherent value you see in yourself and the place from which you create the work: that place must be at all times intentional and unshakable.”

— MUNGANYENDE

What is your favorite aspect about being part of FUFU & DADELS? 

ILHAM: The freedom to create whatever we want, from our deepest passions and the most heartfelt topics - it all comes from a very genuine place and the safe space in which we create. That is something we want our listeners/ audience to feel too. Creating a sort of coziness that feels like coming home. A shared sisterhood in which we uplift each other and aspire to bond and form a deep connection with ourselves and our listeners.

Alida: You mean besides joining one of my favorite podcast, I religiously listened to for the first season?! 

I’d have to agree with Ilham, and say the freedom in the way we each creatively contribute to FUFU & DADElS. We have the most safe-space kind of staff meetings I’ve ever experienced and this translates in the conversations we share with our audience. This freedom of expression allows us, or me to create from a place of love and with intent. Something I’ve been trying to center more in my life, as of late and the fact that I can actively practice this in our podcast is bliss. 

If you gals could chat about 1 subject for the rest of your lives, what would that subject be and why? 

MUNGANYENDE: The overwhelming grace, beauty, ugly, apologeticness, intergeneration, sistrenship and humanity of (being a) black womxn. My life is filled with inspiration and humility offered to me by black womxn, African mothers, aunties and daughters from all walks of life. Being, loving and admiring black womxn takes a lot of work in a world that continuously tries to convince us otherwise. So Being, loving and admiring black womxnhood is what I know best to be and what I know best to love on.  I am rooting for everybody black and womxn. Thassit, that’s the caption. 

ILHAM: Intersectional feminism! Oh hun, I need to talk more about it and I also need to educate myself more about it. It’s so much more than just a simple subject. It’s an entire ocean of themes that spans borders, crosses countries and dives into multiple systems in which we navigate our everyday lives. From contemporary womxnism to feminist Amazigh warriors going back 14 centuries: there’s a lot to study and thus to talk about. Pour some atay already and let’s start chatting right away!

“Intersectional feminism! Oh hun, I need to talk more about it and I also need to educate myself more about it. It’s so much more than just a simple subject. It’s an entire ocean of themes that spans borders, crosses countries and dives into multiple systems in which we navigate our everyday lives.”

— ILHAM

ALIDA: Without a doubt love, it is a subject I’ve been enamored with for as long as I can remember. A topic I feel is so vast and contrary to many assumptions, is part of so much more than we give it credit. When we speak of love, we often tend to focus on romantic love. Now, of course, self-love has been in the uprise of mainstream conversation, but what about platonic love? What happens when love is absent vs. when it’s present? What is unconditional love, is there such thing as revolutionary love and how does that feel? What does that look like? What about Love in the sphere of activism, of ongoing revolution; does it have a place in those realms and if so/if not, why? I don’t think my answer would surprise you, but I’m always ready and open to talk about love. It has been one of the few consistency in my life, a recurrent theme in anything I do and all I’ve experienced. I love love love love… love [periodt]

SÜHEYLA: For me it’s family and migration stories. I love love love hearing stories from my family members and using those in the work I make. I’m so curious about my dad's youth, which he spent in Turkey. I bomb him with many questions, I have always done that. Being in groups makes me feel safe and nice, I love the interaction with people. I love it when friends of mine meet other friends of mine or when family and friends intervene. For me that is my love language, so that’s what I’m full off. What I can’t stop talking about haha. 

If it's not serious FUFU & DADELS business what's something that unites you womxn?

ILHAM: Our passion to inspire. My name means ‘inspiration’ in Arabic and its actually the perfect description I could think of for me personally. I always long to be and feel inspired, so I am very lucky to be surrounded by such enthusiastic and passionate womxn. Just by simply being who they are, they inspire me. It’s like looking at a mirror and seeing a reflection of my own power. As a womxn, the world around us can often be a very harsh place which can overwhelm and break us down. I believe it’s our duty as womxn to uplift each other and create safe spaces in which we can navigate ourselves. I am very glad I found my safe space at FUFU & DADELS. Therefore I will always make it a priority to continue creating these spaces for other womxn. In coming together and celebrating our potential, we celebrate our womxn power. It brings us closer to the root in which we were planted. We have to keep nurturing it, just like we water our plants. 

ALIDA: I guess our collective need for a space such as FUFU & DADELS. I know you said outside of “FUFU & DADELS” business but this is the first thing that came into mind. All of us understand the importance of this place we are creating. Not just for ourselves, but for womxn who look like us and have similar shared lived experiences. With that in mind we come together and create, we allow ourselves to come just as we are, good, bad and ugly. There’s always room at our table for whichever version of us that shows up… 

SÜHEYLA: I think our need for a space to be unapologetic. To listen to each other. And what combines us too is our foolishness. We are hella funny. We had multiple audio sessions where we needed to stop recording because we were laughing too much. I also think about our love of fashion and food. We love to eat during meetings and that makes us surprisingly silent haha.