Taking up the critical role of culture and imagination at work in gender theorisation, activism and consciousness addressed in the recent issue ‘Gender and popular imaginaries in Africa’ (2018) and the situatedness of Southern women’s postcolonial struggles in ‘Southern feminisms’ (2019), this issue of Agenda boldly situates Southern cultural, artistic and creative production centre stage.

Its interest is in how the local geographies and distinctive spatialities of the postcolonial South produce creative explorations that demonstrate in different ways, mediums and genres the intersection of feminine identities. Writers draw attention to multiple axes that shape lives, and the tensions that produce oppressions and desires.

The guest editors, Lliane Loots and Ongezwa Mbele, have brought an inspired and enthusiastic vision in their curation of the issue. Writing in the introduction to the issue, they emphasise the value of creative dialogues among feminists: “In titling this issue ‘Cultural dialogues’ we have been mindful that we curate a journal of writings and reflections from women that indeed set up dialogue; between academia and artist and cultural production, between praxis and theory, and between the gendered being and doing of the cultural domain in the geographical South.”