Mylène Flicka

Mylène Flicka (born Marie-Madeleine Fifamè Akrota; 22 July 1996) is a Beninese blogger, activist and social media entrepreneur.

Mylène Flicka
Born	Marie-Madeleine Fifamè Akrota (1996-07-22) 22 July 1996 (age 29)
Pen name	Mylène Flicka
Occupation	Activist; Blogger; Digital Media
Language	French
Nationality	Beninese

Biography

Marie-Madeleine Fifamè Akrota was born on 22 July 1996.^[1] She adopted the pseudonym Mylène Flicka when she was 14 years old, inspired by Mary O'Hara's novel My Friend Flicka.^[2] Aged 17, Flicka began her first blog, which was dedicated to highlight issues around women's rights in Benin.^[2] It was spurred into action by the declaration of a Beninese businessman that women had no use in the workplace.^[3] In 2011 she came first place in Benin's Literary Baccalaureate.^[4]

In 2015, using money from her student grant, she set up Irawo Media in order to showcase role models for young people from Benin and beyond.^[2] She also graduated in Benin with a Diploma from the National School of Administration and the Judiciary.^[4] In 2018 she began to study for an MBA in Paris.^[4]

Irawo focuses on profiling young people from francophone Africa in particular.^[5] One of the first people to be profiled by Flicka was Marie-Cécile Zinsou, many other notable African has followed since.^[1]

Activism

Flicka has coordinated several online campaigns, including #GiveMeMyCredit in 2016 which campaigned for creatives, such as photographers, to be able to keep the rights to their work and to be credited when it is used.^[2] In the same year, Irawo exposed government corruption in water supply to the rural village of Bonouko.^[6] In 2017 she ran a campaign on social media called #FreeMyBoobs, which tried make it more acceptable for women to not wear a bra.^[2] In September 2017, Flicka gave her first TEDx talk.^[7]

In 2018 Flicka was part of the #TaxePasMesMo (translation: Don't Tax My Megabytes) campaign, where the government of Benin had tried to levy a social media tax on internet access, texts and calls.^[8] Flicka helped to organise and social media campaign, as well as peaceful protest around the cities.^[9] After ten days, the government withdrew the tax.^[9] Internet Without Borders gave their support to the campaign and Flicka works as an adviser to them.^[10] In October 2018 Flicka was sponsored by UNICEF to address the French National Assembly on World Girls Day.^[11]