I Love Women

TODAY IS INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY!! I spent this day at a women’s workshop organised by the Black Students Committee and the East African Society here in Sheffield! This is an inspiring day where the world celebrates the economic, political and social achievements of women. This is a time of commemoration and celebration for the reason that we are all here- because our mothers endured the pain and pleasure of having us in this world.

THERE ARE THOSE that have dared question my respect for women and they know nothing about me. This is despite the fact that I have grown up in a household with 8 women, all raised by a strong mother and that my closest of friends happen to be strong women. I have little to prove. Instead I strongly urge you to give special recognition to women and strive to repeat this natural thing on a daily basis. Even Jesus, a man that saved all generations was born of an unknown virgin who became the mother of God.

PERSONALLY, it touches the very core of me that a woman proudly and tirelessly carried me, carried a whole life, in her womb for nine months. In addition to that, since all ten of us are now grown up, she continues to exhibit the sheer strength of human spirit and duty to mankind by engaging in several initiatives aimed at alleviating poverty amongst the rural poor in Thika District Kenya. This has further led her to win a Presidential Award. To me she is God's gift to mankind. It gives me so much honour to know that this is a legacy that will continue as we play the duty owed to future generations.

SITTING DOWN and having tea with women from the Mau Mau War Veteran Association (ngorongo Branch)made me see that we need not look far for our mother heroes. We need not reach out for the Hillary Clintons, Oprah Winfreys, Condoleezzas and the likes for inspiration!! Women have done more for us Kenyans more than the history we are given suggests. For example, on March 16, 1922, protestors (both Men and Women) gathered outside the Nairobi police station, across from the Norfolk Hotel, to protest the arrest of Harry Thuku a die-hard that was against colonial oppression. The then Colonial Secretary Sir Charles Browning ordered the defiant crowd to vacate the premises or face severe consequences. However, the women in the crowd felt that they had to be more militant in calling for Thuku’s release. This was not a view shared by the men.

IT IS THEN THAT the women began to shout at and ridicule their male colleagues as not being real men. They specifically asked the men to hand over their trousers as the women were determined to have Thuku released. These insults and ridicule alongside other acts such as displaying their naked selves as a curse to the men for their inaction led the men to engage in a more militant front in the call for Thuku’s release leading to a confrontation with the loyalist police leading to deaths and injuries on both sides.

IN RECENT TIMES, we remember the hunger strike at Freedom Corner in February 1992 by mothers of political prisoners which provided a platform for a cross section of Kenyans to speak out against the draconian policies of the Moi regime and set the stage for a much wider, more militant coming together of popular forces.

THE AFRICAN WOMAN fought and was central to our liberation and there is a duty on everyone to fight for the full liberation of the African Woman. According to Gandhi, "only when the woman is liberated from the slavery of the kitchen, that her true spirit may be discovered". This does not mean that women should not cook, but only that women ought to be encouraged to take up their rightful place in the society.

A WHOLE GENERATION of women leaders came up influenced by Gandhi's vision. Still we only need to look amongst us and within ourselves just as Liberia did by electing the first woman president in Africa, a reality that only remains a dream in the United States. Maybe its time that the world learnt from Africa.

I HOPE that you will be inspired. MOST OF ALL I WISH ALL WOMEN and men AN INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY!!