Women's month ending

Written by Maleke Montshiwagae

closing off women's month with the following "amateur" words I put together some time back when I was not feeling well....

"had it not been of my disgruntled mental state I would write at length about black women!...but let me just construct a few sentences in regards to the subject woman,,,..

there will of cause be many opinions, views/perspectives, differences, thoughts, feelings and even imaginations etc. about what would reflect the qualities of a typical good woman in accordance with whatever criteria being imposed# this would merely be a reflection of our different experiences and desires...

in the course of my scientific journey I have learned a great deal about the nature of objective science, in that it[objective science] accepts that there comes a point where nature does not and cannot conform to the laws of science and this is fundamental, so at that point, nature has taken its own cause and therefore it behaves at its own will and cannot be predicted!...this is exactly the analogy I want to relate to all black women, that you ought to establish a cut-off point where you also ''behave'' independent of society's established criteria, whereby you become an unpredictable active actor and subject in the narrative story of a black WOMAN!...

in other words, there shall be no rules or laws by which you are bound in restricting you to unleash your potential...having said this however, I encourage our black sisters to reflect on the classical mirror of indigenous African society to experience the great reflections that will inform them of the critical role played by black women in society in shaping a positive and constructive future based on the humane African principles and culture, where black women were subjects and not objects...

in support of this I quote “Herodotus [Greek philosopher] left a record of his shock at the contrast between the roles of Egyptian women and the women of Athens. He observed that Egyptian women attended market and were employed in trade. In ancient Egypt, a middle-class woman might sit on a local tribunal, engage in real estate transactions, and inherit or bequeath property. Women also secured loans, and witnessed legal documents!’’...

our black women need to reflect on Africa based mirrors, which will indeed support and reflect a true and accurate nature of their roles in ancient times which they can model, it remains a fact that Africa had strong matriarchal aspects that respected women as opposed to the twisted stories about the realities of African women in Africa,....

Our women must therefore be assured that we support whatever roles they want to play in society, just like our great black ancestors did!!...............

to finish off, I end with a typical tragic reflection I borrowed elsewhere. .

"So women, if they have access to feminine respectability, must either stay at home (femininity as domestication), to be careful in how they move and appear in public (femininity as constrained mobility) […] the construction of “the fearsome” is also bound up with the authorisation of legitimate spaces: for example, in the construction of the home as safe, ‘appropriate’ forms of femininity become bound up with the reproduction of domestic space".

this must end!