Spoken like a conscious and true African woman, who like all the present and dearly departed truly conscious African women must forever bemoan the capricious minds and indifferent attitudes of our husbands and sons. In 1492, the advent of African slavery we hear A'isha, the Black-a-Moor Queen, express to her son the young Caliph, Boabdil “weep like a woman for what you could not defend like a man,” after he surrendered without a fight the keys of the Alhambra to the barbarian descendents of the Germanic Völkerwanderung, bringing to "an end eight hundred years of Moorish suzerainty on the Iberian Penninsula." "Quite a piece of work this Mother Africa,” faced with extinction and the responsibility for the survival of the entire human race on her shoulder; she adapts. Migrating and evolving, furnishing mankind with the full spectrum of human ethnicity that is today apparent. In the face of humiliation and on the brink of complete annihilation as a result of slavery; She adapts, and like “footprints in the sand” imprinting on every culture, her personality, and acknowledged or denied transforming forever, for better and worse the culture and history of that respective society. “Trini to the bone” we might be, but there is no Trini without the African. While I agree that as a nation we should resolutely focus on our future, without an appreciation of our past, our future is at best, uncertain. Because of the relative close proximity to, and the remembrance of a rich heritage to sustain them, our ancestors were able to transcend the institution of slavery. It is because of the failure of our appointed leaders and elders, to uphold and to carry on the traditions of our ancestors that our youth commands this current state of anarchism.
We are all agreed that “fleeting indulgences in African attire and a recounting of the horrors of slavery is not enough,” but neither is our jubilation for an emancipation that is at best incomplete. For those shackles were removed from our hands and feet only to be placed on our minds. This captive mind believes in the fallacy of an oppressor’s democracy; a political system invested in maintaining the fiscal superiority of the minority elite, and a religious dogma designed to domesticate the multitudes, thereby, relegating us and our progeny, forever slaves to their manipulative exploits. To be true to our heritage we must appreciate that the enslavement of our ancestors was another radar blip on the map of obstacles to overcome on our journey. We must also remember that although their bodies were captive, their minds remained free and connected to their wondrous heritage.
Any worthwhile progress can only be attained through full comprehension and appreciation of their accomplishments, without which we are left mirroring the perverted visions of their subjugators, and our future, much like our present is likely to produce the same disappointing results. Therefore, while we honor this particular marker on the journey remember that we have a responsibility to those who brought us this far, to accept the challenge of continuing the journey to its fulfillment; and this, African women, is our destiny.
Therefore, if we are tired, and I know that we are, of the condescending and complacent attitudes of our male leaders we must resolve to change forever this image of the platitude mouthing “talking head.” We must raise our sons to be men of honor and respect; respect for self and others, and honor for the traditional values bequeathed by our ancestors: While we raise our daughters to be strong in mind and character. A Nigerian proverb states that “when the drumbeat changes so too the dance:” Nevertheless women, we continue to beat out tunes that promote indifference and licentiousness in our men, neglecting to heed the words of William Wallace when he insightfully observes that “the hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world.” Know your power, African woman, and reclaim it, it is the only way to ensure that what you dream today for your children, will become for them, tomorrow's reality.