For Women: Freedom of Body and Mind

Liberate the minds of men and ultimately you will liberate the bodies of men. (Marcus Garvey)

Dear Zayda,

If Garvey is right (and I think he is) we need to free our minds before our bodies can be free. So many of us have a long way to go to consider ourselves free.

Garvey was probably too busy fighting issues of race and class to consider gender. If he were alive today, he might rephrase what he said to include women. But no matter, we will include ourselves.



Let us not forget, however, that there are many in different parts of the world who still do not want women to be liberated in either body or mind. I had a conversation on a radio programme last Sunday with a Muslim sheik last Sunday, and was amazed that he favoured a world where people are not equal. He had a list of all who are better than whom. He thought, for example, that God sees people with university degrees as better than people who can’t read or write, and god-fearing people as better than the godless. The “god-fearing” were the Muslims, and the godless were the non-Muslims. Of course, he believed that God sees Muslims as better than everyone else. The Muslim sheik believed all Jamaica’s crime problems would be solved if we had Sharia law.

Well, grandniece, if ever you hear someone mention Sharia law, you know already what they think about women’s freedom. In Muslim countries with Sharia law, women cannot speak to any man who is not husband or relative, unless a male relative is present. So you can see what that would do to a woman who tries to have a job outside her home. If women give evidence in court, they are considered as half a man. Courts can rule that a woman be given 100 lashes or be stoned to death if she has a relationship with the “wrong” man. Women are not allowed to marry non-Muslim men, but nothing stops men from marrying non-Muslim men.

I told the Muslim sheik that, from the way he spoke, I probably needed to get myself a burqa. This is the Muslim outfit that covers women from head to toe, just allowing them room to see. Control of women’s bodies and clothes is a way of controlling their minds.

So, little girls in many Muslim countries have a far way to go. Some are not allowed to go to school, and they certainly cannot go to schools that any boys attend. If they like sports, men can’t coach them, unless by cell phone at a distance. If a girl from a strict Muslim country wants to be a runner, she must still be fully covered – legs, arms, neck, and head. In some Muslim countries, women are not allowed to vote or drive cars.

It is not only in Muslim countries that women have to liberate their minds and bodies. Countries in the West, who say they follow Christian values, may allow women greater room, except at the top. Christians will say that their God created all equal, but they will still insist that the man must be the head of the household. In some churches, women are not allowed to hold leadership positions except in the Mothers’ Union.

What the law does in some Muslim countries, ridicule and isolation can do in countries where women are supposed to be free. For example, women who hold or want to hold top positions can find all kind of roadblocks. They can be accused of acting like men, wanting to wear the pants, or neglecting their families. People will exaggerate the woman’s weaknesses, real or imagined. They can be criticized for their hairstyle of the clothes they choose to wear. The result is that few women aim for positions as powerful as President of the United States of America.

However, Muslim girls manage to find freedom even when they can barely show their faces. Women risk their lives to be themselves, to go to school, to wear designer clothes under dresses that look like shrouds, to marry whom they like, and to work in meaningful jobs. If their minds are free, they know they are free, Sharia law or not.

In our countries, Zayda, we can be free as well. We can take no notice of the pressure to let men tell us what to do, what to wear, what to say, what lower-level jobs to fill and leave the more profitable jobs for the men.

We have a way to go to free our minds, but only we can enslave ourselves.

Blessings,

Your shangazi

Garvey's message on self-confidence

With confidence, you have won before you have started. (Marcus Garvey)

Dear Zayda,

Today is Marcus Garvey’s birthday. He was a Black Jamaican who created a movement among Blacks all over the world. He went global long before the Internet and the cell phone. In those days, travel was expensive, and people rarely made overseas telephone calls. If someone called long-distance, we would hold our breaths for the bad news we were sure was the reason for the call. But Garvey achieved what many would be proud to do with all we have to help us today.

Garvey was confident in a time when Black men had little to be confident about. Like my dad who is your great-grandfather Allan, Garvey had only primary school education. He left school at age 14 and went to work with a printer. Like my dad Allan and other Black men of that time, Garvey made the most of what he learned at school. Garvey then taught himself whatever else he thought he needed to know. For example, he taught himself to make speeches that drew crowds to him.

In Garvey’s day, whites were rulers of every Black country, except for Ethiopia. This was the day of the British Empire, and other countries like France and Portugal “owned” colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean as well. The rulers therefore expected Blacks to accept that they were not and could never be equal to whites. Garvey challenged that kind of thinking. He considered that Blacks were members of a “mighty race”. He believed we had a lot to be confident about, and only self-confidence could help us take our rightful place in the world.



Marcus Garvey, a short Black man with African features and limited education, became so powerful that the white world feared him. A way was found to lock him up in prison on charges of fraud. The government of the United States, where he lived, deported him to Jamaica after he served time in prison.

Jamaica is still short on tolerance for Black men who have confidence in their blackness, look to Africa as home, and encourage others to do the same. Black men still find it easier to be accepted when they mimic how white men act and speak, what white men they wear, and whom white men marry. Black men who are poor still find themselves without jobs and without much schooling. As in Garvey's day, prisons are full of Black men.

Many in Jamaica therefore rejected Garvey and all he stood for. Garvey, disappointed at the way his own people treated him, left Jamaica for England where he died.

But Garvey’s message of confidence lives beyond him. He inspired African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah, and worldwide movements such as Rastafarianism.

My dad Allan’s legacy of confidence also lives beyond him.

Allan wanted to be a lawyer. Since that chance was not open to him, he worked hard so his children could be lawyers if they chose. He didn’t approve when they chose other careers, as he believed only law and engineering were worth studying. He loved going to court. One of his pleasures was to be a juror and then play all the roles in telling us stories of court drama.

Allan was a realtor. He had such deep knowledge of land law that attorneys would consult him on land matters. One of his close friends was a judge. To hear them argue law, you would not have known which was the judge entitled to dress up in his wig and gown for court.

Allan’s confidence served him well in business. Career choices for Black men were limited to being farmer, teacher, shopkeeper, pastor, policeman, tradesman, or unskilled labourer. Allan wanted to be a businessman in a time when only whites had the money to own businesses. Blacks were not getting bank loans to allow them to start a business. Allan therefore had to work with whites who definitely did not share Garvey’s view of Black people. Allan knew that if he spoke his mind or showed his confidence, he could lose jobs. So he kept his pride and lost jobs till he discovered his joy helping Black people to own land and build their homes. He knew what it was like to have his family on rented property, and he never forget the joy of having his house title in his hands.

So Zayda, Garvey carries the message of confidence.



In addition and your own great-grandfather Allan gives you an example of where confidence can take us. And you won’t have to look hard to see the lessons of confidence that your mom and dad learned from their families.

Let nothing stop you from being the winner you were intended to be, my grandniece.

Blessings,

Your shangazi

Legacy of WEB DuBois

FEBRUARY 23
Who is brave enough to tell the lion that his breath smells? (Berber)

1868 - W.E.B. Dubois, scholar, activist and author of The Souls of Black Folk, was born.














I became familiar with W.E.B Dubois when I moved to Ghana many decades ago. I was a teacher in Accra, and he was Kwame Nkrumah’s honored guest. Here he is celebrating his 95th birthday with his wife Shirley, Nkrumah, and Nkrumah’s wife Fathia.











DuBois was an author, historian, sociologist, Pan-Africanist, and civil rights activist. He was born into a free Black landowning family. His father was from Haiti, and his parents split up when he was two years old. Dubois worked hard at school, as he saw education as taking him and his mother out of poverty. He earned a first degree from Fish University, and later became the first Black person awarded a PhD from Harvard University.

He wrote several books, the best known of which is “Souls of Black Folk.” He also encouraged writers of Black fiction, poetry, and drama. He was the most prominent activist on behalf of Black Americans during the first half of the twentieth century, and was called, “The Father of Pan Africanism.” He was one of the founders of the National Alliance for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He and Marcus Garvey strongly disagreed on whether Blacks could be integrated as equals into American society.



DuBois was a radical all his life. The FBI investigated him, claiming he was a socialist. He visited Communist China and was indicted (and later acquitted) for “communist sympathies". At the age of 82, DuBois ran for the position of US Senator from New York, and polled four per cent of the votes. When the US refused him a new passport in 1963, he became a citizen of Ghana, the country in which he spent his final days.

He died the day before Martin Luther King Jr’s March on Washington, and Kwame Nkrumah honored him with a state funeral.

The fire Malcolm X kindled

FEBRUARY 21
If one person kindles the fire, others can take live coals from it. (Ghana)

1965 - Malcolm X was assassinated in New York.



What are your memories or your elders' memories of Malcolm X?

The first time I heard about him was when he first made headlines on April 26, 1957. The police had beaten a Black man in Harlem, apparently for not moving quickly enough. An angry crowd gathered, but Malcolm's presence calmed the people and they followed his instructions. It seemed extraordinary that one man, till then little known outside of Harlem, could exercise more power unarmed that the police who were armed.

I saw Malcolm X in the flesh at Accra airport when he visited Ghana after his hajj in Mecca. I was meeting a friend who happened to sit next to Malcolm on the flight next to Nigeria. I made all my plans to go to hear Malcolm speak the following night at Legon University in Accra. But, as we say in Jamaica, “man ah plan and God ah wipe out.” My baby sitter did not arrive, and I remained home with my babies. And Malcolm was killed the following year.

Malcolm X, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, extraordinary public speaker, was a Nation of Islam minister and human rights activist. He was born Malcolm Little and changed his name to signify the loss of his African name. His father, outspoken Baptist minister and local leader in Marcus Garvey’s movement, instilled in him a sense of racial pride and dignity as well as self-reliance. His mother was born in Grenada.

Malcolm, one of eight children, lost both parents by the time he was 13 years old. His father was killed in circumstances that suggested lynching, and his mother was admitted to hospital for mental illness. He and his siblings were then sent to live in orphanages and foster homes A bright, focused student, he dropped out of school after a teacher told him that his dream of becoming a lawyer "no realistic goal for a nigger." He later became involved in criminal activities; in 1946, he was sentenced to a prison term.

While in prison, he became a member of the Nation of Islam. After his parole in 1952, his intelligence and eloquence made him one of the best known figures in the Nation of Islam. When he left the Nation, he became a Sunni Muslim and made a pilgrimage to Mecca. He was giving a speech in New York when he was assassinated in 1965, one week after his home had been fire-bombed. .

Malcolm X has left to today’s Black civil and human rights movements worldwide a legacy of increased self-esteem and greater connection to the African heritage.

What do you think we can do today to keep the fire lit for equality and justice?

Black History Month - Marcus Garvey and Mary Seacole

What happens to the rooster can happen to the chicken too. (Mozambique, Zimbabwe)





1935 - Marcus Garvey wrote "First Message to the Negroes of the World From Atlanta Prison"









Only when I lived in Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana did I understand what Marcus Garvey achieved for Black people all over the world. In Ghana, Marcus was a hero, Nkrumah’s Pan-Africanist model and mentor. In Jamaica, the British rulers of the time led us to believe Marcus Garvey was a scamp and a thief.

This Black man who left school at fourteen, made the colonial powers nervous when he created the greatest mass movement for Black people, stretching from Latin America to Australia. It was no wonder that he attracted the attention of J Edgar Hoover, head of the United States general intelligence division.

Hoover, threatened by Marcus’ message of Black pride and dignity, tried to find ways to expel Marcus from the United States where he had set up his headquarters. Hoover wrote in a memo, “Unfortunately, however, he [Garvey] has not as yet violated any federal law whereby he could be proceeded against on the grounds of being an undesirable alien, from the point of view of deportation.”

Ultimately, Marcus was charged with mail fraud. His organization, the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) was selling stock of the Black Star Line. It was alleged that the UNIA had not yet bought the ship that was shown in the stock brochure. Marcus’ followers saw this as a trumped-up charge, as the Black Star Line owned other ships, and was negotiating the sale of the disputed ship.

Marcus was tried and sentenced to five years in a Georgia prison. He started serving his sentence on February 8, 1925, and on February 10 he wrote a famous letter in which he stated:

Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for, with God's grace, I shall come and bring with me countless millions of black slaves who have died in America and the West Indies and the millions in Africa to aid you in the fight for Liberty, Freedom and Life.



2004 – Mary Seacole named the Greatest Black Briton

I was among the first students to live in Mary Seacole Hall, a hall of residence for
female students attending the University of the West Indies. Before that, my colonial education had featured Florence Nightingale, but not a whisper about this Jamaican woman who was also a nurse in the Crimean War.

Mary Seacole (1805-1991) learned tropical medicine from her mother who had a boarding house in Port Royal, Jamaica, where she nursed army officers and their wives. After Mary’s mother died, she took over the boarding house and her mother’s nursing practice. She later went to Panama where she also cared for the sick.

She traveled to Britain and offered to go to the Crimean war to treat wounded soldiers. When the authorities turned her down, she borrowed the money and went to Crimea by herself. During this war, she distinguished herself by treating soldiers from both sides while under fire on the battlefield. She dislocated her right thumb in one incident when she threw herself to the ground to avoid being blown up.

Mary Seacole succeeded despite the racism and sexism of her time. she was voted the most important person in Black British history in the 100 Great Black Britons award.

Both Mary Seacole and Marcus Garvey had global influence and became icons because
of their tremendous courage.

Also on this date in:

1927 - Leontyne Price was born

1937 - Roberta Flack was born

1966 - Andrew Brimmer is appointed by President Johnson to become the first African-American governor of the Federal Reserve Board.

1978 - Reggaeton artist Don Omar born William Omar Landrón Rivera in Carolina, Puerto Rico.