Tag Archive | Girl Child Education
WWN™ Reflections: Remembering the Girls who are left behind….
And as we advocate and pray for the girls that were taken away, let us stand up and give a hand-up to the girls who are still here with us, the ones who are left behind. Often, It is so easy to get caught up in agitating for something wrong to be fixed right, that we forget the small acts of love, volunteerism, service and attention that we can pay forward to the current situation at hand.
Postcards From Africa #6: WAAW Foundation – Changing the Narrative and empowering African Girls through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education.
This is an excellent season for giving back and WWN’s spotlight is on: Dr Unoma Ndili Okorafor and her amazing team at WAAW Foundation (Working to Advance African Women).
#POETRY4ChangeAfrica. Floetry by JulietKego: A Poem For Every Girl-Child: “Today, I will Not Bow!” (VERSION II)
Floetry by JulietKego: “Today, I Will Not Bow.” (Version II)
Today, I shall be born and my mother will not weep
when she beholds the folds between my thighs
and my father will not stare at her with accusing eyes.
Yes, today, my father will not hunch over,
and hiss out loud, brokenly; ‘It is a girl!’
To the soft hum of my mother’s searing, silent cries
And his half-brother’s pitying glances and mocking sighs.
Today, he will proclaim to his kinsmen,
hitting his hard warrior chest with pride
that a first-born child is gifted to him,
a child who’ll inherit his history, cattle and farmlands.
A girl-child who will be free to love and to learn,
the secrets of kings
and the traditions of his land, of red earth
Today, I am Queen, cherished and respected
I will not be bartered off to any willing aging groom.
I refuse be beaten or battered, stoned with cold rocks and killed,
in honour, by the callused hands of beloved brothers and uncles
On whose knees I once bounced with joy
in whose warm arms I was lovingly rocked
Today, I refuse to be sentenced to a life-prison, that cold-room
of resentment, bitterness, gloom and doom.
Today I will not bow,
to the voices telling me hush and stand still
and watch passively as my dreams disintegrate and die before me.
I refuse to live a sham version of life, feeling fractured and broken.
Today, I will honour and nurture the seeds
of my day dreams and night dreams
Today, I choose to bloom.
Today, I will not bow!
To the sounds of the bullets piercing my body,
because my spirit is still strong and unshaken.
Today, I will not bow!
Not even when I am attacked and maligned
by lost souls, shackled by their own fears,
who turn my eyes away from the pages of life
afraid that I may discover new worlds and adventures
-of Achebe, Adichie, Tennyson, Tagore
-Marie Curie, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti
In citadels of learning, within the sacred halls and walls of life.
Today, I will not bow
To the drums of the shrivelled village medicine woman
as she leads the crazed dance, and at its feverish peak
they restrain me down and crudely hack off
the tingling bud of my maidenhead!
They cannot stomach the sensual powers of this woman-child.
How they fear the fires of desires hidden in my shapely hips.
And the heavenly bliss waiting in the un-suckled milk
of my beautiful, budding, bouncing breasts.
They seek to silence my tongue so that I shall not question
the ineptitude of the men who ride with no skill.
They seek to strip me of the source of my multiple deaths of life,
sentenced to an endless, aching waiting,
-that never comes.
Today, I will not bow
To the diseased, sick, dirty old village chiefs
My bridegroom? Stealers of my childhood
Who take me, a mere 13-year old, for wife, -slave
A child bearing another child.
Today, I will not bow
Not in guilt and definitely not in shame
to the cowards (they, who call themselves soldiers of faith and religion),
who greedily plucked and sucked away all the fruits and juices
from my plush innocent gardens, even when I screamed ‘NO!’
leaving me there, by the dusty, dirty roadside
dead and dry.
There are many days yet ahead for bowing,
many days gone past for crying
but not today, no, not today!
Today, I refuse to bow
This is the day that I will not bow
Today, I rise for every woman-child;
Ancestors gone before me and the unborn, after me.
I stand here,
and hold sacred space in the gap.
And together, with my sisters’ spirit to guide me
I declare that we are all worthy- man, woman and child!
Yes indeed, tomorrow is yet unknown,
and yesterday not yet forgotten
But today? Today, is NOT the day I bow!
Today, I cease to hide under the sweeping skirts
of my mother’s fears,
Ma-jestic, a free-spirited stallion
chained in life’s choking barn,
a fierce tigress, caged in, breathless
I choose now to awaken, run my race, breathe
and live my dreams instead
Today, I shall stand tall on this stage of life
And be me, authentically me, W.O.M.A.N:
Wise-strong-weak, Opinionated-extraordinary-ordinary,
Ma-jestic, Accepting, embracing the Newness of all I co-create
And when I’m done, I’ll gracefully take my bow.
Yesterday, I was nameless, faceless, dreamless, voiceless
And today? I am re-born anew by a-ma-zing grace
I am Amina of Nigeria,
I am Malala of Pakistan
I am Rawan of Yemen
I am Damini of India
I am a little girl lost in Chibok…
And today I shall not bow
Today I invite you all
And together, we ARISE!
© Juliet ‘Kego Ume-Onyido (All rights reserved).
Source: www.julietkego.com
Click Here to listen to the Audio Version of the first draft of the Poem: “Today, I Will Not Bow”
———————————————–
For Whom and What Cause are you rising?
#GirlChildEducation
#StopFemaleGenitalMutilation
#StopSexTrafficking
#EradicateModernDaySlavery
#EndChildMarriage #ChildNotBride
#YouthEmpowerment
#AgainstDomesticViolenceAndAbuse
#AccesstoQualityHealthcare
#WomeninScienceTechEngineeringMaths
#FinancialLiteracyAndEmpowerment
#StopRapeAndAssault
#EmpowerWidowsAndOrphans
#BecauseIamAGirl
#Educate1000Girls
#GenderEqualityAndJustice
#WomeninLeadershipMgtGovernance
Click Here to listen to the Audio Version of the Poem: “Today, I Will Not Bow!”
Author’s Note:
This is a tribute poem and a prayer for all the women and girls around the world who struggle against injustice of any form.
It is for those who are forced into early/child marriage, sold into modern slavery/servitude, experienced various degrees of abuse-sexually, verbally, physically, emotionally or financially.
Also, for those denied rights to education and freedom, victims of war crimes and acts of violence, forced to endure degrading and inhuman practices (especially as widows), and young girls subjected to horrific and scarring acts such as female genital mutilation….
And in particular, this is a prayer for the 200+ young girls kidnapped by terrorist group, Boko Haram in Chibok, Northern Nigeria. They are in our thoughts and prayers. Today, we stand together with them, united, we rise!
For Whom and What are you rising? #GirlChildEducation #FemaleGenitalMutilation #SexTrafficking #ModernDaySlavery #ChidMarriage #DomesticViolenceAndAbuse #AccesstoQualityHealthcare #FinancialLiteracyAndEmpowerment #RapeAndAssault #WidowsAndOrphans #BecauseIamAGirl
