Akua said...
YEYE~ What are some values in femininity and African-centeredness that you instill in your daughters and HOW did you instill these values?
Values...hmmm...that particular term carries with it some connotations that I actually rebel against and hopefully live my life in such a way that my dawtas and my sun will do the same...let me explain
Most Afrikan centered individuals and organizations while claiming to be anti oppression and anti Western ism still uphold oppressive Western patriarchal values when it comes to women, mothering, femininity and womanhood
These individuals and organizations claim to have embraced an Afrikan way of life when in actuality what they are doing is taking Western patriarchal so called "morality" and wrapping it in Kente cloth
They have not actually examined and changed the toxic beliefs that enslaved our Ancestors and prevented us from practicing the Ancient Ways...they have only begun to call these beliefs by Afrikan names and they feel like by doing so they have somehow validated them and made them something whole or something different...not so
You still find women be treated as help meets in most Afrikan centered homes and organizations...you still find their roles being ones that are not taken seriously or revered...you still find their position being seen as beneath the man and the man being treated as the Head of the household or organization
When in actuality according to our Ancestors women are the repository of Ashe, we ARE the carriers of The Divine Power which cause anything and EVERYTHING to work...we transmit this ashe through our milk , our presence, our influence, our words, our wombs , our vulvas and our vaginas
Our Ancestors knew this and as such, they listened to their women and held their words in high high high esteem and were proud to say that women were the center of their culture, their world , their universe...the colonizers laughed at this position by the way
You still find the unAfrikan practice of producing, teaching and growing babies not being seen as the most important revolutionary work in the Afrikan centered community...bros still distance themselves from their families and put "reasoning sessions" with other bros or work or lecturing or touring or any and everything else over spending time at home with the source of their immortality
Our Ancestors said "if the child does not know his father the world is upside down"...while fatherhood was not the equivalent of motherhood it was seen as essential...with a wholistic view and way of living life children were intergrated into all aspects of it
Youth were not viewed as the property of the father and the sole responsibility of the mother
Et cetera,et cetera, et cetera....but enough ranting *smile*...what I teach my children is truth...is that we, we as in black, brown and red women of the world are the Source of all that we can see and all that we cannot see...every tree, every herb, every sacred stone, every planet and every star came from the fertile soil of our wombs and the juicy ripeness of our vaginas...there is nothing that is not the child of the Mother Goddess and we are she...research Her, with Her many names...Isis, Auset, Ishtar, Inanna, Lilith and you will see us looking back at you....listen to her stories, her myths, the oral history about her and you will hear the stories of our lives repeated again and again...look at the world alllll around you and you will feel the love of a mother for those she has brough forth
I teach my dawtas not to ever live in shame, not to ever feel cursed by their bodies or their beauty because it is the attraction to this same beauty that creates life ALL LIFE
I teach them never to feel that they have to cover that which is our reason for being here, unless they feel so inclined
I teach them that their sexuality is a sacred and wholy gift bestowed upon them along with the wisdom to use it properly and with love and ecstasy always and all ways
I teach my dawtas..."as it harm none, do as you will"...because truth and oneness with the universe creates a purity of heart that does not require endless rules and regulations
And these things , this truth, this love, this living in the beauty of reality and relaxing in the loving arms of the Wombniverse allows them the opportunity to be the amazing Children of Light that you see, and that they are
