I don’t think we should wait for August to celebrate women.
Considering the fact that every month women go through a period of pains, and timeously the 9 months of labour and yet be able to brighten up our days…
Fellow toastmasters, we are at a difficult time, worse than the time of the 1956 women, the struggle is at a different landscape than it was in the years leading to 1956. Women find themselves to be isolated, with men so detached, in a different path from their role of protecting women.
Let me begin by saying;
There is no theme befitting the month of August to celebrate women, like today’s theme “Bravery in Pink”…. Just in a month of October we’ll be wearing pink, a symbolic gesture in support to the fight against breast cancer, in that context the combination of ‘Pink’ and ‘Bravery’ in one sentence… tells a story, a woman’s story, your story… so, nonetheless, right now; August is your time…
When I was preparing for this speech, I asked myself; how is it possible, how do you do it.
Being a sister, a mother, a guard and still be yourself at the very same time…. After all you have and still endure
I was then taken aback to a particular story from Stephanie Nolens’s 28 Stories of Aids in Africa.
Stephanie Nolens narrate a story in Swaziland prior 2006, a place where women’s freedom and prosperity is limited, women are treated inferior.
Stephanie tells a story of a young Swaziland woman in the 80s, who had been a mother of three out of wedlock, fortunately from the same boyfriend from a society where women would require a husband’s consent in a form of a letter to access contraceptives, and in this case the lady didn’t not qualify for contraceptive, she was not married….
So, While she struggle to complete her degree, inside she was tortured by thoughts as “who will marry me now, with all these children?” Close quote. Already her father had written her off, made it known that she was unmarriageable…
When the boyfriend finally marry his woman, the mother in law as they usually do harshly suggested: I quote “Go to the clinic like these other women and do something so you don’t have all these babies” and she did,
However 5 years later the INTRAUTERINE device inserted on her started to give problems, a month later after its removal she was pregnant with a fourth child, and right there she opted for tubal litigation…
She went on to complete her degree in Agriculture, thereafter scored a scholarship to study masters degree in University of Bradford in England only to be crushed by a doctor after a medical test done: “you won’t be going to the UK”, she was HIV positive.
With rage, the man distanced himself from accountability, spewed accusations of illicit sex, and eventually left claiming “I cannot live with a prostitute”
To me It is clear that
Woman are selient, you are destined to fill and own the space, UyiMbokodo, you are strong.
You are not defined by adversity nor are you defined by your gender, when these men carelessly remind you that you are a women to demise and derogate your ability… do not fold, you have the power to make the world go around like a merry-go-round, sometimes they (MEN) just need to shush and ride along, like Maya Angeloou’ says: you are a phenomenal woman.
You smile at a point when hope seem to further away,
Soberly draw in humanity and humility when bolts and nuts wear off, home built about to lose its synergy.
And you blush away as the world shines on your way, to give glory
because
You not in the nature of glory but that of compatibility and unison
beneath you stronger than your appearance, tougher than they bend your heart to break your soul ,
there is an appetite for love, the depth of warmth is unmeasurable.
hang around with people that are lauding and embracing your worth.
Because
It is not ‘just okay’ being a woman, but okay to be loud, okay to be yourself and okay to know you are the most important thing that ever happened to men, to the world
and HERE to this toastmasters club
Jesus Christ! Woman, you are supposed to be safe with us, safe in our hands and… because you lighten up the space.
I am not supposed to be exploiting your weaknesses.
I am not supposed to be body-shaming, lashing out and beating you up… I am not supposed to murdering you…
You are beautiful,
Do not only sing women emancipation but free yourself from these toxic men…
take ownership, and tackle a bull by its own horns.
For the fact that years beyond 1956, the struggle continues to see women fighting for recognition and equality, it goes further and even worse… GBV
Even though I said it’s your time, it’s your story, it’s women’s month but I concur with Meghan Markle, when she says; “it’s very easy to sometimes compartmentalize or silo this idea of Women’s Day solely being about women—but it’s not—it’s about all of us.”
But Right now, with all that the world is, it’s your time, it’s your story, it’s women’s month.
Fellow Toastmasters,
I Thank you!