What is in a woman?
There is a well of wisdom and well of hope, there is a hole in wisdom and a hole with hope
There is peace uncountable and tractions of pain, as she tracts peace onto her uncountable pain
There is a wild awesome way of surprises and a low budget approach to serial time wasters
There is a dream that swells up to accommodate the crown and the harsh necessity to pelt the mob
There is a love so deep it burrows the heart and the shallow hate that satiates the iniquitous one
What is in a woman that makes men?
Hers is a wind f fire and a rain of ice, a tool of ether and vial of grain
Hers is liberty and restraint all embellished with a taunt and a tease
Hers is a hope for more, hype for all, equity ubiquitous in her pantry of excesses
Hers is some of this and lots of that, sweet mixes of bitters in windmills of joy
Hers is eloquently what is gained in much that is lost, through rain or dry, yet hope remains
What is in a woman that makes for understanding?
She panders and plans and persists through horror
She flounders and flops and forbids to fail
She grows on shortened risers, and races on crooked roads
She mocks the piers, as her sails wail and her rudders relent
She hums a halo, sings a solo and may occasionally go on a toot!
A woman in Womanism, not another name for feminism?
Womanism is kinda feminism but not at all. It is sorta same as different as can be.
What is Womanism?
Womanism –is defined as a reference to the natural contribution of women to society – distinct from feminism that is heavily associated with white women. Alison Walker calls it a different shade of feminism. The truth is that once feminism takes a different shade it no longer glows as feminism, because it would have to embrace the socio/cultural ideology that is so outside of the scope that today’s feminism would tinker.
Womanism seeks connections and tells the stories of women from the perspective that is necessary and fixated to her, it embraces women of color and black women and removes the stigma of tokenism that feminism brings to “other” women, that is to say, non-white women. The concept can be boundless beyond race and class and emphatic on the core threads of what unprivileged women encounter. It is real talk that is wholly inclusive and embraces men as partners. Finally, the reason for the delineation is that the early feminists supported racists activities and the overwhelming beneficiaries of modern feminism are white women and there is a constant shadow in feminism that tends to see men as the enemy – these never benefited non-white women.
What then should womanism attain?
Life for a woman is as complex as it gets, not because it presents only twists and turns but because it presents at all. In the morass of a life-giving culture that compels a woman to give and give and give before she takes and then takes some more as the plight of one lost in a sea of self-accountability, where every self-interrogating question presents and persists. What do I deserve? What does the world owe me? How do I take mine? Then those self-inquisitive semi-affirming statements tumble out; surely it is my turn now, this is the decade and even the century of woman, we must step out, show out, hold out…. This is the hour of the woman, or is it?
The truth is that the hour of woman has always presented and always will. It is the capture of that hour that must be sought. To capture anything, one must first see, know, feel, hear, understand, inquire…. then plot, hope, engage, scheme, review, take, snatch, share, uphold, retain, and relive. To take, requires unity, teamwork, love, hope, humility, and surprise. It includes men and family, friends and colleagues. It allows who you are, ethnicity, place to be fully engaged. It allows all of you to be seen. It has many shades and acknowledges that beauty; it is vulnerable in its power.
The hour of woman is now and has always been, it overwhelms and underwhelms us simultaneously. But alas, there is a presence that has overshadowed all, keeping many off for the benefit of some. Now remember this limits the feminist agenda, unlike womansim that right sizes its reach to enable all!
In light of that, these seven principles must persist for womansim not to flounder:
- Its candor must never falter even if circumstances worsen;
- Even on the wings of the biggest gains, transparency must persist;
- The foundation must be love, constant and unbreakable. Love must be the DNA;
- The pace must be a beat back from what is…, it must never mirror the tempo of feminism;
- It must encompass art and science, be forged by faith, mean same thing to many and much to all;
- It must resolve the war of the privileged and the disenfranchised and heal the pain;
- It must bring women long left in the waiting room of feminism to the center of advocacy.
About Ngozi Bell
Inspiration, Hard Work, Innovation. These three foundational elements anchor Ngozi’s core belief that manifesting the extraordinary is always within reach. Inspired by her mother A.C.Obikwere, a scientist and author, she learned the privilege of living at the edge of important encounters and dedicating herself to robust and perpetual learning. Ngozi’s background is a combination of Physics, Engineering, Venture Capital/Private Equity, regulations, and business where she has managed over $1B in cumulative revenue. Ngozi is a speaker, storyteller, and writer on a diverse set of topics including AI, iDLT, ML, Signal Processing, iOT, women, entrepreneurship and more. She contributes regularly to VOA, has been a TEDx speaker and is published on tech and non-tech platforms. She is a champion of STEM, women, youth, art and the Africa we must engage. Ngozi is an adjunct professor of Physics and management with work
experience in Asia, Europe, Africa, Middle East, and North America. She is a founder of a number of a number of enterprises and host of the podcast Stem, Stocks and Stews (https://anchor.fm/stemstocksstews-podcast).
