WeeklySA_Admin“The overwhelming majority of women accept patriarchy unquestioningly and even protect it, working out the resultant frustrations not against men but against themselves in their competition for men as sons, lovers and husbands. Traditionally the violated wife bides her time and off-loads her built-in aggression on her daughter-in-law. So, men dominate women through the agency of women themselves.”
Winnie Mandela
I have always felt that perhaps women have sometimes almost embraced the same values as men, and the same character as men, because they are in the men’s world, and they are trying to fit into a system that men have created. And maybe in truth when there is a critical mass of women who play that role in governments, then we will see whether women can really manage power in a way that is less destructive than the way that men have used power.
Wangari Maathai
Strong men – men who are truly role models – don’t need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful.
Michelle Obama
“My motivation for writing [it] was born out of the negative image about black African women in South Africa … promoted by … in particular the women in the white community who employ [them] as domestic workers.”
Ellen Khuzwayo
“Black women are never allowed to be tired. “Our pain is politicised, we are celebrated for our strength,” she said. “Black women, in particular, are expected to be superhuman, which is a gruelling and absolutely psychologically haemorrhaging experience. Black youth, and young black women in particular, need support, protection and solidarity so that their humanity is not disregarded.”
Malaika Wa Azania
I look at a stream and I see myself: a native South African, flowing irresistibly over hard obstacles until they become smooth and, one day, disappear — flowing from an origin that has been forgotten toward an end that will never be.
Miriam Makeba
“There’s something so special about a woman who dominates in a man’s world. It takes a certain grace, strength, intelligence, fearlessness, and the nerve to never take no for an answer.
Rihanna
“Black women have had to develop a larger vision of our society than perhaps any other group. They have had to understand white men, white women, and black men. And they have had to understand themselves. When black women win victories, it is a boost for virtually every segment of society.”
Angela Davis
POEM
WOMAN WORK
I’ve got the children to tend
The clothes to mend
The floor to mop
The food to shop
Then the chicken to fry
The baby to dry
I got company to feed
The garden to weed
I’ve got shirts to press
The tots to dress
The can to be cut
I gotta clean up this hut
Then see about the sick
And the cotton to pick.
Shine on me, sunshine
Rain on me, rain
Fall softly, dewdrops
And cool my brow again.
Storm, blow me from here
With your fiercest wind
Let me float across the sky
‘Til I can rest again.
Fall gently, snowflakes
Cover me with white
Cold icy kisses and
Let me rest tonight.
Sun, rain, curving sky
Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone
Star shine, moon glow
You’re all that I can call my own.
Maya Angelou
