Your Life Belongs To You And You

There Are People Who Think That We Cannot Rule Ourselves Because The Few Times We Tried, We Failed, As If All The Others Who Rule Themselves Today Got It Right The First Time. It Is Like Telling A Crawling Baby Who Tries To Walk, And Then Falls Back On His Buttocks, To Stay There. As If The Adults Walking Past Him Did Not Crawl, Once

He Was Already Looking At Their Relationship Through The Lens Of The Past Tense. It Puzzled Her, The Ability Of Romantic Love To Mutate, How Quickly A Loved One Could Become A Stranger. Where Did The Love Go? Perhaps Real Love Was Familial, Somehow, Linked To Blood, Since Love For Children Did Not Die As Romantic Love Did.

We Teach Girls Shame; Close Your Legs, Cover Yourself, We Make Them Feel As Though By Being Born Female They're Already Guilty Of Something.

If I Were Not African, I Wonder Whether It Would Be Clear To Me That Africa Is A Place Where The People Do Not Need Limp Gifts Of Fish But Sturdy Fishing Rods And Fair Access To The Pond. I Wonder Whether I Would Realize That While African Nations Have A Failure Of Leadership, They Also Have Dynamic People With Agency And Voices.

Perhaps It Is Time To Debate Culture. The Common Story Is That In "real" African Culture, Before It Was Tainted By The West, Gender Roles Were Rigid And Women Were Contentedly Oppressed.