At the point when ANWO became involved, the APSP investigators had already collected evidence from the victim, an indigenous woman, and the accused; and made a determination that resulted in Muambi Tangu being expelled from the African People’s Socialist Party and removed from his post in InPDUM.

ANWO stands in complete unity with the decision made by the Party.  While we will not go into the details of the incident, it was clear from the testimony of both parties that boundaries were crossed when the accused imposed his will on the victim.

The thoroughness of the investigation and the consideration given to all the facts, confirm that the African People’s Socialist Party is truly creating a new world dedicated to ending the oppression of African and other colonized people.

What we expect from leaders in the fight to end colonial domination is to destroy all traces of the colonizer in us.  This includes rejecting harmful tendencies that have been used as a method of control and oppression; particularly when it comes to the special oppression of African and other colonized women.  

As colonized African and indigenous women our experience under domestic colonialism is one wrought with sexual violence, hyper-sexualization, and sexual exploitation.

We serious are stamping out this colonial behavior. We must refuse to keep quiet, especially, when it involves someone who claims to be a leader in the fight for our liberation. Silence does not give us the opportunity to struggle against behaviors that threaten our ability to make the revolution.

As we fight for a world free from colonial terror, we expect that our efforts we will destroy the tendencies of the colonizer within the oppressed colonized masses.  It will be through these efforts that we will build a world where the special oppression of African women will be no more and the liberation of colonized people around the world will mean the complete and total eradication of the colonizer outside and inside of us. 

We don’t make the “only” claim lightly. In the three years since we were established by the African People’s Socialist Party we’ve seen the vapid clique-like activism of feminists which usually doesn’t organize on the critical issues that impact the lives of poor working class African women.

ANWO organizes because we see an end to African oppression

Feminists  would rather hold a parade that says “black women lead”, stage a die in, and bask in the glory of their own sense of self-importance.

Meanwhile they will not organize against the assault on African mothers fighting to get their children back in their custody.

They will not organize revolutionary childcare collectives. They will not organize prison rides to support African women in prison. They will not support African women with deep contradictions, brought on by colonialism.

No, their activism has no end, whereas, we do have an end. We see the end of our suffering as colonized African people because we understand that capitalist colonialism, not patriarchy, is the cause of desperate conditions of African people everywhere.

Capitalism is rooted in the means of production and the exploitation of African resources and people. When we take our resources back and use our labor in our self interest, we will destroy capitalism as a world-wide system.

When African women throw their babies in the trash in Occupied Azania (South Africa), this is directly tied to capitalist colonialism. African people do not own the means of production and therefore are living in some of the deepest poverty; while nearly all of the white settlers own the land and the means of production.

It is also a direct result of capitalist colonialism, when African women are held hostage by the welfare state. Their lives tied to the pittance offered as benefits from the State that usually causes poor women to jump through hoops. Opening up their entire lives to inquiry.

ANWO knows why this is happening to us. We do more than write think pieces about these contradictions, we organize women affected and any other African woman or man that understands that something else must be done to shift the balance of power that leaves African people at the whim of white power imperialism in the form of colonialism.

We believe that we must make a revolution and that is the only solution.

African women don’t need #blackgirlmagic we need African Internationalism

Blackgirlmagic is a phrase touted by the African petite bourgeoisie to celebrate the aspirations of the African petite bourgeoisie; like becoming CEO of a imperialist company, wearing an expensive dress or helping the imperialist space program beat the Russians to the moon.

It’s an absurd notion to to attribute anything we do to magic, something that can’t be explained. As if a smart or skilled or capable African woman is so abnormal that the only way to describe her excelling amongst white people, is magic.

African woman workers will see that if African woman wins a race it’s because she worked hard, put in the hours and trained to be the best. It’s not magic at all. The African petite bourgeoisie, however, likes to make common everyday things seem unattainable to the masses of our people.

Africans don’t need #blackgirlmagic, Africa needs politically astute revolutionary work class African women who know how to struggle and win!

ANWO Organizing to win

Over the last few months, ANWO has been organizing toward our first international convention which happened on March 24-25th in College Park, MD, right outside Washington, DC. We won African women and men to the importance of holding up the necessity of African women in revolutionary organization.

There is still much work to be done. While there are African women who should be organizing, the contradictions of colonialism sucks us back into the bowels of despair. ANWO, however, will not let African women become the food that colonialism feeds on.

The convention was the place for us to state our objectives, layout out what is important to the lives of working class African women and chart a strategy where we can push back colonialism by being active participants in the struggle for African freedom.

We look forward to showing you the highlights from this convention in the next Spear.

Uhuru!
Forward Ever! Backward Never!
Victory to the African working class!
Victory to African women!

It is important for us to note this for UK readers as there is continued efforts to further segregate African people by using terms like “Black Caribbean,” “Black African,” “Black British” and “Black Other.”

Our efforts to dig up statistics about income inequality in the UK returned results based on these identities, which varied only slightly, but still confirmed that overall, African people as a whole are suffering the same effects of colonialism.

As African Internationalists, we reject this and all other efforts to separate African people based on colonially-imposed borders.

LONDON—On Thursday, April 6, 2017, the UK government austerity measures ceased additional welfare benefits to families with more than two children.

The total loss of the state welfare benefit per family is £2,78O a year (£232 a month) per child.

Previously, families who claimed state welfare benefits would receive the extra benefits for each subsequent child added to the family.

In the UK, 24 percent of African families have more than two children, compared to 8 percent of white households.

This means that African families that have already been struggling to make ends meet have been driven into an economic tailspin, while white families remain relatively unaffected.

The ‘Runnymede Trust,’ an independent “race equality think tank,” highlighted that millions of Africans will be disparately affected by the government’s austerity measures and the ‘Women’s Budget Group’ indicates that mostly women will bear the impact of these harsh policies.

These analyses predict African women [and children] are set to experience serious acute problems in years to come.

Parasitic capitalism, the current social system is experiencing a catastrophic economic crisis as a consequence of the oppressed peoples of the world struggling for national liberation over their lives, land and destiny.

In a desperate bid to restore trust in its declining parasitic capitalist system, the United Kingdom has done everything it can to persuade its citizens, that things are improving.

But the UK government is unable to explain away its mounting unemployment rate, declining monetary units, rise in violence, and other ills.

Instead, the UK government lay the blame on colonized African and other colonized immigrant/migrant communities, making this the focal point for the Brexit referendum debates of all the major political parties.

It is no coincidence that the decision to cut welfare programs came just a few months before UK started negotiations to leave the European Union.

The African National Women’s Organization (ANWO) London is clear that the UK government’s decision to execute this military-like economic strategy is meant to drive African women-led households further into crises so they can keep us fighting for the basic right to live, while they continue to deepen their exploitation.

Welfare dependency is a colonial strategy

Colonialism has immobilized and demoralized African women and trapped us in the vicious cycle of the welfare benefits system, regardless of whether we are unemployed or employed.

While Africans constitute only three percent of UK’s population, we have the highest unemployment rate at 13 percent, according to the Institute of Race Relations.

African women, having already been scraping by on welfare benefits, are now forcibly deprived of resources to maintain an acceptable standard of living.

Although a small collection of African women are level to level with European women, in some of the professional fields of work, their gains have had no real bearings on the position of poor working class African women, who consistently have a chronically high unemployment rate wherever we are in the world.

Even when employed, the vast majority of us are restricted to the most menial of work with the lowest pay and poorest working conditions.

The crushing daily burden of our experiences often leaves us with soul wrenching choices of having to choose between food and rent. Either way we lose.

Contrary to accusations of sapping up Britain’s resources, African women have historically been the producers of its wealth.

Throughout our 600 years of forced labor, we have built, reinforced and sustained this country.

On the other hand, European women ,who sit on the pedestal of European wealth are relatively new to the labor force.

UK is the parasite, not African people

Europe was dismal place prior to its attack on Africa, which initiated the large-scale kidnapping and displacement of African people.

Contrary to the heroic stories told in schools about Christopher Columbus’ explorations, the primary motivation for him going out into a “flat” world was initiated by Europe’s crisis.

Europe had no resources and was in the midst of the worst plague [black plague] in human history. which killed more than half of all white people on Earth.

His expedition was the result of a desperate attempt by the European bourgeoisie, to save themselves.

In the hundreds of years following Columbus’ campaigns, millions of African and Indigenous people were slaughtered or enslaved and their land and resources stolen.

As Britain realized that it could not sustain itself without the loot and labor from Africa, the theft became more and more sophisticated, moving away from direct colonial rule to neocolonialism (white power in black face).

The slaves were made into citizens of the crown and their labor was used for the benefit of the crown. only.

British companies such as Unilever, Lloyds of London, HSBC and BP made millions from slavery and colonialism and are still sustained by poor working class Africans until this day.

So you see, poor working class African families in UK are not the parasite.

We are here because we are chasing the resources that were stolen from us.

It is the UK who is the parasite and dependent on the welfare of African labor, land, and resources.

The economic and physical violence of parasitic capitalism

Under imperialist rule, African women were never held in high regard.

As part of the colonized oppressed African masses, African women were forced, through slavery, into grueling, backbreaking work from sunrise to sunset.

We were beaten mercilessly and bred like animals only to have our children ripped from our arms and sold to the highest bidder.

The end of chattel slavery, as an economic institution, made way for direct colonialism.

Africans were steered into the position of the “reserve army of labor” herded in and out of the workforce based on the immediate needs of the imperialist capitalist economy and gotten rid of when not needed.

African welfare saves British parasites, again and again

Following the imperialist second world war, Britain was unable to find the millions of willing British workers it needed to rebuild the country.

Ravenous for a cheap pool of labor to reach its national objectives, Britain in 1948  implemented special measures that included a call to Africans in its colonies. At the time, the British colonies of the Caribbean were underdeveloped  which unleashed a series of rebellions across the islands.

Thousands of colonized Africans from the Caribbean escaped the dreadful conditions on the islands and were hired to work in Britain’s transport system, postal service, and hospitals.

Around 40,000 nurses and midwives from Britain’s colonies, responded.

Many of these were African women, teenagers and young adult women who left their children behind in the hope their work would provide for their families back home.

The work was again grueling; long hours with low pay, saving Britain’s pride and joy the National Health Service (NHS).

African Women don’t need charity, we need power

Prior to Europe’s assault on Africa and African people, we were a self-governing people.

We maintained perfectly sound social systems with great civilizations where women could have any number of children she so chose.

The women of the African National Women’s Organization are not content with this current reality and struggle like hell to help other African women to fight against these conditions.

African people are a nation of oppressed people who are dominated and exploited by imperialist power for our resources upon which Europe and North America survives.

Colonialism has disempowered, impoverished and marginalized African women in such a deep and profound way that African women MUST lead in the struggle to regain our freedom and a life of dignity.

We must organize!

Join ANWO and build local branches wherever we live, so we can actively and collectively deal with every major issue that affects our daily lives.

We MUST lead our way out of the imperialist maze of miseries.

Unleash the Mighty Power of African Women!

Uhuru!

FGM is the removing or altering of the external genitalia of girls and young women, which is a centuries-old practice that predates modern religion.

Supporters of this practice provide various reasons for maintaining it, often citing cultural traditions. Opponents of FGM provide a long list of medical and moral reasons why it should end.

Whatever the medical or cultural reasons given for or against FGM, the African National Women’s Organization (ANWO) is clear that, at its core, female genital mutilation further limits the freedom of African women and girls who are already suffering under colonial domination.

Therefore, we unite with the African People’s Socialist Party’s position to end the mutilation of women that reads:

“African women also find themselves locked into backward social practices that have assumed the weight of culture. Genital mutilation is one of the most obvious of such practices.

“While there is a debate on whether this practice was introduced into Africa by Arabs or other external forces, the fact remains that genital mutilation is a brutal method used in attempt to guarantee male inheritance rights by limiting the sexual freedom of women.”

The most severe form of female genital mutilation removes the clitoris and labia, and sews closed the vaginal opening. This ensures that girls stay virgins before marriage and loyal to a husband after marriage.

The vagina is cut opened only for marital intercourse and may even be sewn up again and repeated several times to prevent the woman from having intercourse with anyone else.

It is a violent, nasty, backward practice that needs to be stamped out completely. It still continues today, however, because of colonial exploitation.

Female genital mutilation persists because of colonial exploitation

It is not surprising then, that FGM is mostly practiced in places where parasitic capitalist exploitation and colonial oppression has ravaged the population––mostly in Africa and places in the Middle East.

By stealing the labor and resources of the colonized, the people are prevented from moving away from outdated traditions that make little sense.

We are forced to stay ignorant and steeped in mysticism when medical proof exists that can debunk many of the reasons given for continuing the practice––namely that cutting contributes to good health.

While the exploiters use science and technology to remove minerals by the tons, many of our people don’t have access to the information that can show that the labia protects the vagina.

But, more than just a question of “cleanliness” and guaranteeing male inheritance, the genital mutilation of African girls reaches far beyond the girl and the man she is forced to marry.

Female genital mutilation is a lucrative business for many practitioners whose ability to support themselves and their families depends on performing this heinous act.

It is also a way of securing financial security for the girl and her family, since a girl who has undergone the “cutting” brings a higher bride price.

Because many populations have few economic options, the barter and trade of a woman’s sex is the economic center of entire communities.

Under capitalism, women are considered currency.

Whether exploited as “sex workers” or because of culture, the value of women, especially colonized and African women, becomes liquid.

We are traded for goods, services, sex, food, money and anything else you can imagine.

FGM, however, cannot be fixed in a bubble. It is just one symptom of colonialism.

In order to end FGM entirely, we have to make a struggle to destroy colonial domination.

The struggle against colonialism and the perpetuation of genital mutilation of young girls

Colonialism is a brutal and terroristic system used by imperialism to oppress much of the world’s people.

Since Europe’s attack on Africa, millions of Africans have been displaced, killed and maimed in Europe’s hunt for labor, land and resources.

For example, in the 23 years (1885-1908) Leopold II [of Belgium] ruled the Congo, he massacred 10 million Africans by cutting off their hands and genitals, flogging them to death, starving them into forced labor, holding children ransom and burning villages.

In the territories known as the Americas and Canada, the native populations were nearly wiped out when white settlers’ thirst for land and resources led them to murder, kidnap and rape Indigenous and African people.

Today, imperialism demands the necessity of colonialism to sustain itself in countries throughout the world.

Therefore, the violence of FGM, as sickening as it is, is miniscule compared to the overall violence of colonial crusades of occupation.

This does not mean we shouldn’t challenge it. We should.

However, we must also understand it within the context and the subsequent struggle against colonialism as a strategy to end the oppressive practice.

Socialism is key to eradicating FGM

Not only should we end colonialism by destroying capitalism, we have to replace capitalism with socialism to ensure the forward progression of society.

Socialism is when the workers control the State and own the means of production.

That way there can be an assurance of a redistribution of wealth, which contributes to a more equal society.

It is an opposite system to that of capitalism, which exploits much of the world’s people.

Under socialism, women and men will be jolted out of the fog of mysticism and economic depravity and driven toward a future that will require the rapid development of the people.

Practices that had previously been the only source of economic stability will fade away as society is opened up to new opportunities.

Worker-owned production will ensure that both women and men can make a living contributing to the development of our nation.

A worker-controlled State will implement policies that restrict backward practices that harm sectors of the population.

Communist vs petit bourgeoisie leaders on the issue of female genital mutilation

One of the best examples of what a socialist, anti-colonial government can do to stamp out oppressive practices toward women, is that of Thomas Sankara.

Sankara was the Communist President of Burkina Faso from 1983 until colonial agents killed him in 1987.

His government railed against the oppression of women, outlawing genital mutilation of girls and women, polygamy, forced marriages and elevated women to leadership positions.

After his murder and the neocolonial takeover of Burkina Faso, policies restricting FGM where all but forgotten until it was outlawed again in 1996. There is little evidence, however, to show that the new restriction has stopped the practice.

Nearly 71 percent of women and girls in Burkino Faso are victims of FGM, according to a 2008 UNICEF report.

Compare Sankara’s policies to nationalist leaders who positioned themselves as anti-colonialist and black nationalists but have not taken on a socialist agenda.

Their only interest is to replace the white oppressors with themselves and maintain many of the same policies of oppression.

Some nationalists have historically supported the continuation of FGM in response to what was considered an attack on African traditions by European colonizers.

Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya endorsed genital mutilation as a form of nationalist resistance to European colonial domination.

In 1938 he wrote in Facing Mount Kenya: “No proper Kikuyu would dream of marrying a girl who has not been circumcised—this operation is regarded as a conditio sine qua non for the whole teaching of tribal law, religion and morality.”

Rooted in tribalism, this statement can only be described as counter-revolutionary.

Without a socialist, anti-colonialist, anti-capitalist agenda, ending FGM and all other symptoms of capitalist colonialism will be impossible.

That is why we say that freedom for all women means making a revolution.

At our 2015 founding conferences in Washington D.C and London, UK, the African National Women’s Organization united on a resolution to develop political education campaigns to eradicate the prevalence of female genital mutilation in our communities.

We continue to uphold the resolution and aim to do more around the issue.

We will do all that it takes to ensure that we clear the fog, as we actively participate in various struggles that contribute the destruction of capitalism.

Explore our website or contact us at info@anwouhuru.org to learn more about what we do.

Join ANWO!
End the genital mutilation of women!
Destroy Capitalism!

For many, having Harriet Tubman’s face on a piece of U.S. currency marks a tremendous victory in the struggle for women’s equality; but for freedom loving revolutionaries, this is just one more attempt  of a dying imperialism to quell the movement of African people toward freedom

At a time when African women are reeling from police killings of their children and are ourselves victims of police terror, when African girls are violently beaten by the police and are suspended from schools at rates even higher than African boys, when the incarceration rate of African women has increased by 800 percent, when African mothers in the U.S. are dying in childbirth at rates equitable to our African sisters in less developed countries, and  African women are fighting to keep their homes from being destroyed and their children from being locked up; it is clear that the superficial “victory” of having an African woman on the U.S. note does nothing to overturn the relationship that African people have to imperialism.

Instead, U.S. imperialist forces are hard at work trying to bring the poor oppressed struggling masses closer within its ranks through the U.S. Presidential elections – bourgeois political competition of the ruling class – and gestures such as Harriet on a 20 dollar bill, as it continues to terrorize us within its border and terrorize the rest of the world with its policy of violence.

Harriet embodied freedom and fought for it until her last breath. Now her identity is being used to further tie African people to a capitalist system that was born from the oppression, brutalization and exploitation of millions of African people.

The only thing that the U.S. Treasury can do at this point is pay reparations to African people. If they can’t do that then the intention is to continue exploiting African people.

Mama Harriet wanted freedom and we still don’t have it, anywhere in the world.

Harriet Tubman Quotes:

I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves

I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other

The reemergence of political consciousness in the oppressed African masses is having a profound impact on black liberation strategies as African people around the world organize to build power in the hands of the people.

African women continue to face some of the fiercest repression under colonialism, we continue to be at the forefront of these struggles.

This community forum focused on building the collective power of African people by lifting up the resistance of African women.

Kushinda Olarenwaju, Vice President of  ANWO spoke about  the campaign to protect her son who is under constant attacks by the State!

African Socialist International (ASI) Europe Chair, Makda Yohannes, spoke on African women’s experience in Sweden.

We had a good turn out and met some great sisters who we plan to build with.

Forward to victory!
Uhuru!

Admittedly, I struggled when I was asked to give a presentation entitled “End the Oppression of African Women” at the 2011 International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) convention. Although I think the presentation had many good points, overall, I think it lacked focus. Now, as the video of this presentation is being played to wider audiences, I thought it was important to solidify what I believed to be a shaky message.

My struggles on this subject came from not seeing a clear definition of gender-specific oppression when it came to African people. Even though there are differences in the types of attacks men and women experience, it is important to identify that those attacks are rooted in a capitalist system, which has manipulated and exploited African people from the very beginning.

This system allows the enslaved to act as collaborators, which the oppressor uses as a basis for divide-and-conquer campaigns. As I explored the oppression of African women, I first had to identify areas where the oppressor sought to divide and conquer. I found those attributes were apparent in something veiled behind the interest of a devalued group, black women. This thing was called feminism.

This was why I initially tried speaking about theories of feminism to approach the subject of the oppression of African women. I realized, however, that even if I could see how divisional feminism was, I didn’t know how to speak about it because I didn’t fully understand what it meant to be a feminist, more specifically, a black feminist.

So while I mentioned it, I didn’t make it a central theme. I continued, however, my effort to understand it even after the convention.

I began a study, looking for articles, books and videos explaining why black women would choose the feminist agenda as a liberation engine. What I concluded was that feminism, even black feminism, vies for the attention of white power , essentially working within its system to solve the problem of being a devalued human being, and although black feminist would argue that they are more devalued than anybody else by this system, they still depend on it to validate themselves.

Black Feminism

Black feminism encompasses a range of ideas that, unlike white feminism, which primarily seeks an end to gender inequality, acknowledges that social and economic disparities associated with race are additional oppressive factors in which white women have no historical experience.

Black feminism acknowledges the root oppression of African people and the resulting effects it has on us. Black feminism, however, allows black women to take a perpetual victim’s role, essentially pitting black women against black men in a contest to see who is oppressed the most, drawing focus away from the overall system of oppression that oppresses us both.

This is contrary to feminist thought, as black feminist academic, bell hooks, states in her book, Killing Rage: Ending Racism, that it is black men who have become victims in order to obtain some of the privilege of being men in white-dominated society, ultimately aligning themselves with white men and becoming oppressors to black women.

Armed with this understanding, feminism found a place in the black community and used our personal relationships as the platform for its agenda. Feminism undermines our ability to think critically and plays on our “emotional” characteristics. Personal responsibility could be absolved by placing the blame on black men, not only in subjective relationships, but also in their inability to beat back the oppressor. So what begins is a positioning of ourselves in opposite corners, ready to fight it out for recognition.

For example, a sister might be resentful toward black men because, instead of becoming an agent for change, a brother might become a drug dealer, and due to the resulting jail time from this activity, more single black mothers would turn to welfare for economic assistance. In an effort to free themselves from their perceived abandonment, black women could engage in acts of collaboration with the state against black men and black people through welfare, which is an imperialist tool that rewards single-parent households led by black women. It allows us avenues to become agents for the oppressor as a way to incarcerate more black men and to further tie ourselves economically to this system through child support/wage garnishments and welfare-to-work programs, among others.

Of course, discussion around this topic is being had without recognizing (or at least not wanting to recognize) that a brother doesn’t choose to be a drug dealer as much as a sister doesn’t choose to go on welfare. These are responses to the same beast of imperialism/capitalism, which has divested the economic and human resources from African communities the world over since its creation.

It is also important to note that while white feminism is opposed to the power structure of white men, black feminism takes on the specific question of how it relates to their relationship with black men. Black feminism does something that white feminism could not do, which is accuse black men of oppression. And in this way, black women now take on an antagonistic position toward black men, just as their feminist label would suggest, pulling out the black woman experience again, and preventing us from focusing on the exploitative divisive nature of capitalism.

Some black feminists claim this is not the case, that their label as a feminist identifies their layered oppression and that their fight is against oppression in all forms. That the black woman’s struggle and identity has been marred in such a way that black feminism defines them—not only as fighters against oppression but as black women whose struggles are different from white women, and that this position is not necessarily in opposition to black men.

Why call yourself a feminist, then?

If black women are fighting against all types of oppression, what is the reason for using this label? Why can’t these black women just join in the overall struggle to crush the incorrect systems that have victimized black people?

Feminism automatically calls out a biological identity that aligns itself with white power imperialism, based on white women’s need to be seen as equal to white men. In that vein, when anyone calls themselves a feminist it ultimately means that they are vying to be recognize by white power imperialism as a victim.

Neo-Feminism: Becoming goddess

Another growing verve of feminism coming from black women is to take on the moniker of goddess. Some of these women use goddess myth to explain how balance can be restored to the world, first through a global black women’s alliance, and ultimately an alliance with women of all colors. That men have caused all the ills of the world and thus should accept women as divine beings and subscribe to “worshipping” her as such.

I have been in circles where all a woman has to do is burn a candle, throw their menstruation blood on some rocks during a full moon and sit with a bunch of women under a red tent in order to chant out the ills of the world. This practice plays on the significance of having a womb as a means to see oneself as some sort of supreme being.

One major problem, if you haven’t already spotted it, is that this version of goddess myth “rescues” women from doing the actual practical work needed to really stamp out the ills of the world.

Basically, it’s a lazy lady’s cure for change.

It relegates solutions to metaphysical “work,” almost never depositing messages of community empowerment. It allows us the comfort of being psychic revolutionaries from our homes instead of being on the front lines and in the streets, as examples to other women and girls that their place is right here and now in the struggle for freedom and liberation of our people.

Oftentimes, goddess theory Africanizes European ideals of what being a goddess is by subscribing to the perception of a easy-tempered being. My understanding of goddesses in African traditions is a bit different than what I’ve heard coming out of the mouths of black “goddesses.” Goddesses are one part of a dual system in which male and female “gods” could not exist without each other.

African traditions espouse duality and balance which represents African women and African men each as parts of a whole, and necessary to solve a problem. For example African goddess Oya, the warrior water goddess, is counterpart to Sango, the thunder god. The unbalanced notion of god or goddess superiority is non-existent.

I do want to say that, even as I see the process of becoming a “goddess” as counterrevolutionary, I have seen how study of the African goddess myth, has transformed some women who previously didn’t value themselves into women who found pride in who they are as African women.

This is important especially as black women are attacked by the imperialist media and by backward-thinking individuals whose aim is to make us feel less than. If the end goal, however, is just to make us feel good about being black, then I have to advocate taking it a step further and revolutionizing the message.

Because, while it’s nice to have a space where we can discuss our issues, if it stops at that without any real workable solutions, the whole practice is dysfunctional. It’s not enough to be a proud slave, resolved to live in your physical oppression because you got rid of one one hundreth of your mental one.

This mentality is familiar to me because I used to involve myself with certain aspects of the goddess life. But for all the candle burning and altar building and black self-loving, I wasn’t satisfied. It became a question of where the practical work was. The more I saw my sisters ascend to the sky, escaping from reality, the more I distanced myself.

I saw this mentality problematic because it forged a disconnect between myself and other African women who were not in a position to escape the death of their child due to malnutrition, or imperialist-driven rapes, or life in a poverty-stricken ghetto.

I asked myself: how could I walk up to one of these women, tell her she’s a goddess and invite her to join me in a healing circle?

She’d probably look at me like I was out of my mind.

The more I stayed amongst these goddess women, the more I saw that even though they expressed concerns about the conditions of our people, their resolves usually ended up attacking men, victimizing themselves or relegating the work they needed to do to tapping into a “higher vibration.”

Needless to say, I abandoned the goddess identity and elevated myself to African womanhood, standing side by side with other African women and men to do the work that is needed. Ending oppression of African women cannot mean turning ourselves into victims or escaping our realities. It means dealing first hand with the problem, and the problem is capitalism.

This parasitic system feeds off the labor and resources of African people, and its survival is predicated on its ability to infiltrate our communities and divide us along color, gender and economic lines.

Let’s not let them win.

Let’s learn that our greatest power is a united front focused on ensuring the fall of imperialism under which we cannot survive or be free.

African women: we must embrace an African Internationalist agenda that takes on this very question, that arms us with the ability to really end our oppression through collaborative efforts amongst the African working class and poor peasants.

As an African Internationalist, I understand that the only way to shed victimization is to become a revolutionary, struggling against this system to end all forms of oppression.