Africa Speaks Reasoning Forum

Peace and balance.

These are exchanges between sisters on different occasions that I found very interesting. To me they portray how we can be aware of patriarchy but still not act in anti-patriarchal ways. And how sometimes we are not aware that we are showing a different head of the same monster.

Sister 1 ( to sister 2): I do not get you. You talk about womanhood and freedom in a way I do not comprehend. When do you feel free? Is it after the plantation shift before the housekeeper shift? Or is it between the latter and the bedroom shift? Or between the latter and the fear of living without your pimp of a husband? How can you struggle to be a ''lady on the streets, but a freak in the bed'' and still advocate for womanhood?
Sister 2: What do you mean struggle to be a lady on the streets, but a freak in the bed?
Sister 1: Please! The niceness, politeness and obedience? The vaginal workouts? Learning every fertility dance you can come across? Eating plants to make your vagina flood? What is all that for? What is your definition of womanhood and freedom anyways? Your job is to beautify females and therefore your capital is the female's body. What is the difference between you and a pimp?

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Sister 1 (to sister 2): I do not appreciate the way you portray me. You makes it seem like only my world rotates around males.
Sister 2: Doesn't it?
Sister 1: Doesn't yours? (Sister 2 looking puzzled.) While I dust and paint my face, choke my body and borrow length, as you ''comically'' put it, you torture your brain learning words that should be broken down at least three times, reading about the latest riots, the oldest anthropologist discoveries, quoting names our people don't even use. When I arrive at the party, I do our fertility dance and I get the male's attention. You open your mouth and get the male's attention too. What then is the difference between my dance and your speech when they serve the same purpose to us?
Sister 3 (to sister 2): I agree with her. You are good at mapping our patriarchy, but can't quite seem to see your own. You think your ''enlightenment'' saves you from the spell womb-holders are put under. You sit here and preach about our blindness and weakness, never considering yours. Tell me sister, what is the difference between her battles with males and yours? Your world doesn't rotate around men because you can connect their acts to eurocentric capitalistic supremacy? Don't you and her serve them the same purpose at the end of the day?For example, you know your males are with other females because they tell you and she knows they are with other females because of her intuition. You both know. But guess what, you are both one of many to them.
(Laughing) At least with her they have some sympathy. With you, they remind you of the terms and conditions the presented you with from the start before leaving you with wet eyes. (Laughs harder.)
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