Am I Not…?

Am I not the one who toils using the hoe, to till the land that yes I do not own but can claim, and grow food for my family and surplus to sell?

Am I not the one who has improvised with living within the famous ‘Under 1 $’ a day, and still managed to have a healthy and strong family albeit with challenges but nothing to make us not sleep at night.

Am I not the one who feeds the family including my husband as he boasts of his hard working wife at the local chess club?

Am I not the one who cares for all these children I have bear and others from my sisters and brothers?

Am I not the one who can balance a 10 litre bucket on my head, carry a baby on my back, a toddler on my right hand and a bunch of bananas on my left arm?

Am I not the one who pushes my children to go to school and get an education despite having a primary education myself and being married off at 17?

Am I not the one who has started a small business at the local market and part of a savings scheme in the local womens’ group that enables me to take my kids to school, give them a balanced diet and take them to the hospital when they fall sick?

Am I not the one who wakes up every morning to sustain my livelihood despite all these odds?

The least YOU can do is acknowledge all this power, agency & effort that has been my survival before you claim to want to “EMPOWER” me.

I might not have a title deed,a bank account, a 9–5 Job, A health insurance, a bachelors degree and perhaps YOU can support me to make further steps, but I implore you to not belittle me and my efforts; most of all my very sense of being by claiming I ‘m powerless.

For rest assured those who made you believe you can ‘empower’ me are the very same people who created this very inequality that makes you regard me as ‘inferior’.

By Carol Ndosi.

06/04/2019