A Nigerian Women’s Workshop
The Nigerian Women’s Workshop in March of this year was an intense one for me. Co-Counseling teachers and panelists talked about the following topics:
- The exploitation of women’s bodies in connection to African land and resources
- Feminism in the Nigerian context
- Women and the environment and care for the environment
- Women’s strength in crisis situations
- Women and leadership in the twenty-first century
- Reproductive justice and the right to bodily autonomy
- Appreciation of womenfolk
Women are at the receiving end of exploitation. For example, we are expected to be caregivers, and we are seen as sexual instruments instead of co-partners in sexual acts.
We looked at the role played by an empress of ancient Ethiopia who was also a warrior. We also looked at the “Aba Women’s Riots of 1929,” in which thousands of Igbo women organized a massive revolt against the policies imposed by British colonial administrators in southeastern Nigeria, touching off the most serious challenge to British rule in the history of the colony. The “Women’s War” took months for the government to suppress and became a historic example of feminist and anti-colonial protest.
My highlights were as follows:
- Knowing again that I’m intelligent, strong, beautiful, and not limited by being female, even though the system seems to say otherwise
- Knowing I have the right over my body and to be proud of and take charge of it; the shape or size doesn’t matter
- Having in mind at all times that I do not need outside validation; knowing I need to appreciate myself
- Knowing that it is “in-reach” first, before outreach, since we can’t give what we don’t have
- Knowing again that I should be a support to my fellow women
With the principles of RC, re-emergence is sure! Oh, how I love every opportunity to discharge! I was able to relate some of the discourse to memories of happenings way back when I was less than six years old. I say with all boldness, “I am re-emerging!”
My sincere appreciation to mummy Chioma [Chioma Okonkwo, Area Reference Person for Lagos, Nigeria, and Regional Reference Person for Nigeria and West Africa] for her leadership, to the teachers and panelists for their terrific teachings, and to the organizers—a job well done.
Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria
(Present Time 204, July 2021)