The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

Bahamian women need to remember how valuable we are.

Having lived in a patriarchal, colonist, racist, sexist society, black women, especially, have always been on the bottom rung of the ladder of human beings’ successes.

We have seen, heard, smelled, tasted, felt and known it all from the bottom to the top. We have been beaten, raped and degraded for centuries just to stay alive, to protect our children, whoever the father was, they were ‘our gifts from God and Goddess’ entrusted to us to love, protect and nurture, or willing to die trying, sacrificing herself always for the sake of ‘Her Family’. But the family is lost, because she is lost in the lack of manumit from slavery.

Many Bahamian women today feel like they are still scarifying themselves for the sake of the family, and are resenting the tedium of disrespect from her brothers who do not carry their weight of responsibilities, nor do they have the courage to be honest or the humility to be respectful. But her daughters and granddaughters who were able to get an education, to travel and who dared to dream, are praying to God and Goddess for the day when she will be respected for her brilliance, rewarded for her sacrifices and treated with dignity for the royalty from African queens that runs through our veins.

Once we all learn that we, Bahamian women, all women, must first learn to love ourselves the way we love God and Goddess, and then love our neighbours as we love ourselves; both neighbours, the wife, not just the husband. And last but not least, she must always always be a lady of dignity, self confidence with humility, and a healthy dose of mystery, this action will grant all her dreams to come true.

Having equal rights is the step in the right direction for Bahamian women, all women. We have raised generations of leaders who never gave us the opportunity to lead, or acknowledged us as the only head of households, the breadwinners and not just the bread, but the leaders of our own destiny. We are equal to men when it comes to pay, equal to men when it comes to leadership, but we are stronger than men spiritually for all that we have endured.

We have learned so much more and now it’s time for us to share our journey and what we learned from being invisible and being on the last rung of life’s ladder of success - that is we, the human race, men and women were all made in the image of God and Goddess which makes us all Children of God and Goddess’. Remember, man says he was made first, woman says ok, but then she says God and Goddess looked at him and thought ... hum, I can do better, then made woman!

PAMELA POITIER

Orange Creek,

Cat Island,

March 6, 2016.