While walking the streets of Malawi, Africa, this past fall on a Tucker Fellowship, a sense of familiarity resonated through images and sounds which will pulsate in my memories forever. This sense of familiarity did not come because of the mythical ideology that blackness transcends time and history to unite all African and African American people. Nonetheless, a sense of familiarity transpired because of the commonalties of women's marginalization in a male-dominated society and the resulting face of oppression and determination. The women of Malawi, like many women around the world, are the cornerstone of the family and society.
Women maintain the crops, sell the food, care for the children.
They sometimes hold high positions in the government or village, but the majority direct their families with proficiency and honor. One woman I met put her three sons through school by working as a nanny for various American or British families. She was marginalized even more so because she was single, which is looked down up within the culture. Her devotion to education, however, was evident through all of our interactions. She was determined to teach me the local language and educate me about the history of Malawi and the current political situation.