Who can think of the world’s women and not marvel? There is no area of human endeavor upon which the mark of woman has not been made, and made well. Every year around the time of International Women’s Month, advertisements in the newspapers trumpet the accomplishments of women, but usually they shy away from the women who have fought for the revolutionary rights of women and others, or who have fought against the patriarchal status-quo. As in Black History Month, those who are celebrated tend to be safe women, those who are acceptable to men because they haven’t rocked the boat, or if they did so, they did so gently. I will not discuss such women here. They are represented enough elsewhere.
Let us think of women who are usually ignored or who are feared, or who are shunned by the corporate media; women like those nameless billions, who, according to the UN Conference of Women in Copenhagen, 1980, perform between two thirds and three quarters of the work of the world and produce 45% of the world’s food. They labor against great odds and keep body and soul together for billions of children. They are heroines. Let us think of women like Tarika Lewis, who was the first woman to join the Black Panther Party as a rank and file member, and with her courage and ability paved the way for thousands of others to follow her path. While her name may not be known, nor famous, history should record her proud contribution of resistance to the racist repression of the 1960s and 70s. Tarika, like millions of other Black women, came from traditions of women warriors all along the West African coast.
While some have suggested otherwise, the 18th century ex-slave sailor and writer Olaudah Equiano noted clearly when telling memories of his tribe, writing, “All are taught the use of these weapons, even our women are warriors, and march boldly out to fight along with the men.” That’s from the book The Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African. It was originally published in 1789. Equiana recalled seeing a battle while nestled in a tree. He was a boy looking at his mother in the thick of battle, armed with a broadsword.
Let us not suggest that brave women warriors were rare or relegated to the dusty pages of dry history books. The name Fred Hampton is legendary, yet few remember his young wife, now named Akua Njeri, who lay beside him as he was slaughtered by the state, and now continues the struggle, leading the Democratic Uhuru movement. While Fred is remembered, and perhaps Mark Clark, few remember the two Panther women who were among the wounded that night. Berlina Brewer and Brenda Harris were each shot twice by the state and federal death squads, and both were seriously wounded, yet they survived and bravely continued the resistance as Panthers. And these are but a few.
There has been no true popular struggle in African American history, American history, or world history that was not supported or sustained by women. Women were at the very heart of the Abolition Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Liberation Movement, and the Anti-War Movements. That they are not well known is due to their being disappeared from the annals of history. Let us not forget them, and millions like them, remembered in the realm of the heart for their strength, their courage, their powerful will to be free, which inspires us all still. From death row, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are produced by Noelle Hanrahan for Prison Radio
