NOVEMBER 2005

To take part in the African revolution it is not enough to write a revolutionary song; you must fashion the revolution with the people. And if you fashion it with the people, the songs will come by themselves, and of themselves. In order to achieve real action, you must yourself be a living part of Africa and of her thought; you must be an element of that popular energy which is entirely called forth for the freeing, progress, and the happiness of Africa. There is no place outside that fight for the artist or for the intellectual who is not himself/herself concerned with and completely at one with the people in the great battle of Africa and of suffering humanity."

Sekou Toure  – Address to the Second Congress of Black Writers and Artists, Rome, 1959

African Women’s & Youth Conference
Oct.2005
THE IMPORTANCE OF WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP IN BUILDING THE AFRICAN WOMEN’S MOVEMENT

We need organization that unleashes the creative energies, of all the people, the women, the men and the youth.

We need organization that works for the unification of Africa into one nation.

We need organization that develops a cadre of people who are good at uniting and organizing the people, who are unselfish and who put the interests of the people first.

We need organization that is democratic with a strong, centralized, collective leadership, with iron discipline and cohesion and which is bold in making criticism and self-criticism.

 We need organization that is political, and successful in our struggle for power because there is a direct relationship between power and organization. Those who are the most organized have power. Those who are the least organized are the most powerless.

It was when private property emerged, and as communalism gave way to slavery and feudalism, that the exploitation of humanity and women began. Individualism and tendencies to private ownership grew while communalism disintegrated and the collective spirit declined. The increase of production in all branches—cattle raising, agriculture, domestic handicrafts—gave human labor-power the capacity to produce a larger product than was necessary for its maintenance…. It was now desirable to bring in new labor forces. War provided them; prisoners of war were turned into slaves. With its increase of the productivity of labor, and therefore of wealth, and its extension of the field of production, came the first great social division. From the first great social division of labor arose the first great cleavage of society into two classes; masters and slaves, exploiters and exploited.

It is important to note that this is what happened among our own people. This was thousands of years before we came in contact with other races of people. It was this contradiction among ourselves that weakened us so that we could be taken advantage by other people. We think that it is important to go over this history because one of our biggest weaknesses to this day is the oppression of African women by African men.

If we look at our organizations today, we would find that African women are not recognized as playing a leadership role in any of our main organizations; even though women have played a key role in every significant struggle that we have ever had. This is a clear manifestation of the oppression of women. The exception to this rule has been when women have formed women’s organizations, and just like there is a hatred of women; there is a hatred of women’s organizations.

Don’t get confused. We are in no way against our men. True Women’s Emancipation can only be attained in the struggle of the whole people against exploitation of any kind. A liberation struggle cannot be afraid to talk about the weaknesses among the people. Our brother Amilcar Cabral used to tell us, “Tell no lies, and claim no easy victories”.

One of the biggest crimes related to oppression and exploitation is that it has a negative effect on the consciousness of the person that is being oppressed and exploited. Women are the primary educators of both the boys and girls of our nation. What bigger crime as a nation can we commit against ourselves that to exploit the primary educators of our nation and effect her consciousness in a negative way and therefore effect our whole nation’s consciousness in a negative way.

Everyone who loves Africa and African people must demand and insist that our sisters be recognized for the leadership that they have always displayed. Every organization that has a future will have women leadership and the organizations that insist on our sisters not playing a key leadership role will fade away and die. In traditional Africa women represented life, as Africans we know that anything that is anti-woman represents backwardness, evil, and death.

We are building an African Women’s Movement for the sole purpose of the liberation of our people and humanity. We know the difference between what is dominant and fading away versus what is very small and coming into being, and in time will be dominant. The organizations that have women and youth as leadership in them are the ones that are small but coming into being and in the future will dominate; the organizations that do not have women and youth in the leadership are the ones that are dying no matter how dominate they may seem now. African Women’s and youth movements represent the life, forward thinking, and love of the people. Those who come to be the most conscious and most grateful will acknowledge that it was women who were their primary educators, and leaders. Women will develop as leaders in the women and youth movements and use their skills to organize the bigger liberation struggle. Its in these movements that women and youth leadership will not only be welcomed but insisted on because these movements must represent the most conscious of our people. We chose women because we chose life. We chose women because we know our history and we know the positive history that we have was when women were clearly in leadership positions. The African women’s movement will be dynamic women’s leadership will not be fought against but to the contrary fought for. We ask our women to be full of confidence and come to understand our history because you know the true history of women in our struggle, then you will be no other way but full of confidence.

SOLIDARITY WITH WOMEN OF THE WORLD

We have been asked, “If this is an African Women’s & Youth Conference, then why have women from other nationalities been invited?” Our unification here is in solidarity with all nationalities of women worldwide. We are firm believers in collectivism. We understand that to be in harmony with collectivism the family must be considered more important than the individual, the community more important than the family, the nation more important than the community and all of humanity more important than the nation.

We would like to quote Samora Machel, the former president of Mozambique. “Our aim is to overthrow the power of the exploiting classes in Mozambique…Some think that the objective of our struggle should be to replace Whites in power with Blacks, and to appoint or elect Africans for the various political, administrative and economic positions now held by Whites. This reasoning is either for lack of a developed class-consciousness or because they are themselves involved in exploitation. We must understand and accept the need to destroy the exploitative period. Some identify with the system and refuse its destruction. For them, the final aim of the struggle would in fact be to ‘Africanize’ exploitation… That is a standpoint that jeopardizes the nature and purpose of the struggle. Because it does not eliminate exploitation, it creates a situation of Blacks exploiting Blacks or Africans exploiting Africans. This is the main problem among us today.”

     We are part and parcel of the oppressed people of the world. We honor all people fighting against exploitation. We are aligned with all women fighting for emancipation of women and all humanity. We say this with no apologies. This is the reason we feel that it is so important to have this panel on “Solidarity With Women of the World.”