Five books for women all over the world

In this month of women, I have not taken time to celebrate my tribe and celebrate them I must. This year’s International Women’s Day which was a little under the radar in Nigeria because of the governorship elections a day later on the 9th of March, was celebrated nonetheless by several organisations which shifted their […]

In this month of women, I have not taken time to celebrate my tribe and celebrate them I must. This year’s International Women’s Day which was a little under the radar in Nigeria because of the governorship elections a day later on the 9th of March, was celebrated nonetheless by several organisations which shifted their day of celebration forward. I was at quite a number of them and worthy of note were two organised by Ventures Park, Abuja a co-working space where my sister and friend Nimi Akinkugbe, financial guru spoke on Wealth Creation for women, while my sister Comfort Lamptey, UN Women country representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS also weighed in on Gender balance. I spoke a couple of days later at the other women’s day event at Ventures Park on marketing your brand and how to sell your products better with the theme, Sales Strategies for Boss Ladies. It was instructive that UN Women had sponsored one of them and both were pretty much about how women can sustain and generate wealth and how to sustain same. Women’s more profound issues around the world have always related to poor finances and access to wealth. This makes them dependant and unable to participate actively or have a voice and it prevents them from getting education to further themselves and affects their entire wellbeing. Lack of finances keeps a woman in an abusive relationship and often leads to depression and extreme poverty. I was also a Panelist at the IICD in Abuja on trafficking in girls after watching a movie screened by Art Curator, Ndu White, which was provided and supported by the American Embassy. The movie, I am Jane Doe, is about trafficking in girls in America and all the attendant challenges especially the challenges of trying to prosecute the traffickers, and their arrogant attitude in trafficking these girls. Often times, the girls are abducted or deceived by them. The discussion centred on the Nigerian situation and how the movie resonated with the same challenges faced by trafficked under aged girls in Nigeria and a call to action. What can be done? What are the obstacles?  Last year I visited Mali and discovered to my utter chagrin that Nigerian girls as young as 13 were being trafficked to that country. The stories are as heart wrenching as they are bizarre. I visited the International office of Migration, IOM, where some of the rescued girls had been kept, girls from between 13-22. Nigerian girls, broken, destroyed. I wonder would these traffickers do this to their own daughters?

Also know you today, that when a spouse, brother, male colleague, son or boyfriend gives you the silent treatment every time you try to talk to them or shouts at you or ignores you, or increases the volume of the television while you are still talking, it is emotional abuse and intent on reducing you to a non -person without a voice. Just so you know. Inherit your space, keep your chin up, keep your voice up, for as Maya Angelou, writer and poet says, you are a phenomenal woman, wonderfully made. You are too present in all that you do to be told to simply disappear or shut up. No matter how tiny, keep your voice going, hold your side, let’s keep talking.

Talking we must and fathers, husbands, brothers and men generally have a huge role to play here. How do you speak to your female significant other, how do you treat them? Are you fair even at work? Are you gender balanced? Or you are part of the problem? Let us resolve that women hold half the sky and balance for better is an urgent call. The time for action is now.

This year’s theme for the 2019 International women’s day is Balance for Better and is a call to action. It urges us to forge a more gender balanced world. Gender balance for better and equal pay, balance for inclusion in governance, balance for equal distribution of wealth and gender balanced media coverage among other balances. It is towards this call to action and in celebration of women all over the world who bear the burden of a lack of gender balance that I celebrate all women today. Women who continue to hold it down for other women and men who have continuously called for gender balance all around the world. Here are five books to remind us again of the issues at hand and to salute the sisterhood.

1. Half the Sky:

Turning oppression into opportunities for women worldwide by Pulitzer prize winning authors Nicholar Kristof and Sheryl Wudun, is a truly phenomenal book that connects us to the struggle of women after several interviews with women in Asia and Africa. A truly important resource, it is the journey of chronicling the suffering and strength of girls, daughters, mothers and wives who they interviewed across both continents. It is a piercing description of 21st century slavery, honour killings, rape as a weapon of war and subculture of prostitution. How it is possible that family, strangers, friends and spouses are able to put women through these sufferings never ceases to amaze me. There are four steps the writers of this incredible book recommend to all of us. They include taking action by getting involved through support for organisations working with rural women by donating, educating yourself on the policies that affect the very poor, speak for change and volunteer.

2. Slay in your lane:

The black girl’s bible is such a gorgeous looking book but has even more impactful content. Written by Elizabeth Ubviebinere and Yomi Adegoke, it is the long awaited inspirational guide for black British women. The lines are blurred as we are mostly up against the same things, so do get a copy. It will speak to you.

3. The Sisterhood:

A love letter to the women who have shaped me by Daisy Buchanan is an honest, hilarious book which celebrates the way in which women connect with each other.

4. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo:

This book follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. The book described by Elif Shakaf as a down to earth book on character and identity also commends Evaristo as one of those writers who should be read by everyone, everywhere.

5. We should all be feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:

This slim volume Pamphlet by award winning Nigerian writer Chimammanda is written in such everyday language that it makes it an easy read in getting perspective on the small things in your space which you may not have noticed as shutting down your voice. Get a copy as quick as you can. It took me two hours to read and that’s because I was busy when I read it. You should be done in about forty-five minutes if you are a slow reader and twenty minutes if you are fast. It’s that slim but also that interesting. Read it, relate to it and see yourself nodding in agreement to most of the relatable stories in there.

Bonus books:

Good and Mad, the revolutionary power of women’s anger by Rebecca Traister.

Eloquent rage, a black feminist discovers her superpower by Brittney Cooper, Professor of Gender Studies at Rutgers University.