WARNING: This article may contain traces of sarcasm & banter. Sensitive readers are advised to keep clear of it.
Addressing the Botswana Democratic Party Women’s Wing 13th Congress, President Khama reportedly said, “It is women who are, sadly, mostly affected by social ills but it is also women who are at the forefront of government efforts to fight those social ills…Government and I are determined to make sure that we continue to create an environment conducive to the well-being of women in this country. We need to redouble our efforts towards ensuring that we get as many women through the primary elections as we possibly can.”
The first part of this extract captures the critical role played by women in development, whereas the remaining part highlights the issue of women empowerment from the perspective that some, especially those who have power (men), can sincerely give up some of their power or rather enable women to realize their own potential. This to me appears like a beautiful contradiction of rhetoric. It is a naked sham!
Perhaps I should remind readers what Jane Rowlands wrote in her paper, titled ‘What is empowerment? The challenge of researching women, empowerment and Development in Honduras’ (1992), that ‘any notion of empowerment being given by one group to another hides an attempt to keep control’.
For donkey years now the political leadership has been regurgitating the mantra of women empowerment in almost every piece of their usually dull and uninspiring speeches but with no matching action. And after decades of listening and dancing to this lullaby, women still hope that these male chauvinists would one day give up their power and privileges. As a result, women have been baited into habitually kneeling down to humbly plead with these bigots to surrender more of their powers and privileges. My goodness! What crap!
In this article I intend to tell it all, which is why I have flagged it with a cautionary note. You see, when I read fellow columnist Sonny Serite’s piece in The Telegraph (April 27th 2011) warning young women to be wary of sex crazed older men, I wanted to write a counter note warning men, young and old, to be wary of women. Soon before I could write the note, Keletso Thobega posted a piece in The Telegraph of 4th May 2011, lamenting that Botswana has no room for women empowerment. I then decided that I was going to write about women. I must admit that I subscribe to this ‘nonsense’ about women empowerment perhaps because I know it is just sweet melody and hallucination, yet I often get amused by women’s lack of appreciation of the power they have.
In fact, I am inclined to believe that if women could discover the power they have and use such power to realize their own potential they wouldn’t be asking to be empowered. Think of a woman’s allure; yes that seemingly harmless hypnotic power that has caused great men to commit suicide; that magnetic power that has shaped the course of history (at the height of Apartheid rule in South Africa, former South African President P. W. Botha reportedly told his cabinet that the government intends to use white women as sex mercenaries to administer slow killing poison and fertility destroyers to wipe out the kaffir especially because the black man was too eager to go to bed with a white woman- a reprint of the speech by David G. Mailu for the Sunday Times, August 1985). I know it may seem overly-flattering but no matter how strong a man thinks he is, he is like diapers in the hands of a woman. Many men have lost lives because of the power of a woman and many pastors and priests have been stripped of their pastoral duties after conducting dubious private prayers for too many female worshippers.
A great nation with a superior, highly efficient and proficient army that has the potential to destroy the enemy in less than one minute can be overwhelmed and overcome by the mere touch and smile of a woman. Former US President, Bill Clinton, perhaps the most powerful man in the world at the time couldn’t resist getting between the legs of a mere secretary. And that ‘dumb blode’ called Marilyn Monroe reportedly tossed with the body and soul of another former US President John Kennedy. These are or were men of substance not some chancy chief executive officers of some obscure firms but yet they failed to ward off the power of women.
A woman can scream and moan in a spasm of passion, pretending to be ‘arriving in heaven’ just to decieve the moron on top of her to ejaculate and get off her. Women can make men feel that they (men) are in-charge while in actual fact they are decieving them. And through their sweet words and loving touch, they can control everyone around them. Women may not be head of families but they call the shots. Men may have money but is actually not theirs. Men often would like to be seen to be in control even when they are not and this gives them the power they do not have. Philosopher Aristotle said that ‘if women didn’t exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning’.
Women have power and don’t need more of it. All they need to do is to invent ways to use their powers productively. You see God created a woman differently from a man and gave her qualities that are not found in a man. Likewise, God gave a man some attributes He didn’t give to a woman but God did not make man superior of the two. It is only that women have been conditioned into a state of virtual dependence which makes them want to get everything from men including things they (women) have in abundance. Thus, women have to begin by appreciating that they have sufficient powers. It is not that they do not have power but rather they lack dynamism and creativity in the use of their powers. Believe me women can do most of the dirty jobs ascribed for men but most of the time they chose to act like ‘women’. How many men care if a woman has decent education or can’t dance well? A bushman is a male one, a female one is a person.
Now why can’t women use the power they have to get what they want and stop the nonsense of women empowerment? Come on blondes, discover your power and stop being cry babies. You have power that is actually keys to your happiness and success but are skeptical about it or are ashamed of exploiting it. Men have fallen of their scooters and many have caused fatal accidents oggling at women jogging beside the drive ways. Whether it is sexual power, natural beauty or some other features, it is God’s given gift and women need be proud of it rather behave as though they admire our ‘sausages’. Use that simple potency of being a woman to enjoy yourselves and stop acting desperate. The trouble with women is that they waste a lot of their precious time worrying about men or policing and scheming against men instead of using their unique gifts or talents to lead fulfilling lives.
A woman’s body symbolizes the art of creativity; an architectural masterpiece. When men describe its allure they loose breadth and can give up their plum careers to have a go at the incredible and charming creature. Why are women ashamed of using this lethal power as a key to a life full of contentment? The differences in the design of a woman and man’s body tells a far more weighty story which is that women are pricey and this is a reflection of spiritual, mental and material power they possess.
Tell me people, how many men are virtually sure that they are supporting their own kids not some other man’s produce? It is only a woman who knows or may have any clue who the father of her child is. This is what I call authentic power; that power that makes a man raise children not his even when he knows; not the bogus power that men pretend to have. In one of his poems, Nigerian poet Chief Femi Fani-Kayode exclaims; ‘the greatest weapon that the devil has in his armoury are daughters of Jezebel and Dalilah, those beautiful yet evil seducers. The greatest weapon God has in his arsenal are daughters of Zion, those beautiful loyal women who are enforcers and guardians of God’s purpose in the lives of men’.
Now you tell me, what power do women really clamour for? Women look powerless because they are ashamed to fully exploit their sexual power, beauty, their brains and all that goes with it. In the book, The Second Sex, French author, Simone de Beauvoir, opines that one is not born a woman, one becomes one. Thus, women are very powerful but enjoy being crybabies and have become paranoid and delusional about power.
