A million voices rising

When we hear the word impact we often think of miraculous, gigantic,out of this world input by giants from an outerverse, we never get to think of how little small voices brought in together can transform the world.

As a storyteller,let me share a short story that i created for purposes of clarity.It was a drought year,the village of Marinda had not had rains in a while. As they did in times of trouble, they consulted the village head whose power to speak to the higher power always brought answers.

"We are dying,sekuru. Consult on what we should do to save ourselves and our families,"the villagers pleaded.

Sekuru threw his bones to the ground, drank his frosted sorghum beer and started chanting incoherently. After a while,he gave a loud belch and said.

" I saw that we've for a long time left our practice of Ubuntu, togetherness and embraced,' the each man for himself dogma.' The land is angry and will not bring forth any of its tears for your crop until you become one..." Before he could finish, everyone broke into a dance. They finally had a solution to their problem. All they needed to do was work together.

A week went by ,with each family trying to be there for each other and the men taking turns to dig for water on one area they had identified for their new dam. Women and children were not allowed to be part of it. One brave woman,her name was Zvenyika gathered all the women and girls under a baobab tree and said.

" We might not have the physical strength of our husbands ,brothers,and sons;but we also are part of this village and should also be digging and playing our part," she waited until the roar of ullulation had died down to continue," only until we are embraced in this village as equal citizens will we solve the issue of water and this power of equality will never be given to us,we should fight for it in our best diplomatic ways."

They started asking their husbamds for permission to no avail until after three months of struggling for water without avail,the frail women and girls each took a different tool marching together ,singing with all strength they could muster. Today,they would go and face the men and demand to be included in the village project.

" Our leader,we are not here to fight but as you said before,only when we unite will heavens open for us. We are part of this village and our hands and our minds will join yours to find a solution," Zvenyika spoke with authority facing the leader and all the men.

"We will give you a week, if nothing works we will chase you back to the kitchen,where you belong,"the last part was said in a slow pronunciation that wasn't missed by any of the witnesses.

Zvenyika and her womenfolk had strategy. Most of them had breastfed and knew the earth was like a woman. It had nipples that if pressed would bring forth 'milk' but just like breasts they had to do it right or else your child would starve.

Women got to work in the large opening dug by the men. They broke into song as they used their hands,sticks and small hoes to look for 'minyatso' or nipples of water. Like magic,by mid day they had identified twenty five different points of water which they asked them to drill into. And like magic by the end of the day the water started seeping through.

The leader,astonished and impressed declared, " Alone we can arrogantly toil for months calling ourselves men,but when we unite our genders we surely solve our problems faster. I am declaring that my deputy will be Zvenyika. She will bring the feminine powerful eyes to our decision making and she will get equal and fair treatment and rewards, " he declared to everyone's applause.

"I promise to serve with humility and tact. I will include women,girls,youths,older people into all our decisions. We need each other and to my fellow women,nothing will be handed to you. You have to fight. Our voices were heard because we shouted aloud-TOGETHER!"

That night,with a large moon hanging at the apex of the mountains,people of Marinda danced ,feasted as the dam filled to the brim one nipple at a time.

I know you enjoyed that story as much as I did telling you. The hidden meaning which I think isn't really hidden anyway is that ,no power ,no emancipation, no space will be handed to us as women, unless we show up. We have a strong platform like worldpulse which encourages us to open up and claim our power and use our power for impact, let's not wait until tomorrow. Let's do it today.

Alone,in your corner of the country you may not achieve much. You will face village heads hell burnt on preserving harmful traditional practices like early child marriages or infibulation. You may even meet those who believe in not giving girls access to education or use women as pawns of war. So much is happening in your corner ,but up until we raise our voices together will we begin to see the nipples of change and in no time an overflow of transformations. What we need? Is simply embracing the wave of change and using our voices for impact.

Remember ,I told you I'm all about impact?Yes,I will play my part to encourage women in my circles to join in and add their voice to the million of voices rising. How beautiful is it,when change happens and you say," I was part of that,I played my part,I raised my voice, I did it for me -this generation and the next..."

Well, I raised mine. What do you promise to do dear reader? What is your story of impact too in this fight to be counted? Let's hold hands together. Let's raise our torches.We will win 🏆