Wisdom in her Eyes

life

for black women did not begin in 1619

when the first ship of enslaved africans

arrived in jamestown virginia

life for indigenous caribbean women did

not

end in 1492 when christopher columbus

got lost trying to get to india and

ended up on the other side of the world

in the bahamas

throughout eternity women children and

men

have adored and honored and worshipped

the divine mother

today i will speak with you about three

such women who have loved

unconditionally who have sacrificed

themselves

for the community and who have left an

example of wisdom for us

but first i must pay respect to the

women who raised me

who are now in the heavenly realm

i pay respect to my mother esther ward

barnett

my grandmother hilda ward auntie may

auntie millie auntie lillian

auntie margaret and i pay regards to my

paternal grandmother titty albury

of elutra bahamas i must also pay

regards to the mother of this

sacred space mrs rosa parks

the first woman i will tell you about is

offset

aung

is the mother of the universe she

created the stars the moon

the galaxies the continents

everything that we consider part of our

universe our solar system

she ruled in a time before time even

began

in an area called kemet with her husband

arser

the greeks have changed their name to

isis and osiris

life was good at that time

there was peace there was prosperity

there was bliss

until austere’s evil brother set

plotted to kill him and indeed

seth not only killed his brother but he

chopped up his body into 16 pieces

and scattered them throughout the

universe

naturally austere was afraid for her

life or sex was afraid for her life

and for the lives of her people but she

knew she had business to handle

so she flapped her wings and flew

through the planets through the stars

over the mountains

the valleys into the ocean and gathered

the 16 pieces of her husband’s body

when she found the pieces she made love

and created

our son the son of our solar system geru

who the greeks called horus

asset strategically raised her son

s.u.n to be a divine force of nature

to bring light to bring warmth

to bring energy to bring power to the

world

and heru himself committed himself to

being a warrior of social justice

he has been fighting this eternal battle

of good versus evil

when heroes on top we know because

there’s plenty of food for everyone

there’s peace in the land there’s

happiness there’s good education

but we know when his uncle is on top

that is evil

because we have pandemics we have

poverty we have homelessness

we have slavery we have babies being

locked up in cages and immigration camps

we have the holocaust people being burnt

in mass because of their religion

yet heru continues this eternal fight

for good

versus evil the members of the assaira

said society

continue to worship or set today

number two atabay

growing up as a child in the bahamas i

heard my elders whispering all the time

strange words like guanahani arawak

tano cuckoo

kanau i didn’t know what these words

mean

and i couldn’t ask questions you see

irish raised at a time and place when

children were to be seen

but never heard so i’ve mastered the art

of sucking my thumb reading a book

and listening to every single word they

said

so in time i learned that tano arawak

were their indigenous people off the

bahamas

i learned that canoe is the canoe a boat

that they use to travel from place to

place i learned that cuckoo soup

was their favorite food made with a base

of cassava

yam and okra i learned that guana honey

is the indigenous name for sal salvador

christopher columbus when he came

with a sword in one hand and a cross in

the other

my people were ignorant he actually

wrote in his journal these are his own

words

they are friendly simple people

you are hungry they will give you food

you are sick they will care for you

but what did he and his man do it in

return what did they do in return

they raped our mothers they killed off

our people

the vast majority of the tanner arawaks

were slaughtered by christopher columbus

as a child we often read in the history

books the arawak the well they didn’t

even call marowaks

the people in the bahamas the indians in

the bahamas because he thought he was in

india

the indians in the bahamas died from

small packs

smallpox syphilis and gonorrhea

and it just seemed so normal the history

books normalized

the near genocide of my people

but syphilis and gonorrhea are not like

covet 19

it doesn’t just transmit around in the

air it is sexually transmitted

christopher columbus and his men

forced themselves upon our mothers

but not all of them died i am standing

here

as proof as proof to the resilience of

the tano arawak people

i am a descendant of the dhanu arawak

people

atabay their goddess their god

their creators she is so bad

that she created herself for herself

and all by herself she procreated twins

without the help of anyone she

procreated twins all by herself

she is a powerful deity and atabay

whisper to the people

go go go go to the waters the water will

protect you

so they went in their canal or their

canoes and most of them

ended up throughout the caribbean but

the most ended up in puerto rico

and to this day arawak descendants in

puerto rico

still pay respect to atabay

the final woman i will tell you about is

mariemi

maria janzero

was a young queen about the age of 14 or

she was the born into a royal family and

was the daughter of oduwa

oduduwa is the progenitor of the yoruba

race

he was so prolific that europe was today

number

more than 100 million people and they

are

all over the world we are all over the

world

of course the vast majority of europa

people are in the area the

british called nigeria they are also and

secondly in brazil

thirdly in the united states but also in

the bahamas

in jamaica and haiti in trinidad guess

what

europe was also in germany and china

japan

wherever there are people europa’s are

there making a difference in the world

going back to mariemi at the time that

she was queen of ila ife

a city-state um

people were being kidnapped from her

area

people would go to the marketplace to go

buy some fish

to go sell their yam and they would

disappear people would go to the farm

to plant their sugar cane the plant

their fruits and they would disappear

murray me went to the river this was a

time and place

when people can speak with nature when

they could hear the river

hear the ocean hear the trees we

actually still have that power if we

take the time to cultivate it

mauree me went to the river at the

marine and said what should i do

and she stayed there and she cried and

she plead and the river spoke back to

her

and said there is a solution to your

problem every problem has a solution

but you will have to make a great

sacrifice maureen

said anything anything i will do

anything to save my people and so the

river told her what to do

dress in her fine ash okay fabric wear

her gale on her head

and just stand there just stand in the

marketplace

and so she did that she went to the

marketplace and just stood there

sure enough these mysterious beings who

the

if they thought were spirits these

mysterious beings came and snatched her

and snatched other people

when they went into the forest where

they live the king of these people saw

her and said

she is final she is a fine sister i will

marry her and make her queen

and that is what he did which was great

because from that vantage point

maureen could hear everything she sat in

silence and she listened

and she heard everything that these were

not mysterious beings

these were simply men with palm fronds

with raffia

raffi is the dried leaves from the palm

tree from the coconut tree

they would let them dry put it on their

head covered their bodies

and if they had never seen anything like

that and thought they were spirits

so once she learned the secret she went

back to her ilife where she’s from

and told her real husband king aramian

what was going on

and so the next time the mysterious

beans came the ifas were ready

they were ready they had fire ready and

they torched

these forest people and ended slavery

forever in illaii

but the story doesn’t end there mourinho

returned to the river

to thank god for saving her people and

she was gracious she brought fruit

she bought yam she bought chicken she

bought goat she brought everything to

thank god

for saving her people but river este

marine said well

you brought all these nice things i love

them but what about the thing i asked

for

and marnie said oh my son you meant it

really you want my only child my only

son

and the river said yes this is what our

promise was this is what your promise

was

so marie me cried and she begged and she

cajoled and she tried to make a deal but

it didn’t work and she had to go and get

olarugbo

but her son was willing our son was

willing to be a sacrifice to save the

people of elephant

as he descended into the river as the

marine his soul

ascended into heaven and he became the

rainbow

to this day the yoruba people once a

year

have the idi festival where they worship

queen mourinho jensen roe for

sacrificing her only son

for the saving of their community so

these are the three of the many many

many

women who have made a major impact on my

life who’ve taught me to appreciate the

power of womanhood

also though in my life i have children

who have taught me

i have worked in all girls schools and

have been so inspired by them

but i will tell you a little bit about

my daughters brianna and brooke bennett

who came to me and said for our 12th

birthday we want to make an impact on

the world

and i was like hi they’re like we want

to end poverty i’m like wow that’s huge

poverty

what kind of poverty homelessness

hunger miseducation what and they said

period poverty

period poverty is the case of women and

girls not having the menstrual products

they need to stay clean

and healthy and hygiene during their

menstrual cycle so they miss school

or they miss work or guess what they

even use the same pads over and over

again

a friend of mine just told me about

girls at her school who share the pads

with their friends

so that is period poverty when we

started when the girls started the

organization 2019

20 of american girls and women suffered

from period poverty

because of covet 19 now 25

of american women suffer from period

poverty how do we resolve this

really yes we need legislation as they

have in scotland so that now scotland is

providing free menstrual products for

all girls and women

but we also need a change in mentality

to value

the worth of women to see the beauty in

women to see what we bring to

civilization

and why we should be honored so ask

yourself

how can you be like all set how can you

go about and pick up the 16 pieces

of our broken community of our men

suffering from drugs imprisonment faults

imprisonment

even legal even legitimate imprisonment

poverty underemployment how do we solve

that

how can you be like at habe and

transform yourself into the woman or the

person you want to be

how can you be like moraimi what can you

sacrifice for the betterment of the

community

look into your eyes and see the wisdom

that is there that you can pass on to

your children

your grandchildren and your

great-grandchildren thank you