From thoughts into words

The Melissa Harris-Perry Show On Saturday morning (yesterday) I watched the Melissa Harris-Perry show on MSNBC. The segment of the show that struck me the most was the one during which Harris-Perry and her panel of guests focused their attention on the film, The Help . The discussion was of interest to me because I had read many critiques of the film last year, shortly after it had been released. They had been tremendously negative, and had highlighted many of the film’s flaws. One of them had been the fact that the film hadn't been a historical portrayal of life for black domestic workers and their families. The critics had pointed out that the film glossed over the absolute brutality of racism in the Jim Crow South, and had emphasized that the physical violence and sexual abuse suffered by black women in the homes where they worked received no direct attention. Additionally, they had highlighted the fact that the black men featured in the film tended to be abusive spouses, in ...

http://nutritionafrica.blogspot.com/2012/02/africa-impending-ecological-catastrophe.html Much has been written about global warming and the fact that Africa is least responsible for the emission of the associated pollution. Yet Africa remains most vulnerable to the impact of global warming. Rather than remaining silent observers of this issue, Africans can take certain steps to intercede. One of the factors that touches Africa directly, helping to increase its rate of deforestation, is the spread of organisms such as hybrid maize. Hybrid organisms, apart from being less nutritious than native species, tend to dominate the environment by thawarting the growth and propagation of indigenous species. Africans need to rediscover the farming techniques and foods of their forefathers, which were more environment-friendly than those in wide use today. The crops they grew were also more nutritious than the ones we depend on today. Reducing malnutrition in Africa's child ...

According to a Daily Mail article , a school in Sheffield, UK, has banned the use of slang on the school premises. Apparently, this measure has been taken to ensure that the students master Queen's English and "professional culture" in preparation for post-school employment. To anybody who grew up in a British colony, this is old news. In the colonial era, it was standard policy to ban children from speaking their indigenous languages at school: students who slipped up were subjected to humiliating punishment. As a consequence, indigenous language use was stigmatized. Not surprisingly, the move by the Sheffield school has some critics, some of whom point out that banning the use of slang will have a negative impact on students' self-confidence. Others express concern about the logistics behind the ban: "'Who is going to adjudicate? Who is going to say slang, dialect or accent? And which one is right and which one is wrong?" These are all valid questio...

In my last blog entry, I spoke at some length about polygamy as a legitimate form of marriage, and as one that wasn't inherently evil. I have since come across another blogger who has written on the same subject: Nano Muse . Nano Muse's blog entry on "Polygamous Marriage and Women" is excellent for its emphasis of the degree to which sexism in society (as opposed to the structure of the marriage) determines the way women will be treated within their marriages. The fact that women were treated as second-class citizens in Western society (the bastion of monogamous marriage) until relatively recently makes that evident. Another point in favor of Nano Muse's blog entry is that it reveals that the social aspect of polygamy is potentially positive. In those cases where polygamy works, it often does so because the relationships between co-wives or sister wives (as they are called in some American communities) constitute an important support system. I actually encoun...

It intrigues me greatly that mainstream American society, which is open to all sorts of ideas about sexual identity and different family types, is so intolerant of polygamy. I can understand, to some degree, where this intolerance comes from. Polygamy, as it has been practiced in the United States and elsewhere, has done its fair share to create rigid hierarchies, inequality and resentment within families. It is precisely the sort of situation that could facilitate exploitation and abuse, and in the case of Warren Jeffs of the FLDS Church, it has done just that. In sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, where polygamy is part and parcel of various communities’ traditional practices, there are many cases where the institution has been abused to force teenage girls into marriage to older men. However, it would be dismissive to run up a catalog of all the evils that have been committed in the name of polygamy and then say that was the full story about it. The truth of the matter is...

When I was a little girl, I learnt a song from my sisters. It was a Maragoli folk song, the sad lament of a monkey who had just lost his pregnant partner, Shinyosi. She was carrying sextuplets (inside her) when she was killed by the farmer, Marangaranga, who had caught her plucking a cob of maize from his garden: LWIMBU LWO KUSYOMA (Maragoli Original)  Nonoji kaduma kalala kalala kalala  Ma Marangaranga ahenzelitsanga, atunyelitsanga:  "Ndori ingugi! Ndori ingugi!"  Marangaranga unyeri vutswa, unziti vutswa!  Mbugi vutswa!  Yita Shinyosi naheridzi; avana vatano na mulala.  Mbugi vutswa!  LAMENTATION (Approximate English Translation)  When you pluck just one piece of maize  And Marangaranga sees you, he gets agitated:  "I have seen a monkey! I have seen a monkey!"  Marangaranga has killed me; he has finished me!  I can't believe this!  He has killed Shinyosi, who was pregnant; five children and one....