Moya Mzuri others at Pan-African Women's Day organized by the AAWRU and AAPRP in Los Angeles, US on 11th August 2012.
I’m a long time organizer for African people. I’m a mother, grandmother, worker and a world wide activist for more than 30 years.
Why RAW? Where else can you find information on our Pan African world by and about Revolutionary women and men if we do not create the space for it ourselves?
Our work of unity and organization, mentoring the youth and developing spaces for our elders inspires us everyday to continue this journey and develop it beyond where we are today. Something for tomorrow.
That is what this space called the Revolutionary African Women’s website if for. Its for tomorrow’s African woman and man, youth and elder, activist and curious soul who want to know more about themselves, about their people and about the journey ahead.
We want to inspire our people to find solutions to our many problems by dedicating themselves to our worldwide African community and for us, we know that Balance is at the core of our work. We as women and girls especially, need to share our aspirations, struggles, victories and set backs with each other and inspire all of us towards the light…the light of liberating energy that will give us that boost to write another inspiring work; teach another enlightening class or workshop; lift up another soul longing to do something positive for her and his people. This is part of the journey of liberation and how I and others envision RAW playing its part.
Where there is areas of weakness, there is the need for organization. We want to bring organizations and individuals together who are about or want to be about the work of liberating our minds, hearts and spirits towards the manifestation of the physical liberation of Africa, our motherland!. What could be a greater cause than uniting our people, educating and inspiring our youth?! Where can you find a place that brings our community together by sharing events and the conditions of our African people in various corners of our Pan African world? Here at RAW, that’s where!
Well in truth there may be other sites, but there is only one RAW network. It’s here and we welcome you!
Giving Birth to RAW
I was inspired by RAW over twenty years ago when the All-African Women’s Revolutionary Union, the women’s wing of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party was struggling with finding reading materials about African women in the revolutionary movement written by those involved in the African Revolution! Imagine that. Most books written about the African Revolution are written by intellectuals, researchers, writers or journalist and most of them are Men! Most have little or no experience in the liberation struggle of organizing our people and creating the mechanisms of change (building organizations/political parties). Then add to this reality, that most of the books written are written by Europeans (intellectual and social foreigners) to the subject matter. There is an arrogance in literature as a whole that has determined that European male as the center of the universe, the determiner of all things central to life and business and social and intellectual discourse. Many female writers have stated that society as a whole feels that women can only speak on finite subject matter therefore most writers of any notoriety are not given the platform because they are not Men and especially not European men! So finding sources of information about African women by African woman in the liberation struggle is very difficult!
Thus the importance of RAW.
It was a brother who helped me answer my question of finding materials by and about African women! Imagine that! But it wasn’t just any brother, it was a revolutionary minded brother, one who was raised and educated in Grenada during the rise of the New Jewel Movement (a vanguard people’s movement that was in power in 1979 to 1983 and had liberated the territory developing it for the benefit of its people until they invaded by the US military).
I am very clear that our brothers are not our enemies but our partners in this journey towards unity and liberation and unlike other manifestations of women’s movements, the African Revolution has demonstrated time and time again that brothers and sisters have fought side by side towards one goal—to liberate Africa from outside forces. And there has always been a representation of women in the forefront.
“Collect all the information, pamphlets and booklets written by the revolutionary women’s unions into one booklet and RAW was born.”
This brother and I talked for hours about Grenada, and the New Jewel Movement and the continuation of the African liberation struggle. Because he grew up in a real people’s movement and political party, he had lots of common sense ideas about how to move amongst the people, develop political education campaigns and practical ways to build a people’s party. I posed our dilemma. His answer: Collect all the information, pamphlets and booklets written by the revolutionary women’s unions into one booklet. At that moment, the concept of the RAW pamphlet was born. I developed the pamphlet and began distributing it amongst our women’s union and our community. I even used it as a fundraiser. It was a great idea! Thank you to our loving brothers who lend their hand in the struggle knowing that as they help to lift us women up, they are lifting up a significant portion of our nation! Uhuru!
Twenty plus years later, many of our sisters believe its time to continue this work. There are more stories to tell. There are sequels of the liberation struggles post independence that we need to research and learn from. This is HERSTORY, OUR STORY!
How have women faired post liberation in building the nation, those micro states in Africa where women had fully participated in the national liberation movement?! This is part of the work we are doing in building the RAW website and continuing our journalistic or literary duty to expand our story and learn the lessons of Nation building.
We are writing those stories, with sisters and brothers from all corners of the Pan African world who are doing the work, giving living testament to the struggles, victories and issues that impact today’s African liberation movement.
But we are also more. We want to provide the soundtrack, provide videos and books that can be a source of education and inspiration to all generations as we continue our struggle.
So here we are…the Revolutionary African Women’s Website.
We invite you to join us. If you are apart of an organization, a movement in the Pan African diaspora, a writer, an artist, photographer or entrepreneur developing community/nation empowering products or services, please contact us and offer a story, report or poem, book or any resource that you believe with benefit our struggle and help us in our journey to tell the story of the Revolutionary African Woman. And if you aren’t involved in the struggle but just curious about the struggle and want more information, enjoy RAW. You’ve found an inspiring space to learn, grow and share!
