The Justified series

Stay tuned for the release of the Justified series, coming soon on Black Gold. 

A series of discussions and images around the appropriation of African culture, and how this has become justified and accepted due to Western trends. 

“I am because I have been told I can be”

This colour.

My crown is unprofessional

Search professional hair on Google and take a look at the images.
Then search unprofessional hair and do the same, take a look at the images.

Google says, that the natural, nappy, coils that grow from my scalp are unprofessional. Whilst flowing, silky, locks are deemed professional. What another rude awakening!!! It's shocking how I live in a world where I am told that my crown, my glory, does not live up to "their" standards. Just another reminder that I don't have the right genes.

And we wonder why the world is so messed up, when the sources of our information are so corrupted.

The beauty of contrast

The power to illuminate your essence

-Mary Wollstonecraft-

Use your power to harness the light that illuminates your purple, blue and green

Purple is the colour of royalty, mystery, and elegance. 

Blue is the color of trust and peace.

Green is the colour of balance and growth. 

Black Woman- you are a beautiful, strong warrior

What colour is 'Women"?

 

“Typing “women” on the search bar of Google will barely get you any search results of black women. Hello world……”

 – Lindiwe Gugushe (Facebook) 

We live in a world where the meaning of being is constantly defined by the norm, which has been established according to western ideologies. Lighter skin has always been seen as being superior, as beautiful, as the desired and accepted colour in our minds. This has meant that the word “women” has been expressed through the use of white females as they have long been portrayed and seen as the epitome of being, the alpha breed, therefore, the very essence of “women” across the globe. The word “women” has been defined by the attributes, character, skin, colour, hair, and the nature of white women.

I have two problems with how “women” is defined in our contemporary world that rewards mediocrity and approximation. The first being the absence of my sun-kissed black sisters. Have black women not played a large enough role in society to be idolised as the symbol of “women”? Have we not brought forth nations from our wombs and nursed the greats of tomorrow, have we not fought behind the scenes and the front line, have we not done enough and shown enough great character to be seen as relevant in our own defining. Why have we allowed the privilege of defining what and who we are to be taken away? The courage, the beauty, the intelligence and the warrior behind the meaning of “women” is supposed to be determined by the people it is being used to describe or explain.

This brings me to my second problem, colour being used to define the meaning of a woman. But guess what, the word “women” has no colour!!!!! It should not be defined by colour because it is not my colour that makes me the strong, fearless, mother, care giving, lover, sister, friend, worshiper and educated woman that I am. It is my spiritual DNA that has biologically predestined me to be the regal queen of nations, the mother of civilisations, the warrior battling for a people’s freedom. My defining is not by my bronzed skin, or by your fair complexion, it is determined by who I am and the generation of a strong women I bring up after me.

What colour is “women”? It is the way I wear the crown on my head. 

#wakeupworld #blackwomenmatter

MY BODY. your mind

Emancipation

Freedom can not be achieved unless the women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression

 - Nelson Mandela-

You THOUGHT you had me

Maryam Monakali

“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed” – Steve Biko

You forced yourself on me

You stripped me bare.

Bare down to me soul

Now no more rare.

An African vase broken

Scattered gold dust

And no words were spoken

But that was just the crust.

My insides soft and tender

Full of wisdom great and strong

My father is a mender

He can fix all that is wrong

You thought you had me

But I stand here with power

In my mind I’m free

I don’t live in your hour

You may have beaten me

But that was my flesh

You though you have beaten me

But I withstood the test

Liberation

Has changed my song

Oppression

It is now gone

God gave me a beautiful Mind

My freedom lies within me.

The truth I seek to find

Will forever set me free.

My mind they cannot clutch

Ow they can’t even touch.

You thought you had me

But no I am free.

Being enlightened about who you are, where you come from, and the power you have to set yourself free from the oppression of western ideologies of beauty and self, all lies in the mind. Western oppressors thought that they were more intelligent than those being oppressed as they were successful in taking our land, women, men and possessions. But they THOUGHT they had us. They were never successful, because if they were as intelligent as they claimed they were, they would have realized that you can never oppress the mind of a strong people.

The Shade of Triumph