The title is not a misprint. VILENTINE’S Day. There is a vile side to Valentine’s Day, my friends – a slimy sequence of events that occur during a day that was created to honor love and affection. It turns out that not everyone has noble intentions for Cupid’s favorite holiday. There are those who go […]
Close your eyes and imagine the face of Hunger. (Now go ahead and open them so that you can finish reading the rest of this post.) What does Hunger look like to you? Is it a frail Black African child with ashy skin, belly swollen from kwashiorkor, lumbering aimlessly about his village? Is it a […]
“I can’t speak for the rest of Africa, but I can say for sure that in Ghana, we treat our women very badly.” My father had nosed his way into a conversation I was having with a childhood friend who had come to visit me a few years ago. I am always happy to have […]
It’s easy to tell what my 8 year old is thinking. She’s talkative, and will generally tell you what she’s pondering without prompting or solicitation. “Do sloths wear pajamas to sleep, Mommy?” “Oh Lord, I pray that we get home in time to eat those delicious noodles that Daddy was making; In Jesus’ name, amen.” […]
I was watching What Not to Wear when Aya burst into the room with a scowl on her face. Clinton Kelly was telling a woman how her ill-fitting trousers made her crotch look a rectangle. My daughter cut short my contained chuckles with a question I knew I was going to have to answer, but […]
Today, millions of Africans around the globe are lamenting the loss of Chinua Achebe. I am one of them. There is something eerie that goes on in the soul of a (presumed) writer when a fellow leaves this realm. It’s hard to explain, but it’s like that intense emptiness that rushes over you while watching […]
Yesterday I received a series of terse tweets from my “namesake”, Abena. “How come you have not blogged abt the #steubenville rape? Why the silence? Don’t u feel sense of outrage? What if it was (one) of ur *girls*?” Ah. I don’t like to be attacked like that. I asked her why she was being […]
There are always sirens blaring in Roswell. Fire trucks, police cars, security teams – whatever. So when I heard the tornado sirens I took note, but barely paid attention. My mind was fixed on something else. One of the managers had offered me extra hours at work, and you know how “we” are when it […]
Last week I silently observed the Lean In movement unfold and national reaction to it. I thought there was going to be a feminist/mommy war implosion! After x millennia walking this earth, women still can’t agree, even amongst themselves, what the model for female accomplishment looks like. With a great deal of hand-wringing, high achieving […]