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Sisters are doing it for themselves!
By Albert Gumbo
February 12, 2004

I do not remember when Aretha Franklin and Annie Lennox released this hit song but it was a singularly powerful message and reminder to women worldwide of their power and capabilities.

On 14 February, some women will march for peace, for love in our country and it is not an easy call. Any mother cannot bear to watch her offspring, her child suffer in one form or another. She cannot bear the thought of an insecure future for the child she carried for nine months and laboured to push into the world. The bond that exists between any mother and child is what has pushed many an Indian peasant woman to grab the tiger by the tail and literally throw it off the rice patch when it has threatened her children. That is the love of a woman and a mother.

Somebody once wrote: "The first time something bad happens to you, you are a victim. The second time, you’re a volunteer."

There is a double meaning in the title of the song; The first, is sisters are doing it on accord of their own abilities and the second is for themselves as individuals. Tomorrow’s sisters are not doing it for the second reason. They are doing it for the future, for their own children and for yours as well. Yes you, the person reading this message. Your children live in this country, unless you have sent them away, which is your prerogative and it is also for them that these brave women are marching. They are no more fearless than you and I, they share the same fears and aspirations as you and I but they have chosen not to be victims.

They have chosen instead to be the main actresses in their lives, to play the starring role and receive their due Oscars, not as a favour or an empowerment initiative but because they have chosen to play their real life roles as best they can. Paul of Tarsus has written, when you run the race, you run to win it. These women are running their race. The problem with races is there are times when you feel like giving up. There is a stage in the marathon, I am told, that is a make or break point and when you make that extra step needed to pass that critical point, you will finish the race. It is not in what position you finish, it is how you run it.

"Light a candle, instead of cursing the darkness."

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