< Ideal

Most likely Youtube algorithm’s response to my binge-watching mocumentaries, I spotted a video titled “The Land of No Men: Inside Kenya’s Women-Only Village” on the right bar of my screen.

While the video details the emergence of female-only and female-lead villages in African as a response to injustices they faced in their home villages, my reflections within this post do not center on the specifics regarding the social and cultural risks (and, in my opinion, progress) these women have embarked upon. Nor will I gush on about how beautiful their song, dance, and dress on. Perhaps that is for another blog.

“Beliefs are patterns of thought that we have chosen, either consciously or unconsciously.” – Ernest Holmes

Instead, I would like to acknowledge how long-held beliefs are being challenged by a minority group pushing back against the expectations set for them in a society they had little power in.

Their founding village name, Umoja, translates from Swahili to literally mean “unity”. The minority unified to protect and support one another. They literally, and figuratively, moved out of circumstanced they feared and into a community they loved. They may not have been able to overturn the entire system. So they built a new one instead.

I want to call attention to this major shift occurring in their culture. Certain participants were given less than ideal circumstances. Those circumstances became the catalyst to revolutionize a system. In this case, the new system disrupted and affected a multitude of factors; marriage unions, female genitalia mutilation, politics, roles of power, revered traditions, etc.

Being a woman of African heritage (though not directly from the region investigated in this video) I am inspired by the actions and bravery of the women I share some commonality with.

This is a reminder, and an inspiration, that sometimes…

…many times…

…if we look with new eyes…

…and we remember to turn to one another for help…

…that the things we may originally see as a roadblock, a barrier, or a bad hand, is actually pushing us towards some greater goal.