Thanks and one love to the extraordinary women who have struggled against slavery, sexism and societal oppression. American abolitionist/General Harriet Tubman; Angolan Queen/General Nzinga; Jamaican Queen/General Nanny; Goldman Environmental Foundation award winner Berta Caceres (leader of indigenous Hondurans, murdered in her bed by gunmen); Pakistani Nobel prize recipient Malala Yousafzai (shot in the head by men who warned her not to go to school), and other courageous “sheroes” earned their place in history as great leaders in the fight for equal rights and justice. But what about the many ordinary, nameless women who nurtured their families, withstanding horrors, armed only with hope and faith that future generations would live in a better world?
I wrote a poem titled “Experiments” to honor such women.
Experiments
The father of gynecology
experimented on me
Cut, nip, sew
Anesthesia? no
When he bought me
I thought more drudgery
but immediately
bound in the laboratory
I rather take the whip
Die on a ship
than spend another day
being his prey
Dreamed about running away
But too weak; must stay
He swears women will be cured
From all the suffering I endured
To him I’m an animal
A pig, a small mammal
All he sees is black skin
Disposable, no sin
Drooping like a diseased willow
I begged Thomas to use a pillow
But his religion forbid it
So I asked for a gun and one bullet
Will future generations remember
The slow dismember
The price of medical discovery
What he did to little me?
(“Experiments” copyright 2007 as part of a volume of poetry titled “Persecuted Poet.”)
(J. Marion Sims was a physician born in 1813 in my home state, South Carolina, who experimented on enslaved African American women. Known as “the father of gynecology,” Sims invented the speculum and is credited with curing vesicovaginal fistula and introducing antisepsis in the operating room. Like Nazi and Japanese doctors who “advanced medical knowledge” by experimenting on live Jewish and Chinese human beings, Sims rationalized the immoral, inhumane treatment of his “specimens.” Unless we denounce racism and sexism (which includes the raping of Mama Earth) and learn to LOVE our neighbors as ourselves, we as a species will disappear. Women must lead the struggle for the survival of humanity and our home, Mama Earth.)
As an artist, I will continue to use my music and words to promote love, peace and social justice. Free Mama Earth!
One Love…
Aria