From Lucy to Leymah

It is timely that we were asked to read Suarez-Toro’s Imaginary Letter from “Lucy” this week because I’ve been wanting to post the video of another influential African woman and was struggling to find the point of connection between one of the “African Eves” and one of the most recent African Nobel-Peace Prize Laureates: Leymah Gbowee.

In this TEDx, Gbowee speaks about unlocking the intelligence, passion and greatness of girls in the midst of a world of gender-based discrimination and violations of personal dignity. In many ways, I feel that Lucy would be incredibly proud of Leymah, whom she would consider one of her great, great, grand-daughters. Just as Lucy provides valuable information on human evolution, Leymeh demonstrates the continued power of African women to contribute beyond “traditional gender roles.” As a Nobel-Laureate, Gbowee who was instrumental in the movement to oust Liberian dictator, Charles Taylor. Now she works, in part, on the Liberian Reconciliation process.

The one thing that I think really carries over from Suarez-Toro is the idea of a “Paradigm of Caring” which counters the dominant patriarchal paradigm. Both in her reconciliation work as well as in her educational initiatives, Leymah embodies this alternate paradigm.As Suarez-Toro notes, “This vision and practice of caring offers us the opportunity for affirming healthier more egalitarian and collaborative relationships between ourselves and all of earth’s life forms so that we can live in harmony and survive together (p.30). Caring, and acting for those who have been pushed to the periphery by a patriarchal, power-based paradigm illustrates the ‘cracks’ in the system that Suarez-Toro talks about. Social movements, like those that Leymah works with and countless others in all corners of the globe, are helping to challenge and bring transformation to the current patriarchal paradigm. And that gives me hope…