Past, present and Pride
LET’S STIR THE ACTIVIST IN US ALL, SAYS PHYLL OPOKUGYIMAH
PHYLL OPOKUGYIMAH
PHOTO AJAMU
Pride season is upon us – and gosh it’s going to be exciting to see our communities out in full force. I hope you’ll use this as an opportunity not only for celebration, but to embrace each other, to protest and to understand the purpose of Pride.
That will be unique for all of us, as we are each awoken by a different call. What begins as a muffled murmur in the embryonic stages of our awakening, becomes the powerful and booming voice of purpose that floods in as we emerge into the world as women. Perhaps that suggests we arrive awake, which I don’t believe to be true, but I do believe there is a voice within all of us that speaks to us.
From where that voice comes and to whom it belongs is never really clear until we stumble upon a quote, a book, a video, and our ears ring with familiarity. That moment when a voice speaks and we feel the tug of an umbilical connection to the women who have come before us. There are so many women, living and dead, to whom I’m tethered; and we orbit around each other, connected by an energy that transcends time and place. I’m constantly nourished by that knowledge, by that understanding that while I’m here having an experience that is explicitly mine, my existence is so deeply informed and energised by women who refused to give up.