You Americans, Always Peering Under People's Beds

There Are People Who Think That We Cannot Rule Ourselves Because The Few Times We Tried, We Failed, As If All The Others Who Rule Themselves Today Got It Right The First Time. It Is Like Telling A Crawling Baby Who Tries To Walk, And Then Falls Back On His Buttocks, To Stay There. As If The Adults Walking Past Him Did Not Crawl, Once

Perhaps It Is Time To Debate Culture. The Common Story Is That In "real" African Culture, Before It Was Tainted By The West, Gender Roles Were Rigid And Women Were Contentedly Oppressed.

When It Comes To Dressing Well, American Culture Is So Self-fulfilled That It Has Not Only Disregarded This Courtesy Of Self-presentation, But Has Turned That Disregard Into A Virtue. "we Are Too Superior/busy/cool/not-uptight To Bother About How We Look To Other People, And So We Can Wear Pajamas To School And Underwear To The Mall.

We Teach Girls To Shrink Themselves, To Make Themselves Smaller. We Say To Girls: 'you Can Have Ambition, But Not Too Much. You Should Aim To Be Successful, But Not Too Successful. Otherwise, You Will Threaten The Man.' Because I Am Female, I Am Expected To Aspire To Marriage. I Am Expected To Make My Life Choices, Always Keeping In Mind That Marriage Is The Most Important. Now, Marriage Can Be A Source Of Joy And Love And Mutual Support, But Why Do We Teach Girls To Aspire To Marriage And We Don't Teach Boys The Same?

Our Histories Cling To Us. We Are Shaped By Where We Come From.