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YIN DOLMAH YIN DOLMAH

YIN DOLMAH EQUALITY THE SPEECH OF TINDAANA ELLEKRISTA TO THE PEOPLE OF TANZU REGARDING THE MATTER OF EQUALITY Ellekrista was born in Πanzu under difficult circumstances. Her parents were unable to care for her, so she was adopted by a family from the colonial forces. Ellekrista’s adopted family moved quite a bit throughout the world giving her a lot of exposure and perspective on so many things. She did very well as a businesswoman until she came back in her early fifties to live quietly in Πanzu. She started out her speech by calling 2 of her grandsons sitting in the crowd to come out and stand next to her. One of them was 10 years old and the other was 15 years of age. When they stood next to her, she embraced both of them very dearly, after which she turned her attention to the crowd. I want you to look at these 2 very handsome boys,” she said to the people. “Do you think they are equal in my eyes? Of course they are. I love both very dearly and I value both equally. But are they the same? Absolutely not. Nyaaba, on my right, loves mathematics. He loves to probe academic material and learn new things that many children his age will find very boring. Asilka on the other hand is very athletic and loves the outdoors. He runs like no other child I have seen; he is able to climb the rocks of Πanzu better than any rock climber I have encountered in my life. Ladies and gentlemen of Πanzu, my 2 grandchildren are equal in value to me, but they are definitely not the same.

YIN DOLMAH I love every part of my body equally. But my body parts are not the same. My head is different from my neck. My neck is different from my mid-section. My hands are different from my legs. To each their own unique construction. For me to say they are equal, is because I respect them equally. To respect them equally does not mean they have the same abilities. For if I expect my head to do the job which my hands are best suited to accomplish, I will wreak great havoc and chaos on my body. In the same vein, if I force my tongue to do the job of my eyes, good luck overcoming the resulting chaos I will visit and deservedly so on my own body. She hugged both of her grandsons a second time and motioned for them to take back their seats. There are many things I wish to talk to you about today regarding the topic of equality, she continued. I was born right here in Πanzu under very difficult circumstances. My parents were unable to support themselves due to an injury my father suffered on the farm shortly before I was born. My parents were from a minority tribe. Many people right here in Πanzu called my parents and anyone who belonged to our tribe names that are not fit to be repeated by any decent human being. What many of you here today do not know is that I was born with my legs crossed in such a way that the original perception was that I was going to be crippled. This was in an era when crippled and deformed children were ‘hidden’ as the people called it.

YIN DOLMAH The practice was to hand over ‘deformed’ children to local ‘doctors’ and the child was never returned. The baby was never seen again for the ‘doctors’ took the child they deemed unfit to live among people and killed it. They called the practice ‘hiding the child’. This was practiced for many years right here while our kinsmen were decapitating the heads of innocent people so they could include the severed heads in the coffins of dead kings prior to burial of the dead monarchs. People of Πanzu, I was supposed to be ‘hidden’ when one of the families of the colonial forces intercepted and adopted me. Today I stand here alive and as a Πindaana mainly because of my adopted family. I was fortunate to travel the world, as my family moved from one station to the next. I have lived with different groups of people. I have immersed myself in different cultures and I have had the opportunity to observe the ways of different people all over the world. I have witnessed different groups of people subjugate other groups. Circumstances such as this is what I refer to as winning or losing based on the team you do not choose. What I mean by the statement I just made is; it is a fact that some people are born into a tribe, nation, or tongue that have many tough situations to overcome. It takes great courage and fortitude to come out and win if you happen to be born into one of those tough situations. The team you did not choose, but which you were born into, could hold you back from winning unless you decide to do everything within your control to change the outcome and the narrative.

YIN DOLMAH It is a daunting task for anyone to bear. I have seen people treat each other horribly and inhumanely. Some on larger scale than others. Across the board I have observed humanity treat each other badly. As I have traveled around, words such as tribalism, racism and countless others have become prevalent as people look for the right verbiage to describe the maltreatment of others. There are people who treat others inhumanely for no reason other than factors such as tribe, race, national origin or some other identifying quality without truly getting to know the person to whom that inhumane treatment is directed. It is despicable for anyone to behave in such fashion. My question is, when these things happen, do we sit down to look at all contributing factors or do we quickly jump to accuse the stronger and oppressive party? Right here in Πanzu, how do we treat the strangers among us? Do we treat them fairly and with dignity? How do we treat the less fortunate among us? Are we perfect in the way we relate with one another right here in this place? Our kinsmen who live in Wiga about 30 miles North West of us celebrate on an annual basis, a popular festival. The festival they celebrate marks the day the people warded off for good a notorious raider by the name of Hamman Yaji. Hamman Yaji wreaked havoc on the people. Hamman Yaji grew up less than 300 miles from us and yet he thought it a worthwhile venture to plunder the women and children of Wiga while the men were in the farms.

YIN DOLMAH Hamman Yaji made a living out of kidnapping the vulnerable and selling them to be shipped off to faraway lands as captives. A native of our land actively profiting and engaging in such a horrific venture. How many of us mention the name of this evil man and the destruction he brought on his own people? When I walk the streets of Πanzu, the common narrative I hear from most people is to point fingers toward colonial and imperial forces who participated in the plundering of the people. What about us? What role did we play in the destruction and subjugation of our own? Have we ever taken us much as one minute to look inward and ask ourselves the hard questions regarding why we seem to have fallen behind the rest of humanity? We talk and scream equality every day, yet we love to lay blame for any troubles we grapple with solely on the doorstep of those to whom we claim equality. A bird does not remind another bird of their equality. The bird shows its equality by soaring through the skies just like the other bird. In the same vein, people seldom need to remind others of a quality they possess or that which is true unless they themselves are unsure or insecure about that quality. Instead of verbalizing it, they let it shine in everything they do. The rich seldom talk about how rich they are. The healthy do not go about talking about how healthy they are. The strong do not remind us daily of their strength.

YIN DOLMAH They show it in the way they act and behave. When they decide to talk about it, we usually hate them for it. Equality is not something we need to remind ourselves of everyday. Equality cannot be legislated. If we truly believe we are equal, let us show it in the way we live, the way we treat each other and the way we behave. I once had a friend ask me a question that was thought provoking. I was in the same classroom with him and he always did better than me year after year. We were good friends, so I walked up to him one day and asked him what his secret was. I wanted to know how he stayed ahead of me academically no matter how hard I tried. He looked at me and told me he did what worked for him. “Do you do what works for you within the guidelines?” he enquired of me. I quickly understood I needed to find out what worked for me if I wanted to match him or beat him. It was my responsibility to figure out what worked for me. Not his. For me to claim equality with my friend, I could not put the burden of rising to his academic level on his shoulders. It would be nice if he could point me in the right direction to make things a little easier for me since he appeared to have the blueprint well mapped out, but it was not his responsibility to do so. How come he figured it out and I did not? Why should it be his burden to get me up to where he was? Is that not the point of equality? My ability to figure it out on my own?

YIN DOLMAH Of course I thought of advantages my friend might have had available to him that I did not have. It did not matter what advantages he was born into. Real or perceived, it did not matter! The more I thought of ‘advantages’ he had which I did not have, the more I found myself fixated on him and less on me. Fixating on him took my focus off what I needed to do to get to the place I needed to be. I thought of the words of Sira to Dabasir in George Classon’s ‘Richest man in Babylon’ I could almost hear in my head as Sira spoke to Dabasir regarding his subjugation in a foreign land: ‘How can you call yourself a free man when your weakness has brought you to this? If a man has in himself the soul of a slave will he not become one no matter what his birth, even as water seeks its level? If a man has within him the soul of a free man, will he not become respected and honored in his own city in spite of his misfortune?’ So, I resolved never to look at anyone, entity or system for my own advancement in life. There are 2 things literally all cultures I have been exposed to in this world universally agree on: 1. The right to life 2. The right to preserve and protect that life

YIN DOLMAH What actions are acceptable and constitute the right to preserve life? That is a question which has not produced a clear answer as far as I am aware. If my self-preservation means I must eat the guinea fowl, generally, that is considered acceptable for I take from the fowl, its right to life in order that my right to life might be preserved. One of us must relinquish the first right so the other can enjoy the second right. How does that apply to people? How do we define the right to preserve life? How many people sitting in this room have ever expressed reservation regarding your children marrying into what you considered an ‘undesirable tribe’? Is that part of self-preservation? Not wanting the genes of your lineage to be destroyed by mixing with the ‘lesser tribe’? Let us bring it even closer to home. How many of us here have discouraged our children from going out with the children of ‘that family’? The family everyone thinks is good for nothing? How many of us have counseled our children to stay away from ‘those people’? When you did these things, were you acting in the spirit of self-preservation? I humbly ask. If so, where does self-preservation start and where does it end? Is it okay to do the things I just mentioned while we live here in Πanzu, but suddenly express disgust when we travel to faraway lands and are in turn treated the same way we treat others here at home?

YIN DOLMAH Do we suddenly become champions of dignity and demand respect for all people when we no longer find ourselves in our familiar environment? Does self-preservation only apply individually? Can it apply to a family? A tribe? A people? A nation? What are the boundaries? We live in a world marked by competition and dominance. It is the natural order of our existence. In the rare circumstances where there is real equality, competition for dominance quickly surfaces for equality is not what naturally exists in our world. Why it is so, I do not know. I wish I had an answer. The sun dominates the planets. The planets dominate their moons. Here on earth, human beings dominate, or at least believe we dominate, everything around us. Naturally, that dominance we have for all things around us gets extended to the way we relate with each other, for it is innate. That is who we naturally are. Out of all the natural instincts we possess as humans, love stands apart as the most powerful force that tampers our desire to dominate, conquer and subjugate. It is out of love that my little 4-year-old can slap me on the cheeks and I laugh and find it funny and yet I will not take kindly to the same treatment from a woman my age. Who defines the limits of what is considered acceptable within the context of self-preservation?

YIN DOLMAH Does the subjugation of one tribe and causing them to serve the more powerful tribe fall within the context of self-preservation? As my adopted family traveled with me around the world, I saw unspeakable horrors meted out to people all around the world. Some of the victims of these horrors trace their roots back to Songhai and even right here in Πanzu. As I observed with pain, the circumstances of those I encountered, I also was privy to an unspeakable tragedy. A few select individuals from the oppressed groups found a business opportunity to enrich themselves in the name of helping their oppressed counterparts. These few people fattened their pockets till they overflowed by pretending to give a voice to those in their midst who were marginalized and mistreated the most. These people made a living out of capitalizing on the conscience of the good people who lived in the land to trumpet and make out of mountains, issues that were sometimes mundane and actually not any worse than things we do right here in Πanzu. These charlatans master the art of making the marginalized look at themselves as perennial victims, perpetually held down by their oppressors. They parade and promote this mindset; enriching themselves greatly in the process while entrenching in the minds of the people they claim to be helping, the idea that they are eternal victims of a vicious and oppressive society. If I am equal to you, I cannot and will not forever remain your victim. You may bamboozle me once or twice, but I will sure figure it out and it will not happen again a third or fourth time.

YIN DOLMAH Why then do we allow these crooks who call themselves community leaders to continue to poison the mindset of the people and perpetuate the notion of eternal victimhood? The deer is forever a victim to the lion, just as the grass is forever a victim to the cattle which graze and trample them underfoot. If you are not equal to your oppressor, ask for love and mercy not equality. If you are equal, then for heaven’s sake use any unfortunate events that have befallen you by the hand of your oppressor as a wakeup call and a learning tool to make sure you never fall victim again. Do not use it as a bargaining chip or an ever-present blot on the conscience of your oppressor; for we all have done the same at one point or another throughout history. The scale is not what makes one act more horrendous than the other. It is the inhumane treatment of human beings that makes it despicable. If I am equal to you and you subjugate me, my pride will make me not even want to talk about my subjugation. Anytime the matter regarding my subjugation comes up, I will quickly mute the topic. I would be so ashamed. My desire would be to move on from my disgrace as quickly as possible. When little boys wrestle, the winners love to pick on the losers while the losers look forward to a rematch to redeem themselves while avoiding the topic until the day, they are able to redeem their loss.

YIN DOLMAH On the other hand, when I swat my little son for being naughty, he makes it a point to remind me as long as he can how ‘mean’ I was to him. If we are going to parade ourselves as equals to all who inhabit the earth and yet behave like my little son who will spare no opportunity to remind the world of how ‘mean’ the world has been to us, and aided by so-called ‘leaders’ who should be helping to change our mindset but instead are happy to get rich through the perpetration of the notion of victimhood, then we are forever lost, good people of Πanzu. Right here in Πanzu we have tribes that claim superiority and make fun of other tribes because those tribes were once subjugated many years past through war. These things are happening right here in Πanzu and we think they are funny as long as we are the perpetrators; yet the humor is lost as soon as we step outside these lands and other tribes, nations or people attempt to do to us, the same thing we do to others. We suddenly claim bigotry, racism, and whatever horrible names exist to describe such actions. We ascribe wickedness to those who direct such actions and attitudes towards us; and yet we expect those to whom we direct the same actions and attitudes, to see the humor and harmlessness of our actions. As a little girl who was thought of as deformed, in line with custom, I was on the way to being ‘hidden’. People have been beheaded so their heads can be placed in the box of dead old monarchs, our old women who raised and nurtured children are driven from their homes and confined in camps so inhumane we would not want our worst enemies inhabiting such places.

YIN DOLMAH We justify this action by calling these old women witches; we go on to mutilate the genitals of our young girls because we do not believe they have the self-control to be faithful to their partners if they are allowed the full pleasures associated with conjugal activities. We carry our royals in expensive palanquins and yet those on the ground starve and have nothing for themselves. We do all these things and yet we are very quick to point at everything under the sun but ourselves for our miserable state. We are very good at conveniently hiding behind so called traditions and culture to continue to perpetrate horrors on others and yet as soon as we step out of these lands we suddenly want to push for a better and more perfect world. How about we start from here? How much sweeter if we became champions of equality right here in Πanzu? Just a few days ago, I had a discussion with one of our townsmen who called on me at home. He is respectable and has traveled far and wide outside Πanzu. By all accounts, he is a well exposed individual who has experienced a lot of the things I talk to you about today. As I spoke to this man, I was thinking about today and what I would talk to you about. I wanted some insight from someone I believed had enough exposure and understanding to provide me lucid insight that was deep and stimulating. I asked the man a question. I wanted him to tell me one thing he would tell the people of Πanzu if he had the opportunity to address them. I wanted to know what his thoughts were on the most relevant knowledge which would benefit our people. These were his words:

YIN DOLMAH “I would want to talk to them regarding the mistreatment of people based on the color of their skin. I would like humanity to be aware that no one chose to be born human instead of some other creature, such as bats, worms and the like. No one chose where to be born on this planet. No one chose his or her parents and for that matter, no one is responsible for being what he or she finds himself or herself to be. We should learn to coexist, wherever we find ourselves in a conglomeration of people from different colors or backgrounds different from our own since we could have been born into the group of people we so loathe.” He concluded. I was greatly touched by his words and how thoughtful they were. I asked him a simple question based on matters which have arisen here in Πanzu within the last few years. Matters we are all privy to in which 2 men were stoned and nearly lynched because they were suspected of having an amorous relationship with each other. I asked him if his beautifully crafted speech included showing respect and love to people such as the 2 men? His response was, “What those men were doing was a lifestyle choice. A choice they consciously made just as choice of religion.” He continued, “the choice those men made was not something a person is born with; it is not innate such as skin color, nationality or any other naturally occurring attribute. It is unaffected by genes,” he posited. I asked him a question. My question was not hypothetical. It was real for I witnessed it in one of the lands I lived with my family. A child was born with both genitals formed. The parents were asked by the local physicians to make a choice of which organ to keep and which to discard. The parents made the

YIN DOLMAH choice on behalf of the child based on what they thought would better suit the physical looks of the child. The child grew up and insisted that regardless of physical appearance, the parents made the wrong choice. What the child felt inside regarding who they were was different from what the parents thought based on the physical characteristics of the child. Did the parents err in their gender assignment based on their assessment solely on the physical attributes of their child? Was there a better way of determining the gender of the child other than relying solely on the dominant physical attributes? What if the physical attributes were not the overriding factors in determining how the child ‘felt inside’? Was there something deeper in that baby’s genes that was not readily apparent in the physical looks? Did the parents allow subjective views based on ‘culture’ and ‘tradition’ to override more important considerations based on science? Did the parents fail to truly and deeply investigate a matter that so intricately and intimately affect a human being? Their child? If this happened in Πanzu around the time I was born, we would not be talking about this matter for the child would have been ‘hidden’. Thankfully, the child was born in a place where they do not ‘hide children’ born with characteristics or features different from the majority of people. This man, the ‘champion of treating all people with respect and dignity’ suddenly became God’s linguist and tried to break down God’s expectations for us mortals in a language which we were capable of comprehending. He tried to explain to me how God abhorred amorous acts between people of the same perceived gender. I asked him if the same abhorrence by our divine creator extended to the pot-bellied, old rich men we see every day running around

YIN DOLMAH the streets of Πanzu with little girls young enough to be their granddaughters? People of Πanzu, he did not answer me for as fate would have it, he came to visit me in the company of one of those little girls young enough to be his granddaughter. I must admit I lost it with him at this point, so I looked him in the eye, and I borrowed words I learnt from Sunday school. I called him ‘a white-washed tomb, painted beautifully outside but full of rotten bones inside’. How can we allow social and cultural barriers to cloud our minds to the point of creating impenetrable filters that prevent us from looking at all possibilities when dealing with matters so deep and important? How come we are so quick to take entrenched positions without an open mind for more studies and research? We have individuals here in our midst who refer to people who show amorous affection towards those perceived to be of the same gender as being ‘lower than animals’. Really? Are we ourselves better than animals? In our self-righteous, elevated state, we are unable to provide basic clean water for our children; our offspring still die of preventable basic hygiene-deficient diseases such as cholera. Basic diseases our great ‘enlightenment’; enlightenment which places us above the animals has failed to help us eradicate. Truth be told, I am yet to see an animal lose its offspring to one of these diseases. Instead of casting the net of open mindedness, respect, love and dignity wide and far in our own communities, we instead

YIN DOLMAH choose to arrogate unto ourselves the authority to determine what choices others should be making. This fixation on culture and tradition is why we allow horrible things to happen in our midst and no one challenges them. We even have people I have personally observed laugh at disabled people and talk about the good old days when such people were ‘hidden’. Good people of Πanzu, I would most gladly be a friend to someone who is ‘lower than an animal’ due to who they are amorously attracted to and who has love and compassion in their hearts before I associate with the so called ‘human being’ who laughs at the killing of deformed babies. My people, we are all equal, but we are definitely not the same. There are things I do not understand but that does not mean I must necessarily hate. At first glance, it might seem really unusual, but treat it with an open mind and it does not destroy our society the way many of us fear it would. Only one thing I am aware of destroys and wreaks havoc to societies. It is fear. We act with a lot of fear which sometimes is to be expected when we do not have understanding. Just as darkness is the absence of light, so is fear the absence of understanding. We seldom fear that which we understand and comprehend.

YIN DOLMAH If my niece or nephew came home and told me they had amorous desires towards someone of the same perceived gender, I would lose sleep for a day or two. Why? Because it is unusual. It would be unusual for me because I do not understand it, for I do not know what it is to feel that way towards another person of the same perceived gender as me. Losing sleep would be no different than if my nephew or niece came and told me they were leaving home and traveling to a faraway land to start their life anew. I would lose sleep because I do not know what is in store for them when they leave home to a place that is unknown to me. I would lose sleep because there are so many variables and unknowns, I cannot help them navigate if they need my guidance. After losing sleep and coming to terms with reality, I would then cover all my fears and ignorance and lack of understanding with love and an open mind and hope for the best. I will cover that child with all the love in me and wish them nothing but success as they embark on their journey into the unknown. Where there is lack of knowledge and understanding, I ask everyone here listening to me today, to endeavor to cover and bridge the void with love until such a time that knowledge and understanding might shed more light on that which we are ignorant about today. Let us do away with fear, I beseech you people of Πanzu, for fear has destroyed us for far too long.

YIN DOLMAH Fear has killed and plundered us like no other and it is time for us with the great leadership of Aboπe Yuure, who exchanged his crown of glamor for a scroll of wisdom to become that little bright spot in Πanzu that will beam great light to all the people of the land. With that, Πindaana Ellekrista concluded her address to the people of Πanzu. There was silence when she concluded. Aboπe Yuure was all smiles and greatly pleased with her expose. He gave her a long hug and then turned and looked at the people. He asked them, “who needs a king when you have greatness such as this woman in our midst?” The Hall was silent. No one spoke. No one asked any questions when the floor was opened for them to do so. Instead, they slowly and quietly exited out of the hall until no one remained except Aboπe Yuure and the 5 Πindaanas. Aboπe Yuure was still beaming with smiles over the beauty and depth of Ellekrista’s discourse. He tried to lighten things up by saying “I guess we will pick a less controversial topic next week. That is if anyone shows up. The people left the building without choosing a topic for next week, so I guess we get to pick one on their behalf.