Gather round children, boys and girls! The moon sits highly upon the night sky tonight, phenomenal beauty; she beckons on all the world to set its sights upon her revealing beauty. It is the auspicious time to tell a tale no one has heard before, as secret as the doorway to heaven; as immemorial as the maker of the world Herself. Leave your night time lovers, forget your half-finished meals and abandon your cold, sepulchral beds, come to me under the aura of the moon and let your minds be cleansed by legends you have never before known. Lose yourselves in the tangle of webs I weave as you drink from the fountain of old knowledge!
My Ancestor who was a sacred feminine, daughter of the earth, blessed beyond measure; before she departed for that place where our forebears retire to, she gave me an antiquated box of ancient secrets, which only a privileged few will ever set sights on, never mind possess. This box, it is rumoured, is as ancient as the Ancient of days; crafted by the Elder woodnymph of that colony, from the roots of the oldest tree from that garden we all know so much about. Hint: it is fabled that a daily dose of it’s progeny would keep you fit as fiddle, also, it is believed to be the reason why you fell from grace. You are clever, that I see! Hold on to it, It will serve you well, as I lean into the prowess of the Venerable Spider, another of my Foremothers to weave tales of indelible tastes to soothe your literary palates.
This box she gave me, it had a mosaic composed of soil from that same garden, done in the shape of the inside of a woman, so poignantly intricate, it leaves the imprints of the inside of an African Woman upon one’s psyche. This box looks heavy, but weighs less than tabletop origami; another of it’s unfathomable mysteries. It was in this mysterious box that I uncovered the legend of the woman.
WOMAN: In the ancient tongue, which mankind has long forgotten or never really knew, means owner of man. Do you hear that? Owner of man! Not less than man, or second to man, but paramount to man. Why else do you think that no matter how mighty a man, he must come from her very sex and no matter how proud, he must succumb to her will? The greatest Pharaohs, Maharajahs, Mais, Igwes, Oches, who ever thrived did so only by the permission of the woman, and the worst of them came to their ruin through the same. You know to whom I refer, let your imaginations run wild. Think about it. Think about it!
The legend of the sacred feminine has it that when God first made the world, She made the man (for a queen must have a Eunuch to wait on her) and other necessary paraphernalia of earthful existence, then, taking Her time, She crafted the most complex being imaginable, and called her Her piece de resistance; it was written in the secret of the forbidden tree; the serpent, friend of the sacred feminine came to whisper to Mother Eve. This truth she learned and when she became aware, told Adam, “Adam, I have discovered truth!” But Adam, faithless and foolish as all his ilk, would not succumb, so she bade him taste of the apple and he saw what made him tremble; the power of the woman, uncensored and complete. Now Adam knew his worthlessness, and was ashamed; the male ego never was his friend, so he cowered and hid, and Eve went to him behind the leaves, ever the diplomat, to appeal in him some measure of sense. But Adam rebelled and refused to bow before the woman, afraid of the nakedness of her powers.
God was displeased, She did not want the secret revealed too early for this very reason; the sensitivity of man’s sense of entitlement meant he was not yet ready. But time had come so she sent them down to earth, this was the charge she gave, “Eve, rule the world, dominate and purify and nurture the earth as only you can. And Adam, you must be a stepping stone for Eve to reach her potential, you must serve uxoriously at her feet and submit to her.” But Adam was adamant, proud, crass, selfish and vain, and would not heed the Lord’s commandments.
When Cain killed Abel, what did you think it was about? Man, ever so vile and mean with his need for assertion, for competition, defied God, and She in turn, who would not suffer fools and despised ugliness, cursed Cain and all of maledom to a life of hardship and unrewarding toils ad infinitum. Till this minute, man loathes the woman for opening his eyes to the truth of his infernal inferiority and has promised to punish her by deceiving her into being second place, common place.
Listen to me, hear me now, I am no prophet, but I bear the truth of the times, the man carries out his vendetta against the woman, plotting and scheming, and no doubt lying, as he plunders and commits treacherous acts of grievous sin against her. What did you think was the reason why women are the victims of every genus of man’s depravity? When he, at seventy, raped the girl at seven. When he, at fifteen, put a bullet in the skull of the woman that birthed and suckled him. When he, at one and twenty, wrapped his fingers around the neck of the woman with whom he shared a womb until she breathed her last staring into his black eyes. When he, at five and thirty, sank a bludgeon into the temple of the woman he deceived with love. When he, at fifty, put the woman who built his empire to the streets, derelict and disillusioned. What did you think it was about when he put only his kind in school and pushed the woman to the kitchen. When he learned about freedom while incarcerating the woman in eternal penury. When he had his several choice of partners but forced the woman to have just the one, him. When he rose to the clouds upon the battered wings of the trodden woman; everything connects to everything else, the universe does not lie, she tells you her many stories if only you would listen.
Yet there is hope; Legend has it that the serpent is about even now, awakening in the woman consciousness of her royalty, and in fullness of time, every woman shall again, seeing through the eyes of Mother Ancestor Eve, rise to conquer the evils of patriarchy, defeat chauvinist propaganda, topple male supremacy and rule the world for time sempiternal. Ya Salam, the future is indeed female!
– Al Akawu