The Sister was a great champion for African Liberation in these USA and in 
Africa, especially Gambia. Spend day and night, helping African immigrants in 
various arenas. Some of you might recall her as a panelist that addressed 
Gambians and Friends of Gambia during a town hall meeting for UDP's Ousainou Darboe 
and PDOIS' Halifa Sallah, at the Gambian Hall in New York, right before last 
Presidential Elections. Since She knew that cancer had over stricken her body, 
her mind and spirits were no where other than where she came from. Hence, on 
a one way ticket from New York to Gambia, our ancestors welcome her, as 
wished.
She'll be remembered forever.
By the way, a very good friend of Sister Jamila.
    
<A HREF="http://allafrica.com/publishers.html?passed_name=The%20Independent&passed_location=Banjul">The Independent</A> (Banjul)September 5, 2003 
Posted to the web September 5, 2003 Banjul Comrade Mawina Kouyate, a name 
synonymous with Mother Afrika was born in Boston, Massachusetts in the United 
States of America on 31st March 1941.For 40 good years of her life, Comrade 
Mawina had been an exemplary revolutionary in international, Pan-Afrikan and 
community movements.   
Comrade Mawina's early work began in organising women around tenants and 
welfare rights in her birthplace of Boston. Comrade Mawina attained the height of 
her revolutionary work when she joined the All-Afrikan people's Revolutionary 
Party - A-APRP - in the 1970s after having been influenced by the work, 
recruitment and organisation of the Party militants led by the Immortal Kwame Ture, 
formerly Stokely Carmichael.She was particularly drawn into the forefront of 
the Afrikan Revolution by the practical and definitive position taken by the 
Party in regard to the emancipation and equality of the woman as a sine qua non 
for the total liberation and unification of Afrika under a socialist 
government.She thus became one of the founding members of the women's wing of the 
Party, the All-Afrikan Women's Revolutionary Union, AAWRU in 1980. Four years later 
she became the Co-ordinator of the Union from 1984 to 1995, and when the 
co-ordination committee expanded into an AAWRU Union Council she continued to be a 
member until her resignation in June 2002 for health reasons. She has also 
served as a member of the Central Committee of the A-APRP from 1980 until her 
resignation.The A-APRP is the party conceived by Kwame Nkrumah and Sekou Toure 
to lead the Afrikan Revolution to its logical conclusion following an upsurge 
of imperialist and neo-colonialist attacks against the independence of emerging 
Afrikan countries particularly those countries led by revolutionary 
Pan-Afrikan governments in the 1960s.Comrade Mawina's revolutionary work continues to 
heighten both qualitatively and quantitatively as she also became a member of 
the women's wings of historically revolutionary Pan-Afrikanist parties - The 
PDG-RDA of Guinea Conakry led by Ahmed Sekou Toure, PAIGC of Guinea Bissau and 
Cape Verde led by Amilcar Cabral, the Pan-Afrikan Union, PANAFU of Sierra Leone 
and the Pan-Afrikan Women's Organisation of Azania (South Afrika).In the 
international arena Comrade Mawina has given unreserved and open support to the 
revolutionary people and government of Cuba where she has also sought medical 
treatment for cancer, which was facilitated by the Communist Party of Cuba. In 
1999 she helped organise Fidel Castro's visit to Harlem.Comrade Mawina has also 
given revolutionary support to the progressive people and government of the 
Libyan Jamahirrya and was one of the leading organisers of the various 
delegations of the AAPRP and its sister organisations to wilfully travel to Libya to 
protest against the imperialist-engineered illegal sanctions against that 
Afrikan country.Comrade Mawina's lifelong struggle has taken her to a number of 
places in the world sowing the seeds of freedom, equality and justice for all 
oppressed people.Mawina Kouyate had her wish fulfilled on Tuesday September 3rd 
2002 when after gallantly and victoriously giving all her life, energy, 
resources and time to the people of not only Afrika, but to all oppressed people 
worldwide she passed away peacefully in her Motherland of Afrika in Kanifing 
South. Though she has not left behind a structure in her name, but she has 
definitely carved her name in the hearts and minds of all oppressed and oppressors 
alike and of future generations to come for her uncompromising stand and fight 
against oppression, injustice and exploitation. We call on our young Afrikan 
sisters to emulate the exemplary life of Mawina Kouyate. The sisters must protect 
their bodies from abuse both from themselves and others.THE TEACHINGS OF 
MAWINAMawina had always said that the sisters must protect their bodies from abuse 
both from themselves and others. Mawina teaches us that capitalism is the 
enemy of the people because this evil system does not view humanity as an end in 
itself which needs to be served by people. Rather capitalism views human 
beings as commodity that can generate wealth for men and women. Consequently 
capitalism aims to degrade the human being into an object to be traded, bargained, 
negotiated and purchased like merchandise, used like a tool, and discarded like 
a waste product. No wonder slavery and colonialism thrived on the 
exploitation of human beings, in particular the Afrikan.But Mawina noted that capitalism 
is most severe on the woman. She says capitalism, aided by feudalism and 
distorted religious beliefs, promotes the idea that the woman is value-less and 
cheap. Thus capitalism creates materials which it promotes that if the woman uses 
she upgrades herself and adds value to her body and status. This is why in 
the world today the woman has become an object of entertainment, taste, luxury, 
laughter, abuse and misuse. All throughout the world beauty pageants are 
organised where women exhibit their bodies for people to watch and feel satiated. 
All forms of dress are created that covers less than half the body of the 
woman. All forms of hairdos and shoes are created that present the women in very 
wild and ridiculous appearances. But women and men are made to believe that if 
the woman puts these materials on then she becomes more presentable, beautiful, 
fashionable and prestigious.This is all capitalist thinking and practice 
intended to degrade and exploit the woman for the profit of greedy capitalists. 
Instead of educating our girls to respect themselves and contribute to their 
society, capitalism, which is the basis of our education, teaches our boys and 
girls that beauty, fair-complexion and nakedly dressed are indications of 
modernity and success. No wonder in the Gambia and all over the Afrikan world our 
women bleach their skin and pour all kinds of dangerous chemicals on their body 
like cocoa butter, Clear Essence, Akagni etc, with the misguided belief that 
they are making their bodies look smoother and fresher. They could not realise 
the damage they cause to their health. Our women folk have been made to 
believe that the best among them is one who wastes her hard earned money into buying 
expensive dresses, hairdos, shoes, creams, and spending lavishly on 
ceremonies when their children and homes are lacking in numerous essential materials, 
services and programmes.Capitalism is the enemy of the people more so the 
woman. This is why the women, and the young girls in particular should lead the 
fight against capitalism and the intense materialisation of the society for which 
the women is the one who suffers most.Mawina had used her resources not to 
buy expensive, half-naked dresses, ridiculously high-heeled shoes and wild 
hairdos, but she used her resources for the preservation of her body and health, 
the promotion of humanity and the fight against injustice and exploitation of 
men and women by the evil system of capitalism.THE CONDITION OF WOMEN TODAYWomen 
constitute about 51% of the Afrikan Nation. This simple fact of numbers alone 
means that without their total involvement in the struggle for development, 
any efforts become more difficult. In Afrika, and in most parts of the world, 
there is so much tokenism and speech-making on the issue but little attempt to 
bring women into the social, political and economic life of the country in any 
meaningful and real way. Women have been largely seen as a group that needs 
to be sympathised with, helped or aided because they are weak, unthinking and 
temperamental.This is very unfortunate and false.Thus a group of 'concerned men 
and women' would also get up somewhere to claim to represent the true 
interest of women and pose themselves as the spokesmen and spokeswomen for the masses 
of women. When one analyses these individuals one notices at best they are 
merely doing lip service for their own personal aggrandisement, while the lot of 
the women continue to languish in poverty, exploitation and 
oppression.Occasionally we have governments in Afrika claim that because they have appointed a 
number of women ministers, or put a little more number in the national 
assembly or better still look at the number of women managers in the government, and 
therefore claim that women are progressing, and then take credit for that. But 
do this isolated and individual cases and improvements reflect general 
improvement in the conditions of women in the towns and villages, in homes and 
factories, in the gardens and farms. No, it does not. The emancipation of women 
cannot be done by any other people except women themselves or are in the lead. 
This is what the women should realise now and get up to demand their freedom and 
equality. The oppressor never gives freedom on charity. Freedom is taken by 
any means necessary by the oppressed.Afrikan women mark this! Your husbands, 
fathers, uncles, boyfriends, male co-workers and brothers will never, never 
willingly set you free.You the women have to free yourselves by your own 
effort.The condition of our women is very deplorable. Backward cultural beliefs and 
practices, religious misconceptions and capitalism have made the women an object 
of ridicule, sympathy, profit-making and entertainment.These oppressive and 
exploitative ideas, relations and systems are what need to be smashed now so 
that women, and ultimately the society in general can be free. As long as women 
are not free then men and the entire society are also not free.Women face 
triple oppression. First they are oppressed simply because they belong to the 
Afrikan Nation. All Afrikans are oppressed by capitalism which gave birth to 
slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism which we suffer from today. These evil 
systems are being propagated and run by a local minority elite in collaboration 
with their foreign masters in the Western Capitalist countries. The woman is 
oppressed secondly because of her economic class which defines her economic 
condition. In Afrika women are not allowed to own property such as land.They are 
more or less sold in marriage, where they are taught to serve their husbands as 
slaves. They cannot take any decisions regarding their economic well-being 
without the consent of the man. Thus the woman has become very poor, uneducated 
and unskilled. Thirdly women are oppressed because they are simply women. 
Misconceived ideas are used to create the belief that women are evil, weak and 
stupid by nature just because she is a woman. Stories from the Scriptures are 
taken advantage of and distorted to promote this misconception. Lives of great men 
in history such as Samson, Adam, and Joseph among others are used to show the 
evil nature of the woman. But no one talks about the weakness of such men to 
allow themselves to be carried by a woman if that ever happened in the first 
place. Secondly no one talks about how many more men have abused, misused and 
destroyed women for their own selfish interests. But a few cases such as that 
of Samson and Delilah are used to indicate that the woman is evil. Have we 
asked who sent Delilah?In our society women are considered to be a type of 
inferior being whose goal in life is to care for men, provide sexual services and to 
produce and raise children and carry out domestic chores. Women work from sun 
up to sun down and yet still they continue to languish in the most appalling 
conditions. Workshops, conferences, conventions, and organisations are created 
for women's equality and emancipation, yet still the majority of women 
continue to suffer. Why? This is because most of these efforts and the individuals 
involved have not touched the crux of the matter. The crux of the matter is that 
the oppressive system that is in place has to be smashed. A new citizen has 
to arise that will realise that each and every human being is important and 
must not be exploited for the selfish interest of one individual. Society can 
only move up with the equal and free participation of all.It is ungodly and 
foolhardy for women to succumb to these backward beliefs and practices in the name 
of preserving our culture. Any culture that is oppressive and exploitative is 
bad culture and needs to be discarded immediately.OUR WOMEN NEED FREEDOM NOW



"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are 
evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
 - Albert Einstein
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change 
the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead 
"When the government fears the people, you have liberty. When the people fear 
the government, you have tyranny." 
- Thomas Jefferson
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" 
- Edmund Burke 

    
    

    

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