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piqer for: Global finds
Ciku Kimeria is a Kenyan author "Of goats and poisoned oranges" - (https://www.amazon.com/goats-poisoned-oranges-Ciku-Kimeria-ebook/dp/B00HBBWPI6), development consultant, adventurer and travel blogger (www.thekenyanexplorer.com). She writes both fiction and non-fiction focusing on African stories that need telling. She has worked on diverse pieces for various international and local publications including Quartz, Ozy, The East African etc. She has travelled to 45 countries – 16 of them in Africa. 153 countries to go and 63 territories!
"Of goats and poisoned oranges" has been extremely well received in Kenya and beyond. It tells the story of a Kenyan middle aged power couple and their complicated marriage. The novel explores issues of greed, revenge, betrayal and murder. It runs from the 1960s to 2013. It has been described as “Wicked, funny, poignant, wacky, human, a big ball of fun and danger”, “A unique and captivating book”, “Fun and intriguing”, “Impossible to put down once you start reading.”
She recently moved to Dakar, Senegal from Kenya to work on her second novel. She also works at as the Africa Communication Manager at a leading global strategy consulting firm.
She holds a B.S. in Management Science from MIT with minors in Urban Planning and International development studies.
The erasure of female pain, as explained so beautifully in this essay, can be traced in Yoruba mythology as much as it can be traced in most other creation stories globally, including the Christian one of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.
In the beginning, according to a version of the Yoruba creation story, Olodumare, the creator of the universe, sent 17 Oriṣas on a mission to establish the earth. 16 of them were male and one was female; her name was Oṣun. Without informing Oṣun, the 16 male Oriṣas made decisions about the ways in which the Earth would unfold.
When important decisions were being made, Osun's opinions were not taken into account, but when a mess had been created that the gods needed rescuing from, they called Osun to assume that dreaded role that women the world over are meant to take pleasure in — the helper, the fixer, the invisible woman behind the men who ensures things work.
The writer wonders why women are rarely considered heroes and the awful truth comes out.
The ancient Greek Menander once said: “Woman is a pain that never goes away.”
Pain and womanhood are considered one and the same thing, and there is nothing novel about our pain. Our pain is that which should be borne with fortitude, minimal complaint, hidden.
Once, in high school, when I all-but-crawled into the clinic for some painkillers, one of my male friends saw me looking less like myself and asked me why. “Cramps,” I said...Almost immediately, the nurses stopped what they were doing and called me to berate me for being “shameless enough” to tell a man I was on my period.
Every culture has their way of reminding women not to "over-react", not to be "emotional", not to cause a fuss
...women...consistently have their pain dismissed as psychological overreaction, driven more by a schizophrenic illusion than an intelligent, objective assessment of reality.
This "woman is pain" rhetoric ensures that issues facing women can always be swept under the rug as "that's just the way of life".
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Wonderful piqd, thank you very much for sharing.