Humanist

“Black African women have figured it out. They can’t compete with their White and Asian counterparts in intellect or work ethic. Their only comparative advantage in today’s digital screen era is their shapely bodies. So they display them at every turn,” this according to Timothy Kalyegira.

Obviously, Kalyegira and I are accessing different online spaces. Nevertheless, it would be inappropriate for me to dismiss his assertions as lazy. Not that I am not tempted to do so.

Seriously, what measures is he using for intellect? What about for work ethic? And he arrived at the conclusion that black African women cannot compete with white women? Really? How so? Is he just being provocative or what?

Why, pray, did he need to use the colour of our skin for African women (black) and non-African and non-Asian women (white)? Aren’t there Asian black women? Aren’t there Asian white women? Wait a minute, am spiraling into a rabbit hole here?

I have encountered plenty of black African women online, whom I admire for the content of their intellect. As I have deduced from their posts. I have never really thought to evaluate images of their bodies using the “shapely bodies” lens.

Now that I think of it, many black African women are coming to mind, some of whom I have never physically met, whose intellect I admire, as I have deduced it from their online posts. Posts they often share without being accompanied with images of their “shapely bodies.”

With all the online bullying, should I and other black African women allow our minds to be occupied by these kinds of misogyny?

I think that we should not. And so, to prove my point, accompanying this post is one of the photos that a short while ago were posted on LinkedIn by Eseza Mulyagonja, a top notch business, leadership and writing coach; a business owner; a trainer; and a storyteller.

Eseza is a black African woman of substance, who holds an MBA and MA. Never in her posts have I deduced unintelligent stuff. Never have I seen her share photos of her and or other black African women for the “shapely bodies” impact, whatever that means.

In any case, feeling good about my body and being comfortable in my skin is part of that which fosters mental well being for us all; humans, I mean. Okay, I may be going off track, back to the point.

The photos Eseza shared were to herald the “Audacious Women’s Business and Life Accelerator” that is restarting in July. Specifically, the photos profiled a significant business woman who was the keynote speaker at the launch of the accelerator last year.

In her post, Eseza wrote:

“Sarah Bagalaaliwo is 73! She is a great inspiration who learned and shares about the vagaries of managing the franchise of a global brand in an emerging market, pivoting and taking hard strategic decisions in the same volatile market, successfully executing mergers and acquisitions, and managing the complexity of the whole process at the expense of keeping her stake in the business, and expanding to a regional market to become the industry leader.”

The photo of me with Sarah that I have profiled in this post was taken at the launch event for which I was the moderator.

Recommended further reading: “Speak out on online narratives normalizing degradation.”