2007.05.22: May 22, 2007: Headlines: COS - Niger: COS - Somalia: Poety: Writing - Niger: Women's Issues: Poetry Daily: Niger RPCV Susan Rich writes: The Women of Kismayo
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2007.05.22: May 22, 2007: Headlines: COS - Niger: COS - Somalia: Poety: Writing - Niger: Women's Issues: Poetry Daily: Niger RPCV Susan Rich writes: The Women of Kismayo
RPCV Susan Rich writes: The Women of Kismayo
"A generation of war-lords have made Somalia an archetype of natural disintegration and the power of tyrants. Even now, with the death of Mohammed Farah Aideed, there is no end in sight. But there is another dimension to Somalian politics: the radical role of women. Two years before the entire country collapsed into civil war, in Kismayo, Somalia's southern coastal city, something happened that momentarily interrupted the slow march of strife over the body politic. A few dozen women, defying the conviction that enjoins female sartorial modesty, bared their breasts in public in front of a crowd of men. Fists raised, voices harsh, they shouted "Rise, Rise!", challenging the men to action, reproaching them for their failure to confront the excesses of the dictatorship. By challenging the men in this manner, the women implied that they would not from then on defer to them as husbands, fathers, or figures of authority."
PCOL Comment: The polyrhythms of this poem by RPCV Susan Rich interpreting this event in the history of Somalia sound musical as you read them aloud. Her poem "The Women of Kismayo" is from her collection of Poetry "Cures include Travel."
RPCV Susan Rich writes: The Women of Kismayo
from The Times Literary Supplement (London), (November 15, 1996), pp. 44)
"A generation of war-lords have made Somalia an archetype of natural disintegration and the power of tyrants. Even now, with the death of Mohammed Farah Aideed, there is no end in sight. But there is another dimension to Somalian politics: the radical role of women. Two years before the entire country collapsed into civil war, in Kismayo, Somalia's southern coastal city, something happened that momentarily interrupted the slow march of strife over the body politic. A few dozen women, defying the conviction that enjoins female sartorial modesty, bared their breasts in public in front of a crowd of men. Fists raised, voices harsh, they shouted "Rise, Rise!", challenging the men to action, reproaching them for their failure to confront the excesses of the dictatorship. By challenging the men in this manner, the women implied that they would not from then on defer to them as husbands, fathers, or figures of authority."
The Women of Kismayo
The breasts of Kismayo assembled
along the mid-day market street.
No airbrushed mangoes, no
black lace, no underwire chemise.
No half-cupped pleasures,
no come-hither nods, no Italian
centerfolds. Simply the women
of the town telling their men
to take action, to do something
equally bold. And the husbands
on their way home, expecting
sweet yams and meat,
moaned and covered their eyes,
screamed like spoiled children
dredged abruptly from sleep—
incredulous that their women
could unbutton such beauty
for other clans, who
(in between splayed
hands) watched quite willingly.
Give us your guns, here is our
cutlery, we are the men!
the women sang to them
an articulation without shame.
And now in the late night hour
when men want nothing but rest,
they fold their broken bodies, still
watched by their wives cool breasts
round, full, commanding as colonels—
two taut nipples targeting each man.
— Susan Rich, from her collection of Poetry "Cures include Travel" Follow this link to order the book.
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Story Source: Poetry Daily
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Poetry; Women's Issues; ; COS - Niger; COS - Somalia; Writing - Niger; Writing - Somalia
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