Afrikan Women's Organisation teaches ancestral traditions

Akende Rudder, president of the Traditional Afrikan Women’s Organisation. - Photo by Vidya Thurab
Akende Rudder, president of the Traditional Afrikan Women’s Organisation. - Photo by Vidya Thurab

The main purpose of the Traditional Afrikan Women’s Organisation is to help women of African descent establish their identity, purpose and direction.

Therefore, one of the organisation’s activities is an annual ceremony, the Recognising our Warrior Women Enstoolment Award Ceremony, where women who have made significant contributions to society, or who have proved their strength through their experiences and reactions to such, are recognised.

The fifth annual ceremony took place in Morvant on March 27 in celebration of International Women’s Month where Tricia St John, a domestic violence survivor and author, received the organisation’s Harriet Tubman/ Claudia Jones Award.

In the first year, it was awarded to poet and activist, Eintou Pearl Springer; then environmentalist, Dr Carol James; biochemist and founder of Cher-Mère products Cheryl Bowles; and medical student, Crystal Patrick.

Akinde Rudder, president and founder of the Traditional Afrikan Women’s Organisation, said instead of a statue or plaque, awardees receive a Ghanaian stool.

The Sankofa stool is given as the Traditional Afrikan Women’s Organisation's Harriet Tubman/ Claudia Jones Award. PHOTO COURTESY AKINDE RUDDER -

“In the African tradition, the woman is respected and carries the home while the man is the supporter and protector. So we conduct an Egyptian ceremony where the woman is placed on a stool and takes her seat in her society, in her family, in her community.”

People of African descent have been in the forefront of the development of TT and the Caribbean but do not get the respect and appreciation they deserve. She said this is especially the case with African women, lamenting that many people are not aware of the deeds of women like Audrey Jeffers and Christina King.

The organisation was founded in 1998 and re-established in 2013 “to be a voice for Afrikan women empowerment through the restoration, regeneration and renewal of the best of our collective heritage.”

It’s motto, Ubuntu, is a Zulu word meaning I am because we are.

“We are humanised by our experiences and relations with those who acknowledge our equality and respect our humanity.”

She told Sunday Newsday she was saddened that the United Nations established the International Decade for People of African Descent yet little to nothing is being done to commemorate it.

“So we are reaching out to our African community to sensitise them to the richness in their traditions, their way of life, their family life.”

Men are also part of the organisation because, she said, traditionally there is a balance between males and females in African families. Therefore, there are programmes for both men and women in an attempt to rebuild the African family and communities.

“Our young people are confused because they are not too clear on their identity because of all the false identities that are preached to them. Anything that is African, they are being told that it’s evil, it’s not good, or it never happened, and they are not worthwhile unless they adopt another culture. That is why we have so many of our young people, both male and female, outside destroying each other, because they have no idea of their identity.”

She added that African children are not being educated properly for various reasons, maybe because they come from a certain area or have a natural hairstyle, and the history is inaccurate. She said society is trying to push children “back on the plantation to be subservient” but they intend to push back.

Akende Rudder says the Traditional Afrikan Women’s Organisation provides workshops to help women of African descent understand their ancestry. - Photo by Vidya Thurab

Therefore, the organisation hosts a variety of workshops, programmes, conversations, as well as naming day ceremonies. Topics include breast and cervical cancer awareness, prostate cancer awareness, African women identity crisis, for men only conversations, African cooking with menus from Ethiopia, Nigeria and Ghana, head wrapping, as well as African male and female relationships with respect to traditions and social norms.

“We also do the concept of one creator in African and popular religions because the media always express that African religion is obeah. We do a workshop on all the religions and spirituality including Orisha, Baptist and other types of Christian spirituality, Islam and Hinduism.”

In addition, on the night before Emancipation Day it usually hosted a live radio broadcast from All Stars panyard with prayers and links to other shrines in TT, New York, Nigeria and London so as to receive blessings and greetings from across the African diaspora.

“We are not the regular type of women’s organisation. We are about our traditions, reclaiming, rebuilding and re-educating ourselves. We are in trouble because we are encouraging false, foreign cultures that is not working for us.”

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