Abigail George is a south African writer, an author, poet and feminist. Her writing has been showed on the global platform. She has written extensively on personal experience, oppression, infrastructure, unemployment, racism, social inequities and the dire situation in Africa.
Yesterday, we had a fruitful discussion starting by introduction; I asked about her personal life, childhood experience, upbringing as a woman and lot more. She explained how her childhood experience had really shaped her personal way of thinking, stressing more emphasis on how her family had really nurtured her to be a responsible person. Even though, she wasn’t lucky enough to further more her study in the university but that doesn’t really deprive her of her staunch ambition, it does not stop her from achieving her goal. An ambitious woman, indeed.
Interestingly, being a poet and an author of numerous poems, I asked her about what she thinks of poem? Is it a good approach to address the social problems in Africa? Of course, yes, she said. I do believe poem is a strong weapon that I do believe in and much indulged in it. “I have written my poem to motivate the youth to stand up and speak for their right”, she said.
Presumably, as a feminist writer, I thought she would blindly follow the feminist ideology but I was surprised to be proved wrong. Her feminist perspective does not advocate the cancellation of motherhood, marriage, equality but rather she does believe that women have something to offer and a major role that’s totally different from men in the society.
Later on, we geared our discussions towards Africa and the problems we are facing in Africa. Why are we tamed as the “Third World”? tracing back the colonial period and post-colonial era. How are we back then and how are we now, what are the achievement we have accomplished so far after our independence. Why are Africans inferior and what is the solution to our sociopolitical problems in Africa.
“Illiteracy” is one of the problems we tackled with and ruminate on how uneducated some Africans are and the consequence of it in the social dilemma. also, we pinpoint on economy and inflation and how it has driven people to be living from head to mouth. these stuffs and more are what we discussed in our talk. it was a fruitful, eye opening, thought provocative and a breath of fresh air for me.
my last question was “what is your advice for the youth”?
“To have confidence, believe in themselves and fight for their right”, she said.
Written by Ridwan Zakariyah
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