As one roams the web for various Mother's day offerings, the gap in services because readily apparent. There are few real efforts to honor Black Single Mothers and other activist matriarchal spirits.
Much of the online contributions relating with single Motherhood invariably accuse "responsibility" for some inferred or blatantly stated negative "condition."
'Too blessed to be depressed' adult children of single Mothers are apparently not accessing spaces that eagerly await their testimonies about their childhood years.
In the meantime, Black Single Mothers are overwhelmingly depicted as pale-toting, basket-weaving, withdrawn, timid and without a shred of activist thought, word or deed.
We have toted many a pail, weaved many a a beautiful basket, and some of us are even timid, but most of us are far more macro-creative and brave.
Also see, Understanding the 1985 Philadelphia Mother's Day MOVE Bombing, Part 1, and also Part 2
Dear Mama
"Mama Elephant is trying hard to care and nurture for Baby Elephant, but it is impossible with the interference of humans."
Not a happy ending.in this case.
In truth, many Black women perform magical feats that constitute single Mothering even when a partner or spouse is in the household.
The numeric presence of any particular mere mortal in Black households should then be less important than the quality and health of relationships between people who hope to raise healthy Black adults.
Then, of course, many folk reconcile their fear or loathing - or both - of Same Gender folk by casting SGL Mothers to perpetual invisibility.
We know from the fruits of their labor that Same Gender Loving women (50% of whom are parents) are as excellent Mothers as anyone - raising well-rounded, thoughtful men and women just as do their hetero-attractional counterparts.
Single Black Mothering - in a world that is entrenched with hatred toward Black womanhood, Black single women, Black female strength, and Black women's intelligence and deliberate activist thought is an act of activism in and of itself.
Here find an expanding tribute and body of resources for Single Mothers and other activist matriarchs who do battle on behalf and in defense of their loved ones.
Those of us who know something of childhood development, know that children are looking to feel defended and protected almost from the time they are born.
Single Mothers (and single Fathers, too) are often the lone afficionados in providing that need. This gallery panel aims to shore up appreciation for the ingenuity, determination, skill, and mastery of that Black maternal artistry, some of which is intuitive, and some of which is pure genius.
To come full circle, I should make clear that there are many, many folk in our community who have a history of neglect, abuse or maltreatment, and could not possibly think of their maternal (or paternal) relationships as healthy or happy.
Happy Mother's Day for Mothers, and also for all activists - women and men alike - who interrogate the oppression and brutalization of Black people in the process of Mothering us toward a just world.
"60% have given birth to at least one child before getting an abortion."
"Black anti-abortion activists depict this phenomenon in dire terms -- "genocide" and "holocaust," for example. But often the women getting the abortions say they act in the interests of children they already have."
Single Mothers in Low-Wage Jobs: Financial Strain, Parenting, and Preschoolers' Outcomes
"Financial strain, in turn, was implicated in elevated levels of depressive symptoms, which were directly and negatively implicated in parenting quality."
(Dear Mothers and others: The term "drama" can be misused and abused, twisted and turned around until it means - no more communication . . . no more questions . . . no more concerns . . . no more critical thinking, no more exposing of contradictions.
For healthy purposes of this site, "No More Drama," means - no more addiction or addictive behaviors, no more mean-spiritedness, no more abuse and victimization, and no more inconsiderateness, thoughtlessness, domination, insensitivity, and pain.")
Pursuing the Perfect Mother: Why Criminalization of Maternal Substance Abuse is Not the Answer
"This is true across the political spectrum while progressives may not rail against welfare mothers, they are generally unwilling to affirm motherhood as a right for women, whatever their marital or socioeconomic status, and they are especially unwilling to affirm single motherhood as possibly being good for children."
(I'm not clear about ho this could be Germany as the title suggests. But, this is an African Mother who is teaching her adult child about toothpaste which she never had access to at "the village."
Notice the music crescendos as if we might expect some major catastrophe to happen, only to find the climax is merely the daughter's lack of knowledge.
I find this intriguing as if we are conscious, this will stir our mindfulness that we are at varying stages of learning and development no matter our age or where we live).
Audre Lorde
The Late, Black Mother, Same Gender Loving, Cancer Survivor (Who Made Her Meaning Known)
"Sindiswa is a story set in rural KwaZulu-Natal and documents the clash of modern and traditional cultures, where a young (Zulu) Mother has to stand up against her Sangoma Mother in order to save her sons' life."
Abbey Lincoln, lyricist, singer, and songwriter was also an essayist whose work was edited in a 1970 collection of writings edited by Toni Cade Bambara.
Her work was published by Bambara alongside such other "heavy hitters" as Nikki Giovanni, Alice Walker, Paule Marshall and others.
The essay, Marketing Protest: Jazz, Black Politics, and the early 1960's seeks to "investigate the overtly political 1960 and 1961 albums recorded by Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, and Art Blakey, We Insist Freedom Now, Straight Ahead, and The Freedom Rider, respectively, and asks what the impact and significance of these nationally circulated albums was, especially its effect on the jazz world and its consumers."
(Sis. Marpessa tells us that Billie Holiday considered Jimmy Scott her favorite singer. She goes on to remind us that he was a "truly gifted alto whose voice never fully developed due to a genetic condition which prevented him from reaching puberty."
This has to be one of the most believable renditions of this song ever sung.)
In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens
(Excerpt)
Alice Walker
"What did it mean for a black woman to be an artist in our grandmothers' time? In our great-grandmothers' day? It is a question with an answer cruel enough to stop the blood.
Did you have a genius of a great-great-grandmother who died under some ignorant and depraved white overseer's lash?
Or was she required to bake biscuits for a lazy backwater tramp, when she cried out in her soul to paint watercolors of sunsets, or the rain falling on the green and peaceful pasturelands?
Or was her body broken and forced to bear children (who were more often than not sold away from her)--eight, ten, fifteen, twenty children--when her one joy was the thought of modeling heroic figures of rebellion, in stone or clay?"
Raising Successful Black Boys Alone, But Not Without Help
"The reality is, there aren't enough mentors to go around, and some don't have the right intentions," he says, stressing that single mothers must be mindful about whom they allow to form bonds with their kids."
"Groups such as Raise the Nation are working furiously to change such regulations and ensure that single mothers are able to improve their lives and the lives of their children."
Cedella Marley, Single Mother and "Keeper of The Flame"
July 23, 1926 - April 8, 2008
Mother of Bob Marley
Also see, Understanding the 1985 Philadelphia Mother's Day MOVE Bombing, Part 1, and also Part 2
Closeup image is of Kadiatou Diallo, Mother of the late Amadou Diallo. Kadiatou Diallo's unarmed son was shot at 41 times by New York Police in a small vestibule of his apartment building in New York -hit by 19 bullets.
Police who either needed to have a terryhowcott.com eye exam before the were hired, or simply lied to cover up a murder - claimed the wallet Amadou was carrying looked like a gun.
Find more references to Kadiatou Diallo at "In the Process of Never Forgetting"
Thumbnail of a baby being washed by his Mother at Sangbulima Village on Tasso Island. There is no running water on this remote African island.
Rainwater is collected for bathing, cooking and drinking in barrels, cisterns and old bathtubs. About 700 people, mostly of the Temne group, live in Tasso's three villages. (Tom Brown, March 28, 2005)
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