Five qualities of real women

Women's Day on Friday made me reflect on five key qualities of real women that I hope those aspiring to be real will find inspiring:

She's a real woman

1. It has been said that the quickest way to a man's heart is through his belly. It's true. A real woman knows how to whip up a fantastic meal anytime any day. No disrespect but how can you even call yourself a woman if you cannot cook? You might be able to bring the roof down in the bedroom but your man needs to be sure of your magic in the kitchen as well because cooking is an important homemaking ingredient that you ignore at your own peril.
2. Real women are confident in their skins. They don't have to visit the facial mall and beauty parlor to turn heads. Their magnetic power is in the self-assurance that they are born beautiful. Besides, beauty is fleeting, so they bring integrity and substance to everything they do without losing humility. Winnie Byanyima and Jennifer Musisi remind me of such women. 
3. Real women have maximum respect for their bodies. They don't just open their legs for money, marks, jobs or promotions. And they don't trick men into marrying them by getting pregnant. They have so much self respect for that. Thus they attract the best men, and have no need of splashing acid in the faces of their perceived competitors because they know how to keep satisfactory smiles in the hearts of their men.
4. The life of a real woman does not come to a screeching halt because she has lost a job or her man has left. She is so enterprising that the closing of one door means the opening of another. In this category are prayer warriors that raise powerful generations. Uganda's Dubai-based chemist Prof. John Lubega once told me that his mother prayed and blessed him every morning from the day he was born to the day she died. This was the case with St. Augustine and Dr. Ben Carson. Real women bring out the best in their men and children.
5. Finally, real women bring out the best meaning in the saying that cleanliness is next to godliness. That's why God even gave them menstrual periods. They can handle it! But imagine a woman whose home smells with dirty dishes. No, she's not busy; she's just lazy, dirty and foolish. A real woman is clean and fresh like a rose 24/7!

So ask yourself: are you a real woman? You might want to peep at Proverbs 31 for what it means to be not just real but phenomenal women!!!

What language do you speak?

The International Mother Language Day passed quietly in February 21, but got me thinking about whether the preference of foreign languages has left us unsteady like a house on sand. Somebody first remind me if the language policy that would have native languages as the medium of instruction in lower primary schools was implemented.Otherwise creative individuals would be earning big from the development of writing and reading materials in these local languages.

Children in lower primary schools should be taught in their mother tongues

The use of local languages would also be a wonderful step in defining our multiple identities from our multiple ethnic groups. But it is only when we have a major language like Swahili spoken all around like is done in Kenya and Tanzania that a national identity would be possible.

The power of the mother tongue to infiltrate the thinking of the local people was demonstrated when Ngugi wa Thiongo dumped English and started writing in Gikuyu in 1985. The famous play he co-authored with Ngugi wa Mirii titled Ngaahika Ndeeba (I Will Marry when I Want) was first written in his language before it was translated. It was well-received by the local audience and the panicky political establishment jailed the author before he fled into exile.

Thus Ngugi has convincing reasons as to why we should grow “our own roots in African languages and cultures.” English has particularly subjugated our long-cherished mother-tongues that nowadays you must speak it with an accent to become employable! Ask our radio presenters! No wonder Gerald Moore branded English “the chosen language.”

So has English sunk in our psyche that Prof Timothy Wangusa once admitted that he dreams in very old English: “art thou”, “thine” and such! Not that anything is wrong with having a grasp of foreign languages particularly in today’s competitive global village, but these languages should not be used to obliterate our mother tongues which have a deep connection with the social and cultural norms we identify with.

Remember, the formation of the OAU-Inter African Bureau of Languages was inspired by the fact that much of Africa, though politically independent, still suffered from a linguistic problem whose epicenter lay in the continued overdependence on ex-colonial languages at the expense of the languages of majority populations in the conduct of public affairs.

So I say as part of being proud of who we are, let us espouse all that is noble, true, right, pure, lovely, admirable and excellent about our indigenous languages, for there the African heritage dwells.