Unerma

she had always been fearless, looked fearless, acted fearless.

she didn’t have many friends,

people who liked her, but it didn’t

matter to unerma.

men were always taking advantage

of women. seem like they got

special permission from god to do

it. unerma saw it everyday.

everywhere. tolito was built by men

like that and she wasn’t afraid to

talk about it. unerma wasn’t afraid

to make it her life work.

unerma was 26. she told people

whenever she introduced herself,

she was a feminist activist. she said

her life work was to improve the

lives of women in tolito and to

show the world that women where

an endangered species in tolito.

unerma had started the st.richards

safe space project for young

women. she worked at hilton

college teaching a diploma course

in gender and politics in the

caribbean.

she had started the feminist

network of powder hills.

a group of women who met every

wednesday in powder hills square.

unerma knew lots of important

feminist all over the world. as a

young feminist she was famous.

last year unerma was the keynote

speaker at the black feminist of the

caribbean conference in jah jah
islands.

it was a proud moment for unerma.

she posted photos with her and the

conference organizers on her

instagram. unerma was making

gender equality a priority and as far

as she could see, she would always

be necessary, always be useful to

tolito.

it didn’t matter who didn’t like her

she was doing what had to be done

for women.

unerma had grown up in tolito.

her mother was no feminist.

no woman in her family was.

but her family was mostly women

who took care of themselves and
their children. independent women.

unmarried. married and divorced.

unerma lived with her father until

she was about 7. her mother moved

out of the house and left him and

went to live with her mother.

when unerma was 13 she decided

to call her father a few times to say

hi. he didn’t seem too interested so

she stopped.

unerma learnt about feminism in

university. she went to saviour

college in the south of tolito and

then white water college in a small

town in illinocious.

she got a full scholarship from

saviour college to white water.
unerma had gotten a good

education. she knew this.

she knew that saviour college

and white water were schools

with history and tradition.

famous women had gone to white

water college. the poet and feminist

activist eva long had gone to white

water.

so did other feminist like michelle

bodasingh and olami kadinga.

unerma had enjoyed the stimulation

she received at white water college

and after 3 years, she decided to

come back to tolito to put her

education to use.

unerma liked tolito during carnival.

she liked how people got busy

during carnival time and she like

the cultural things of carnival.

she enjoyed the carnival even

though some of the carnival songs

were painful to hear. she thought

women should be allowed to enjoy

their bodies however they wanted

to and that a woman’s body

shouldn’t only be for a man’s

pleasure. she didn’t like how

women were so sexualized in tolito

especially during carnival time.

why was every woman a gal and

why did they always have to “wine

up” for men? everyone was playing

sugar’s song “gal meets brass”. it

was such a catchy tune but again,

same man telling some woman to

do something. tele- tolito was now

using the offensive song by presi

and telling us to “top right up” “top

up now to win it”

unerma wondered if women

thought a song telling you to”cock

right up” could really be cool. last

year bounty shark was saying he

“wanted to jam on the thing in your

panty”. unerma just couldn’t take

it. how was sean d so happy to sing

that “they wonder how i look so

nice…i never with the same gal

twice”? how could the radio and tv

play it?

she was tired of complaining on

ugram. she couldn’t take it, but as a

feminist activist in the caribbean

there was always some fire to out.

she was making her way down to

ida street to get a taxi to powder

hills square for the weekly feminist
network meeting.

she was hoping to talk about some

of the carnival happenings at this

meeting. maybe lirida had an idea

about something to do on carnival

monday.

tolito was a cool city and it was an

easy walk down ida street, usually

uneventful. it was the yellow t-shirt

that caught her eyes stopped her in

her tracks right at the front of

freddies clothes store.

“i am not a gynecologist but i can take a look”
a boring looking yellow t-shirt with

a message like this.

what?

unerma couldn’t believe it.

shock, disappointment and

curiosity made her push her head

inside to look. there in front of her

were more yellow t-shirts with all

kinds of disgusting messages about

women and sex and their body

parts.

she was so caught up in the sight of

the shirts she ignored the rasta-

looking store attendant telling her

there was more things upstairs.

she almost didn’t see the short old

lady beside her but the lady had

started to look at the rack with the

yellow t-shirts.
unerma was waiting for her to

throw the t-shirts down in disgust.

she didn’t understand why she was

flipping through the rack so long

anyway. the short old lady picked

out one of the t shirts read it

silently then burst out laughing. “i

like this one!”

unerma was still and overcome

with confusion. the short old lady

liked the t-shirt that read, “save gas.

ride a cock” unerma watched the

short old lady from the corner of

her eyes in disbelief while she

looked at the logo on the t-shirts.

provocative t-shirts it said.

the short old lady sat down on a

stool asked the store attendant how

much for the t-shirt, opened her

purse to find money while she

chuckled and repeated, “i like the

message on this one”

Taken from Nothing matter Haikus poems and other writings by Afifa aza