hello everybody thank you for giving me
your listening ears first of all I’d
like to introduce myself my name is
lungi some more but because you are my
friends today you can call me lungi now
I’m a cross a woman for a lot of people
that may not know Kostas are a
indigenous tribe in South Africa we are
one of the largest tribes in South
Africa we are very welcoming we are very
proud of who we are and the women the
clothes of women in my tribe look like
this this is not a costume and some
people have been asking how are you
performing today no this is just me this
is what I look like this is what the
people of my country look like the
people of my tribe look like this and as
you can see I have dots and this is
makeup for a lot of the women in my
tribe we are the matriarch of the family
we are very jovial
we love family we love community and
some notable South Africans you may know
who are also part of my tribe are Nelson
Mandela and Winnie Madikizela Mandela
these are the faces of the fight for the
freedom of South African people thank
you
and of course for those who may not know
this is my wonderful mother the woman
who has inspired me so much to drive
what I am coming to speak to you guys
today about so growing up when I was a
young child like many other young women
of color we used to play with Barbie
dolls I’m pretty sure you’re all
familiar with Barbie dolls and I used to
love Disney dolls as well they were so
beautiful they were very magnificent to
me but they didn’t look like me but I
always wanted to look like them in our
libraries we had wonderful books we had
Alice in Wonderland dr. Seuss Peter Pan
and of course my favorite was Beauty and
the Beast now these books were very
great they were beautiful they inspired
me to have a wonderful imagination but
then again we didn’t have stories of
girls and queens and and beautiful women
who represented my culture I didn’t have
any stories to share with any other
young girls of color when I was in my
teens I attended a school that offered
English and Afrikaans as languages I
needed these languages to pass my grade
now when I enrolled my mother was very
upset at the fact that I was going to be
learning the language of our oppressors
Afrikaans and this was required for me
to pass my grade so when she protested
and told the headmaster that my child
will not be learning Afrikaans you need
to offer her a different language they
gave me French which was wonderful I
managed to learn a new language now
there are 11 official languages in South
Africa two of which are English and
Afrikaans and we have nine other
indigenous and official languages that I
was not offered I could not speak
my mother’s tongue now another thing
about post-apartheid we had a lot of
high European standards in the schools
and this meant that girls like me who
had hair like this had to burn our hair
with heat and to burn ourselves with
relaxer this was required for us to
attend school
now this hair that grows out of my head
was not allowed and was not allowed for
other young girls like me now imagine
going to school and you had to make sure
that your hair looked a certain way
because it was not accepted and to think
of that you may have heard of women and
young girls that are being protesting
the same issue in South Africa right now
it was actually even reported on CNN a
few months ago ago called zuleyka Patel
had said she has had enough of having to
change the way her hair looks in order
for her to attend the school so they are
still protesting right now this is still
a big issue girls cannot represent
themselves with their hair now you gotta
understand as well that this isn’t just
the issue for South Africa this is the
issue for many women of color who are
not allowed the opportunity to to have
an authentic space for their hair and
for me stories like this now make me
think hey when I was growing up I didn’t
have the opportunities to to to give to
be able to read and enjoy stories of
amazing women of color this book called
black history by Stefan Jones senior
gives me and my daughters the
opportunity to learn about magnificent
women of color but then you also have to
understand well why is it that women
aren’t reprimand of color not
represented in this manner this is
because of the Sapphire caricature the
sulfa caricature portrays women of color
in a very derogatory and very negative
manner we are either too bossy too loud
too malicious or too angry and as dr.
David pogrom said the Sapphire
caricature portrays women of color as
rude loud malicious stubborn overbearing
angry do I look like that no as you
remember even when Ghostbusters came out
you had a situation where Twitter went
mad because Leslie Jones as part of
Ghostbusters she’s being compared to a
gorilla
now you have here Zuleika patel is a
representation of women who are being
grossly misrepresented in society we’re
not being told that we can be beautiful
we’re not being told that our history is
part of world history it’s part of world
history it shouldn’t be excluded we are
women that are innovative we are women
that are entrepreneurs we are women who
hold high status in society but why
isn’t that reflected why do we only know
about women who are Western and European
but we don’t know any of the other women
of color who have done the same who have
fought for women’s rights who have
fought for amazing feet for women to
even vote look at us we’re beautiful
we’re doing amazing things were educated
we travel we have sports we’re in the
military my girl squad is inspired by
women of color it is time for us to tell
our own stories authentically and
reflect ourselves in a manner that the
world can also receive us as positive
human beings imagine a world where women
of color can now positively reflect
themselves reflect their achievements
and have young women of color feeling
like they can actually have a chance
without having to be stereotyped this is
what my ghost squad is about we’re about
community we’re about telling authentic
stories to the world thank you everybody
thank you for your ears [Applause]