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I finally met "The Lady" politician in Uganda. She sat down, waited and watched me get ready to start my presentataion. She gave me this look like, "Aren't you gonna set up your laptop and all the gadgets on a big screen so that you can disect the male brain and show me how many neurons it comprises." My idea of getting ready was to place the recorder on the table, pull back a chair, sit, press and begin talking. I looked at her and said "It is all in my head. I am going to walk you through patriarchy from A to Z in less than 30 minutes." I still can't describe the feeling when I pressed 'record' and started talking.
After I finished, with my 90 minutes tape in slow mode still on, she said, "You have blown my mind away. Nothing could have prepared me for this. First thing you have to do, if you have not done it, is copyright your work and then I am going to introduce you to three NGOs. I am not going to tell them anything. I want you to explain it the way you have explained it to me."
I was like "Wow! Aren't you going to disagree with me on some points?" But I kept my mouth shut. I spent the weekend at her house so I saved the best for the last. The first presentation focused on, gender roles, why men beat their wives, solution and the origin of patriarchy plus I also introduced her to the three American authors and left her with th three books.
The next day, I surprised her with "Would you like to hear it from the horse's mouth." I wanted her to listen to a secretly but not illegally recorded conversation with an African priest before I wrap up patriarchy. But as soon as we finished listening to the tape, I could now detect anger in her voice; she stood up and said, "We look so far and yet this knowledge is so simple. Now I understand why patriarchy is institutionalized." I could not believe this because this was the reason I saved the best for last. She obviously was not just listening but laso synthesiing this information as the tape rolled. I wanted to prove why patriarchy is institutionalized by using knowledge from the horse's mouth. She really surprised me here.
More than 30hrs had passed and I knew that she spent the night thinking about it, may be trying to find errors in my theory, so I asked, "Do you have any concerns or points to disagree with or what you think experts might challenge for either clarification or proof or... I was not surprised but it felt good to hear a woman of her caliber say "My dear, if you explain it to anyone the way you have explained it to me, there'd be nothing to disagree or debate. Nothing! You have done your work to perfection."
Oh! It did not take her long before she noted my exploding ego, so she said, "I am speaking from experience and as a politician. You have to read this book back-to-back so that you avoiding shooting yourself in your foot." She also gave me a book to read.
Oh yeah! She was glad that a man stopped me from putting my work on the internet prematurely. Am just flipping excited. My head is so blown up. Can you tell? Of course.
As they say "shit happens for a reason."
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