D-Empress

Anniversaries are a time for celebration! Happy 25th birthday from across the waters in South Africa!

While the champagne corks pop, anniversaries are also a time for reflection on where we've come from and looking forward to where we are going. Anniversaries mark milestones which trace footprints in the sands of time.

Being one of life's documenters, milestones present those who share my voracious appetite for words and images an opportunity to capture a precious moment in time.

In reflection, our dreams and memories blend into a continuum called life. While pondering what life would have been like for women in Jamaica 25 years ago, I asked Ruth Wade Kwakwa (a fellow Jamaican living here in South Africa), to share her feelings about the Flair 25 milestone.

Ruth has lived in South Africa for almost ten years, during which time she has witnessed and been part of a rapid societal evolution based on the tenets of freedom and democracy.

Her Story

"Growing up in Jamaica, and spending adult time in South Africa, has me appreciating the incredible freedom of choice that Jamaica, my Jamaican parents, and friends gave to me. Watching South Africans blossom and flourish in a system where the new constitution affords people choices, makes me realise how fortunate I was to have been given that freedom from Day 1", said Ruth.

As we clink glasses and pat our backs in buoyant party mood for Flair's 25th, pour a few drops of libation in memory, honour and recognition of those who came before us.

South Africa's democracy milestone came 15 short years ago. As the nation and its people wrestle with the inevitable complexities that come with nascent democracy, consider for a moment when freedom was a doubtful reality and what it means today.

Much to build

As we compare notes across the waters, we gain perspective on our shared histories. Notably, our futures are also inextricably interlinked. For those of us who have had freedom of choice from Day 1, it would be easy to take it for granted. There is much to be celebrated and there is also much to build.

As I flick through the pages of AWA, the first women's magazine published in Senegal, I marvel at the priceless heritage I hold in my hands. Some editions, published before I was born, show (maybe not surprisingly), that the issues and topics that concerned women then, are essentially the same as they are today. Issues of empowerment, relationships, grooming, fashion, and the like, form the lifeblood of women's experiences around the world.

A similar tale

Flickering softly from the faded black and white pages of AWA is the nuance and promise of the AWA reader's dreams. A retrospective of 25 years of Flair will tell a similar tale. What then of our future? What will the Flair 50th anniversary milestone say of our voices and our dreams? For when the beautiful ones who are not yet born celebrate and pour libation, may their dreams be manifest reality ignited by the freedom to choose audacious and knowing from Day 1.

mail: d.empressheart@gmail.comblog: http:/femailheart.blogspot.com