• By Kah Walla
• Tuesday 01 December 2015

We Salute Black Women of Courage, Conviction & Action

60 years ago today Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and sparked what would become one of the key turning points of the civil rights movement.

3 Key Facts About Rosa Parks that Cameroonians Should Learn From:

1. To effect change you must be actively engaged - When she was arrested, Rosa Parks had been an active member of the NAACP for 12 years!

2. Against tyranny, when you don't succeed, you try, try and try again. Rosa Parks was not the 1st black woman to be arrested for refusing to give up her seat. Claudette Colvin, Mary Louise Smith, Aurelia Browder and Susie McDonald had alll done so before her. We salute them all. It takes an army to overcome.

3. Victory requires strategy and preparedness. The NAACP had identified bus segregation as a mobilizing factor for African-Americans. Rosa Parks refusal to stand up, met with a well-prepared strategy to take advantage of just such a moment.

What does this mean for us as Cameroonians?

* Stop Complaining - GET ENGAGED!
* Never imagine the fight will be easy or over quickly. Right and truth will triumph, but only if we are persistent in fighting for them
* Be STRATEGIC - our actions must be determined, persistent and strategic. The day of victory is when opportunity encounters preparedness. We do not control opportunity, but we control preparedness. We must spend our time preparing! Eventually we will even create opportunity!

Rosa Parks, MartheMoumie, MartheOuandjié, Gertrude Omog, Queen Nzinga, Amina of Zaria - all of our mothers, we salute you.

Because of you, we know the path. Because of you, the courage is within us to follow it.

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