Transcript

An Accountability Speech by Patriarchy Misogyny to the Global Village

Whose blood is it running crimson in the chaos
nameless, faceless, broken by imagined borders.
Red water of bones shelled in the name of agreements
between those who are already drenched with stolen power and the self-appointed powerful 

Dear Global Masses,

It is I, Patriarchy Misogyny here. How are you? I am well enough, all worldly things considered. Admittedly I am more than a little perturbed by the recent uprisings of global “feminist” movements such as #sayhername, #metoo and #timesup, all undoubtedly inspired by Black Lives Matter and the ridiculously lengthy resistance to my first cousin, colonial oppression.

Your species walked out of Africa curious to inhabit other parts of the world. I walked out of my progenitors’ limitless greed and violent control, curious to infiltrate your kind. I propagated narratives of gender as binary: man, superior; woman, inferior, and fortified this through gender-based violence. Throughout the centuries my woman-hating myths became belief systems became traditions became cultures became sciences became law became the norm.

Blood birthed of bombs demarcating ownership
of my body.
Demarcating the binary
of my body, woman, man, no other.
The land that we are all made of
that we are all made from
water, air, plants, animals, humxn beings codified.

Working alongside supremacy I invaded countries, I instigated unceasing wars, I fueled conflicts by funding weapons and ammunitions. I codified race. Yes, I codified, race, gender, class, sexuality; codified ability, beauty, and other socially-constructed mythologies to rupture culture from the inside out, while destroying lands and peoples from the outside in. 

Have you ever witnessed bone?
Bone, bone and flesh and blood?
A body imploded by unmitigated colonial patriarchal misogynistic violence? Have you? 

I—I refuse to share the Earth’s resources with you. I ruptured, ruptured, dishonoured and destroyed that which you may consider sacred. I have enabled ongoing devastation of the climate. I have committed crimes against your humxn right to clean air, to fresh water, to peace and safety, to determine what happens in and around your body, to resist and insist on organizing yourselves in order to develop economic independence and strength.

Where does aliveness retreat to in search of protection?
In search of protection from the harbingers of death
who feel empowered by some invisible force
to scramble continents, enslave, violate, and lie?
Lie, lie, lie upon top of lie, upon top of lie?

I have refused to see you through multiple nuanced lenses, insisting that in order for you to be considered “womxn,” you must be homogenous, cis-gendered, middle-class or wealthy, so-called able-bodied, from the West, and white/

Is content of blood content of heart?
Is content of heart content of blood?
Is content of blood content of heart?
Is content of heart content of blood?
Who and what are we?

Is it my greed? Is it my greed that propels me to behave like this? How do I learn to share?

Is it my fear? Is it my fear that propels me to behave like this? How do I learn to not be afraid of the unknown? Is it my hate? Is it my hate that propels me to behave like this? How do I learn to truly love; loving that which I do not fully understand? Is it my insatiable hunger for power to fill the gaping hole I feel in my soul that propels me to behave like this? How do I achieve inner strength? How do I achieve inner peace?

I am not at peace. I am not at peace. Therefore I am not peaceful.

Blood and heart upon on the pavement
Upon the pavement of life, heart and blood
We are told that it is because of the slit or hang
or whatever forms of flesh reside between legs
We are told that it is because of the tongue in mouth
The culture of birth
The continent of ancestors
Whose blood is it?
Whose blood is it running crimson upon the pavement of life?

The harm that I have caused the global community. So much of me proliferates in structures, laws, policies, and attitudes. So much of me governs trade agreements, migration, policing, education, and social welfare. So much of me sews into the fabric of your every day; I am everywhere and in everything. I am everywhere and in everything.

As are you, womxn!

You, womxn, are everywhere and in everything. I have tried to erase you—believe me, I have tried, but it is impossible! You are everywhere and in everything, and now I must admit that change has come!

I know that you will not allow me to continue to ignore, shame, erase, demonize, abuse, traffic and enslave Black, Indigenous, trans, queer, disabled, poor, immigrant womxn. Womxn, womxn from the Global South, womxn from the Global North, womxn of the planet—I know that.

I know you will no longer be an accomplice to my project of annihilation, in the name of profit and progress. I know that.

And womxn,

Because you choose over and over again to resist, to insist, to create, to heal, and to love, because you do that, my children—the children of Patriarchy Misogyny, the children of colonial oppression, the children of violence. Because, womxn, you refuse, my children may indeed experience redemption.

The blood. The blood.
The blood belongs to us.
The blood. Our blood,
it waters the soil for our future. Our future.
The blood will be.
We will be.

“Is it my greed? Is it my greed that propels me to behave like this? How do I learn to share?

Is it my fear? Is it my fear that propels me to behave like this? How do I learn to not be afraid of the unknown?”

Writing as Patriarchy Misogyny, anitafrika reflects on how this character sees his domain under threat in the face of constant resistance. In an address to the Global Village, Patriarchy Misogyny muses on how his norms have been constructed and upheld, and the contested terrain on which they rest—testifying to the inspirational progress of feminist, queer and trans, and anti-racist movements.

d’bi.young anitafrika is an African-Jamaican-Tkarontonian, London-based dub poet, theatre

interventionist and decolonial scholar committed to embodying art that ritualizes acts of

transformation from violence inflicted upon the people and the planet. The multi-award-winning

Canadian Poet of Honour, author of twelve plays, seven albums, and four collections of poetry was recently recognized as a Global Leader in Theatre and Performance by Arts Council England. After receiving hxr Masters from the University of London, anitafrika was awarded a Dean's Scholarship by London South Bank University (LSBU) to conduct doctoral research in Black womxn’s theatre. In addition to being the Director of Curriculum Design and Pedagogy at the new Soulpepper Theatre Academy in Canada, anitafrika works at the UN's Global Initiatives Fellowship as Theatre Interventionist and lectures at LSBU. Shx continues to share hxr liberatory framework—the Anitafrika Method—with practitioners worldwide through hxr ongoing online residencies. Shx most recently worked as Director of Kaie Kellough’s Jah in the Ever-Expanding Song for Obsidian Theatre’s 21 Black Futures project and is currently completing Dubbin Theatre, an anthology of hxr plays written between 2000-2020. You can find hxr latest theatrical work in She Mama Wata— as an audio version that she wrote, directed and performed—featured in Soulpepper Theatre’s Around the World in 80 Plays.

ASL Interpretation