Author Archives: SPIDER WOMAN

Stride To Turn The Tide

Thanks to those of you who have joined our Stride to Turn the Tide 2025 campaign in June – there are 10 of us already!  This is a much needed fundraising activity.  The Stephen Lewis Foundation (SLF) surveyed 98 African Community Based Organizations in February, all of whom have been devastated by this funding loss due to the effects of halting of US-funded work in 14 countries.

Most of us are busy with projects and activities on a daily basis and can easily help fundraise for the (SLF).  The beauty of ‘Stride’ is that we raise funds by asking our family and friends to donate for every 5km of activity you do – or even a smaller lump sum, such as $20, for your months’ activity.  We keep track on a weekly basis of the time we spend:  each hour of activity = 5 km.  Report the distance each Sunday evening or Monday morning to our Recorder.

If any of you would like to take the lead on our Stride team, or offer to be our weekly recorder of our time spent on our respective activities, please let me know at message@ujamaagrandmas.com – attn Stride.

Our team lead will provide information on how to sign up for Stride To Turn the Tide.

Many thanks
Jan Geggie, Lead for 2024

Southern Alberta Liaison – May Report

Not a lot to report. I’m a little late for election advocacy having been on vacation. Everyone at SLF is gearing up for the Africa trip. I’m sure all the participants will have an interesting and fun time.
Please save the date for Knit In Public day June 7. Stash, who sponsored the event last year, has not finalized the details yet. Last year it was lots of fun and a great way to advertise Ujamaa. We had knitting and crochet races for those who were interested. I will share more details as I get them.
I attended the Medicine Hat Grannies fabric and yarn sale which went very well. They raised 14,000+ dollars in 5 hours. All leftovers go to different charities and some are saved for next year. The Rotary club is continuing the event next year as the Grannies were finding it was too much lifting.
I also attended the Mountain Grannies chilli supper which was sold out and very successful. This annual event is full of fun and fellowship.
Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Ujamaa fabric and Yarn sale and enjoy the Spring,
Judy

Education Committee ~ May 2025 Report

Developing Families Together – Ethiopia

Developing Families Together (DFT) receives some of its funding from the Stephen Lewis Foundation and is dedicated to reducing poverty, preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS and enhancing the health, education and well-being of vulnerable populations in Ethiopia. The funded projects focus on gender equality, and women’s empowerment and community development which has resulted in significant and lasting impacts on the targeted populations. DFT has achieved significant milestones, positively impacting the lives of thousands of Ethiopians.

The result of the programs that SLF funds:

  • 620 orphan and vulnerable children received quality care
  • 450 grandmothers were supported with food, sanitary materials and income generation activities. Basic Business, Parenting, Sanitation and Hygiene skills trainings were provided for grandmothers.
  • 50 home-based caregivers were trained and then they provided palliative care for 500 people living with HIV/AIDS
  • 752 women living with HIV/AIDS, guardians of orphan children, grandmothers and young women most at risk to the HIV are economically self-reliant and leading better livelihoods

The Colour Bar

BOOK CLUB March 2025 Selection


The Color Bar by Susan Williams tells the fascinating story of Seretse Khama, born into a royal family in what was then Bechuanaland, a British protectorate. He attended university in the UK and fell in love with and married a British woman, but when the time came for them to return to Africa, the South African government pressured the British government to prevent him from returning to his home. It was only several years later that the couple were allowed to return. Khama eventually became Prime Minister and later President of what became the independent country of Botswana. 

Ghost Season

BOOK CLUB February 2025 Selection

Ghost Season by Fatin Abbas from Sudan, is a sweeping history of the breakup of Sudan and takes you to Saraaya, a fictional town rich with crude oil, located at the border of Sudan and South Sudan.

Abbas was born in Khartoum where she experienced the upheaval of the 1989 coup that forced her family to move to New York City. But, her ties to Sudan remained strong, and she drew from these experiences, particularly her time in the town of Abyei, in crafting the world of Saraaya, a place of quiet mystery and tension. into the lives of  five strangers in an NGO compound on the border between Sudan and South Sudan.

This novel  is a “gripping, vivid debut that announces Abbas as a powerful new voice in fiction”.

My Mother ‘s Back: A Journey from Kenya to Canada

BOOK CLUB January 2025 Selection

From My Mother’s Back: A Journey from Kenya to Canada by Djoki Wane is a memoir.
The author shares her journey from a Catholic girls’ boarding school in rural Kenya to standing in front of a lectern at the University of Toronto.  Along the way she reflects on the heritage that was taken from her as a child and the strengths and teachings of the family, particularly her mother,  that pulled her through and helped her to not only succeed as a scholar, but to reclaim her culture, her history and even her name.

The History of a Difficult Child

BOOK CLUB November 2024 Selection

The History of a Difficult Child by Mihret Sibhat is a novel about a young girl growing up during turbulent times in a small town in Ethiopia in the 1980s. The narrator is ten years old by the end of the story and  according to one reviewer, is “a magnificent guide to this ancient and enduring culture.” (New York Review of Books).

 

Our club welcomes new members. We meet approximately every six weeks and generally alternate between fiction and non-fiction books written about Africa, primarily although not exclusively by African authors.

For more information or to join us, write tomessage@ujamaagrandmas.com and we will  get back to you.

Born a Crime: Stories of a South African Childhood

BOOK CLUB October 2024 Selection

Born a Crime: Stories of a South African Childhood, by Trevor Noah is a memoir of growing up as a mixed-race person in South Africa.

Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.This promises to be an enlightening read that is also very funny.

If you are interested in joining our book club, please contact message@ujamaagrandmas.com and we will get right back to you.

Quality of Mercy

BOOK CLUB August 2024 Selection
Quality of Mercy by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu is a mystery novel  in which a country’s first Black chief inspector investigates the disappearance of a powerful white man.
Quality of Mercy was designates as Best African Book of 2023, and is the conclusion to her multiple award-winning City of Kings trilogy.
We will return to a non-fiction selection in October. New members are always welcome. Contact us at message@ujamaagrandmas.com

Tea, Scones and Malaria

BOOK CLUB July  2024 Selection

This month our  book is Tea, Scones and Malaria by Katlynn Brooks.

This book is a phenomenal true account of one girl’s extraordinary upbringing in the rough and feral bushveld of 1950s and 60s Rhodesia. Moving from one makeshift camp to the next, the family follows Dad, a bridge builder for the government, deep into the heart of elephant and cheetah country.

“We ran barefoot in the bush, and swam in crocodile-infested rivers. We shared our camps with snakes, scorpions, and jerrymunglums. There was no electricity, no hospitals, and no schools in the bush. How I survived it all, I will never know.”

Hilarious, touching, raw, and deeply honest, this memoir records the journey from child to teenager to woman against the backdrop of a vanishing world, as Rhodesia begins its long and tumultuous transition into the independent country of Zimbabwe.

 This Child Will Be Great

BOOK CLUB April  2024 Selection

This month our  book is This Child Will Be Great, a memoir by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Sirleaf shares the story of her rise to power, including her early childhood; her experiences with abuse, imprisonment, and exile; and her fight for democracy and social justice. She reveals her determination to succeed in multiple worlds, from her studies in the United States to her work as an international bank executive, to campaigning in some of Liberia’s most desperate and war-torn villages and neighborhoods. It is the tale of an outspoken political and social reformer who fought the oppression of dictators and championed change. By telling her story, Sirleaf encourages women everywhere to pursue leadership roles at the highest levels of power, and gives us all hope that we can change the world.

Sirleaf became the first elected head of state of an African country (in this case, Liberia, in 2006) She  won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011.

Burger’s Daughter

BOOK CLUB March  2024 Selection

Burger’s Daughter by Nadine Gordimer (winner  of the Nobel Prize for Literature) was published in 1979. This novel is modelled after real people involved in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

This is the moving story of the unforgettable Rosa Burger, a young woman from South Africa cast in the mold of a revolutionary tradition. Rosa tries to uphold her heritage handed on by martyred parents while still carving out a sense of self. Although it is wholly of today, Burger’s Daughter can be compared to those 19th century Russian classics that make a certain time and place come alive, and yet stand as universal celebrations of the human spirit.

Most of our books to date have been written by contemporary young, black African authors and we thought it would be interesting to go back to this earlier period in history.

What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

BOOK CLUB January  2024 Selection


 What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi is a collection of short stories and is cleverly built around the idea of keys, literal and metaphorical. The key to a house, the key to a heart, the key to a secret—Oyeyemi’s keys not only unlock elements of her characters’ lives, they promise further labyrinths on the other side.
Oyeyemi’s tales span multiple times and landscapes as they tease boundaries between coexisting realities. Is a key a gate, a gift, or an invitation?

Things Fall Apart

BOOK CLUB September 2023 Selection

Things Fall Apart by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, was written in 1958 and is considered a classic in African literature and has inspired many African authors of today.
THINGS FALL APART tells two overlapping, intertwining stories, both of which center around Okonkwo, a “strong man” of an Ibo village in Nigeria.
The first  storiy traces Okonkwo’s fall from grace with the tribal world in which he lives, and in its classical purity of line and economical beauty it provides us with a powerful fable about the immemorial conflict between the individual and society.
The second story is as modern as the first is ancient, and elevates the book to a tragic plane,
 These twin dramas are perfectly harmonized, and they are modulated by an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul.

Toufah: The Woman who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement

BOOK CLUB July 2023 Selection
An incandescent and inspiring memoir from a courageous young woman who, after she was forced to flee to Canada from her home in The Gambia, became the first woman to publicly call the country’s dictator to account for sexual assault—launching an unprecedented protest movement in West Africa.
Join us to share this powerful story. Toufah: The Woman who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement by Toufah Jallow with Kim Pittaway.

I Am a Girl From Africa

BOOK CLUB June 2023 Selection

Eizabeth Nyamayaro is from Zimbabwe. At the age of 8, she nearly died of starvation during a famine. Her rescue by a United Nations aid worker inspired her with a dream to work for the UN. This memoir recounts her early life in a small village and her career working for a variety of causes at the UN, including HIV/AIDS, child marriage, domestic violence, and women’t rights. It is an inspirational read.

Glory

BOOK CLUB May 2023 Selection

Glory is a new book from NoViolet Bulawayo, the award-winning author of the Booker-prize finalist We Need New Names.
NoViolet Bulawayo’s bold new novel follows the fall of the Old Horse, the long-serving leader of a fictional country, and the drama that follows for a rumbustious nation of animals on the path to true liberation.

Powered By Love

BOOK CLUB April 2023 Selection

Powered by Love is  the book written for the Stephen Lewis Foundation by Joanna Henry and Ilana Landsberg-Lewis. Many of us have this book but we thought it would be interesting to read it from cover to cover (instead of using it as a reference) and talk about it together.

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

BOOK CLUB February 2023 Selection

On February 24, we will be discussing the novel “How Beautiful We Were” by Cameroonian-American author Imbolo Mbue.

This book is about a fictional African village that is suffering from pollution and environmental degradation caused by an American oil company, and how they decided to fight back. We have also read Mbue’s previous novel, Behold the Dreamers, and loved it.