Maya Angelou

You cannot even begin to try to understand the power of a woman who writes, a woman who puts pen to paper is an immortal woman in my eyes. And that is what she is. 
The gift of being able to let my soul bleed onto the lines of an inked pad that I am emancipated from the shackles that gripped my mother's mothers mothers. I can be grateful today that my face is not my only weapon and that my words are my shield not only against the oppression that continues to plague young women but also because it is important to feel and to articulate and to be proud of the fact that I; Palesa, ngwana Kgasane, Tswana princess, am one of the fortunate ones. Thank you for paving a most incredible legacy mama Maya Angelou. I respect you and look up to you in the most indescribable way. Let your words live on and your memory be infinite, especially to those who hide in dark basements, finding solace in nouns and pronouns that do not expect anything in return from their bodies. I hope I never forget to sing, to write, to speak, to dance to SPEAK as a woman of Africa, as a woman of the world because us, we, we women are strong, we are internally beautiful in our shades of brown and hues of caramel and bright eyes and battered souls. I am realising more and more that we are gifted for reasons be-known to us but we should use these gifts fearflessly and unselfishly to let the words that are aching to shine through our golden skins and let those words be the vessel that keeps us above the waters of the ever-changing tides of life.- Rest in peace.