Every woman in every place
Every girl in every space
Every mother from every race
Should be heard and represented with authenticity and grace

Black woman, own your beauty and glory
Even if the world is too cowardly to reward it
Be authentic and unapologetically you
Let your confidence and bliss be contagious

So from the edge of the Fako Mountain
To the ledge of the Bambutus Mountain Chain
From the Lake Chad Basin
To the Mungo River

Women of our fatherland, emerge
For our women with vision
Taking action in one direction
With collaboration, will change our nation

See the power in here
Feel the glory in the air
Women everywhere
Your time to shine is here

We hope you are aware
That you are rare
And starting from here
We all will get there

Show up in every sphere
In all settings be there
Brightening up the atmosphere
And letting your voice be heard

So come on the buyam-sellams
The women teachers, the women lawyers and activists
Administrators, farmers
Soldiers and athletes, all women

From engineering and technology
To construction and industry
Entertainment, Entrepreneurship
Medicine and academia

You are the heroines that light up the dark
Leading with your courage
And dreaming with your heart
Who knows how far you’ll go

So assume your position
It’s time to take action
In building our nation
Welcome to the first ever National Women’s Convention

A mother holds the future of a nation
As she births and nurtures it, in her child
She teaches and coaches, advises then listens, endorses, opposes, encourages,
disciplines, praises and grooms her child

Into the leader that will lead us all into the future of our dreams.

Between her menses and the child birth that cracked her pelvis
From the classroom to the office
Whether running her home or defending a thesis
Woman always fixes, she nurtures, she raises she’s always at service

She leads her every circle with her wise voice
Cares for everyone else without an invoice
She continues to sacrifice with no thought of vice
And cares not whether anyone will notice or even be nice

And she does all of these even in the middle of a crisis

No one could ever imagine the pain a woman feels
Over the child she loses
Over the spouse she misses
As she cries in anguish over their corpses

Dear woman,
The senseless violence and killings have brought you unimaginable pain
Life has been drained out of your years of life,
Your heart has been broken beyond word, beyond thought

And a broken heart is like a broken rib,
No one else sees it
No one there feels it
But it hurts every time you breathe

Your heart has been shattered into pieces

Our mothers our sisters our aunties and spouses
Make us all one promise, one promise please
That you will all unite and rise,
Let the pain of one woman be the pain of all women

For no woman is free until all women are free

A wise woman once said
That life should not be about
Waiting for the storm to pass
But learning to dance in the rain

Sometimes the brightest lightening comes with the greatest storm
Study adversity; in it you may find the miracle
So turn you womb into wisdom and hang on through the rain
For you will surely the rainbow

It’s hard, it’s so hard
But please try; try turning your scars into beauty marks

See no regrets, see lessons
Within calamity see opportunity
Not the misery retained but the beauty that remains
Dear woman, let your hopes not your hurts shape your future

From the creation in Genesis
To the days of Moses and now the crises
Women have always cleaned up messes and led the masses
Your bravery and bliss have kept our homes and communities in one piece

So in spite of the injustices and your bruises
Refuse to stay broken
Pick up the broken pieces of yourself
And build peace, piece by piece

There is no enemy
We own our own remedy
We make up one body, we are one family
Soldiers in the same army

Enemy, a blind invention of humanity
Designed to distract us from harmony
Causing division, pain and misery
Obstructing the anatomy of our economy

But if we do have an enemy
He would be the idea that we are each other’s enemy
He will be the one who made us forget the true meaning of living
And obscure our perception of the truth of victory

I may be no artist with a grammy
Neither are we actors with an emmy
But as many as we can use our voices in agony
We’ll redefine our roles as family in this one body called humanity

There is more wisdom in the human body
Than in the deepest philosophy
Two hands work in synergy for balance
Two legs walk in synchronic alliance

One body, different organs
Each with its mission, unique slogan
Working together in unison
Each at its pace from its own place

We each wear different hats
But we are all in the same boat
Many hands, one mind
For none of us is as smart as all of us

Yet identity could be a prison
If defined by the tragedy of our history
And not the glory of our destiny
For an eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind

Just as our eyes need light
Our minds need enlightenment
Though the light at the end of the tunnel
Seems to be an unending train

So come to the Littoral and celebrate the Ngondo
Then move up to the Southwest and jubilate at the Mbando
Enjoy the climate of Fako
And on the football field let all be Ngando

So from the SAWAs of the coastal plains
To the BAYAs of the East
From the BETIs and the BAKAs in the South
To the TIKAs and the NGEMBAs of the grassland

We are beautiful
To each other, we are wonderful
Together we are powerful
And to God, we are grateful

What divides us is nothing
Compared to what unites us
So recognize and celebrate that which is common and that which is different
For where everyone is included, everyone wins

Woman you a seed carrying a tree
There is a need and you are the key
There a bigger you trapped inside of you
You must find yourself and set her free

It is never too late to be what you might have been
The past is dead; it only lives if you give it life
Rise above the limitations of culture
Do not be scared to start a new venture

It is not who you are that holds you back
It is who you think you are not
Have confidence in everything
For with confidence you win before you begin

Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will
So inhale courage and exhale doubt
Believe in yourself
For no one can make you feel inferior without your consent

If only you could see
That even in your loneliest hour
And in the darkness of your silent pain
The astonishing light you still radiate

For women as powerful as you cannot be contained
You are lioness

Every mountain is within reach if you just keep climbing
These women see the edge of tomorrow
That is why they face neither east nor west
They face forward

Together women will eliminate poverty and hunger
Provide good health and quality education
Fight for gender equality and equal representation
As well as clean water to every living human

They promote a world of clean energy
Of decent work and economic growth
Of flourishing industry innovation and infrastructure
As well as equality at all levels

For with sustainable cities and communities
With responsible production and consumption
As well the appropriate climate action
We will preserve life below water and on land

Women are taking the lead
For peace, justice and strong institutions
They have come together as one force
To heal our nation and world

So all across the nation
All around the world
Women are longing to be free,
No longer in the shadows

Or forced to stay behind
But side by side in true equality
Let it ring around the world and never ever cease
Equality, Development and Peace