“It’s true. In Haiti, to a large degree more women were involved in the Revolution, in the war, in the fighting for the nation for the very simple reason that women had more opportunities. After a certain time, we became invisible. Once you’re in your 60’s, you are missing a few front teeth, in fact, some of the women used to take a stone and break up their front teeth so that they wouldn’t be noticed anymore. ‘That’s just an old lady with no front teeth. Okay, she goes about her business, nobody looks at her. She can do nothing.’And those were the fighters–the greatest fighters of our revolution.”

Professor Bayyinah Bello is a Afrodescendant Ourstorian, Educator, Writer and Humanitarian. With over 50 years of wisdom and extensive research, Professor Bello specializes in Ayitian Ourstory and linguistics.
She has taught in many parts of Africa, Ayiti, and America from the primary to the university level, including the State University of Haiti. She is the founder of Fondation Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité Bonheur Dessalines, popularly known as FONDASYON FELICITEE (FF), named after the Empress consort of Ayiti and wife of the revolutionary leader and founder of Ayiti (Hayti, Empire of Freedom), Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Emperor 1st of Hayti. As an author she publishes in Ayitian, English and French. Her latest work, Sheroes of the Haitian Revolution, highlights the lives of ten women in the Ayitian Ourstory who played a significant role in the nation’s journey to freedom. Professor Bello is based in Ayiti and serves as advisor to key eldership councils.
· www.marugekundi.org/SHEROES
· www.oneplanetpodcast.org
· www.creativeprocess.info

Song credit: Jean Amédé Caze