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<\/p>\nUber Marketing Executive, Bozoma Saint John, has come and left us with all her awesomeness.<\/p>\n
Prior to this trip, she became known to many as that \u201ccool\u201d Ghanaian woman making a name for herself in \u201cObimanso.\u201d You may remember her as that Apple marketing executive who launched Ghanaian hiplife artist, Atom and his hit single, \u201cY3 Wo Krom\u201d on an international platform. She made headlines since then and won many first-time admirers like myself.<\/p>\n
She is an iconic black woman of Ghanaian descent, and was in town a few weeks ago with her daughter for the holidays. As a diehard fan of hers, I took a front row seat on her instagram updates: shopping, partying, relaxing, and just simply flexing all that good dose of #BlackGirlMagic.<\/p>\n
She is a refreshingly, inspiring and pretty unpredictable too. I am therefore not too surprised her brief time in Ghana has touched many of us so far. I\u2019ve seen not less than three published articles or reviews about her interviews and scores of Facebook updates on her engagements \u2013 all positive of course.<\/p>\n
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But let\u2019s get real here; Bozoma Saint John is not your \u201cideal\u201d Ghanaian female mentor. Allow me use her to \u2018expose\u2019 our skewed appreciation of women in our society.<\/p>\n
1.Unmarried\/Widow\/Single Mum<\/strong><\/p>\n As young as Miss Saint John appears, she is a widow who lost her husband to cancer a couple of years ago. As influential as her 10-year old marriage was, it was the final moments with her dying husband that continues to shape her life after his demise. Without losing much focus here, let\u2019s examine what this would have meant for her in our context.<\/p>\n When I look at her, I see an awakened woman: a refreshed, rejuvenated middle-aged woman who is consciously living her life to the fullest without any apologies or validation from anyone. As an ardent follower of hers, I notice her social life plays a very huge role in her life. She is always on the move: Cocktail receptions, conferences, vacations, awards shows, touring, dancing, singing, jumping into pools in two-piece bikinis, splashing water on herself or her daughter, meeting some of the coolest people in the world and on and on! The list is endless!<\/p>\n Was she based in our part of the world; Miss Bozoma would have been branded a \u201cterrible and insensitive woman!\u201d This woman lost her husband and instead of her to give her husband a \u201cbefitting\u201d mourning period, for at least five years, cladding herself in black and sitting in ashes and begging for alms from benevolent onlookers, she is \u201coutchea\u201d almost bearing her \u201ctatas\u201d even, and owning her happiness.<\/p>\n No I\u2019m not exaggerating! Let me reference a very recent example with Major Mahama\u2019s death. People didn\u2019t take long in \u201caccusing\u201d his young widowed wife of being a \u201cwicked woman\u201d because she dared to smile in a few photographs during his funeral.<\/p>\n We have woven women\u2019s existence around that of men to an almost irredeemable point. Bozoma would not have been forgiven for \u201cmoving on so fast\u201d after her husband\u2019s death.<\/p>\n The irony of it all is when we push for widowers (men who lose their wives) to quickly find replacements because \u201cit is not good for a man to be alone.\u201d If there were kids left behind then it makes it even more valid.<\/p>\n When major Mahama died, everyone recognized immediately that she was going to need a lot of help with the three little boys. Our social conditioning immediately recognized the financial burden but not the physical void her husband\u2019s demise would cause. And as tragic as his death was, we would never forgive her for even \u201cthinking\u201d a replacement in the next 10 years.<\/p>\n The next few years for this young widow is going to be scrutinized and \u201cmonitored\u201d diligently that I cannot even begin to imagine it in words.<\/p>\n However, Bozoma has already challenged us to the same sense of \u201curgency\u201d her husband\u2019s death gave her. For her, it was the awakening to do things \u201cnow\u201d and not later.<\/p>\n 2.High level executive with an informal fashion sense.<\/strong><\/p>\n Second point of \u201cdisappointment\u201d or rather \u201cdisqualification\u201d of Bozoma from being a good mentor to young women will be her fashion sense. She is a top executive with a multibillion international brand. Yet, I\u2019ve seen her in some of the most daring and fashion-forward pieces ever! She has no limits! From shorts, to see-throughs, to bare-backs, to side-boobs, to hair that sweeps the floor to just about anything she\u2019s in the mood for!<\/p>\n To make matters worse, Bozoma has a very visible tattoo on her mid-chest area close to what Rihanna has in between her breasts.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s be honest, if Bozoma resided in Ghana and grew up in this environment, our dear seasoned and most righteous journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni would have written at least 5 of his world renowned open \u201clove letters\u201d to Bozoma Saint John, \u201cadvising\u201d her on her fashion sense.<\/p>\n And what\u2019s worse, our self-acclaimed male gender activist would receive resounding support from at least 95% of our social media population, eventually rendering the \u201clove letter\u201d an opportunity for our often times conservative hypocritical selves to slander and slaughter a grown woman whose achievements continue to marvel even your favorite mentor\u2019s favorite mentor.<\/p>\n No, I\u2019m not exaggerating here either! Let me reference another not so long ago example. It didn\u2019t take long for Gloria Akuffo, one of the phenomenal lawyers who represented Ghana in the Maritime case, to lose the admiration of a society that hailed her as a better \u201cfeminist\u201d and a worthy role model for young women in Ghana.<\/p>\n She was slandered, slaughtered and condemned for wearing an anklet in her line of work. Yes! That is how easy it is for accomplished women figures to \u201close\u201d respect in our society. That is how easy it is for a woman\u2019s years of achievements to be trivialized in one breath. This is all it takes: fashion sense and the audacity to \u201cchoose\u201d what makes you happy, fulfilled and motivated!<\/p>\n Somewhere along the line, a successful single woman like Bozoma would most likely earn at least one of these titles: Husband snatcher, Side chick, Prostitute, etc. Come on! Don\u2019t act like her success wouldn\u2019t be subject to \u201cinvestigations\u201d because her intellect alone cannot put her where she is. She has got to do \u201csomething else\u201d to make it to the top!<\/p>\n I constantly take these side steps to get us to reevaluate our gender narratives to reflect the needs and wants of the modern woman.<\/p>\n These things I\u2019ve pointed out easily disqualify Bozoma Saint John as a \u201cworthy\u201d mentor because I\u2019ve witnessed how we subject several other women of her kind to the same rhetoric.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve constantly defined and validated \u201cgood female mentors\u201d by their shyness, silence and conformity, almost making her kind an \u201canomaly\u201d in this society. We need to change that attitude of ours to make our environment conducive enough to \u201cbreed\u201d more of her kind on home grounds and not only outside on \u201cObimanso.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, we celebrate and \u201cclaim\u201d her as our own, but I ask you this moment, how prepared and open are you to nurture, support and make many more of her kind feel welcome right here?<\/p>\n Bozoma Saint John represents individuality, a woman wide awake and aware; a woman carving her own path wherever she finds herself. As a society, how willing and open are we, even to the mere thought of her kind? Uber Marketing Executive, Bozoma Saint John, has come and left us with all her awesomeness. Prior to this trip, she became known to many as that \u201ccool\u201d Ghanaian woman making a name for herself in \u201cObimanso.\u201d You may remember her as that Apple marketing executive who launched Ghanaian hiplife artist, Atom and his hit single, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":390725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,374],"tags":[16061,16062,3],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/4-3.jpg\")
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\nBy: Efe Plange\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
\nThe Writer is a Ghanaian blogger and social media enthusiast. She is a founding member of the Pepper Dem Ministries with keen interest in gender discussions. Connect with Efe Plange on social media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"