by IRENE FOWLER, Contributor

Yesterday was International Women’s Day and this year’s theme is #EmbraceEquity.

“March is also Women’s History Month in Australia, the United States, and the United
Kingdom and is a time to celebrate and recognize the amazing contributions of women
throughout history…”  – Google

Ilhan Omar is a Somali-American woman born in the capital city, Mogadishu, in the horn of Africa. A place she called home for her first eleven years. The quintessential African character-forming values, which she would have imbibed from infancy and which will follow her to her grave include;  familial and communal cohesion, reverence for elders, open-hospitality, hard work and a zeal for self-improvement.

Central to Omar’s guiding philosophy would be reflections on Africa and images of the daily toil of its entrepreneurial and irrepressible populations. The unconquerable spirit which refuses to give up despite debilitating odds, would no doubt be a factor in propelling her to reach her personal and career goals.

Omar was raised in Baidoa, a city in a semi-arid region of Somalia, with a population of under 400,000. She would have been all too familiar with the myriad villages and hamlets, set on a sea of reddish-dark clay, surrounded by the untamed wilderness of Africa’s flora and fauna, and bathed in the yearlong splendour of the African sun.  Places which are more often than not, deemed abject, as they are bereft of vestiges of urban sophistication or chic, and lack most modern amenities or conveniences.

To read the rest of Irene’s tribute to Ilhan Omar,
and her poem“Women: More not Less” click:

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