In retrospect, clearly, our innocence was meddled with. Colonizing our minds with lyrics and songs that normalized “blame the poor for their poverty.”

Narratives that are characteristic of the neoliberal free-market economic model that now dominates the world.

We lack in appreciation of the historical context of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, but there we were happily singing and enacting these lyrics:

“Slave, slave, slave, in America, working day, day and night, planting sugar, sugar and tea, when I was in America.

See my hand, it was broken, working day, day and night, planting sugar, sugar and tea, when I was in America.”

We sang while playing in our primary school playground in Uganda!

Aged six to thirteen years old, we belted out the lyrics without a care and with maximum ignorance.

A possible explanation as to why a ‘black African’ man, a Ugandan of my generation, used the “race and color caste system” to proffer this opinion in a post on X.

I was taken aback. Wait a minute, did he just:

• Characterize ‘black African’ women as less intelligent in comparison to our Asian and ‘white’ counterparts.
• Assert that, in terms of work ethic, ‘black African’ women cannot compete with our Asian and ‘white’ counter parts.

I did go on rant about it. Read more in “Misogyny directed against black African women is among that which I complain about.”

I wondered, is he aware of the caste system in South Asia?

Empirical studies, such as by Jidugu Kavya Harshitha, confirm an “interplay between language, caste and colourism.”

And that “colour acts as a means of degrading Dalits.”

Learn more in “Caste and Colorism: Analyzing Social Meanings of Skin Color in Dalit and Savarna Discourses.”

So, when he lumped Asian women together as a category, what was he thinking?

I am flummoxed when such lazy analysis is taken as a given.

That work ethic can be evaluated and graded by the color of one’s skin or by one’s ancestry and socialization is a ludicrous proposition.

I wonder if in determining “‘black African’ women cannot compete in terms of work ethic,” he factored in unpaid and undervalued crucial work that women do. And as well as the paid work they do that is under paid.

The situation of ‘black African’ women at the work place, to a great extent, still mirrors somewhat the conditions our enslaved ancestors endured.

Take for instance, maternity leave. Uganda and all East African countries, legally provide for only 12 weeks of maternity leave.

In comparison, European Union member states are legally obliged to grant mothers 23 weeks of maternity leave when they give birth.

The international standard prescribed by the International Labor Organisation for maternity leave is 14 weeks.

“There were few instances in which enslaved women were released from field work for extended periods during slavery. Even during the last week before childbirth, pregnant women on average picked three-quarters or more of the amount normal for women. In order to ensure the profitability of enslavement and to produce maximum “return on investment,” slaveholders generally supplied only the minimum food and shelter needed for survival, and forced their enslaved persons to work from sunrise to sunset.“

Extracts from “Historical Context: Facts about Slave Trade and Slavery,” by Steven Mintz, published in The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

According to the Platform For Labour Action, furthermore, in practice, women in Uganda do not always take maternity leave due to economic and social conditions that make it difficulty for them to do so.

Learn more in the working paper tilted: “Sixty working days of maternity leave: a reality for women in Uganda?”

Be that as it may, against all odds, ‘black African’ women are perhaps the most innovative, industrious and hardworking people that I know.

It amazes me how most navigate huge challenges everyday to provide for themselves and their respective households and with very little support from the state.

“The Transatlantic Slave Trade represents one of the most violent, traumatizing, and horrific eras in world history. Nearly two million people died during the barbaric Middle Passage across the ocean. The African continent was left destabilized and vulnerable to conquest and violence for centuries. The Americas became a place where race and color created a caste system defined by inequality and abuse.”  Equal Justice Initiative