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5/21/10

City Girl: Meet Rita

Today is the kickoff of my new series entitled "City Girl". From here and there I will feature women who personally inspire me and are doing great things. I am so honored to have the lovely Rita be the first "City Girl". We met two years ago in college. Rita was so kind to share with me her natural hair journey and about how she lost her father in the Rwandan genocide. Meet Rita... a.k.a. Ri Ri Fierce :)





Where are you from? Where were you born?


I am from Kigali, Rwanda and I was born in Uganda.


Can you tell us about the culture/city life of Kigali, Rwanda?


The culture of the Rwandan people is very much that of a collective society. There is no such thing as "I". This is very evident in the way in which we are raised. There is a saying that translates in english as "It takes a whole village to raise a child" and i think that this describes our culture very well. We are a polychronic culture. Time is not a factor in our everyday schedules which is something that i struggle with living in a monochronic culture. Rwanda is a really beautiful country (not being biased, it REALLY is) It is called the land of a thousand hills and that is very evident as soon as you step foot in Rwanda. Contrary to what they show in the media about Africa, Rwanda takes pride in cleanliness so the city of Kigali is very clean.


Were you affected by the genocide?

I was greatly impacted by the genocide. I lost a lot of relatives, but the greatest loss was that of my father. If it had not been for the genocide, my life wouldn't have been what it is today.


How do you enjoy the city of Chicago?

I love Chicago because of it's size. Even though it is very segregated, I appreciate the many cultures that are in the city. There are cultures that are very different from my own and I would never be exposed to them in Rwanda. Summer is my favorite time in Chicago. The different festivals make Chicago a totally different place than it is in the winter.


What made you go natural?

What made me go natural?' This is definitely the million dollar question! I went natural initially because I wanted to make a statement. Until I came to America, I always thought that my beauty was the "standard" beauty. My beauty being my hair and my skin color. People relaxed their hair simply because they wanted to, and not because straight, "flowy" hair is the accepted type of hair. "Going natural" is not the big deal it is here in the USA. So, after 10 loooong years, I decided that I have had enough of being told that what my father created me to look like was not good enough. I am beautiful the way I am, with my kinky hair. I don't need the media to tell me what beautiful is. Not only did i do it for myself, I did it for the little black girls and women who don't see the beauty in their natural hair.My hope is that when they see me embracing and rocking my natural hair, it can be an inspiration/empowerment/wake up call that God wanted it that way and he made NO MISTAKES!!!!



(Before going natural)


How did you come up with the concept of having Africa sketched in your head? (Fierceness)


After I cut my hair off I figured, since the statement has already been made, I might as well do it big and seal it with the continent. What more can be said after that?! NOTHING!

What are your plans for life/the future?

My plans as of RIGHT NOW, I am working on getting this young degree at North Park University in communication and a minor in conflict transformation. After that, I plan on putting my faith to work and trusting and being open to whatever my father has in store for me. Eventually, I would like to move back to Rwanda to give back and be part of the development of my mother land. I would loooove to make documentaries of stories of injustices around the world. The world is so broken and so little is done to restore that brokenness so i figure that educating and enlightening people will hopefully ignite a fire/passion for justice. This is my contribution to humanity.

Leave us with some words of wisdom:

Lets not forget that we are all keepers of our brothers and sisters. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best when he said "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

4 comments:

  1. Both of you are such inspiring young women, and I'm proud to know you! :)

    Nilwona

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  2. Beautiful piece! Truly inspirational! Africa...shaved...back,side of the head, beauty!>...Hottness Monster!

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  3. I don't really care for this, it looks tacky.

    ReplyDelete