Trans 101 for Trans People →

tranwrecks:

A Trans 101 For Trans People

1. You are human. You are worthy of respect. You deserve to be treated with the same dignity as anyone else. There is nothing inherently wrong with your gender. You are not broken, you are not disgusting, you do not deserve to be hurt.
2. You’ve been brought up and live in a world that’s designed to erase and demonize your existence, you’ve probably internalized a lot of that- and that’s not your fault. But it can be hard to deal with. But you aren’t alone in dealing with it. And sometimes you have to buy into it to be able to handle it (trigger warning: transphobic violence). And that’s okay.
3. Your gender is no more or less than anyone else’s. Your history doesn’t make you “not really” or “less” your gender than someone with a cis history, it just makes you a person of your gender with a different history.
4. You do not deserve to be held to higher standards than cis people. You do not have to “prove” your gender by forcing yourself into societal roles that may not fit. You are not “failing” anyone by fitting into societal roles that are comfortable. It is not your job to break down the binary/patriarchy/or anything else. If you want to, go for it, but you have no obligation to do anything for cis people just because you are trans.
5. Being yourself does not hurt trans rights (so long as you aren’t trying to do so while stopping others from being who they are) and is not a reason why people don’t have to treat you with respect. There is nothing wrong with being a feminine man or masculine woman, or being a person who’s comfortable in their body, or being a person who doesn’t transition all the way, or being out about having a non-binary or genderqueer gender. You have not “failed” anyone by doing this, you are not “less” of your gender than someone else. Being who you are is not a valid argument for why people can’t treat you as who you truly are.
6. No one else has the right to say your body needs to be changed. It only does if you need to change it. Or if you want to change it, that’s valid, too. Your body does not make you “less” your gender. It doesn’t make you “not really” your gender. It doesn’t mean you’re trapped in someone else’s body. You do not have to fix your body to “become” your gender- you already are your gender. All you need to do is what you need to do to be comfortable in your body. And if that includes reclaiming your right to label your own body, you are allowed to do that.
7. You have just as much of a right to privacy as anyone else. You do not need to tell anyone about your body, your medical history, or anything else. Whether or not your body needs to be changed for you to be comfortable, you do not have to change it to deserve to be treated as who you are. You do not owe anyone intimate details about your personal life before you can be treated as who you are.
8. You have no obligation to educate anyone. This includes trans people, but is most important with cis people. You are not a walking encyclopedia of transgender and/or transsexual information, you are a person. You do not have to answer every question any cis person comes up with, you do not have to represent trans people as a whole, (see 7) you do not have to bare the most personal and vulnerable parts of your soul to other people on demand.
9. Not educating people does not “hurt” trans rights. NEVER let anyone try to guilt you into educating people or doing something you don’t want to do by insisting that doing otherwise will “destroy trans rights/acceptance/whatever”. Trying to force trans people to become walking information desks or to put themselves in dangerous situations regardless of whether or not you’re even up for dealing with this destroys trans rights and shows a great deal of intolerance. Asserting that you don’t have to tell anyone anything you don’t want to? That really doesn’t.
10. If you do want to educate people, you are allowed to set limits and boundaries. You are allowed to say that you won’t talk about certain issues, or that you will only talk about them on your terms. You are allowed to decide which people you will talk to about which issues. You are allowed to change these boundaries if you become uncomfortable educating people you were previously willing to educate. You are not obligated to educate anyone just because you educated someone else.
11. You deserve to take care of yourself- whatever that means. You deserve to be comfortable and safe. You deserve not to be in dangerous situations. If you can’t handle something alone, you deserve to ask for- and get- help or, if you can, take a break from it until you can handle it. Or just stop doing it all together, that’s okay. Taking care of yourself does not make you weak, it does not make you an attention-grabber or overdramatic, it does not make you “less” your gender, it does not mean you betray other trans people by not being a full-time (or even part-time) activist. You’re human, you have limits, and that’s okay.
12. You deserve to have your boundaries respected. Any boundaries- how and where people can touch you, what information you give to who and when, what places you feel comfortable going or who you feel comfortable going with, what people can tell others about you.
13. You deserve to have the words you are and aren’t comfortable being referred to as respected. You deserve to have the proper pronouns used (and, if there are times when it’s unsafe for that to happen, you deserve to have your safety maintained by those around you), you deserve to be called the proper name, you deserve to have the words you want used to describe your body used, you deserve not to be called by any label, pronoun, word, or name that you don’t want to be called.
14. If you’re asking for something that you need to feel respected, comfortable, and safe- you are not asking for too much. Your identity is not “too complicated”. Your needs are not less important than anyone elses’.
15. You are human. You are worthy of respect. You deserve to be treated with the same dignity as anyone else. There is nothing inherently wrong with your gender. You are not broken, you are not disgusting, you do not deserve to be hurt.

(via mtfbutches)

maymay:

“Repeat Rape: How do they get away with it?”, Part 1 of 2. (link to Part 2)

Sources:

1. College Men: Repeat Rape and Multiple Offending Among Undetected Rapists,Lisak and Miller, 2002 [PDF, 12 pages]
2. Navy Men: Lisak and Miller’s results were essentially duplicated in an even larger study (2,925 men): Reports of Rape Reperpetration by Newly Enlisted Male Navy Personnel, McWhorter, 2009 [PDF, 16 pages]

By dark-side-of-the-room, who writes:

These infogifs are provided RIGHTS-FREE for noncommercial purposes. Repost them anywhere. In fact, repost them EVERYWHERE. No need to credit. Link to the L&M study if possible.

Knowledge is a seed; sow it.

(via equalityandthecity)

The Choice Of Motherhood and Insidious Drug Store Signage

stoya:



I had the privilege of growing up with a second wave feminist/reformed hippy mother. Before I sprouted my first pubic hair she handed me a mirror and a flashlight and told me to get to know my vagina. I was raised to believe that my body was mine to share with whoever I chose, whether that was one man, a couple of women, or a whole bunch of people over the course of my life. My mom home schooled me for most of my childhood, and the parts of history that most excited her were the struggles for social change. When I was in 4th grade we drove down to Atlanta and took a tour of an old plantation. Afterwards we stood on the giant lawn and my mother’s bright green eyes turned an unsettling shade of yellow from emotional overstimulation as she educated me about the history of -isms in America and how important freedom and tolerance are. 

A year or so later we found this book, ‘The Movers and Shakers,’ in a used bookstore outside of Charlotte. It was about activists in the sixties. The black cover with orange and yellow writing made the contents seem urgent but the dust and used book smell made it seem old and historical, like something important had happened in the distant past. This book prompted my mother to share her own experiences of being a young adult in the early seventies. She’d fought for civil rights, she’d celebrated when Roe vs. Wade was decided in favor of reproductive rights, and she’d been the only woman working in the engineering department at a nuclear plant when she got pregnant with me. I was ten or eleven when I first heard these stories. I thought my mom was positively ancient and I had little contact with other kids or the outside world. I believed she’d helped make the world a better place a very long time ago and thought that everyone was accepting of everyone else now. I thought that all the battles for human rights had been won already and I imagined prejudice as a relic of the past; if it still existed it must have been decaying next to a gramophone or ice box in a junkyard somewhere. I saw the effects of the sexual revolution and the right to abortion as gifts that my mother’s generation had given mine.

The first time someone tried to shame me for sexual activities, I thought they were the cultural equivalent of the missing link. It took me years to really understand that there are at least as many anti-equality, anti-sex work, anti-homosexual, and anti-all sorts of other things people in the world as there are people who think like me. Sometimes I still forget. For instance, when I said in my first article for Vice that “I’ve been pretty successful at avoiding pregnancy.” I was surprised when people assumed that meant I’d never had an abortion. What I should have said was that given the amount of sex I’ve had (and without doing the actual math) three abortions seems statistically low. In the same way I feel entitled to have the kind of sex I want to have, purchase condoms, leave the kitchen, wear shoes, and put my body through attempts to find a hormonal birth control method that works for me, I feel entitled to have an abortion when necessary. They’re a last resort and I do try to avoid them, but an abortion is still a better option in my opinion than an unwanted child. All three of my abortions were medication induced. Taking RU-486 to end a pregnancy is more painful than my worst period but less painful than a burst ovarian cyst. 

Just like I prefer to avoid getting pregnant at all, I’d prefer to always catch unwanted pregnancies as early as possible and avoid the more invasive aspiration or dilation and evacuation procedures. I will take a pregnancy test if I don’t see my period for 29 days or if it’s suspiciously light. I’ve been on Loestrin 24Fe (a kind of hormonal birth control) since January 7th. I take my pill every single day between 7 and 9 am. I missed one of the placebo/iron supplement pills about a month ago and took a double dose the next day. I’ve heard that this pill occasionally causes women to stop menstruating entirely, but I haven’t seen anything resembling full-on menstruation for a suspiciously long time and I have actually taken pregnancy tests when I haven’t even touched a penis for months just to see the little minus sign or the “not pregnant” and be happy that there’s at least one thing that isn’t currently a problem if I’m having a bad week. So I went to the drugstore a couple of days ago and got a pregnancy test from the family planning aisle. 

The phrase family planning hanging on a sign above the pregnancy tests and condoms irritates me because it implies that everyone plans to have a family at some point. As the cashier was ringing me up another woman behind the counter asked me how my day was going. I told her that I was on birth control, pointed out that I was purchasing a pregnancy test and a bottle of Aleve, and said she probably didn’t want to hear the actual answer. She chuckled awkwardly and wandered off. I usually go for EPT or Clearblue, but this time I went with First Response. When I pulled out the test and instructions, a cardboard gizmo fell out. First Response has taken the presumption that everyone wants to have a baby one step further by including a congratulatory contraption that tracks one’s due date and has a helpful form on the back for “Moments & Milestones” including possible baby names, birth time, and weight. I’d hoped that the asterisk next to “A general guide for your enjoyment.” would lead to a footnote saying “You know, if you’re interested in having a baby.” but it was a disclaimer stating that only a physician can determine due dates. I grumbled while I waited three minutes for the results and seethed when both tests came up with error messages. 

Inferior products aside, the thing that makes me angry is the insidious suggestion that all women want children and the subtle shaming of people who exercise their reproductive rights. This is part of the reason women feel the need to say things like “I only had one abortion” or “a baby at that point would have ruined my college prospects.” I resent the way this sneaky societal pressure has wormed itself into my brain enough that I feel the need to explain my mild latex allergies and issues with hormonal birth control or follow the number of pregnancies I’ve terminated with a reminder of how many sexual acts I’ve engaged in when talking about my own abortions. I’m uncomfortable about the way that I’ve allowed these messages to undermine my belief in my rights enough to feel defensive about exercising them. Every time that a woman like Molly Crabapple or Chelsea G. Summers vocally stands behind their decision to abort, it’s a drop in the bucket that maintains balance against people like Todd Akin and Jack Dalrymple. It reminds me that the freedoms we do have are precarious and that a sizable chunk of America sees women, homosexuals, and anyone who is different than they are as lesser beings… and that sucks.

Why Education Matters

golden-zephyr:

My grandparents (on my father’s side) were completely illiterate. They could neither read nor write. I spent a lot of my childhood reading and writing for them.

My grandparents (on my mother’s side) could read a small amount and write enough to get by. They tended to avoid situations where reading or writing would be required.

My great aunts and uncles could not read or write.

Neither of my parents graduated from high school (my father left when he was about 12; my mother when she was 14). None of my aunts and uncles graduated high school.

They did manage to get basic jobs. My father entered the fire service at age 16 and was educated there. He could read and write well enough by the time I was born.

However, we had no books in our house except a set of old encyclopedia and several cook books, neither of which were ever opened. I was never read a bedtime story. No one ever helped me with my homework.

Consequently, I was going down the same path as the rest of my family. At age 10 I probably had a reading level of a six year old and was unable to write well. I failed everything (literally 20 or 30% on school tests, if that). By the time I was 14, I was somewhat better at reading and writing - but I still failed and had ZERO interest in school. I had no one to help me with my homework; no one to help me understand the words or what was required of me. So, I constantly failed to hand in work.

At some point I found the Hobbit and couldn’t believe such a story was possible. Around age 15 a great teacher came to my school, in English Literature, and she READ to us. She read the same way my family told stories. I suddenly got the point of words and why they were written down and why we should read them. She made me understand. I went from a 25% on my previous years exam to a 98%.

After high school (which I was one of the first to finish in my family, and the first woman) I tried university four separate times. I failed out each time. I had no conception of what it would take to complete it. There was no uni in my town and being away from my family at that time was unacceptable (we were close, we were a unit, I had a specific role and place - in uni I was just an anonymous random person with no role (except to attend class and write papers) and no support).

My family didn’t really support educating women. They, like many Romani families, believed that a woman should get married and have many children (my own grandmother had 8 children, only three of whom survived. My father was a twin - but his brother died within moments of birth). They did not want me to “become a non-Romani”, which they thought would happen if I was educated. They didn’t understand why I wanted a “non-Romani education” when I was receiving a Romani one just fine.

I didn’t want to get married (I didn’t like the boys chosen for me); I didn’t want to become a young mother; and I didn’t want to spend my life cleaning and looking after men.

I didn’t try university again until 2004, here in the US. I was already married. I already had a baby. I was desperate to learn. I didn’t tell my parents until I was already enrolled. They complained loudly. My dad told me outright that it was a waste of my time, that I was abusing my child by not being with him. My mother said I was being ridiculous, that I was too stupid, and that I had “no opinion worth listening to”. At the time I was very hurt, but I see now they were just regurgitating what their parents had instilled in them.

I graduated in 2011 (I took time off in the middle of my degree to be a foster mother and because I was sick) Magna cum Laude (with a GPA of 3.75 and University honours) and immediately entered my graduate program (which I admit I didn’t really think through). Although I still have work to do, I graduated on Saturday with a GPA of 3.95 in my MA program (though that could change with these last papers and exams I’m making up).

My son is already a million times ahead of me. He has read all of Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and is currently working on the Eragon books, with an eye on starting His Dark Materials trilogy next. He’s ten. I could barely write at his age and certainly could not have read with his voracity. It took me weeks to slog through the Hobbit. He read it in what seemed like a matter of days.

He wants to attend MIT and double major in Robotics and Medieval Weapons Design. He wants to also design full-immersion body suits for virtual reality worlds. He can do complex math, he plays violin REALLY well, and can write properly organized essays utilizing words I didn’t even have the slightest comprehension of when I was his age.

Education hasn’t just allowed me to become a stronger person, it’s allowed me to give my son things I never had - a love of books and math at such a young age, and a hunger for education and knowledge that I never had until I was much older.

I wanted to prove that I wouldn’t lose my Romanjia (Romanipen) by undertaking a non-Romani education. I’ve actually strengthened it during my years in college - relearning my dialect, taking on dikhlo again, and reaffirming my commitment to a žužo (cleanly) life.

Education has opened so many doors for me - not just employment opportunities, but even the ability to connect with other educated Roma (especially Romni like Petra, Ethel, Glenda, and others). It’s allowed me to understand the words written about us in academic journals, studies, books, and newspapers. It’s allowed me to understand the processes involved in addressing the racism and oppression we face. It’s allowed me to learn things that I never knew - like information about the Holocaust and Porrajmos; that we have a World Romani Congress; that we’re woefully underrepresented and excluded from history.

Mostly, it’s allowed me to walk on an (almost) equal footing with non-Romani and learn why and how they think what they do about us. It’s allowed me to understand things my grandparents and parents never did about the world we’re forced to live in. It’s allowed me to read the laws that confine us and understand them enough to protest them.

It’s given me a voice that speaks out; a body that stands up to be counted; and the ability to read and understand articles and other information, analyze and process them, and dispute or agree with their arguments in a way that can be understood by other people.

In short, it’s made me into an effective activist who can take an active part in education and direct action against the stereotypes and hatred that is poured onto us daily.

It’s allowed me to find a way out of the poverty and marginalization in which my family lived. Yes, my light skin is both a blessing and a curse. Without it I would have faced far more racism, though I have faced enough. I fully accept my privilege. I want to help those who are not so privileged and whose dark skin excludes them and sends them to special schools and to live behind barbed wire and walls.

My education means I can help others too. I am lucky enough to have a foot in both worlds and to understand the weight of that borderland life.

Education saved me and my family. When I walked across that stage on Saturday and received my hood and diploma, it meant so much more than a piece of paper with a qualification on it. It was the culmination of a lifetime of hard work; hard work with no support - in fact, directly against my parents wishes. It represents a first in my family. It represents triumph in a system that wants to and actively tries to exclude people like me.

Most of all, it represents the shattering of a personal stereotype.

I am not a stupid or uneducatable animal. I am just as intelligent as any other person. Being Romani doesn’t preclude intelligence.

But, now I’m dangerous.

No one likes an educated “Gypsy”….

Milk Junkies: Trans Women and Breastfeeding: A Personal Interview →

sadviolence:

anxiety—-cloak:

rememberwhenyoutried:

abellandapomegranate:

kiriamaya:

spaceykate:

I don’t think it’s any secret that I really want to be a mom someday (though it seems less and less possible as I ascend into my thirties *sigh*) and I’ve always been pretty adamant that if I had the good fortune to know my child as a baby, I would want to breastfeed them.

But there’s very very little information out there about trans women breastfeeding. As this woman’s unpleasant experience with La Leche League shows, it’s common for people to claim that only cis women can induce lactation based on nothing but the assumption that cis bodies are inherently superior.

(I also suspect a lot of trans women who’ve done it don’t like to talk about it in public because they don’t want to put up with the transmisogynist backlash.)

So articles like this are like gold to me, and I’m sure there’s other folks out there who need/want this information too! :)

Oh, this is great.

AWESOME.  It’s so good to see someone talking about this.

I had no idea.

Going to go somewhere quiet and be emotional now.

why did I just suddenly burst into tears?

We’re planning a baby and i want to breastfeed the little one and this is such important information!

Keep spreading it!

(via sansrevolution)

jemeryl:

guttercrow:

ashriface:

coveredinbeeees:

honeyspider:

Couture “Wild Roses” Corset from Royal Black

BRO.

TAG YOUR PORN.

FFS.

Ffffffffffffffffffffbeautiful

This is seriously the most beautiful piece of clothing I’ve ever seen

jeezus

o.o

Royal Black is one of my idols, for want of a better word. She’s doing now what i hope to be doing in 10 years time.

(via thetreesareenergy)

GUYSGUYSGUYSTHIS IS HUGE FOR ME PLEASE

ishaloveshardcore:

slowlydescending:

forgottenwinterfrost:

MY MOM SAID IF THIS GETS 500,000 NOTES SHE WILL FINALLY CALL ME “KHYLE” AND REFER TO ME AS HER SON PLEASE THIS IS A HUGE STEP FOR ME AND HER

we’re gonna get you your 500k notes. I swear. Idgaf if i have to reblog this 4000000x myself.  

^thats the fucking spirit!!!!!

(via changesneeded)

moniquill:

What if people told European history like they told Native American history?

sofriel:

The first immigrants to Europe arrived thousands of years ago from central Asia. Most pre-contact Europeans lived together in small villages. Because the continent was very crowded, their lives were ruled by strict hierarchies within the family and outside it to control resources. Europe was highly multi-ethnic, and most tribes were ruled by hereditary leaders who commanded the majority “commoners.” These groups were engaged in near constant warfare.

Pre-contact Europeans wore clothing made of natural materials such as animal skin and plant and animal-based textiles. Women wore long dresses and covered their hair, and men wore tunics and leggings. Both men and women liked to wear jewelry made from precious stones and metals as a sign of status. Before contact, Europeans had very poor diets. Most people were farmers and grew wheat and vegetables and raised cows and sheep to eat. They rarely washed themselves, and had many diseases because they often let their animals live with them. Religion infused every part of Europeans’ lives.

Europeans believed in one supreme deity, a father figure, who they believed was made of three parts, and they particularly worshiped the deity’s son. They claimed that their god had given humans domination over the earth. They built elaborate temples to him and performed ceremonies in which they ate crackers and drank wine and believed it was the body and blood of their god, who would provide them with entrance into a wondrous afterlife called heaven when they died. Many wars were fought over disagreements about the details of this religion, each group believing their interpretation was the right one that should be spread across the land.

Now imagine that is part of a textbook that has entire chapters on the Mississippian polities of the 1200s and a detailed account of the diplomatic situation of the southeastern provinces in the 1400s and 1500s, an enormous section that goes through the history of the rise of the Triple Alliance in Mexico and goes through the rule of each tlatoani and their policies, the heritage of Teotihuacan and its legacy in later Mesoamerican politics, elaborate descriptions of the trade routes that connected and drove various nations in North America. Long explanations of the rise of various religious movements such as the calumet ceremony and Midewiwin, and how they affected political agendas and artistic trends. Pages and pages and pages going through the past thousand years of American history century by century.

And these three paragraphs are the only mention of European history before the year 1500.

(via guerrillamamamedicine)

Princeton University psychologist Susan Fiske took brain scans of heterosexual men while they looked at sexualised images of women wearing bikinis. She found that the part of their brains that became activated was pre-motor - areas that usually light up when people anticipate using tools. The men were reacting to the images as if the women were objects they were going to act on. Particularly shocking was the discovery that the participants who scored highest on tests of hostile sexism were those most likely to deactivate the part of the brain that considers other people’s intentions (the medial prefrontal cortex) while looking at the pictures. These men were responding to images of the women as if they were non-human.

— The Equality Illusion (via lesilencieux)

(Source: thoughtfulcynic, via mermmaid)

seaoftinyflames:

diasporicroots:

Kimpa Vita (Dona Beatriz) (1684–1706) Saint of Kongo

• One of the first African women to fight against European dominance in Africa during the colonial period & expose the racism and misogyny in the Catholic church.
• The founder of the first black Christian movement in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• She fought all  forms of slavery, and tried to reconcile Christianity with African religions and beliefs, teaching people that black saints mingled with white saints in paradise. This was revolutionary, since Catholic priests in the area (Capuchins) taught that ONLY white saints could be found in heaven

• While still in her teens, she started a non-violent anti Colonial movement to liberate the Kingdom of Kongo and return it to its former glory.

• Led thousands of her people to rebuild and repopulate Mbanza Kongo, the capital of the once glorious unified Kingdom of Kongo.

• She was burned at the stake as a which for heresy.

Early Life

Kimpa Vita was born near Mount Kibangu in the Kingdom of Kongo soon after the death of King António I(1661–65), It is believed that she was connected to King António I who died at the battle of Mbwila (Ulanga) a battle orientated around the removal the Portuguese from his region. Following António I death was a time of internal strife, political unrest and civil war. As was the centuries old tradition with Kongolese nobles, she was baptised into the Roman Catholic church at birth.

She was shaped by two things:

1. African Spirituality & Christianity

As a child Kimpa Vita had ‘gifts’, she constantly saw visions and dreamt of playing with angels. Due to her innate spirituality, Kimpa Vita was trained as a (Shaman) Nganga marinda, a individual who consults the supernatural world to solve problems within the community. As could be expected, the European missionaries did not like the existence of the Nganga marinda nor did they like the fact that the Kongolese widely accepted them as legitimate (this despite two centuries of Catholicism).

1. Decline of the Kingdom of Kongo

The kingdom of Kongo (now a part of modern Angola and Congo), the wealthiest and most powerful state in the Atlantic region of Central Africa during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, began to dissolve in the seventeenth century under internal and external pressures. Portuguese military aggression emanating from the Angola colony to the south spurred the kingdom’s disintegration, notably at the battle of Mbwila in 1665 at which Portuguese troops killed the Kongo ruler Antonio I. The kingdom was plagued by devastating civil wars which fed the ravenous Atlantic slave trade. By the turn of the eighteenth century there was an immense political and cultural vacuum, the Kongo capital Mbanza Kongo (also known as São Salvador) had been abandoned and the kingdom had broken up into small territories ruled by warlords and members of the old Kongo nobility. Memories of Kongo’s past glory remained, however, and a series of popular movements developed out of the Kongo people’s desire to restore the kingdom to its former greatness.

Mission

With her training as a shaman and her identification as a Christian, Kimpa Vita began to be recognized as a prophetess. In 1704 at the age of 20 she had a near death experience when she appeared to die of a fever. When she had been resuscitated she believed that she now spoke with the voice of the patron saint of Kongo, and also incidentally the patron saint of Portugal, St. Anthony of Padua she believed Saint Anthony became incarnate in her body and so she became the physical manifestation of the saint, who addressed the kingdom’s problems through her.

Compelled by the Christian God to announce his word to restore the kingdom through adherence to a vision of Catholicism that was set firmly within Kongo history and geography. She also wanted to restore the former Kongo capital San Salvador.

She concerned herself with the restoration, spiritually and politically, of the Kongo Kingdom. Kimpa Vita’s religious ideology came as an answer to the prayers of many Kongolese people. In her message She combined traditional Kongolese beliefs with Catholicism. Creating her own her own Christian movement, known as Antonianism. She wanted a religious system that was set firmly within Kongo history and geography. From her visions she believed Kongo must reunite under a new king & Antonianism was a way of doing this. Much to the dismay of the Catholic Church, Kimpa Vita quickly attracted a large following of common people, as well as some nobility who flocked to the city, which Kimpa identified as the biblical Bethlehem.

Rejecting missionary domination over Christianity, she preached that;

• Kongo was the Holy Land described in the Bible

• The Kongolese capital, Mbanza Kongo (also known as Sao Salvador) was the real site of Bethlehem
.
• Jesus was born in Mbanza Kongo and baptized not at Nazareth but in the northern province of Nsundi.
• Jesus Christ and the other saints were black Africans
• Mary was a slave of a Kongo marquis.
• Heaven was for also for Africans
.
• The European church was not beneficial to Kongolese.

Kimpa Vita claimed all this had been divulged to her by God. She died every Friday and went to spend the weekend in heaven where she met God personally and discussed such topics as Kongo politics. Indeed, Kimpa Vita’s ideology may seem radical but not if you look at the history of Catholicism and Christianity in the Kingdom of Kongo and examine how the people learnt to adapt a foreign religion with their local traditions. They felt that the Christian missionaries were corrupt and unsympathetic to the spiritual needs of Kongolese Catholics.

The History Catholicism in Congo

The Kingdom of Kongo had been Catholic for two centuries by the time Kimpa Vita was born. In 1491 Nzinga a Nukwu, the king of Kongo at that time, was the first royal to be baptised. However, Nzinga a Nukwu ended up changing his mind and leaving his newly adopted religion after some years, it was his son Afonso I who surely established the church in Kongo and attempted to make the country a Catholic one. Afonso I went further by creating schools that taught European education and Christianity to the nobility. He also had members of the noble class sent to Portugal to further their education and worked with both educated Kongolese and Portuguese priests in his government.

This tradition continued with Afonso’s son, Henrique becoming the first bishop from sub-saharan Africa in 1518. Christianity grew further in the 16th century particularly under the reigns of Kings Alvaro I and Alvaro II who gave nobles titles such as Count, Duke and Marquis in the European manner. They also brought in relics such as bones of martyrs from Europe and established an embassy in Rome.

The Kongolese had formed their own brand of Christianity even before Kimpa Vita arrived. At a point in the kingdom’s history, the royalty wanted to create their own bishops and clergy which didn’t go well with the Pope and the Portuguese clergy. All attempts by foreign missionaries to purge local elements from the Kongolese Catholicism were met with resistance and ultimately failed (the same thing happened when the Dutch Calvinists tried to preach their faith).

The issue may have been that though the Kongolese believed they were worshiping an African God, they were not vocal about it. Missionaries taught the opposite of what Kimpa Vita (and most of the Kongolese population) believed, arguing that heaven was for whites only and that Jesus and all saints were white. Kimpa Vita vocally opposed such ideas and turned them upside down. She fought against the ‘Europeanization’ of Christianity and Kongo. .

However Kimpa Vita was not only trying to spread a purely African version of Christianity, at the same time she was also trying to bring an end to the civil wars that were weakening the Kingdom of Kongo. Kimpa Vita fought against slavery which was a thriving industry thanks to those numerous wars.

Death

Her involvement in politics that eventually led to her fall, when Pedro Constantinho da Silva, a general to the King Pedro IV & a rival to the throne, saw an ally with Kimpa Vita as a means to the throne. Kimpa was now seen as a enemy to King Pedro IV, because of her influence, her allies and her opposition against the Portuguese, Kimpa Vita was captured near her hometown, was tried under Kongo law as a witch and a heretic and burned at the stake for heresy in the temporary capital of Evululu on July 2, 1706 by forces loyal to Pedro IV under the watchful eyes of the European (Capuchin) missionaries. In 1710, the perpetrators sent a report of their “mission” to the pope, after having organized the persecution of her followers.

The Anthonian prophetic movement outlasted her death. Her followers continued to believe that she was still alive, and it was only when Pedro IV’s forces took São Salvador in 1709  that the political force of her movement was broken, and most of her former noble adherents renounced their beliefs and rejoined the church.

Conclusion

Kongo’s history is even more fascinating because while the people were staunch Catholics, they disliked the invading Portuguese who had brought the religion to them.

The importance of Kimpa Vita is that she was one of the earliest recorded African women who fought against European Imperialism in the colonial era. Her knowledge and understanding of Kongolese Spirituality, history, culture and Christianity allowed her to see her how European religion was being used manipulate Kongo.

She used this knowledge to try  to reconcile Christianity with African belief systems to unite & restore the Kingdom of Kongo.

Legacy

The Antonian movement, which Kimpa began, outlasted her. The Kongo king Pedro IV used it to unify and renew his kingdom. Her ideas remained among the peasants, appearing in various messianic cults until, two centuries later, it took new form in the preaching of Simon KIMBANGU.

It is thought that In 1739, some of her followers, sold as slaves in America, carried out the revolt well known as the “Stono rebellion” in South Carolina, and her teachings also may have inspired the action of former Kongo slaves, during the revolt which led to the independence of Haiti in 1804.

To those who know of her today Kimpa Vita is regarded as a prophetess and a symbol of non-violent resistance in Africa, inspiring many political and religious leaders in Congo and Angola.

The Importance & Interest Of Her Rehabilitation

The French people rehabilitated Jeanne d’ Arc (Joan of Arc) five centuries after her death. She then became “Sainte Jeanne d’ Arc”(Saint-Joan of Arc), in spite of the controversy around her life. Dona Beatrice Kimpa Vita was a victim of the religious intolerance and racism raging in her country and continent. Despite her accomplishments, Pope Paul VI rejected a request for her rehabilitation in 1966.

References:
R. S. Basi, The Black Hand of God, themarked; 2009,

Thornton, John Kelly. The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement, 1684–1706. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Online Sources:

“1706: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita, the Kongolese Saint Anthony” executedtoday.com, http://www.executedtoday.com/2009/07/02/1706-dona-beatriz-kimpa-vita-kongo/ (April 16 2012)

Brockman, C, N (1994) Kimpa Vita (Dona Beatrice) (African Biographical Dictionary) [Online] available from: http://www.dacb.org/stories/congo/kimpa_vita.html

EccentricYoruba (2011) “KIMPA VITA & THE KINGDOM OF KONGO” [Online] available from: http://eccentricyoruba.wordpress.com/2011/01/01/kimpa-vita-the-kingdom-of-kongo/

“kimbangu75” kimbangudiscoveries.com, http://kimbangudiscoveries.com/kimbangu75.html (April 16 2012)

“Kimpa Vita” Wikipedia.com, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimpa_Vita (April 16 2012)

“Kimpa Vita” Theblackhandofgod.com, http://www.theblackhandofgod.com/history.html (April 16 2012)

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