On Saturday, the 2nd of March, 2013,
Sista Power, a
book by Bidemi Mark-Mordi on discovering the power of collaborations,
was presented to the public at the Coral Hall in Victoria Island,
Lagos. You can read details about the occasion from The Nation's
newspaper reportage of the event here:
http://thenationonlineng.net/new/arts/life-midweek-magazine/discovering-the-power-in-sista-power/
and Guardian newspapers:
http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=115469:forging-collaboration-among-women-in-sista-power&catid=74:arts&Itemid=683
About the Author: Bidemi Mark-Mordi.
I cannot write about
Sista Power,
without speaking about its author. I first met sista B, at a book
reading session organized by another sista, Bola Essien-Nelson about two
plus years ago, if I am not mistaken, at the Raddison Blu hotels on
Ozumba Mbadiwe road in Victoria Island, Lagos; from a distance, I
admired the passion with which she supported Bola. From where I sat, I
followed her on twitter, as most of us present at the venue were sending
out tweets of the event. I got an instant follow back, including a
direct message from Sis B, thanking me for following. I was impressed.
From that little interaction, the next time we saw, apart from Facebook
and Twitter interactions, was during an event she hosted at the NNPC
building in VI tagged,
ROTH, an acronym for,
Return of The Helper,
an annual international event in Lagos, a most empowering, and
spiritually enlightening event for women from all walks of life. The
rest, as they say, has been history, as sis B has proven to be a warm,
kind and approachable woman-definitely no airs of any sort around her as
what you see, is what you get. Her passion for women, and the issues
that assail women, is quite commendable, and as an entrepreneur, CEO of
Verbatim Communications and publisher of
Effectual Magazine,
she delves into very salient issues which affect women. The fact that
she is a certified John Maxwell coach, trainer and pioneer member of
the John Maxwell Founder's Circle coaching team, founding member and MD
of
Woman Act Now Global Nigeria, an organization
empowering women to effectively execute their dreams and use their
influence to impact family, community, and nation, stands her in good
stead to champion issues that affect women.
 |
| Bidemi Mark-Mordi |
When I first got my copy of
Sista Power,
I was pleasantly surprised at the design/print quality of the book,
which was published in Nigeria by Verbatim Communications Limited. The
quality of production, and the simplicity/authenticity I gleaned behind
the words, made reading the book a breeze. When Sis B first called me to
request that I come on her panel of discussants for the day, I was
excited, honored, and apprehensive, all at once, because the book was
on my wish list to read; I promised to read the book immediately and
once I started, which was mostly at night when the whole house was deep
in slumber, I was hooked. The Information in the book excited,
challenged, empowered, and enlightened me and I began to look forward to
sharing some of my strong lessons from the book. The event was time
well spent, as the additional insights I gleaned from everyone on the
panel, and other invitees, swelled up my information bank, no end.
Hence, I do not have any hesitation about recommending this book, not
just to the women, but for every man, who is looking for collaborations
for change on significant levels.
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| Review panel for Sista Power |
Snippets from Sista Power:
From
the beginning to the end of this 215-page book, there is a wealth of
information to be harvested about how we can jointly harness our
potentials to bring about much needed change in our society. Through out
the book from chapter one to eight- the last chapter, Bidemi espouses
and emphasizes the inherent power in joining forces to bring about the
change that we desire to see in our society. She explains the whats,
hows, whys, and hindrances to positive collaborations. She shows that
when women collaborate in positive, authentic ways, the home, work
places, and society will be positively affected.
Collaboration in the book, is defined as,
'an empowering connection aimed at ensuring that all parties involved win.'
In collaborating for change, all parties involved, bring something
different to the table, and this is one strong point I came away with,
in Sista Power. On page 186, the raison d'etre for this book stands out
for me, '
Sista Power is not a book about how women will take over,
instead it is how women can come together to resolve conflicts, tell
stories, birth hope and nurture change in our world.'
One
other thing that particularly gripped me in chapter one, is the emphasis
on the fact that as women, we have been called to be blessings not
just to our husbands but also to the extended family, and by extension,
the community as well. She accentuated a great fact that this generation
of mothers appear to have missed- the communal experience of child up
bringing. In the past, parents did not raise children in isolation, as a
child was seen as belonging to the community, and everyone looked out
for each others children. She points out that this was
'until we
started to erect fences.... Even as we erected those physical fences, we
unknowingly erected them in our hearts too....' She rightly
pointed out that when women concentrate on their own children alone,
and care nothing for the other woman's children, they tend to forget
that,
'they may end up in the same schools, work on the same jobs, or
may even end up falling in love with each other! When that happens, our
perceived enemies make it into our homes and we are taken by
surprise!'
...I
loved the analogy of the midwife, which Bidemi uses copiously,
throughout the book, to stress the need for one to be mentored, or
assisted through the process of birthing dreams/goals in life. These
midwives could be physically present and in close proximity, or could be in the form of
books authored by people whom one admires; for Bidemi, Joyce Meyers has
been one of such long distance midwives, including Coach Anna McCoy,
Founder, Woman Act Now, USA, who has become another sista collaborator
in the flesh. She teaches readers how to recognize their destiny
midwives by,
'what they bring into your life, and how it aligns with God's word for your life.'
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| Panel Chairman, Prof. Joe-Ezigbo, unveiling Sista Power |
She
asserts that, knowing what one's destiny is, makes the process of
recognizing who one's midwives are, much easier. She also points out that
in living our dreams and fulfilling our God-given destinies, we could also
become midwives to other people's dreams. Using the story of David and Jonathan
in the bible, she drives home a powerful point-that of ascertaining what
role we must play in the destiny of other people with whom we come in contact with; are we meant to be
midwives, or Pharaohs, in the sense of pursuing our own personal agendas to the detriment of another person's? This is an important point to
consider in a world of dog-eat-dog, where many trample on, and
trivialize the dreams/vision of others without a second thought. I
quickly learned one thing from this. In my interactions with others, I
need to ascertain what my role in their lives and vision should be, so
as to be able to act accordingly. This illustration of the midwife
gripped me particularly, because it dawned on me that any birth, which
does not have a midwife in attendance, would definitely run into crises
because no one can give birth unassisted. She went on to talk about
making the right connection with your collaborators by finding
like-minded people. She delineated the guidelines of: right value
system, passion, and belief, as key factors that would help one to
identify like-minded collaborators.
 |
| Audrey Joe-Ezigbo |
...for
collaborations to work, Bidemi emphasizes the need for collaborators to
be in agreement, and to be real. She had this to say,
'Any
collaborations that must work will need to be between real people; flesh
and blood people with human challenges and problems.' I nodded in agreement, when I read these lines,
'Look
around you today, and you will see a lot of counterfeiting. The cars
look bigger in the ads....Our print media replete with air brushed and
beautifully photo-shopped pictures...people are borrowing to continue to
live the life they only wish they had...the bigger your church building
the better, it seems, your church is...people come under so many layers
of facade that we cannot exactly say who they are anymore...she comes
to visit me in a borrowed car, wearing a borrowed dress, with a berry
without black, wearing gold plated jewellery with no gold in them,
speaking in a diction I know for sure she doesn't possess, to tell me
about her million dollar business she doesn't own and invite me to her
mansion she has not paid for....Let's not even talk about the false
hair, false lashes...this is the extent of our faking.'
 |
| Broda power? |
After
I finished reading Sista Power, I came away with a strong hunger to
unearth my like-minded collaborators, wherever they may be. There are
lots of salient lessons to learn from this simple, but powerful book. At
the end of the event, when the author's heart throb gave his vote of
thanks, I knew that I had to get several copies of this book for some
sista friends. Also, one blessed reader, stands a chance to win a free
copy on this blog. Simply answer this question:
In what ways are you
collaborating with people, or someone, to birth dreams/visions that would
affect the next person positively?
For details of where and how you can get copies of Sista Power, please visit Bidemi's blog:
http://bidemi70.blogspot.com/
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| Mr. Mark-Mordi giving the vote of thanks |
