The night was opened by the lovely host, Lizzie, who is a namesake of mine in everyway.
She was rocking a gorgeous black dress with some cream detail – long black gloves, black stockings and some heels. She had really tried to stick to the theme tonight – “Old School”.
I had struggled to find something to wear, and ended up just throwing on a sweater I bought a few days ago, and rushed on to the event.
Temwa, the group marketing and sales manager for Sunbird Hotels and Resorts, shared having had a similar struggle when preparing for the event.
She was second to speak after Lizzie, just before introducing the guest speaker, Grace Malera. She briefly shared about the sunbird products, and the work they are doing to ensure their customers are satisfied.
What was most prominent to me was the make up on the women. It did not click to me at first, and I had been wondering why everyone’s make up skills had been particularly bad tonight.
It finally made sense when I realised that they were doing their make up as they did in “their time”. Straight line eyebrows, silver unblended eyeshadow, and a lot of bright red lipstick.
The guest speaker, Grace Malera had such an amazing speech prepared. I had at first not known how a speech at a party would have gone, but she was actually a pretty amazing speaker and set the tone perfectly for the night.
She spoke on sisterhood, and being each others keeper. She talked of how, often, we women treat each other as competition when there is no such thing.
She made a point of asking women to look out for fellow women, and hold the doors open for other women to enter, after we have fought to get in.
She also highlighted how women are timid, and that we should work on that. Having been on a few interviewing panels; she noted how guys walk in with all the confidence in the world; but girls will start apologizing from the door, as she put it.
She walked us down memory lane, of how creative we were as children – the confidence we had then, and questioned why we do not channel the same into our lives now.
Being an advocate, she asked the women in the room, how many had seen a will before. It was sad to note that less than 10% of the women raised their hands.
She spoke on ownership of property, and advanced that we women must try to be more aware of our financial investments.
She wrapped her speech up with a few words about GBV – physical, emotional, and sexual violence. Research shows that about 35% of women in Malawi have experienced some form of sexual violence. That is one in every three women. A very alarming statistic, and she urged us to look out for our fellow sisters.
We had dinner after that, and slowed the night down with some Linga wine.
RJ the DJ was on the deck, and she started rolling some lovely oldschool jams, and everybody took to the dancefloor.
A night about sisterly love, a night celebrating womanhood.
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