As fundamental as pursuing a nation building agenda is, our capacity to sustain our nation, once established will be limited if the collective health and well-being of its constituents is not maintained. To this end, the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement, alongside the Mariandina Health Foundation will be hosting an Health Seminar to address what is very much a live, current issue: Coronavirus – How to protect yourself. On March 20th at Mama Afika Kulcha Shap. The presentation will be led by Mariandina CEO Stephen Tamale Ssali. There will also be free Coronavirus Health Packs foe every attendee. For more information go to: https://www.alkebulan.org/health-seminar-coronavirus/.
Something not as headline grabbing, yet an irrefutable part of our lives is menopause. We expand on the mini feature on the previous show highlighting the Let’s Talk Menopause event that took place on March 8th, to take an in depth look at this, natural, yet still “taboo” part of life. (1)
One of the ways this taboo is said to manifest itself is the apparent lack of conversation about menopause between generations, ostensibly leaving many women to negotiate its effects in their own way. (2)
In his book Afrikan Holistic Health, Dr. Llaila O Afrika offers the following definition of menopause actually:
“Physically women’s sexuality has three phases: menstruation (hemorrhaging of uterus), birthing and menopause. Menopause is the apex of the sexual cycle. In this phase menstruation ceases and sexual reproduction has ended. While the body is making the transition from fertility to sterility, nutritional imbalances and mental imbalances occurred long before menopause. However, menopause requires energy in its transition (fertility to sterility) and drains this energy from the body. When the body does not have the energy it excites the already present nutritional and emotional deficiencies. This creates what is called hot flashes, insomnia, irritability, hormone imbalances and mental instability.” (3)
A continuous narrative for both Afrikan adults and children in the UK, as well as globally, is one of poor health outcomes. (4) There is limited research on menopause outcomes in the UK so we look to the USA where questions like “Is Menopause Worse for Black Women?” are resolutely answered in the affirmative (5):
“The 17-year study of 1,449 women across the U.S. found that while on average, the women endured the symptoms for about seven and a half years, Black and Hispanic women experience hot flashes for significantly longer than White or Asian women. The median was 10 years for African Americans, nearly nine years for Hispanics, six and a half years for White women, about five and a half years for Chinese and nearly five years for Japanese.” (6)
Further examination of the profile of the main sufferers also implicitly ensnares Afrikan women:
“The researchers did find that women who had persistent symptoms were less educated, had higher perceived stress and were more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety.” (7)
Not surprisingly, the health care industry’s response is more medication, replete with its attendant risks:
“There are ways to manage the symptoms including hormone replacement therapy. Hormone replacement therapy is medication containing female hormones to replace the ones the woman’s body no longer makes after menopause. This method can be a good choice for certain women, depending on their health risk. Women who consume estrogen pills are alleviated from hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause, she said. The down side is that hormone therapy has been linked to increased risk of breast cancer, stroke and heart disease for some women.” (8)
The likes of Llaila O. Afrika, as well as Queen Afua advocate an holistic health approach to alleviating the symptoms. As Queen Afua opines:
“We have the power to prevent or heal ourselves of these various toxic symptoms by eating live foods and fresh fruit and herb teas, by maintaining a clean colon, by exercising and meditating daily – and above all by heling or releasing all negative relationships and getting them out of our lives.” (9)
But this may not be as straightforward as it might seem. Sis. Lynette Sadler, whose personal journey led her in 2018 to publish a comprehensive guide, Change is Coming: A Holistic Approach to Managing the Symptoms of Menopause and Andropause, not only for women experiencing menopause but also men going through the male counterpart, andropause, shares her experience:
“Was my so-called healthy diet, not as healthy as I once thought? More research led me to the conclusion that my diet was likely to be the root of the symptoms that had been plaguing me for years and equally affecting the function of my hormones… Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) was an option I wanted to avoid primarily because of the side effects.” (10)
It’s also worth noting that it is not just what we put in our bodies but on them. For example, “harmful chemicals found in hair-care products marketed to black women,” resulted in “women of color [having] higher levels of chemicals that alter hormones in their body than any other demographic.” (11)
Llaila O. Afrika drills down of why menopause is such an issue for Afrikan women compared to other women, according to him, primarily in European dominated societies, suggesting that these issues begin up to several decades earlier:
“The common menopausal dis-ease symptoms are only common to poor diets and unwholisitic lifestyles. Menopausal dis-ease symptoms are unheard of in many colored cultures (African, Inca, Chinese, Aborigine, Eskimos, etc.), where a natural diet is maintained. A violation of the strict natural sex laws causes menopausal symptoms. Some of the natural laws broken during the woman’s reproductive (fertile) phase are having children outside the contemporary birthing phase (usually 18 to 28 years of age); having sex according to another culture’s rules (European) instead of following the wholistic African ritual and ceremonial rules; not breast feeding children (children are usually breast fed for 3 years which has a very positive wholistic effect on the woman’s body); having sexual relationships with men who do not practice correct emotional and behavioral responsibility during shared menstruation and births; and ignoring mating rhythms, using tampons, masturbating, etc… Aside from this, men can cause a woman’s menopause symptoms. Men who do not fulfill their emotional, physical and sexual cycles, and spiritual obligations can cause the woman to have an energy drain. This drain occurs because the woman is compensating for the missing wholistic man’s energy by replacing his missing energy with her own.” (12)
From Dr. Afrika’s perspective then, men can also impact on women’s menopausal symptoms, for good or ill, based on adherence to an holistic Afrikan-centred lifestyle. It should logically follow also that the same would be true for men with their equivalent process called andropause, even though most men appear to be oblivious to it. As Lynette Sadler observed:
“Andropause is a transition similar to menopause. This made me sit up and take notice. I was surprised to learn this fact as I had never heard of it mentioned by my male colleagues or members of my family. Most of you, no doubt, have heard jokes of men reaching midlife and ‘acting out’. But nowhere had I read that men also go through The Change and if left unchecked, it can lead to a host of health problems.” (13)
It seems clear that the scope and impact of menopause means that most of us will have to contend with it in one way or another, so it must be past due to start having serious conversations and break the taboo.
(1) Patricia Wharton (02/03/20) Interview on Afrika Speaks with Alkebu-Lan on Galaxy Radio, Should we commemorate the National Black People’s Day of Action? https://www.mixcloud.com/AfrikaSpeaks/should-we-commemorate-the-national-black-peoples-day-of-action-02032020/
(2) Ibid.
(3) Llaila O. Afrika (1998) Afrika Holistic Health: your guide to health and well-being. A & B Publishers Group. p. 40
(4) Public Health England (2017) Public Health Outcomes Framework: Health Equity Report Focus on ethnicity. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/733093/PHOF_Health_Equity_Report.pdf. p. 9-10, reports that Afrikan children are reported to have generally have poorer health outcomes, while the adults have the highest level of low satisfaction with life in spite of being significantly less likely to smoke and account for a lower percentage of alcohol-related hospital admissions.
(5) Tracee Cornforth (06/10/19) Is Menopause Worse for Black Women? https://www.verywellhealth.com/menopause-worse-for-african-american-women-3522485
(6) Elaina Johnson (24/02/15) Black Women Endure Menopause Longest. https://sacobserver.com/2015/02/black-women-endure-menopause-longest/
(7) Breanna Edwards (24/02/15) Study: Black Women Suffer Hot Flashes From Menopause Longer Than Anyone. https://www.theroot.com/study-black-women-suffer-hot-flashes-from-menopause-l-1790858844
(8) Johnson. Op. cit.
(9) Queen Afua (2000) Sacred Woman: A Guide To Healing The Feminine Body, Mind And Spirit. One World/The Ballantine Publishing Group. p. 71
(10) Lynette Sadler (2018) Change is Coming: A Holistic Approach to Managing the Symptoms of Menopause and Andropause. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Change-Coming-Holistic-Menopause-Andropause/dp/1912551462.
(11) Phylicia Ashley (15/10/19) Harmful chemicals found in hair-care products marketed to black women. https://www.wave3.com/2019/10/15/harmful-chemicals-found-hair-care-products-marketed-black-women/?fbclid=IwAR2FGG6xeH7NwOqzCu5DvKNRXPvCObcgpMPFWnMjwaSOQ8cx1ugldZeLwNU
(12) Afrika. Op. cit.
(13) Sadler. Op. cit.
We ask the question:
Why is the menopause still taboo?
1) Why do Afrikan women have “worse” menopause symptoms and for longer?
2) Is “healthy eating” enough to address the symptoms?
3) Can men alleviate (or aggravate) menopausal symptoms?
4) What role does culture play?
Our Special Guest:
Sis. Patricia Wharton: has spent over 30 years of her professional career, working with children and families to ensure that they are fully functioning caring and providing the emotional and social support that they need. She is a qualified Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA). Sis. Patricia is a freelance Parenting Practitioner offering Parenting Seminars workshops and courses, including running programmes in prison. She also offers talking sessions to young people at risk of Social Exclusions, Exclusion from school, self-harming depression, school refusers amongst other challenges. Sis. Patricia is the presenter for ‘The Let’s Talk Show’ Chalkhill Community Radio Station.
Sis. Lynette Sadler: is a Reflexologist, Natural Chef and Wellness coach. background is Youth Justice which spans many years. She has used her knowledge in Nutrition to assist parents in cooking healthy meals for their teenagers to manage hormonal imbalance. Sis Lynette also coach teenagers to aid them in making positive choices as they approach adulthood and also act as a mediator for families where relationships breakdown between parents and teens. She is the author of Change is Coming: A Holistic Approach to Managing the Symptoms of Menopause and Andropause.