What really is a true black/African woman's look? Today's article is just an introduction to what is on the way. We are going to start looking at those things, those parts of our culture we have lost and/or about losing.

Something happened to me, I won't talk about it today, but as you go on with me, you will get to understand why I have decided to make myself available as an agent of change to Nigerian women. I recently found out that though we claim to have very high self esteem, we indirectly and unconsciously hate ourselves as African women.

Black women are blessed with so many lovely things, but only a few of us appreciate what we've got. I think other Africans appreciate our look better than Nigerians. We want to become everything we are not created to be. We were created to have our big, rounded butts and hips. We were designed by God to have very thick kissable lips. We were not created to be sizes 4 and 6, but that is what we have gradually accepted as good. These are suppose to be our unique features, but instead of us appreciating what we are, we spend so much in time and resources to look like the white lady next door simply because they have used the media and people in beauty and fashion industries to destroy whatever is left of us after slavery.

Models have been turned to dry sticks because they are made to believe they must be size 0 if they want good jobs. So many of them have ended up with terminal illness due to the numerous drugs and unhealthy habits they engage in. Some African models that were naturally dark now bleach and damage their skin simply because they want to be like their white counterparts. What a shame!

I recently told a friend who appeared to be scared of chewing bones to pass it to me. I reminded this friend that I am an African woman who grew up chewing bones, that is why I am strong, fit, and healthy and I am not ready to stop it just because a fellow human being is trying to play God to me.

Go to our schools, there is nothing like the African culture any longer. Children are taught to do everything, but definitely not anything African. I keep wondering why we should be using cutleries for our bowl of pounded yam and egusi or white soup. Our culture said it should be eaten with our bare hands if we must enjoy it. Why are we trying to be more western than the white men?

I appreciate Asians. They have very developed cities and have people of different cultures embracing their dishes. It is not because we want to embrace them, but because they love their culture and flaunt it wherever they are. We find ourselves learning to eat with their chopsticks because they made us love it.

Nigerian women have virtually stopped speaking their native languages all in their effort to become what they are not. No amount of English, no amount of cosmetic surgery can change you from being an African woman. Our very dear Michael Jackson was pushed into it by all those haters of blacks and racists. We all know how he ended it all. Such a great icon, a talented singer and dancer, died like a dog. He died out of frustration because after all he did to be like them, he was still made to remember he is nothing but a black monkey.

I keep wondering why we want to be like a people who have no regard for us. People who came to take our fathers from the so called Dark Continent as slaves and treated them as dogs. Before you go on embracing their culture, I want you to take a trip to The Marina Resort in Calabar.There you will understand better. I couldn't help crying the day I found myself in that very building.

Slave trade has been abolished years back, but it is still indirectly in existence. Our minds and thoughts are still in slavery. It really pains my heart when I see women who should be models in the society turning out to become worse than the men. Our women wear tattoos more than the men. They do everything artificial more than the men. The male musicians come up with different styles, but you hardly see our men emulate them. But the women learn to leave their buttons open, dress in transparent clothes and do all sorts just to be like Shakira and Mariah Carey.Women, there is nothing stylish in losing your very own language for English.

I am sure the whites will ever be grateful for a nation like Nigeria. They don't respect us, they don't like us, and they see us as second class citizens of the world who should be living on trees. Yet we are their major source of wealth. Their banks are doing well because women assist their boyfriends and husbands in money laundering. What a shame! Nigerians wear their best designs and spend so much on holidays in their countries, yet that hasn't made them to accept us.

I am happy that so many young men are beginning to come back to their senses. I have some of them as friends who have at one time or the other said they will never get married to any girl without some good amount of flesh on their body. I am not talking about you getting fat, but you need to have that African physique. Enough of the constant wearing of jeans and designer suits, let us return to our culture and flaunt our local fabrics. I am waiting for that time when our bankers will go to work dressed in our African fabrics (Nigerian designers will love this).

Look at the rate of development in China. The people we run to are daily running to them for help. This is because they looked around them and instead of them feeling sorry for themselves, they decided to make good use of whatever nature has blessed them with. They did not spend their time trying to learn English and French. They spent their time thinking of which way to go to become better than them. The whole world now run to China and Japan, not because they have the best models, not because they are too tall and speak the Queens English. The whole world is looking up to China today because they developed themselves and what they have.

I just want you to think about this. We have no pride in our culture. We hate our looks as Africans and strive so much to become what we were not created to be. This past Christmas holiday opened my eyes to a lot of things. I took my time to study and read a lot about African women. Hear this African woman; we have not celebrated ourselves enough. Others will never celebrate us until we start being grateful for what we are, flaunting all we've been blessed with and getting the media to promote our beauty and cultural inheritance.