{"id":3429,"date":"2014-05-29T10:35:17","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T10:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.africlub.net\/awdf\/?p=3429"},"modified":"2015-08-17T15:05:49","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T15:05:49","slug":"in-memory-of-maya-angelou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awdf.org\/OldSite\/in-memory-of-maya-angelou\/","title":{"rendered":"In memory of Maya Angelou"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><span lang=\"en\">This article was originally written for <a href=\"http:\/\/thisisafrica.me\/memory-maya-angelou\/\" target=\"_blank\">This is Africa<\/a> by Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, AWDF&#8217;s Communications Specialist<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">The single most influential writer in my life has been Maya Angelou. In many ways she is the reason why I am who I am today. Reading her autobiography gave me the freedom to believe that I can be whoever I want to be, I can excel in any area of life that I choose to focus on, and I can do all that whilst having a good time. I remember clearly the first book of hers that I read, \u201cAll God\u2019s Children Need Travelling Shoes\u201d. I was living in London at the time and would regularly browse through the \u2018black books\u2019 section at bookstores looking for a book to grab my attention. On that particular day, her book grabbed my attention. I read the blurb and flipped through the pages. I was curious. I could see my country Ghana reflected. I bought the book and read it in a day. At the time, that was the 5<sup>th<\/sup> book in her series of autobiographies. I went back to the bookshop and bought every other book of Maya\u2019s. I became even more inspired. She was a visionary woman of many talents. A writer, poet, revolutionary, dancer, actress, chef, professor\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">Many things about Maya Angelou\u2019s life made an impression on me. I remember reading about her going to bars as a single woman, buying a drink and always making sure to leave a generous tip for the bartender. That\u2019s something that has stayed with me. Maya loved freely and passionately yet was not scared to walk away from a relationship that no longer met her needs. That\u2019s another lesson that has stayed with me. Maya was self-taught. Growing up in the racist South of America she didn\u2019t have the privileges that many of us take for granted, yet she didn\u2019t let any obstacle hold her back. I remember that ahead of one particular job interview she had, she went to the library and thoroughly researched the area she was seeking to work in, even though it was a field she had no prior knowledge of. That\u2019s a lesson that has always stayed with me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">One of my life goals was to meet Maya Angelou. I am saddened that I won\u2019t be able to do that here on Earth yet I am comforted by the fact that she lived a full life, and in the knowledge that she documented her stories for all of us to benefit from.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<figure id=\"attachment_3430\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3430\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.africlub.net\/awdf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Maya-Angelou-008.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3430\" src=\"http:\/\/www.africlub.net\/awdf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Maya-Angelou-008.jpg\" alt=\"Maya Angelou\" width=\"460\" height=\"276\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3430\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maya Angelou<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[318,319,320,321],"class_list":["post-3429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-loss","tag-maya-angelou","tag-memory","tag-nana-darkoa"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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