 Aloha and welcome to At The Crossroads. I am your host, Keisha King, and you can find me at The Crossroads every Wednesday, live at 5. You can find us on Facebook at the Think Tech Hawaii channel, and you can find me at ThinkTechHawaii.com. And after the show, you can find me on YouTube at the ThinkTechHawaii channel and on the At The Crossroads playlist. You should like and subscribe there so you can catch me every week and watch it over and over and over again. I want to thank you all for being with me each week where we keep all of our shows real and relevant. We have conversations with some of the most amazing people throughout Hawaii and throughout the country, even abroad. Today is no exception to that. We have the wonderful privilege, honor, and just sheer joy of sharing with someone who's making a huge difference in Hawaii as we celebrate International Women's Month, National Women's Month. We have International Women's Day coming up this Friday, May 8, March 8, 2019, where women all over the world will celebrate just everything female-related, all of our accomplishments, where we are now, and where we hope to go. And today, our show is entitled Women in Power. Beyonce said it so well. Who runs the world? Girls. We're going to talk about all the women who've made significant, or as many women as we can fit in 30 minutes, who have made a significant difference. And today, we have a very powerful woman who is going to share with us. We have none other than civil rights attorney, Daphne E. Barbie Wooten. Hello, Daphne. Aloha to you. Aloha. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you for inviting and having me. It is totally my pleasure and it's my honor. I have to tell you, I am a little bit nervous because you are such a powerful fierce woman. Indeed, you are. And you look amazing. Oh, thank you. Just a little bit about what I'm wearing. I am curious. You chose white. White. Well, if you recall, first of all, this is a very historic time in the United States history. We have a record number of women in Congress and in the Senate. If you recall during the State of the Union address, many of them, Congresswomen and Senator females, wore white. And many people didn't know why. And so I'm going to tell you why. Please do. It's for the suffragists that fought for the right for women to vote. And that's in the 19th Amendment, which was only enacted in 1920. You know, that's not that long ago when you think about it. It'll be 100 years next year. Yes, in 2020. But it was actually 1919. It was ratified. And then Congress passed it in 1920. And so many of the women who fought for the women's right to vote were white. So women who were out there in the Congress and Senate wore white to commemorate the historic significance of women fighting for the right to vote and not only getting the right to vote but for voting and for actually becoming politicians and elected officials. And as we know, even Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Pelosi, I'm sorry, she is the first female Speaker of the House. Yes, it's in our lifetime. That's right. We are witnesses to history in the making, right? With her in that position. It is a great honor just as a woman and the work that she's doing. It's been phenomenal. It is very powerful. She's the third in line to the presidency. That's right. Think about it. This is really, really historic. So yeah, truly, truly. So women's suffrage is what amendment was that now? 19th amendment? Yes. Okay, so we're going to spend some time talking about that a little bit later on in the show. Okay. Right now, I want you to take us down to a deeper part of history. Let's talk about ancient history and some of our ancient queens. Yes, absolutely. We have to start with Mother Africa because all of human beings and all of life was in Africa. So one could say we are all Africans. That's right. Many want to deny it, but Lucy is in Ethiopia. Okay. Discovered in Ethiopia. And so we have pictures. Yes. I'd like to talk about some of the powerful women that we should know, begin to know and do know. And we'll know after you hear this show. The first one, I believe it's Queen Nzinga. We have a picture of her. There she is right there. All right. Queen Nzinga is from Angola. During her lifetime, the Portuguese decided to colonize the area which is now known as Angola. Queen Nzinga fought against the Portuguese colonization. The Portuguese were one of the first exporters of slave or slavery. And they chose Angola and they started to kidnap and steal Africans, bring them to the Caribbean, bring them to America, bring them as slaves. And Queen Nzinga said we need to stop this. Her brother, who was the king, was stolen and put into slavery by the Portuguese. And so after he got taken for slavery, he said, nope, we're going to round up. And she rounded up not just women but men and started to fight against the Portuguese. She killed many Portuguese who were there. She stopped many a person from being a slave. Unfortunately, eventually she was captured. But she's a heroine. We all should revere her name. We should look up more information about Queen Nzinga in Angola. There are statutes of Queen Nzinga in her honor. And so she's one of the people we're going to talk about today. The second is my personal favorite. If you can actually pick a favorite. This is Pharaoh Hatshepsut. Okay. Now, second picture. Yes. I didn't say Queen because she wasn't a queen. She was a Pharaoh. What does Pharaoh mean? The seat of power. The seat of power. They call it king in English vernacular. But it's actually Pharaoh, the seat of power. And she ruled Egypt in the 18th dynasty. Through her rule, it was a time of peace. Instead of embarking on war with neighbors such as Nubia, Sudan, what she did is she entered peace treaties and they went entered into trade with each other. So it was a time of prosperity in Egypt. Queen Hatshepsut also was a builder. And they say her lover was her main architect. And he would build these outstanding phenomenal temples. And if you go to Egypt today, you will go across the Nile to the Valley of the Kings, not Queens, Valley of the Kings. And you will see this amazing building in Hatshepsut's building. It has columns. It has architect. It's one of the world wonders of architectural wonders. It has statues of Hathor, the goddess of love, of beauty and art all over it. So it's made out of marble. And it's just an amazing, amazing building in honor of Pharaoh Hatshepsut. And they say they have not found her body yet in her tomb. Had they not found her tomb? Some people say, oh, well, it was hidden somewhere else. And some people say they discovered it. But there has been no definitive finding of her. But she was very well known. And you will see obelisks in the Temple of Amen Ra that she built. You will see they're made out of pink marble. And the statue that I showed you was made out of pink marble as well. And we got it from the Cairo Museum, took the picture in the Cairo Museum. I think this is so fascinating. But I'm a little bit disturbed because we're both highly educated women, especially you. All of this ancient history that I have learned about, I've never heard of these two women. And I think we go without, it goes without saying that a lot of this history is not taught in school. But I did learn a lot about the history of that time. And yet I still didn't know about these two women. Well, you know, actually, I went to, I was a lawyer at the time, and we went to Egypt. And that's how I found out more about Farah Hatshepsut. And I was like you, I was in shock. Why wasn't I taught this in college? Why was somebody taught this in high school? Yes. And so dig more deeply. And they know about Farah Hatshepsut in Egypt. I see. But in America, they don't. But there are some people, historians and historians that are doing books now about Farah Hatshepsut. And I think you mentioned a book that you're reading now that has something about her. I am. I am the book that I'm reading. And I want to say this to my book club followers. I try to read about a book in a half a week. And I want to say that this book that I'm currently reading where I did find out about her is called When Women Rule the World. I don't think it ever stopped. But it talks about six ancient queens. And so I don't have the author's name right now. But I will find it off camera. And I'll mention it again at the end of our show. But it's so amazing that you can. Education never has to stop. And so you can continue your education and move in the direction of continued learning. So continue teaching. And you should continue the education. You know, everybody's heard of Nefertiti. Right. She wasn't a queen. And she was. Nothing compared to Farah Hatshepsut. The real powerful women. And you can find them. But why don't they put them in the books in America? Who writes the books? Yeah. I mean, if I was writing the book, she'd be on the cover and she would be highlighted. So you do have to dig deeper to find books that celebrate you. Books that you can identify with. And not just regular books that hide and cover up the deep history of women of color. That's right. Okay. All right. Moving on. Let's look at picture number three. This one is really exciting to me. Yes, she is. She's a good one. And there she is. Yaya Shantewa. Yaya Shantewa, let me tell you about this fierce woman. Talk about power. She lived in the 1800s, late 1800s. She died in the early 1900s, right about the time that the 19th Amendment became enacted in America. She's from Ghana, the Gold Coast. She's a Shanti queen. Queen mother of the Ashantis. Here's what happens in the Shanti culture. There was a golden stool. Now this golden stool wasn't something you could just sit on and do whatever you wanted to do on this stool. It was a symbol of the royalty of the Ashantis. So it was passed from king to king to king. And the queen mother was the mother of the king who would designate who the next king would be. So it was a matrilineal society, even though the king was male. So Yaya Shanti, oh, let me tell you. The British came to conquer Ghana, much as the Portuguese came to conquer Angola. And they had, there had been several wars, the British wars with the Ashantis. And there's many stories about that. And in the late 1800s, a British major came to conquer Ghana again. And he decided he would take the golden stool. That's a no-no. That's the seat of power. And so he decided he would sit on it, which was extremely disrespectful. And Yaya Shanti, the queen mother said, no, you don't sit on this stool. And she ordered the people to hide the stool from the British. British became upset. They were going to kill all the Ashantis for not letting them have the golden stool. She said, you can't have it. And the king had been banished, to say shells, islands, and by the British who had captured him and sent him away. And Ashanti saw a set told the men who were there, if you don't go to war against these British, you don't take arms against them from taking our culture and taking our heritage away in our country, the women will. And she got, you got that picture with her, the muskets. Yes. Those are her, her ornaments. Look at that. Wow. She is armed and ready. Fears. And yep, armed and ready. And she said, come on women, women stood up, got their muskets, and they went to war with the British. After the women started the war with the British, killed quite a few of them, including the major, then the men joined in. She said, while you men are talking, we're not, we're not going to talk. It's time for us to go fight the battle. I love that. Yeah. Because she said, look, ladies, we can do this ourselves. Right. I love that. You know, you guys sit and talk all you want to. Right. I'm about the business. Right. She got down to business down to the nitty gritty. And she went and she fought. And it's called the war of the golden stool. You can read about it. There's actually a couple of movies. I can't remember where they are, but there's actually movies about it. And we went to Ghana. Oh, let me tell you what happened to her. She did start the war. The war of fierce battle ensued. Ghana eventually became independent, unfortunately, not until 1959 when Kwame Nakuma took over and it became an independent country. However, she started the battle to do away with the British colony, the British colonialists. They did capture her, unfortunately. And in the 19, early 1900s, they centered a seychelle and she died there. I see. But we went to Ghana. We had the privilege of going to Ghana. That sounds good. This is going to be good. We're going to come right back. All right. Okay. So we will be right back at the crossroads. Thank you so much for watching. This is good. Make sure you come back and finish watching. Aloha and Mabuhay. My name is Amy Ortega Anderson, inviting you to join us every Tuesday here on Pinoy Power, Hawaii with Think Tech, Hawaii. We come to your home at 12 noon every Tuesday. We invite you to listen, watch for our mission of empowerment. We aim to enrich, enlighten, educate, entertain, and we hope to empower. Again, Maramin, Salamatpo, Mabuhay, and Aloha. Aloha. I'm Yukari Kunisue, the host of Konnichiwa, Hawaii, Japanese talk show on Think Tech, Hawaii. Konnichiwa, Hawaii is all Japanese broadcast show and is streamed live on Think Tech at 2 p.m. every other Monday. Thank you so much for watching our show. We look forward to seeing you then. I'm Yukari Kunisue. Mahalo. Aloha and welcome back. I am your host Keisha King and you're watching at the crossroads. My guest today is a civil rights attorney, Daphne E. Barbie Wooten, and she is sharing with us about some great history. So we left off talking about Ghana and the trip. Oh, yes. We went to actually went to Ghana. We donated some books to the schools there in Ghana. And because we donated the books in the Ashanti region, we were actually able to meet the king of the Ashantis. We were able to meet his wife, the queen of the Ashantis. The king is an accountant. His wife is an attorney. Oh, wow. But we had a big feast and we got to see the palace of the Ashantis, which is in Kumasi, Ghana. And we also got to see the museum that housed the Golden Stool. The Golden Stool. We actually got to go into the museum. Of course, there are guards and there was the Golden Stool, which cause, which wasn't the cause of the war, but which was part of the reason why the war began. And amongst other other gold, a kutamant, golden spears and all sorts of things, golden hats and just sounds so rich, so regal. And yet they were just powerful people. Yeah, especially the women and they have a big stature statute, of course, honoring the Yaya Ashanti as they should as they should. But we can move on from Africa and because they're powerful women is not just in Africa, but in other parts of the world. And one of them is the Caribbean Jamaica, Jamaica. Excellent. Let's take us to Jamaica. We have a $500 bill from Jamaica right here. And I'm just so happy to show it. I'm happy to hold it. I'm happy to have it, but it's not mine. Tell us all about this. Yeah, you have to go to Jamaica to spend that. But the next picture is of Nanny of the Maroons. Nanny was taken from Africa. They don't know where it was Ghana, but they suspect it was Ghana because the language that is used up in the mountains in Nanny town are similar to the Ghanaian language. So anyways, she was sold into slavery, brought to Jamaica. And while she was in Jamaica, slavery didn't suit her well. She didn't care for it. So being from Ghana and a fierce woman warrior who she galvanized a lot of the other slaves and they decided to run away, what's called cinema maroon or maroons. And if you go to Jamaica now, you'll be able to go to Maroon County and Maroon country, which is usually up in the mountains. Nanny not only ran away, but would help other African Caribbean people who were enslaved to escape slavery, you know, by fighting and burning down the plantations and running up into the hills. The British got so upset they had bounty on her head. She established a community where she was called Grand Nanny. She is now one of the national heroines in Jamaica. Beautiful. I love it. So much like the stories we hear about Harriet Tubman, she helped herself and others and she fought. Yes, she did. I love the fierceness of these women. And I'm waiting for Harriet Tubman to be on our dollar bill because we don't have any women of color on our dollar bills in America. But hey, America, you can do it. I want to see Harriet Tubman. That's right. That's right. And I believe that, you know, our current president kind of pushed that back. It was supposed to happen with Andrew Jackson, right? Taking off and putting Jackson, of course, is a genocide maniac who killed lots of Native Americans. Genocide. But Harriet Tubman is not. She's a freedom fighter and she's a woman of color. That's right. Much like Nanny in Jamaica. Absolutely. All right, so who's next? Well, what I wanted to do is go into America right now, the United States of America, and talk about the United States government at this moment. We have a historic number of women in Congress and in the Senate. And I actually googled this to find out how many. Presently in 2019, we have 25 female senators, including one from Hawaii, Macy Harono. That's right. We have 127 women in Congress, including one from Hawaii, Tulsi Gabbard. So Hawaii is representing in terms of the female percentages, shall we say. I wouldn't say quote of a percentages because it's not a quota since women are 50% of America. So we should have 50% instead of these numbers. But in the future. That's right. We're plugging along. We are getting there. Yeah. And so a total of all is 127, which is 23% of the United States Senate. So that's that's getting there. That's right. And again, I think I mentioned that Senator Pelosi is the first US Speaker of the House, first female US Speaker of the House. And so that's good. And then I want to segue into Hawaii if I may. Yes, you may. And talk about some of the powerful women that existed and exist in our island, our state. First of all, Queen Lily Okalani ruled Hawaii. She did. And for many years and unfortunately she was overthrown by the United States military and the United States government. But we have to pay her respect because she was a powerful woman who ruled Hawaii. Yes. And then I'm going to segue off into some of the women who have served in political offices here. Okay. We've had four female mayors. Mary Joanne Yukimura from Kauai. Okay. Linda Lingo from Maui. Okay. Eileen Anderson from Honolulu. And then of course, my favorite is Helene Hale. And if you could show the next picture of Helene Hale. Yes, she is a grand lady. She is no longer with us, but she was the first woman after Queen Lily Okalani to rule a major area of Hawaii, which was the big island. She was the county executive, which is the mayor now. It's called the mayor. But at the time was county executive. And she's African-American. She was on Ebony Magazine in 1963 and they wrote right there. Yes. She was African-American. Absolutely. Look at my face. Are you serious? I didn't know that. Well, let me tell you guess who her uncle is. Who is her uncle? Ralph Bunch. Really? Yes. You and Ann Boy and Ralph. How? Historical figure. Ralph Bunch. That's her uncle. And so she came from the mainland with her husband and eventually ran for county executive and won. She was one of the people that started the Mary Monarch. She started the Mary Monarch with her uncle George Naopi because they wanted tourists to come to the big island. And now it's just bombastic with tourists during the Mary Monarch. She was quite a woman. After she no longer became mayor or county executive, she ran for state representative at the right age of 70. But she won. Yes. She won. And not only did she win, but she campaigned in the swimming suit in the swimming pool at Pohoa. Pohoa swimming pool. And so, you know, that caught a lot of people's attention in her brochure. Yeah. And she went on to serve with distinction in the legislature. We met her several times. And in fact, I have a picture of her giving her one of her last speeches. So yeah, we have that picture too. I think she was in her 80s at that time. And she soon left the office. She had a stroke in her late 80s and later passed on. But she was quite a figure and a go getter in Hawaii politics. And then we also have Donna Thompson, which I want to talk about. All right. For women's picture we have. Yeah. Women who represent Hawaii, one of them was Congresswoman Patsy May. She is well known for getting title nine passed, which says women athletes deserve the same amount of pay and funding as males. Well, it wasn't just Patsy May's idea. It was also Donna's Thompson. We have a picture of her, a statute of her, which is the only statute of African American in Hawaii at the Stan Sheriff auditorium. And that's her Donna's Thompson. She was an athlete herself, a track runner from Chicago, came over here and she started the volleyball. She started women's track. She put UH women's athletics on the map. She got expanded. She's a star. She was a star. And you know, the one of the first things I've been here four years, one of the first things I noticed is how important volleyball is in Hawaii. And I had no idea the history. Okay. They won all these national championships and Donna Thompson made sure that they were able to do that. Thank you, Ms. Thompson. Yes. So we have about two minutes left. So we only have one, two, three more pictures. All right. So let's take a look at those really quickly. Yes. We're going to close out. Yes. All right. This next is Senator Maisie Hirono. Of course, she represents Oahu and Hawaii, and she's the only female senator from this state right now before we had Colleen Hanabusa, who filled in for a caca for a moment. And she was also a congresswoman, but she's no longer in office at the moment. We also have, as I mentioned before, Tulsi Gabbard, who is a congresswoman. But Maisie is the senator, the female senator, and she's a very powerful voice in Washington, as we know. And she comes to a lot of events like the Martin Luther King event. She's very pro-civil rights. So I think. Wonderful. Yeah. And that's myself, believe it or not, with black hair. That was years ago. And that's Maisie Hirono with black hair years ago. And that's my friend, Sharon Yarbrough, who still looks the same. Amazing. She does. And in fact, Sharon has a show here. And it's Sister Power. We absolutely love that show. She is an amazing woman who does great work here in the community. And as we close, I want to mention, I want to thank you for being with us. It's my pleasure. I certainly hope to have you back again where you can share other great historical facts that maybe some of us don't know, don't get to hear about. So thank you so much. And I could just go on about your own accolades. You're so modest. You didn't mention that you're a writer and an author and a historian, not historian. Her historian. I could go on and on and on. So hopefully we'll come back and we can brag about you a little bit. Yeah. And I hope that all of you will do more research and find out all these wonderful women in history. That's right. Thank you again for watching. Before we go, I want to show you a special invitation from both Sharon Thomas Yarbrough and Sisters Empowering Hawaii and the Kesha King Organization Foundation. We are presenting a guided tour of the Shangri-La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture, and Design on Saturday, April 13, 2019 at 1.30 pm. The cost is $25 per person. And you can find out more information about this event by following me or Sisters Empowering Hawaii on our Facebook pages or Sharon Thomas Yarbrough's Facebook page, or you can contact us directly via any way that you have contact with us, including this flyer, which again is on Facebook. And I'm just so excited about this because it is a wonderful, timeless experience of elegance and whimsical treasures. And it's an opportunity for women to get together, to network and to embrace our power. So we hope to see you there. Now, registration does end. You can come back to me. Registration for this event does end this coming Sunday, March 10. So please contact us right away. We have very few seats left available because as soon as people heard about this, in fact, you'll be there. You've already registered. Yes, I have. But as soon as the women began to hear about this, they just signed on board right away. So I always want to thank you so much for your time and spending it with us right here at the Crossroads. And we'll see you next week, live at 5 on Wednesdays. Aloha. Aloha.