You can call me Mama T anytime.

I mention my age because I find people in this country - women, not men, of course - women are so troubled by their age. There's a culture of youth, and it's a phony culture.

I'm more old-fashioned than a lot of women...I don't view abortion as just a nothing. It is stopping the process of life.

As a young woman, I attended Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, South Africa, which was then not segregated. But I witnessed the weight of Apartheid everywhere around me.

Water is necessary, and then generators, and then food, and then clothes.

My roots are African. The birds I remember, the fruits I ate, the trees I climbed, they're African.

My right to speak my mind, to have a voice, to be what some have called 'opinionated' is a right I deeply and profoundly cherish. My only hope is that, one day soon, women who have all earned the right to their opinions -- instead of being called 'opinionated' will be called smart and well-informed, just like men.

When you're threatened, or something hard hits you, acknowledge it, embrace it. Don't pretend that you didn't get hurt - hurt, cry, think about it. And then you let it go and try something else.

I hope it will come as no surprise that I have something to say.

There is a value in taking a stand whether or not anybody may be noticing it, and whether or not it is a risky thing to do.