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Page 10 The Skanner Portland & Seattle March 23, 2022 News Madeleine Albright, First Female Secretary of State, Dies at 84 Born in Prague, Czechia, Albright stood just four feet and ten inches tall. But her legacy is as significant as any political figure. By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire M adeleine Al- bright, the first female secre- tary of state who counted as great friends to Colin Powell, the first Black secretary of state, and Condoleezza Rice, the first Black woman secretary of state, has died at 84. Albright’s first notable foray into the U.S. polit- ical scene came when President Jimmy Carter tapped her as his nation- al security counselor. Born in Prague, Cze- chia, Albright stood just four feet and ten inches tall. But her legacy is as significant as any politi- cal figure. Albright’s family es- cape the Nazis before ar- riving in America. Albright would make her mark in the political sphere by advising Sen. Walter Mondale, Gov. Michael Dukakis, and President Bill Clinton. Under Clinton, she be- came the nation’s United Nations representative and then secretary of state. She cherished her kinship with Rice and Powell, both of whom ac- knowledged seeking her out for advice when they were cast in the role of secretary of state. Following Powell’s death in 2021, Albright spoke of the bond be- tween the two respected servants. “He was truly an incom- parable man in every way and incredibly smart, dedicated to this coun- try,” Albright told NPR. “And turned out we were – got to be very, very good friends. And he was somebody that under- stood what our country needed and had served it with great honor.” Albright often spoke of her concerns about divi- sions in America, partic- ularly during the Donald Trump presidency. In 2021, she spoke of being bothered by indi- viduals who “know about where facts come from” but ignore them. “ We have been, I think in many re- spects, artificially divided to blame somebody else. “In a (2018) book that I wrote is ‘Fascism: A Warning,’ I went back, and I actually looked at how fascism began, which it did with Mus- solini,” Albright stated during a broadcast con- versation with Rice. “The best quote in the whole book comes from Mussolini, and he said, ‘if you pluck a chicken one feather at a time, nobody notices,’ and that is what I think is kind of happen- ing in the United States,” she stated. “The major thing Mus- solini did was to identi- fy with one group at the expense of another, who then became the scape- goats. That is what wor- ries me now. We have been, I think in many respects, artificially di- vided to blame somebody else. “I think we need to re- spect why people are coming from where they’re coming from and to make it a point to listen. And we’re not do- ing that enough. But the main issue now is, how are we getting our infor- mation?” Albright reportedly died surrounded by her family. Her three daugh- ters and grandchildren survive her. “As the first woman to serve as Amer- ica’s top diplomat, Made- leine Albright helped bring peace to the Bal- kans, paved the way for progress in some of the most unstable corners of the world, and was a champion for demo- cratic values. And as an immigrant herself, she brought a unique and important perspective to her trailblazing career,” former President Barack Obama stated. One of my favorite sto- ries: At a naturalization ceremony, an Ethiopian man came up to Made- leine and said, ‘Only in Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright speaks during the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, July 26, 2016. Albright has died of cancer, her family said Wednesday, March 23, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) America could a refugee from Africa meet the Secretary of State.’ She replied, ‘Only in Ameri- ca could a refugee from Central Europe become Religion Secretary of State.’ “It’s because of peo- ple like Madeleine that the story of America is, ultimately, one of hope – an upward journey. Michelle and I send our thoughts to the Albright family and everyone who knew and served with a truly remarkable wom- an.” cont’d from pg 9 world about women’s and men’s roles in churches. “Women, accord- ing to an old saying in the Black church, are the backbone of the church,” notes religion and gender scholar Ann Braude. “The double meaning of this saying is that while the churches would collapse with- out women, their place is in the back- ground,” behind male leaders. But there’s not much actual data, and with- out good data, it’s harder to make good decisions. At the center of the story My current re- search is illustrat- ing that women are the majority of the church nearly everywhere in the world, and that its future is poised to be shaped by African women, in par- ticular. Christianity continues its demographic shift to the global south. In 1900, 18% of the world’s Christians lived in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania, according to my research. Today “ If anyone tells you a church in Nigeria is majority male, he’s lying that figure is 67%, and by 2050, it is projected to be 77%. Africa is home to 27% of the world’s Chris- tians, the largest share in the world, and by 2050, that figure will likely be 39%. For comparison, the United States and Canada were home to just 11% of all Christians in the world in 2020 and will likely drop to 8% by 2050. Furthermore, the median age of Christians in sub-Saharan Africa is just 19. One of the most com- mon refrains about the church in Africa is that it is majority female. “The church in Africa has a feminine face and owes much of its tremendous growth to the agency of women,” writes Kenyan theologian Philomena Mwaura. Or as a Nigerian Angli- can bishop recently told me, “If anyone tells you a church in Nigeria is ma- jority male, he’s lying.” It’s clear that women have been a crucial part of Christianity’s seismic shift south. For example, consider Catholic sisters, who outnumber priests and religious brothers in Africa – and on every continent, in fact. Moth- ers’ Union, an Anglican nonprofit that aims to support marriages and families, has 30 branch- es in Africa, including at least 60,000 members in Nigeria alone. In Congo, women have advocated for peacebuilding, in- cluding through groups like the National Fed- eration of Protestant Women. Next door, in the Republic of the Con- go, Catholic sisters were at the forefront of pro- viding shelter, education and aid in postwar recov- ery efforts. Yet here, too, more pre- cise data about African women’s contributions and religious identities is lacking. And beyond quantitative data, Afri- can women’s narratives have often been ignored, to the detriment of pub- lic understanding. As Af- rican theologians Mercy Amba Oduyoye and Ra- chel Angogo Kanyoro have stated, “African women theologians have come to realize that as long as men and foreign researchers remain the authorities on culture, rituals, and religion, Af- rican women will con- tinue to be spoken of as if they were dead.” Far from dead, African women live at the center of the story – and will continue to do so as heal- ers, evangelists, moth- ers and the heartbeat of their churches.
