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.