2017-10-16
55 分钟My great grandmother, when she was born, she was born into this relay, holding this stick, which I call the baton.
This is the baton of poverty, the baton of oppression from a colonial system, the baton of illiteracy, the baton of early marriage.
And she's running with that baton.
She runs so fast, she hands it over to my grandmother.
My grandmother holds that baton of poverty, early marriage.
She runs so fast with that baton.
She hands it to my mother.
My mother grabs that baton, she runs with that baton, and she hands it over to me.
And I'm running with that baton, ready to hand it over to my own girls when this woman, this stranger comes to me, and I feel like she said, hold on.
You don't have to hand over this baton.
You can believe in your dreams.
It's difficult to describe how moving the conversation was with today's guest, Doctor Tererai Trent.
She grew up in a small village in what we now call Zimbabwe, at a time where women and girls were completely excluded from education, from participating in business and commerce, and somehow found the will to, to what she calls no longer accept the baton of illiteracy and oppression and committed herself to a series of dreams that by all accounts, so many people would have seen as impossible.
And there were moments, critical moments along the way that allowed her to rise up, to reclaim her ownership of education, and to eventually bring her entire family to the United States for her to pursue a college degree, a masters, and eventually a PhD, and then turn around and harness all of that for, in her words, the greater good.
And end up partnering, actually with Oprah Winfrey to build schools that now have educated thousands back in Zimbabwe.
Such a moving, stunning, empowering story.
She's also the author of a really beautiful new book called the Awakened, remembering and reigniting our sacred Dreams.
So excited to share this conversation with you.
I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is good life project.
It's so good to be spending some time with you this morning.