"If I have been able to see further it is only because I stood on the shoulders of giants"- Newton
This section is dedicated to some of the wonderful women that inspire the Madame brand and continue to inspire all around the world. Some of these women have accomplished great things and have had significant recognition. Some were simply doing what came naturally to them as women,wives, mothers or being care-givers. They have our love,appreciation and respect.x
Madame CJ Walker STORY
Sarah Breedlove, born in 1867 to sharecroppers who had been slaves, worked herself in the cotton fields from early childhood. When she was orphaned at six years old, she went to live with her older sister Louvenia in Mississippi. Louvenia's husband was abusive to Sarah, who escaped the situation by marrying at fourteen. By the age of twenty, Sarah had been widowed, her husband Moses McWilliams killed, according to some speculation, in a lynching or race riot. Their daughter, Lelia, was two when her father was killed. Sarah moved to St. Louis where she found work as a washerwoman. Long and hard hours in that work helped Sarah put her daughter through school she was determined that her daughter would be more literate than she was. But working over hot tubs with harsh chemicals, and with the hair products of the time, caused Sarah to begin to lose her hair she experimented for years to find a treatment.
Sarah Breedlove McWilliams invented a secret formula for hair growth and began using it herself between 1900 and 1905. By 1905, she had begun preparing and selling the "Wonderful Hair Grower." She also adapted the hot comb of the day to have more widely-spaced teeth, to accommodate the coarser and heavier hair of African Americans. Sarah met Charles J. Walker, a publicist with newspaper experience, and he began advising her on how to better promote and advertise her hair care products. The two married, and she began using the name Madam C. J. Walker professionally. They divorced later on due to a lack of shared vision.
While Charles Walker stayed in Denver and promoted the hair care products, Madam Walker sold her products door-to-door there, and then began traveling to parts of the South and East to demonstrate and sell the products, finding a larger market. She moved from personally selling the products to demonstrating them to others she called Agents and training them in how to use and sell them. These agents often operated their own beauty care businesses, from which they sold the products and used the Walker system, and through encouraging these small entrepreneurships, it allowed the husbands to engage in careers or activism or take stands where they might have been fired from their jobs. Madam Walker's business continued to grow. Over 5,000 were employed. She did not just try to get rich herself; she gave money to organizations that would help or encourage black Americans. Walker saw her personal wealth not as an end in itself, but as a means to promote economic opportunities for others
Walker Schools offered meaningful employment and personal growth to thousands of black women. Madame Walker had an aggressive marketing strategy combined with relentless ambition. Madam Walker devoted herself to having lynching being made a federal crime and was a dedicated philanthropist of charities, arts and nurtured the entrepreneurial spirit. Her prescription for success was perseverance, hard work, faith in herself and in God. By 1917 she had the largest business in the United States owned by a black person. The Guinness Book of Records cites Walker as the first female who became a millionaire by her own achievements. Walker had a mansion called "Villa Lewaro" built in the wealthy New York suburb of Irvington on Hudson, New York, near the estates of John D. Rockefeller and Jay Gould.
It is given to few persons to transform a people in a generation. Yet this was done by the late Madam C. J. Walker, she made and deserved a fortune and gave much of it away generously. .
Madame CJ Walker QUOTES“I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations. I have built my own factory on my own ground"
“I got myself a start by giving myself a start.”
“There is no royal, flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it for if I have accomplished anything in life, it is because I have been willing to work hard”
“I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it! Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them”
“Now I realize that in the so-called higher walks of life, many were prone to look down upon "hair dressers" as they called us; they didn't have a very high opinion of our calling, so I had to go down and dignify this work”
NIGERWIVES ORG NIGERIA
These are a rare breed of women who have been known to sacrifice their own wants for the love of their husbands and children, often following them to the “ends of the earth” as certain people would say. I’m blessed enough to call myself the daughter of one of them, and in-fact a daughter/sister to the whole clan!
Nigerwives began in 1979 with a group of foreign wives married to Nigerians, in Lagos. Eventually branches started up in other parts of the country and then Nigerwives-Nigeria was born. Niger-wives became a legal entity with a constitution and its formal registration in 1987.
Its main aim is to work for the smooth integration of foreign wives of Nigerian citizens, resident in Nigeria, into Nigerian society. Nigerwives aim to offer a forum for exchange of views and experiences and give moral and practical support in time of need. Nigerwives is a multi-national, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural family with members from all five continents ranging in age from 21 to 88 years old.
When called upon they function as extended family members in Nigeria. They share joys and sorrows. Some Nigerwives are newcomers-others have lived in Nigeria more than 50 years. And not all Nigerwives are still married, some are widows, divorcees, and estranged spouses, too. They hail from diverse educational and economic backgrounds. They represent a myriad of occupations. Many Nigerwives, inspired by their new surroundings, unleash their untapped talents and launch a new career.
My own personal experience of these ladies and this organization goes from as far back as I can remember up till the age of 14. For me as a child the Nigerwives events were always something to look forward to, there was always an array of food from all over the world, different accents, different outfits even different shades of people! Being based in a land without my maternal family these folks were my substitute to that side of my mixed-race identity. Not only that the meetings were just plain FUN! Trips to Eleko Beach at the back of a big rattly lorry, Christmas parties in Mayflower School,Sagamu hosted by Mrs Sheila Tai-Solarin (who had her own zoo in her back garden, with a massive smelly python)!!! This was the stuff that made my childhood! But I also saw enterprising women who were in a challenging environment and used what they could to make the most of it by being creative and working hard. Often by hand, our mothers used to create their unique products and then sought-out networks and means to sell them, be it at Bazaars or shops such as Quintessence, Lagos. Many saw their small enterprises as simply a means to an end but it was always more than that to me, their fighting spirit in a foreign land was admirable, infectious and priceless!