Sona’s been one of the most popular social media posts – with people expressing surprise and huge excitement, exclaiming: ‘Like, what, what? How is this possible?'”
The Queens in Code: Symbols of Women’s Power post includes a photograph of a woman from the Tonga community in southern Zambia.
She has her hands on a mealie grinder, a stone used to grind grain.
National Museums of World CulturesResearchers from the Women’s History Museum of Zambia discovered during a field trip that the grinding stone was more than just a kitchen tool.
It belonged only to the woman who used it – it was not passed down to her daughters. Instead, it was placed on her grave as a tombstone out of respect for the contribution the woman had made to the community’s food security.
“What might look like just a grinding stone is in fact a symbol of women’s power,” Yonga says.
The Women’s History Museum of Zambia was set up in 2016 to document and archive women’s histories and indigenous knowledge.
It is conducting research in communities and creating an online archive of items that have been taken out of Zambia.
“We’re trying to put together a jigsaw without even having all the pieces yet – we’re on a treasure hunt.”
A treasure hunt that has changed Yonga’s life – in a way that she hopes the Frame social media project will also do for other people.
“Having a sense of my community and understanding the context of who I am historically, politically, socially, emotionally – that has changed the way I interact in the world.”
Researchers from the Women’s History Museum of Zambia discovered during a field trip that the grinding stone was more than just a kitchen tool.
It belonged only to the woman who used it – it was not passed down to her daughters. Instead, it was placed on her grave as a tombstone out of respect for the contribution the woman had made to the community’s food security.