International Womxn’s Week ft. Yanaminah Thullah
I’m passionate about self-determination and community development for marginalized peoples, especially the black community. I’m heavily involved in social justice work on and off-campus and I’m currently the co-president of The Black Student Leaders Association. I hope to pursue a career in diplomacy, non-profit work, and international development in the motherland.
Over the past year, the pandemic has had a profound impact on our personal and professional lives. In order to overcome the chaos, agility has become a part of our collective DNA. How has your work been affected?
I feel like agility is a quality I’ve already possessed in my DNA due to the varying environments I have to adapt to as a Black woman. The pandemic definitely exacerbated the chaos that already existed in a lot of professional spaces (which unfortunately always feels personal). It’s hard to separate the two when the work you do or where you work is directly impacted by the intersectional factors of your identity. My work within the community has definitely increased as Blacktivism and Black trauma was put at the forefront summer of 2020. This required a lot of patience and capacity-building but also a lot of boundary setting.
The uncertainty brought about the pandemic has forced us to be nimble, resourceful and kind. Can you describe a new project, new process, new method or new business you’ve initiated or created to adapt to this new reality?
A new business I co-created with my family is called Yamaso and we launched in the summer of 2020. YAMASO is a black-owned brand that was born out of the responsibility and duty to give back to our community. We want to be a medium for clothing, spreading awareness, and elevating black businesses/ideas/voices/innovation in the diaspora and in the motherland. At the height of this pandemic, we began hand making sanitary masks for Liberian health care workers and other essential workers.
We have since expanded our products and sold hundreds of masks to essential workers, protestors, and clientele across Canada. A portion of our proceeds have gone towards various GoFundMe’s, mutual aid funds, and black organizations across North America. We know that this is not a moment but a movement. We know that even if our feed or your feed is “back to normal” #allblacklivesmatter . We are currently on a hiatus but have been working on our website and other projects within the brand. You can find us on Instagram @yamaso_co and on FB @yamasoco.
In addition to becoming more agile, did you discover (or develop) any new entrepreneurial characteristics and / or abilities you perhaps didn’t know you had?
I definitely discovered and developed my entrepreneurial skills through the Entrepreneurial Mindset Certificate Program as well as through running the family business Yamaso. The major skills I’ve strengthened are marketing, creativity, and sales management.
The last 12 months have truly tested our ability to react and adapt in challenging and confusing situations. Nevertheless, through these dark times, we’ve witnessed some of the greatest acts of generosity, innovation, bravery, kindness and unity. What is one thing resulting from the pandemic you are grateful for?
I’m grateful for the outpouring of support from my network and community when it comes to Yamaso and the activism I’m involved in. I’ve been pleasantly surprised and appreciative of this support and it has empowered my work even more.
We appreciate the importance of taking a moment to step back, to reflect, and to recalibrate in the wake of the chaos and uncertainty. If you had to give your pre-pandemic self one piece of advice, what would it be?
I would tell my pre-pandemic self a quote that helped me get through by Morgan Harper Nichols “I cannot tell you what lies ahead but I can tell you: you will grow…you do not have to make sense of it all in order to be worthy of peace” -MHN
*This feature was published in honour of the International Womxn’s Week, 2021.
