Posts by Pamela
Yennenga the Svelte–the Mother of the Mossi
I’ll warn you up front, the story of Yennenga the Svelte is going to feel more like a fairy tale than a historical biography. We know her story only from the oral traditions of the Mossi people, which may have some non-historical additions and embellishments. But then again, they may tell the story exactly the…
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Tomyris: One Tough Mother
Tomorrow is Mother’s Day in the United States. It’s been packaged as a pastel holiday: all flowers and robins and lace and chocolate. In fact, for many people it’s a more complicated holiday than its commercial rendering would suggest. Many people greet the holiday with a sense of loss that is too new or too…
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In Praise of Nurses
It’s National Nurses Week here in the United States, and I am scrambling to catch up.* In the years since Heroines of Mercy Street was published, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking, reading, writing and talking about nurses.* As a result, I’ve also spent a lot of time talking to nurses–and their friends, mothers,…
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