From Silence to Action and Unlearning Survival

To the old me, scared and unseen. You're the reason I built this dream. Now I speak, set my scars in a sound. I'm on the edge until I break down. I don't run, eyes won't back down. This is the voice I found. For those who lost their voice, I sing. I keep it real, keep it purpose-bound. Every word a step, every truth profound. We don't heal in silence, we fight with grace. Softness and defiance, lighting up this place. It's a call to every soul who wants to be free. How do we turn personal pain into purposeful action? My guest today, Queen Sheba Sisi, is a true testament to the power of unlearning silence, survival, and self-abandonment out loud. On this episode with this beautiful guest, she shares a deep personal story of growing up as a Black woman in the United States and navigating inequality. And how that journey led her to advocate for women and children in Senegal. We explore her work with Queen Sheba Village and how she serves others. But we're going to learn about the process of how healing and reclaiming dignity and purpose is also woven into what she does. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much, my dear sister Edna. It's a pleasure and a beautiful opportunity for me to be here with you. Oh, I'm so glad you're here. So share with my audience who you are and what you're doing right now. Okay, humbly, my name is Queen Sheba Dubois Sisi. Queen Sheba is my birth name by my father, who was a bishop. And I am the youngest daughter of Daisy Renee Dubois and my father, Senior James Edward. And we're from Alabama, but we have roots in Louisiana. And those roots in Louisiana took me to my birth town in Alabama. And I'm a founder, an advocate for philanthropy on the social behalf of impoverished women and girls, youth orphans in Senegal. But not just Senegal, even here in the U.S. of A.B. Because before I can go to Senegal, my roots are right here. Well, I want you to know that I am from Alabama, so I'm very excited to meet you. I hardly meet anybody from there. Are you kidding? Wow. I am from Alabama, Thomasville, Alabama, Clark County. Go, Bama, go. So that's where I am from originally. I came up here to live. My mother moved here. So I came with her. And when I was young. But I used to go back a lot. My dad was alive. I don't go back so often now. But yeah, I'm from there. I love football. Football is happening now, so go, Bama, you know. The spirit always connects, doesn't it? It's amazing. Yes, it's amazing. And it's so funny you talk about finding out about your heritage. I did my heritage. And my grandfather on my father's side is from Sierra Leone. Okay. And my grandmother is from Haiti. Oh, wonderful. And they're actually in that registry. I found their registry. And my dad was born here in America. But he was in my grandmother's belly when he came. Okay. Yes. That's amazing you say Haiti. Because it's some ancestral from Haiti through my mother's story. Through my aunt. Okay. But a lot of people from the islands were also trying to trace their ancestral back to the motherland as well. So, you know. Absolutely. So I'm thrilled that you're doing some work there. Wonderful. And one of my trips is going to be to Sierra Leone. And, you know. And embrace that part of my life. Wonderful. I'm really thrilled to have you on. And we want to talk about, you know, operating in the place of survival. And just your story on how, you know, you were unlearning that silence. Can you share a little bit about that with my audience? Sure. Well, I've always been the more talkative, expressive of those beings. I have two brothers as well. But of the children, I've always been. My mother would say. Even my sisters would say. I've always been the most expressive. So basically when I've seen or felt any type of injustice. Racism. Things that we all can relate to. It's being in our black beautiful skin. Yes. I would speak up about it. And not so much in the south. Because I was still young. But as we moved up to the north. As we moved out of Alabama. And came up to the north of Boston, Massachusetts. You know, the north. We understood. And we could see things. What do you call it? The segregation. And the problems that was happening in Boston at the time. So I was, you know. I didn't experience much so-called racism. But I did see it. Of course. A lot of times you don't experience something personally. You see it amongst your peers. And other people. And a little bit of things of yourself. So. Being that I'm very talkative. And I would express injustices. Of inequality. And type of things to my mom. And then of course she worked in. Which is very common. Most of our mothers and grandmothers worked in white folks homes. To take care of us. To look good. You know, they sacrificed a lot. So with all of that. And reading. And I love museums. I love documentaries. At the time. You sound like me. We didn't have no internet. We had the library. We had National Geographic. Yes. On Saturdays. Yes. So as we grew up. We learned more about. You know, like I said. Injustice. Racism. And that still shapes us today. Because we still see it. It's still happening. So it's not like it happened last year. And 10, 20 years ago. We still live it. And how I cope. Because I love to read and research. Which took me to history. Which took me to look at my mother. Who I admire. My grandmother who I admire. My great grandmother who I never met. Which took me back across the transatlantic. But before we even got there. Because of the research. The history. The reading. The writing. The documentaries. You know, we put these things together. To find out who we are. Why is this happening. Who these other oppressors are. And we go into ourselves. And if you tap into your spirituality. And you can only do that for me. And I think you may agree. If you're close to your parents. And your uncle. Your auntie. Your people in your family. And you look at their lives. And you kind of put things together. As to. It's like a puzzle. Your life. The situation. Where we live at. What we're going through. And the different tools that I just use. To say. TV. Libraries. Reading. Writing. Talking to your mother. Your grandmother. Looking at their issues. Their pain. And their impoverished ways. Life. Patterns. It shapes their behaviors. It shapes the way they act. Not that they were ungodly. Unruly. They were beautiful women. Historical women. And feminine women. You put all these things together. And you say. Wow. How can I make a difference? What can I do? You don't know what to do. You just. Drowning. In sorrow. But as we got older. You go to school. I educated myself. I got married. I had my children. Which was a challenge. And it just led me to do more research. And to really want to take action. And go deep. And the only way I could go deep. In my research. Is to know. Exactly who I am. And consciousness. Meditation. And really travel. Travel opens up a huge. You know that truth right there. It opens up a universe. You know. If you get a chance to travel. You don't even have to travel outside. Abroad. You can travel right in this USA. And learn a lot. And come in contact with different. Great wonderful people. Like minded like yourself. Who will come searching and looking. And reading and writing. You know. And the universe omnipotent God. Call him if he Christian. Jesus. You might want to call Allah. You might want to call Buddha. Whoever however the omnipotent source. You put things together. And say you know what. Okay. Let me master this. And only you can master anything. You try to master yourself. Your feelings. Heal yourself. And through this pain and trauma. And the biggest problem is. How can we heal ourselves. We don't know. We don't believe there's nothing wrong with us. In the first place. I think we do. Because we feel it. We just don't acknowledge it. And we override it. We feel it. And once we feel it. And once we come to terms. And authentically take off any kind of mask. We want to acknowledge it. Once we acknowledge it. At this point. You know. We say to ourselves. We want to get into some type of action. Internally. And then you want to go externally. And get into some type of action. To start completing the journey. It's a lifetime. Of a journey. And that took me to. Doing something about. The injustices. The racism issues. That I didn't. You know. Approve of. And my work. Is a source of healing. And I wrote my first book. Which is a traveling guide. It was called Return to Glory. I started writing it. I was writing articles. What was happening was. People was asking me about Senegal. They were asking me. Oh you went there? What happened? And how did you do that? And how about the Glory Island thing? People was asking me about my travels. As I came back and forth. And because of that. One thing led to another. And I said let me put together a little book. Let me do a book. The articles were good. But I said let me write a book. And I did. And it was published by Mind Publishing House. Mind Publishing. And. I just went from there. And kept continuing to. You know. Do my work overseas. And talk with people. And I can only give back. To myself. And to others. When I started the non-profit work. In Senegal West Africa. Yeah. So you gave us. A real. Robust. Referral to you. And I thank you so much for that. And part of what you're saying. And I'm going to break down some of the pieces. That you did share. You were saying something about recognizing. When we're operating. In that survival. Those old patterns that we have. That we see. In our lineage coming through. So. Rather than living like that. How did you start to. Start to navigate. Because you know. I could see for myself. I tell my mother all the time. I'm glad I was born. When I was born. Because this big mouth of mine. I don't know. I think it got me in a whole lot of trouble. And she always says. I'm the kid that challenged everything. And like you. I challenged everything. I went the next level. But that was God. That was your purpose. And I loved how you said. That you start to work on the inside. As well as the purpose from the inside. And the outside. Right? A lot of us don't do that. But a lot of us don't do that. We know there's something wrong. Right? And we're going to go fix this one. We're not going to fix ourselves. That's survival mode. Right? That is. The problem too. In that. A lot of us don't know how. We don't know how. We know. We feel it. Like you said. We know it. But it's like. I know someone did an injustice to this person. Or murdered somebody. But you can't prove it. So you don't know how. You don't know where to start the research. To try to track it down. And I think we all. Are shown differently. In different ways maybe. Some of us are shown. In the same type of path. But. What helped me. Was reflection. Observation. We've always been a prayerful people. Spiritually. Intellectually. Psychologically. We are. Look at what we've been through. Come on. We were created this way. That's the bottom line. And so. That took me. The time spent on myself. Trying to master myself. Looking at my life. Between the time I can remember. Myself at five and six. I couldn't. I don't remember anything before five and six. But from five and six on. I remember a lot of things. And I said I want to master myself. I want to master my thoughts. And who I am. Who my creator is. I was just all into it. The Bible. The Koran. But it took time. For all of these different things. Down the road. Sure. The interest in. Looking at your mother. Who was a good powerful. Father too. But your mother and your grandmother. The people that are. Who helped shape you. Who taught you. And showed you the way to go. And who is still showing us the way to go. The living and in the past. Our ancestors. Transition. Transition back to God. These things. Like I said. Putting the puzzles and the pieces together. They helped us in our journey. You know. They help us still to this day. Right. So how does your work. The work that you do. And I know it's deeply rooted in your own story. How can people use their personal trauma. To fuel their advocacy. And service. Without bleeding all over them. If I could say. You know what I mean. How can we do that. Effectively. You said something. So, so important. Which is a lot of things that you have said. But this one stuck out. And you said the word. Meaningful purpose. And that's where I was. Searching and scratching. And digging. And I knew. To help me. With any type of trauma. That I felt and faced. Injustices and racism. And impoverished things. That our parents went through. In the deep south. I knew I had to. For me. My healing came through. Serving other people. It doesn't have to be. People of color. Serving humanity. Is a healing process. And a healing tool. And beauty for me. And to give back. And because. I said maybe. Whatever I'm feeling. Was I like this. 220. 230 years ago. That's good. I said. Because we know. And we believe we are immortal. We are the image of the likeness of God. And we have no beginning. And no ending. That's a very good question. I like that. I want to go there. To myself. In multiverses. Dimensions. I love people. I love talking to people. I enjoy people. Period. Give back to society. And to people. Whatever I felt. Was suffering like me. Or even worse. I wanted to learn. How do we identify those things? Because I think that's self-sabotage. What we do to ourselves. And we prevent ourselves. Like you said. From going to those levels. How do we prevent that? Or how do we identify the ways that we do that? The subtle ways. Because it's not always the overt ways. I don't like that. But it's something really subtle. That interferes with us. Making sure that we are in alignment. To receive. How do we see that? How do we identify that? The almighty God. Will send you. Either some type. For me. We all get it differently. Right. It could be a sign. It could be a person. People. Places. I don't want to use the word. But I will. Deja vu. It could be. From way back. Or from the ether. Coming or something. I don't know how to explain it. I'm not good at explaining. Everything. That I went through and feel. And sometimes. Some powers are locked in you. You can't express it. In your verbal voice. But you can express it in your actions. In your physical tangible actions. You will be shown. Trust that. You will be shown the how. Sometimes the how is not explained. It can't be explained sometimes. If I didn't explain it. It might not happen to you that way. Or you might not relate to it that way. It depends on who you are speaking with. And what her experiences have been. Up until now. Her evolvement. Her transition. Her transcensions. And type of things like this. I think you will be shown. Trust that. You will be shown. Good. What's the most uncomfortable truth. You had to face about yourself. On your journey to self mastery. Being too judgmental. Overthinking. Trying to figure it out. Is another. Could be another situation. That we have to let go of. Trust the process. Because the answer. A lot of times. You will be shown. Why you didn't get the answers at the time. Why it just didn't happen. If you are being patient. The word patient. Is a powerful word. It means the patient. It's one of the last attributes of God. That we use. Miss Edna. My dear sister. You will be shown. Practice patience. Practice. Forgiveness of yourself. And practice patience. That's your truth. It helps you with your authentic self. You can't wear a mask in this journey. There's no mask. You have to put it out there. Come out. Authentic. That's how you help heal yourself. That helps heal other people. Absolutely. You talk about self forgiveness. That's one of the acts. That we normally forget. When we forgive everybody else. We forget about us. I know I talk about it a lot. I want to hear from your perspective. What does it truly look like. To forgive ourselves. For past mistakes. For me. I can say. Indulge yourself. Indulge in prayer. Indulge in reflection. Indulge in self observation. Indulge in meditation. Indulge in something we call. Zika. Zika means remembrance. Once you seek. Forgiveness. Once you seek to forgive others. Once you have patience. It's all these different tools. That we use. To help us get there. And help us reflect. And help us understand. Ourselves. Read. It's like I said. It's a combination of things. It's not one way of something. It's a combination of things. That we put together. To really. Have mercy on ourselves. And ask the omnipotent. Source of God. To have mercy on us. And to. Embrace. Embrace all the problems. It's a journey. It's our journey. It's unique. Trust the process. You have to trust. And I think that's the biggest. The hardest thing for us. Is to trust the process. Because I was coaching one of my clients. One time. And I said just trust the process. I'm so tired of hearing this word process. What is it? And I said well it's trust your journey. Really. It really is just trust your journey. Trust that you're walking the way you're supposed to go. And it's so very scary. Because you're traveling. In the unknown. It's very scary. And I feel that way. Sometimes. But like you said you have to trust it. So when I get off. And I start worrying. Then I go nope. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to trust the journey. This is bringing me to a journey. This is bringing me to meditate more. This is bringing me to pray more. This is bringing me to align more. To master myself. You know it's helping you to do that. Right? So how do you. Easier said than done. You're right. Yes. Right. Easier said than done. But it is good to do. Because what you said. All those things help us to stay grounded. And that prayer and that meditation. That reading. That research. Indulge in something other than worry. Because we love that. We love that as humans. We love that. We love worry. Absolutely. We love worry. So we often talk about. Seeking validation. Whether we got it. As a child or not. From the outside world. How do we start to internally. Turn that from outside. And that's one of the stories. I had to really get right with myself. I found as I was digging around. Trying to find myself. Found that I needed external validation. I had to turn it inward. Can you talk about how to do that? Turn the outside validation. Inward and work on that? For me. I was given a gift. That gift came from my father. When I was born. My father said to my mom. This is the queen of Sheba. He said. This is the queen of Sheba. That taught me so much. About the biblical. Queen of Sheba. Of the prophets. And his father. David. Peace be upon these. Beautiful people. From there. He taught me. He gave me so much. Inspiration in the name. I had to read the stories. The biblical stories to him. Every Sunday. People would say. Do you know who that person? The queen of Sheba is in the Bible? I said. I know for a fact. That was an inspiration for me. To motivate and inspire. And master. And learn who I am. Of consciousness. Not externally. It took me inward. That is still the deal. To help me. In this journey. To not seek the validation. Some of us seek validation. We have that trauma. We seek love. We came from a loving family. Our family had problems and issues. Like most common families do. The inspiration. The proud things. My father did for me. That name. Is still the deal. For a lot of different things. To help me with my self-esteem. And how I felt about myself. It is important. To feel good about sister Edna. It is important. For sister Edna to feel good. For her. What she is doing. When you sent me that. You asked. About the podcast. And the name. I said that is her. I did not know much about you. Of course. But looking and experiencing. That is her. That is me. That is like a ping. Not even knowing. That you had an Alabama roots. I did not know any of that. But I did hear you speak. On certain talks. And everything. And when you did that. That sealed the deal. For me. I said that is her. Absolutely. You got that right. Oh my goodness. I really thank you. For what you are saying. And what you gave. Can you give the audience. How they can reach you. What you would like from them. For the support of what you are doing. And just the last word. On what can uplift. And inspire them. You can always reach me. On social media. Just put in my name. It could be in Google research. It could be on Facebook. Or LinkedIn. Preferably LinkedIn. And the work that we do. Is right up under my name. And profile and everything. And the emails are there. The phone numbers are there. And you can reach out and support the work. If you love humanitarian activities. We really appreciate it. We are volunteering operation. And we have fun with it. But it is a lot of hard work. No doubt. It is a challenge. It was given to me by my late husband. Spiritual scholar. Imam Hassan Sisi. I would like to mention that. The story can be told. Without mentioning his name. May God have mercy on his soul. And increase his paradise. For the humanitarian work. That he did on the planet earth. And what I would like to say. To the audience. Be your authentic self. In order to do that. We have to go within. We have to shift. We have to research. We have to read. We have to get in a place that is still. And we can find the answers as possible. It is a lot of work. But we have to do the work. Queen Sheba. Thank you for your raw honesty. And for showing us what it truly means. To really heal out loud. Your story is powerful. And we can remember it. That our pain can be our greatest gift to the world. To learn more about Queen Sheba's mission. And how to support her work. Visit her organization. At givebutter.com. At helpwomengirls. If this episode has spoke to you. Share it with somebody. Who needs to hear this message. And don't forget to like and subscribe. And leave a comment. And we will make sure that Queen Sheba gets the comment. And gets back to you. And remember. When you unlearn the silence. You give yourself and others permission to heal. Bye for now. Thank you.