1st Person Africa
For the First Time, a Team of All-Black Women Climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and They’re all Over 40 By BOTWC Staff
A
group of Black women, aged 40+, just made history as the first all-Black American woman team to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Diana Kinard and Dawn Frazier are the founders of Shades of Favor, a collective that aims to “inspire Black women to embrace their next chapter of growth through travel and shared experiences.” The two Georgia women met in 2019 and immediately hit it off. They bonded over their love of life, gratitude for how far they had come, and a desire to keep living boldly. The women realized they were favored to be healthy and have the ability to continue pursuing their life’s goals. The idea for the “Shades of Favor” group was born.
“We are both grateful that we met, and our friendship grew. Becoming comfortable talking about goals and dreams made us aware of many we shared. It also made us aware that we are at the age [where] we realize that members of our families had stopped saying ‘not yet.’ After a few messages about Kilimanjaro, we both realized that it was a ‘not yet’ moment for us both, [and] an idea was born,” Frazier told Because Of Them We Can. That feeling of “not yet,” led the women to invite others to join them. They formed a group of women, ages 42-77, who would venture on the bucket list journey of a lifetime. While the chaos of the last year deterred some and created setbacks,
44 | ABA Publications | Africa TRAVEL | Nov 2021
