June 11, 2021
BY: Ibrahim Jabati.
Frederick Douglass a prominent African Slavery-abolitionist of North America, who was an outstanding male advocate of women’s emancipation during his time said, “No man however eloquent, can speak for woman as a woman can speak for herself. Nevertheless, I hold that this cause is not altogether and exclusively woman’s cause. It is the cause of human brotherhood as well as sisterhood, and both must rise and fall together. Women cannot be elevated without elevating the man, and man cannot be depressed without depressing the woman also.” The late president of Guinea Ahmed Sekou Toure agreed with him when he emphasized that, “In the emancipation of women is the emancipation of men.” It is no gain saying that these two-great historical figures were right on point! Our women deserve our respect and support.
Growing up in a rural setting of Sierra Leone, I have learned long ago to respect the Sierra Leonean women and by extension the African woman! They come across as being very strong and industrious. Agriculture is the mainstay in the rural parts of our country and women play pivotal role in farming activities to put food on the table, from start to finish. Plowing, weeding, scaring away birds from destroying the crops and finally harvesting. This is quite apart from their traditional role of cooking and nurturing of children which is equally very tasking. This clearly shows how formidable and important they are in the survival of our society. And such importance must never be taken lightly. In fact, the burden of rural communities’ rest squarely on the shoulders of these altruistic women.
In the urban setting also, most of these women are heavily involved in doing business to support their various homes. In Freetown for example, at Sani Abacha Street, Kroo-town Road, Congo market and Sengeh in Bo town, one can see these indomitable women, from morning to evening, toiling, trying to make ends meet under difficult circumstances. All in the name of supporting their families! Hard it not being for these women, a lot of homes would have become topsy-turvy. Sierra Leonean women who went to school are doing marvelously well in any field they find themselves save politics where they are perpetually repressed by their male counterparts who feel it’s their God given right. What men forget is that, women generally, are good managers and are multitalented!! If women possessed all these good qualities or attributes, why is it that they are not allowed or given a freehand to politically contribute to nation building in a meaningful way, in whatever capacity? Interestingly, women made up about 50. 11 per cent of our population in 2019, according to Word Bank collection of development indicators, complied from officially recognized sources! And Netfa Freeman painted an eye-catching picture here that, “There are still men who consider themselves revolutionary but who have difficulty interacting with strong, confident, intelligent women; men who can only have relationship with a woman if she abstains from the political movement and only support his participation in it. Or worse yet, men who pay lip service to women’s role in movement but still try to rationalize and justify reducing her to a sex object or their own personal support base.” This is male chauvinism. Let give our women the space to grow and be who they want in any field they so desired. It is the right and proper thing to do.
In Sierra Leone today, our women are victims of gender discrimination in work places, in politics, the burden of single parenting and physical abuse, early teen-pregnancy and rape by men. Thanks to the First Lady H.E. Fstima Maada Bio for raising awareness about the rampant incidences of rape, of our girls through her advocacy campaign dubbed, “HANDS OF OUR GIRLS.” Since when it was launched by President Julius Maada Bio in December 2018, his government has amended the sexual offences act of 2012 to provide stronger penalties for violation against our women. Also, his government has established the fast-track court to ensure sexual base violence cases are heard swiftly. This is indeed a move in the right direction but more is to be done. For these bold steps taken so far, I must doff my hat off to President Bio and his government for having the courage to do what they did. Freeman again, “As long as African women play a second-class role, in the practical and theoretical solutions of African problems, only one or less of Africa’s intellectual potential will be at work….” Clearly, this makes sense for us in Sierra Leone. The population of women here is way over that of men. So, if they are not totally inclusive in our development stride, nothing much would be attained. The Human Capital Development comes in handy here, and a lot of our girls are benefiting directly from the Free Quality Education.
Regarding these male prejudice against women, Lauvvie Ajayi Jones, Nigerian-American, author of PROFESSIONAL TROUBLEMAKER: The Fear Fighting Manual, rationalizes, “I firmly believe that black women are the adults in the room of the world. We’re so often in the role of chaperone, not because we want to be but because we have no other choice. We’re thrust to the front of the class because we realized that the whole place will go down in flames if we aren’t there. I believe black women are the moral center of the universe, and can’t nobody tell me different. In spite of the fact that we have our heads stepped on, are disrespected constantly, and are treated like we are disposables, we show up. We speak up, show out, and stand up for everyone, even those who don’t deserve it. We catch hell for it.
“But folks don’t listen to us like they should. Things would be so much calmer if the world honour our voices more. There’d be less chaos, more equity, and less suffering if folks understood that black women got the answers. We’re basically part of the largest group project ever, and unfortunately, our grade depends on everyone else. We’re the ones who refused to get an F, so we do all the work and everyone benefit from the A that we, and only we, earned.
“For us the compulsion to preserve self is beyond earned, and I salute sistas who are navigating in the best way they know how. I salute those of you who have to deal with microaggressions, the microappreciations, and the megaprejudice every day. I see you are superheroes.” Wow what a woman!! Freeman puts Lauvvie’s rationalization this way, “… when we take the family as a whole, we must admit that it’s our grandmothers, mothers, aunts, sisters, wives and daughters who more than often know and do what’s best for the family as whole.”
As a way out of this conundrum, women must become professional troublemakers if their situation is to be improved in Sierra Leone. Who then is a Professional Troublemaker? According to Lauvvie, “A professional troublemaker is not the person who brings chaos into the midst of any room they are in. That person is a troll. A professional troublemaker is not someone who insists on speaking to hurt feelings. That person is a hater. A professional troublemaker is not someone who wants to disagree with people just because they wanna play devil’s advocates. That person is a contrarian….
“A professional troublemaker is someone who critiques the world, the shoddy systems, and the people who refused to do better…. Folks like me, who are committed to speaking the truth to power, aren’t doing it without fear. We aren’t doing it because we are unafraid of consequences or sacrifices we are making because of it. We are doing it because we have to. We know we must still charge forward regardless. We must listen to the wisdom of mother Maya Angelou when she said: ‘Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.’
“For the professional troublemaker, the truth, of ourselves and of the things around us, is more important than the fear that stops us from pursuing it. The things we must do are more significant than the things we are afraid to. It doesn’t mean we don’t realize there are consequences. It means we acknowledge that they may come but we insist on keeping on.
“Professional troublemakers recognize that fear is real, and that it’s an everlasting hater, but it must be tackled.” Aha! Our women must demand for their rights without fear that is actually the cause that is holding them back from their rightful place in society.
Ahmed Sekou Toure late president of Guinea left us with this mind-blowing food for thought on the issue of women when he said, “The women, as we have said, constitute the base of society. If today, all the men in Guinea, all the men in Africa, and all the men in the world, were to disappear, the Guinean and African society and mankind would however continue to live, because there would still be women carrying in them germs that would come to replace all the men who had disappeared.
“But let all the women of Guinea, all the women in Africa and all women in the world disappeared, and at most, in a century, the whole of mankind would disappear! this is a first reality.”