Benn baaraam mënul yëkëti doj: One finger alone cannot lift the stone

Ibrahima, Fatou, and Diaraye.

 
This post will mark the end of the life histories of a handful of Social Mobilization Agents (SMA) in rural Senegal. The first two posts can be read here and here, and for more background you can read my research proposal.

Cherif, my interpreter, and I set out bright and early toward Kaolack, the capital of the Kaolack region several hours from Dakar. After finally finding a 7-place and taking off, the wind blowing in through the windows slowly became hotter and hotter as we ventured the into the interior of the country and the sun rose. Finally we arrived in Kaolack. Originally, we had planned to do one interview the first day, and two interviews the following day. But, because of our late arrival and the difficulties of finding public transport to go out to the villages, we decided to do all three interviews the following day. Kaolack is so hot during the day that its hard to do anything but lay around. 

The next morning we took off early to head to Ibrahima's house in Gandiaye village in the Kaolack region of Senegal. The other two mobilizers I would interview that day, Fatou and Diaraye, would meet us at Ibrahima's house.

The gate to Ibrahima's compound. If you look closely at the plaque you can see his name and family name.

 

I was warned by my interpreter Cherif before the interview even started that Ibrahima Sankhare was a retired teacher, and really "knew how to talk". I reminded Cherif to try to keep him on track when answering the questions, but the interview lasted more nearly four hours. My longest to date and hopefully my longest ever. 

Ibrahima is from Gandiaye village but he spent his childhood in Suma Mousa, both found in the region of Kaolack. He comes from a massive family and was his fathers 20^th child. His father had six different women, some of which he had divorced but many of which he was married to simultaneously as Senegal is a polyamorous country.

When I asked Ibrahima how many siblings he had total, it took him quite some time to count. Finally, he responded with 36, but he wasn't too sure of himself. As a young boy, he cultivated land for his parents and looked after their cows, sheep, and goats. Finally, when he was 15 years old he was able to start primary school. Normally, a student of his age would have only went to school to get the Primary Certificate and end there because the maximum age for the Secondary School Entrance Exam was 15 but because of a fire that burned all of the schools documents, Ibrahima was able to have a new birth certificate made that made him appear younger than he actually was. He then went on to finish college and become a teacher. He didn't meet his wife, who was divorced with two children, until he was 32 years old and had been teaching. They went on to have seven children together.

As I looked deeper into Ibrahima’s motivation for his work as a Social Mobilization Agent, he revealed to me a traumatizing story of his childhood. He had been away at a wrestling match in the village and upon returning home he found one of his sisters, the one whom he shared a bed with. “I jumped over the wall at the back of the house and stepped on her [sister] arm as she was lying there. They had done the tradition on her and she was bleeding…I went into the room to get my flashlight and turned it on and saw that the blood was gushing then I shouted…and said they killed her.” They did not kill her, but his sister has suffered since that night. She has been pregnant more than 10 times losing all but one child. The doctor attributes this to the way that they had performed the tradition. After this, he explained that one of his Aunts had similar problems due to the tradition as well. As he told these two stories, I saw the pain in his eyes as he recounted how he had stumbled upon his wounded sister. He admitted that he was still emotional when discussing the topic, but it was clear that these events where large motivators in his work.

After he learned about Tostan through the publicity of the Malikunda declaration, Ibrahima was eager to become part of the program. He said, “Yes, it really motivated me, so I said to Demba Diawara I am going to work with you, even if don't give me a penny, and I worked with Demba Diawara and his people for three year without receiving a dime. During three years.” Finally, after the classes had ceased in his village he was asked to become a SMA in 2001.

When Ibrahima shares his stories in the field as a SMA it becomes particularly effective because the subject is still taboo in many places. The experiences his Aunt and his sister have had are not unique. Ibrahima brought to life the first time he had share this story with others in a small village in Kaolack. “There was a woman who…put her arms on her head and fell down crying. She said ‘so this is why I don't have children’…When she did that, then people started thinking more.”

On being a Social Mobilization Agent, he said: “It's a personal commitment that you take in heart and spirit, you said I want to be a social mobilization agent; I want to work in this specific domain because it in line with what I believe and wanted to do in my life, so the judgment is obvious.” 

To me it seemed that this work was something that he wanted to do for pretty much his entire life.

When I asked him how the work of a Social Mobilization Agent made him feel he replied by saying, “I am happy first and then I have a feeling of satisfaction. I started fighting these situations when I was a little boy. I hated them and was afraid of them, so when I see an NGO or other people who come and say let's go together and fight those issues, I am happy.”

Finally, after about four hours, we made it through all of the questions. Ibrahima was so thrilled to have been able to share his experiences with me, he had even told me that he wished he could keep talking to me all the way into the evening. When we ended the interview, it was time for lunch.

As tradition, we all formed a circle around this plate of Yassa
Ginaar (Yassa (onion sause with rice) and chicken.

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A Peul from the Fouta region of Senegal, Diaraye Bâ’s self-assurance was palpable. She is presently living in Kabakoto, in the region of Kaolack, but was borne in Medina Yoro Foula, in the region of Kolda. She was raised in a big household which included her two parents, two younger brothers, two younger sisters, and two older sisters. Although she was gifted and excelled in school, her mother made her stop schooling around the age of 12 after she had received her Primary School Certificate. Her mother was very worried about Diaraye’s carefree nature and thought she needed to get married so that she would not bring shame to the family.

Diaraye was the first to admit that she was not like typical young girls. Interrupting herself with small bursts of laughter, she recounted to me the way in which she used to bring her grandmother lunch. “You see the mango trees in Yoro Foula, when I would bring lunch to my grandmother I wouldn't step on the ground. I would be swinging from one mango tree to another…I would spend the whole day in the bush bare footed.”

Diaraye posing for the photo after her interview

She also learned from a young age that women needed to defend themselves and make something of themselves. She was constantly looking up to women who were busy with their own activities and told herself that she just needed to imitate what they did. After she stopped formal schooling, her father, who was an intellectual, found her several jobs such as working with health vaccination projects and the government census.

It was in Medina Yoro Foula that Diaraye got married and had her first child. When she moved to Kabakoto after getting married, her husband had encouraged her to continue her education and take part in local literacy classes. She then went on to receive her diploma and went on to be a facilitator for Village Management and Organization Project. It was also at this time that she decided she would set a good example for other women by joining every single association that was functioning in her community.

From here, Diaraye continued to excel. She was a “rural information agent” and soon the vice president of vice president of CLCOP, Local organization of big producers with 400 local economic interest groups. By this time, she had had another five children bringing the total to six. Eventually, Tostan heard about Diaraye and one of the regional coordinators came to pay her a visit before the Tostan classes began to see if she might be interested in facilitating or being involved.

After they started, the classes weren’t doing well because of attendance. So Baba, the Tostan coordinator who originally approached Diaraye, told her that she should go and try to motivate them. After this, she explains, “When I was not working I would come to the classes. I observed that two or three days and I started getting less engaged with the other job.” She became less and less interested with her job and eventually ““My eyes were opened then, I attended the classes for two months and my eyes got open like never before.” Diaraye left her job to become a Social Mobilization Agent with Tostan.

To her, the purpose of being a Social Mobilization agents was:
"For people to be healthy and live in peace. Because if people are not healthy there can be no peace. There will be no economic growth either"

I also asked her how it felt to work as a mobilizer. she replied with: "Dafa neex" - which literally translates to "it feels good" but is stated in a manner that puts emphasis on the verb. In this case, the verb is ‘neex’ meaning ‘to feel good’. Another question I always ask to the mobilizers is about them working in groups, why do they do it? "Benn baaraam mënul yëkëti doj.
" is what she said to me. This is an old Wolof proverb which loosely translates to "One finger alone cannot lift the stone."

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Granddaughter of a traditional cutter, Fatou Bâ was being primped and primed to become one herself, and she says she would have went on to do just that had she not taken part in Tostan’s CEP classes. Born and raised in a small community in Kaffrine region called Nguigui, Fatou’s childhood was cut short after she went through the tradition at the age of eight and married at 14.

Fatou in her traditional boubou leaning against Ibrahima's house after the interview.

As a child, Fatou was very close with her grandmother who taught her about life and how to behave with people, especially your husband and his family. She didn’t know her husband before her marriage as her parents and the parents of the suitor arranged it. After the suitor sent kola nuts to the family signifying he wanted to marry her, they accepted. At this point he wanted to visit Fatou, the purpose being to judge if she would make a good wife or not. The parents agreed under the condition that he would bring a goat to honor their daughter.

After the marriage, they went to live in a community called Missirah in Tambakounda where she had two children. After a rough patch where the family lost all of their farmland and animals, they moved to AblayFanta. Here, Fatou had another seven children, losing one twin which would have made her total ten. Of the nine living children, she has three girls, all of whom when through the tradition at five or seven years old.

She began moving between two villages to sell milk and sugar which was profitable and allowed her to provide for her family. She even trained and helped other women to get into the business as well. Soon, she was offered a loan to buy and breed sheep. This was especially lucrative around Tabaski*.

In 2004, Tostan came to her community and began their CEP. Both her and one of her sons decided to attend. As a Peul, Fatou learned to speak Wolof after she had married and moved with her husband. In the class she struggled with the literacy portion but was always able to answer questions orally. The facilitator counted on her to liven up the class; one of her fondest memories was singing and dancing during the classes. Although her husband didn't attend these classes, she would go home every evening and recount to him everything she had learned. While all of the classes and modules of the CEP were helpful, Fatou admitted that Module 7, the one that discusses FMC had the most impact on her and is the reason why she is not a cutter today. Before the classes were finished, Tostan asked Fatou to be part of the Kaolack SMA Team. She would attend classes but also go into the field with the team to do sensitizations (sort of like a workshop) in villages in the region, something she has been doing for over 10 years now.

What is “It's discussing to educate, when you hear social mobilization it's about educating people, telling they things they didn't know about, making you hear things that you had never heard of. And all that by discussing until we find an agreement without fighting.” 

Although these topics are not discussed until the end of the sensitization, as they are very taboo and difficult to talk about, the topics of Female Genital Cutting (FGC) and Child Marriage are of the utmost importance in their work. These are century long traditions that are being abandoned from grassroots educational initiatives such as the social mobilization teams thanks to Tostan. But this work is not easy - you cant just ask people to stop doing something they have been doing for centuries, but in Fatou's own words she explained to me that,  “I said things are changing and when things are changing you have to adapt. You cannot wait until it's too late” By this she means that things change - because they are now aware and educated of the complications and problems that come along with these two specific harmful practices.

Ibrahima with his family

These three mobilizers work together on a team comprised of five SMA in total. They each have their own specific function as a team member.

Now that all of my interviews are completed, soon I will be writing and sharing a short post about my findings and analysis! First I need to finish my these and graduate. Then I will have time to put together a post about my last month/weeks in Senegal (for now - inshallah) and the conclusion to my research.

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Wolof Proverb:

“Lu kenn mën, ñaar a ko ko dàq"

Literal Meaning: "Many hands make light work"
Actual Meaning: "What one person can do two can do better"