Having already gone into the field to conduct my first interview for my research on Tostan's Social Mobilization Agent (SMA), I was feeling much less nervous leaving my house for my second and third interview. Instead of driving back and forth two more times to the Fatick region, my interpreter (Cherif Ndiaye) and I decided to do two interviews in the same day. We had arranged for one of the SMA to meet at another team member’s house. And sure enough, the four of us found ourselves in Diyabougou Village before noon.
Diyabougou is in the Fatick Region of Senegal and the journey started very similar to the first interview in Soudiane with Marième a few days before. However, instead of taking a car to Nguéniène, we took one directly from Mbour to Diyabougou.
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| The door on the left was where we held the two interviews |
After taking time to greet every member of Mariétou Diarra’s family, Sidy Cissokho, Cherif, Mariétou, and myself took shelter from the unrelenting sun and met in Mariétou’s room. We all congregated on a bamboo mat covered by a sheet on the cement floor. I introduced myself and explained my research; Cherif took over to be sure there was full understanding. Since Sidy traveled to come to the interview, it made sense to interview him first.
Sidy Cissokho, who is now about 56 years old, described his personality growing up as “someone who put the ambiance wherever they went – always said and did things that made people laugh and be happy.” Through his sincere smile, excessive use of hand jesters, and animated story telling, I could tell that much of this trait had carried through to adulthood.
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| Sidy Cissokho |
Sidy started organized diffusion efforts in 2006, a couple of years after he had finished Tostan’s three-year Community Empowerment Program. He said the most important thing about being a Social Mobilization Agent (SMA) was “respect” followed by “patience and flexibility”.
In the past, many villages in Senegal were strictly one ethnic group or another, segregated if you will (not by force but more by tradition). Today, you will see many villages that have several Wolof families alongside Serere and Bambara families. When mobilizing, this can complicate things as not every ethnic group has the same practices and traditions. To compensate for this, the mobilizers will often do one day of sensitization with the entire community discussing issues pertinent to everyone (hand washing, STIs, HIV/AIDS, etc) and then the following day they will discuss issues around FGC with only those groups who practice the tradition. This is to avoid judgment from other community members, shame, etc.
I asked Sidy if he could describe what an SMA was. His response:
“To make people aware of how they can have a better living.”
“To make people aware of how they can have a better living.”
Initially, my first thoughts after that were:
1. Well, that doesn't sound like an easy job.
2. Definitely not your typical job description.
I asked him what the overall goal of the Social Mobilization Agents was. Why they do their work, what they want to accomplish? His reply was simple and something even I, with my very limited Wolof, could understand: “Weru yaram ak jamm” – health and peace.
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The story of Mariétou Diarraw started with a tragedy in her native village of Kobongoye. The day before her Ngante**, her father died. After this, their family moved to Soudjane Dialla where she grew up. She explained to me that traditionally in her family, girls waited at least until 15 years of age to get married but because she had so many marriage proposals (14 to be exact), she was married at the age of 13 and had her first child two years later.
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| Mariétou Diarra |
Before she was married, her childhood revolved around the rainy season. During rainy season, she would go to the field to help with the rice, millet, and groundnuts as the main occupation in this area and in the village was and still is farming. In the dry season, she was helping out around the house, always in preparation for the next rainy season.
Mariétou says that she learned what it meant to be a ‘good woman’ in two different contexts. First, she learned about this when she went through the tradition** as a young girl and secondly from her mother growing up. In my subjective opinion, as a white feminist American woman, gender roles here in Senegal and in many parts of Africa are still quite rigid.***
I asked her a little bit about family dynamics. Who made decisions in the family and how? She told me that it was always her father who would make decisions. Sometimes he would tell her mother the decision that was made, sometimes not. But she did add that he would “always consult his younger brother before making a decision.” According to Mariétou, it was Bambara (her ethnic group) tradition that the men made the decisions. If a woman was consulted it was a sign of weakness. She gave me an example explaining that it was common for wives to hear something like, “Your daughter was married last Saturday and tomorrow she will move with her husband.”
After 15 years of marriage, when Mariétou was 28 years old, her husband passed away. After the traditional mourning period (traditionally in Senegal about 40 days) she was remarried to her husband's younger brother. This tradition, marrying a younger brother, is a testimony the importance and value of family here in Senegal. Marriage is often seen mainly as a tool to ensure security (food, clothing, shelter, etc) and Mariétou's in-laws took her in to make sure her and the children were taken care of.
After 15 years of marriage, when Mariétou was 28 years old, her husband passed away. After the traditional mourning period (traditionally in Senegal about 40 days) she was remarried to her husband's younger brother. This tradition, marrying a younger brother, is a testimony the importance and value of family here in Senegal. Marriage is often seen mainly as a tool to ensure security (food, clothing, shelter, etc) and Mariétou's in-laws took her in to make sure her and the children were taken care of.
Shortly after this, around the age of 30, she started her classes with Tostan. She was keen on oral communication and began to excelle in this domain. When the classes first started in her community, they had to have separate classes for men and women because the men were “too proud” to learn alongside the women. It would have been shameful. But she was happy to explain that as the classes went on, the men were more and more open to being with the women in such settings and by the end of the three-year program, the classes were together.
According to Mariétou, Social Mobilization Agent’s job is:
“Awareness raising to people who do a tradition that has harmful consequences. Tostan is no forbidding it; we are only bringing the information. The role is awareness raisings and information sharing.”
The purpose of their work is to:
"Promote children’s rights and protection.”
"Promote children’s rights and protection.”
Roughly 94% of Senegal is Muslim and Mariétou confirmed that the work she was doing was indeed religious work because “Islam protects children.”
As we got more into the nitty-gritty of her work, she explained that the selection of villages for sensitization begins by collaborating with the President of the Rural Community who gives the SMAs a list of villages that are still practicing the tradition. From here, the SMAs work with Tostan regional offices and their supervisors to select from the list and then make a plan of action. After this, the teams will go from village to village sensitizing willing community members on themes around health and human rights.
When I asked her about how this work made her feel, she thanked God a lot, repeating the Wolof phrases “sant yàlla” and “yàlla bu baax bu baax” meaning, thank god and good is very very good respectively. Shortly after this question, the interview came to an end.
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| Mariétou and the kids |
This day of interviews was interesting for me as I am trying to manage wearing 'two hats' as so to speak. I am an academic researcher working on my Master’s thesis but I am also a curious young woman trying to better understand Senegal and its wonderful people. Already, with only three interviews under my belt, I notice a stark difference between the male and female responses in reference to their childhood.
One thing I found to be unfortunate and frustrating is the lack of funding and support of these programs in the international development world. Mariétou laughed as she told me that in the past Tostan had to recruit villages for classes, but not there are so many villages asking for Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program and there isn’t enough funding to provide the classes.
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| One of the boys from the compound came into the room during the interview to get some water from the calabash. |
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* Ngente – baby naming ceremony that many people (yes including Muslims) will call a “baptism”. Traditionally, this was a family event organized, run, and attended by mostly women (with the exception of very closely associated men, like a father or brother) but now-a-days they are more open to men. Especially in Dakar where culture and tradition changes faster than other places.
** “The tradition” refers to Female Genital Cutting or FGC. This is the ritual removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. It is practiced throughout the world but mostly in African and Asian countries. It is practiced for various reasons (religious, traditional and cultural beliefs, etc) and in varying degrees. Tostan’s programs have had huge success in cutting back the rates of FGC in Senegal and surrounding countries where they also have programs.
*** This is not to say that the US or other parts of the world have achieved equality or zero pressure to conform to socially constructed ideals of what it means to be a woman or a man. Yes, I believe that to a certain extent gender roles are becoming less strict but the patriarchy runs deep and we nowhere near a “post-gender norms” society.
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Wolof Proverb:
“Benn loxo du tàccu”
Literal translation: "one hand cannot clap"
Meaning: "It takes two to tangle"
Up and coming posts:
1. Kolda Field Observations and Travel
2. Serere Cultural Festivities in Notto/Thiès
