Last jounrney in Masanga 2008-2009

Each journey is different and the programme which opposes female genital mutilation is increasingly successful.

Development in the country which is only slowly emerging from war, is being felt not only in a material way but also in social terms. Communications are helping people to begin to open up. Female genital mutilation, so long a taboo subject, even a few months ago, is now being talked about.

An old man walked up to me one day when there was nobody around. He told me that the programme was a good thing and that he had forbidden his daughters to be subjected to female genital mutilation.

The new government seems to be doing good work. In any case, there have been big changes in terms of cleanliness. Streets are now pretty clean and there are fines of SLL 100,000 for anyone caught urinating in the street which represents a month’s salary for many people. It would appear that it is even forbidden to telephone whilst driving, which for Africa seems incredible.

The Chinese are redoing some roads and electric pylons are dotted throughout the countryside but are not yet in operation. The Italians are building a dyke more to the north.

One finds more shops. We even found gas cookers with ovens, some small generators, kettles, computers and flat TV screens.

This contrast with the "poverty" of the countryside is always surprising. I place poverty in inverted commas because according to Michael, poor refers to someone who is handicapped or ill and for whom it is not possible to find anything to eat.

But let me return to my journey. I departed with Gudrun and kilos of luggage, in particular educational games for the infant’s school. We went to the check-in confidently and were ready to have to pay the excess charges for the luggage, even if it would be very expensive. The lady at the check-in said that it would be a lot but she understood what we were doing and turned a blind eye to the 15kg of excess luggage. What a relief! This was an encouraging first step.

We decided to spend a few days in Freetown, the capital, to meet some associations which might possibly be able to help us in combating female genital mutilation.

Our first appointment with UNICEF, which had been arranged in advance, turned out to be very disappointing. Firstly the people contacted had completely forgotten about us which we found somewhat surprising. Then I was led to believe that they had no faith in our programme but they did have faith in what the people carrying out female genital mutilation had to say.

UNICEF actively campaigns against female genital mutilation but, lo and behold, they are unable to help us. Incredible! We hope that their office for education will be more forthcoming. We have to send them a list of school materials together with what we need.

Our second appointment went much more smoothly. The women at UNIFEM are very aware of the problem. They find our programme very interesting and ask us about our budget which will be sent to their Dakar director. Just a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel.

When I am in Masanga I very often wake early in the morning and meditate. It is often in moments such as these that I get my best ideas and this is one of them.

We usually reason on the basis of our mentality and in terms of our culture but I think that it would be more subtle to place ourselves in the position of the natives.

Everybody asks the question from what will the people who carry out female genital mutilation earn their living when we remove their source of income. But I say, you are mistaken, these are false concerns which are no concern of ours. The primary goal is to stop mutilating little girls. Before we have even tried we are putting a spanner in the works.

After visiting several villages around Masanga, I saw women who applauded our programme. Mothers who wanted to educate their daughters and who did not want to mutilate them. If the vast majority of women refused to continue with these practices, those carrying out female genital mutilation would accept this choice and I think they would manage to find a different way to earn their living.

Today women are starting to have the courage to express their wishes, to stand up for themselves against their elders and to refuse to mutilate their daughters. The older women, some who are very intelligent and wise are also starting to realise that female genital mutilation serves no purpose.

But to make a programme like this work, one must have faith in it, proceed confidently, following one's intuition. Only this way can one achieve positive results quickly, this has been my experience.

One day we went to the Rowalla school where we have a pupil. The person in charge is a woman. We explained to her the admission procedure to do with our programme. Immediately she said that in that neighbourhood all the women had female genital mutilation carried out on their daughters but that she was against it. Her grand-daughter had not undergone female genital mutilation and we accepted her into the programme.

As we left we asked her to talk to people there and if there were women who were interested, to tell them where they could contact us.

A few days later a group of about twelve women and children came to Masanga after walking for more than 2 hours in baking heat. I could not believe it.

Two days later, at 8 o’ clock in the morning, yet another quite big group was at the door of our coordinator. It was impossible to do anything but we told them that we would come to hold a meeting in their village in Mathora.

The following Sunday we spoke in front of about one hundred people. Alice, our coordinator provided detailed explanations and repeated the conditions. She added that we must let a human being make choices for himself or herself. Whether or not a young woman over 18 chooses to undergo female genital mutilation is none of our business but when less than 18, it is not admissible. She added that all the governments of West African countries are going to condemn the practice and that people flouting the law would be imprisoned for 5 years as is the case in Nigeria at the moment.

An old man noted that several people had already been there to talk about this topic but that nobody had ever put forward a solution. Our programme is the first to provide something specific. He added that female genital mutilation is good for nothing but that education is immensely important. He is happy about this.

The chief in Mathora is a woman, a bit of a character, who you would not want to pick a fight with, she then spoke to welcome us. She said the same as Ya Sampa : education is immensely important.

Given the large number of women who would have jostled with each other not to lose out on getting their daughter placed, we postponed new enrolments until the start of December. The school mistress will note names and addresses of interested parties and we will make a selection and set up a waiting list.

The advantage of this village is that there is already a nursery school, even if it is a few kilometres away. We were not to be concerned about the building. It belonged to the Free Gospel church. There we met a minister who gives classes which have nothing to do with our teaching system. He says that he is not paid and thinks that we will cover everything, the premises, the children and the teachers. His manner does not inspire us with confidence, doubtless the lure of gain behind it all.

Each day I take a stroll around the village. I stop now and then for a chat, to shake hands or to sit with one or two women. The other day, coming back from the site, I found myself with Ya sampa and other old women. I was wearing a worn-out blouse which was quite see-through and they were making out the contours of my breasts. I understood what they were talking about and they said "fino" which means beautiful. They wanted to see them so I lifted up my blouse up to my neck. They admired them and we all laughed.

I like this type of simple contact with these women, to sometimes embrace them forgetting about the sweat and the scars on their hands which were hard and rough, a consequence of leprosy.  

The physical aspect becomes less important and the sentiments gain the upper hand, a more subtle encounter.

The divisional head came to Masanga, wanting us to take little girls from Rogbeshe as well, his village from which up to now there have been no enrolments.

We spend Sunday there and the following day 10 mothers come to enrol their little girls.

Gudrun, who is leaving on 4 January will visit other villages in the region with Alice. Ya Sampa, the head in Masanga, suggested accompanying them.

Up to now we have been to 7 villages and 120 little girls have enrolled and will thus escape female genital mutilation.

 
It only remains for us to find the funds required but that it not so easy. All of your donations and sponsorships are most welcome. Please spread the word, any addresses you may have or any ideas would be gratefully received.

Thank you to you all because I would not have been able to start this programme without you.

3 January 2009, Michèle

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