women & mothers & more women

The OWNERS WOMEN

THE EVENTS

At the OWNERS event by AFFORD Sierra Leone, it was a celebration of female entrepreneurs in Sierra Leone, the ones we could access really. The first lady of Sierra Leone was present as was Mr. Kandeh Yumkella (UNIDO Director General) as was Cherie Blaire herself and many other high ranking dignitaries both locally and internationally. It was a blend of our traditional singers and ways of hosting an event bound with the momentum of 'modernity', the now now, the policy makers, the activists, the entrepreneurs and the socialites. 

International Women's Day is often more less about about women, our struggles (political, economic, social), our successes and our dreams/desires for the future. On this day however my mind was consumed with womanhood in relation to her body and love, her body and economic freedom, her body and her sexual freedom from a non-policy yet interactive policy perspective. I was more interested in young women in particular, where are our voices amidst the general women's day celebrations, the acknowledgment of strife, struggles, success and dreams....where was my voice and the voices of other young women in "Women's Day" in Sierra Leone? You may think i am focused on the gaps, perhaps so, because i and many other women fit into that 'gap' often expressing and sharing our experiences in the privacy of our rooms, corridors, over the phone, in restaurants, or other spaces for socializing anywhere and everywhere sans policy, sans high table panelist events, sans at decision making spaces and places. 

GIRL TO WOMAN -  HOODq
in the myriad of sacrifices, braving a smile
all is fine
baby in that short skirt
baby in those red bottom heels rocking that silk hair doo
baby in those boy shorts
baby in those tight tights
baby dead give away in those brown blue eyes
girl,
choices charred stained on these lips
baby whole
baby sacred
baby girl
lonely
seeking and kissing crossed palms
holding slaps that now feel like warmth
baby boisterous
voice cut-
short
other words mummering off
put the volume up
baby girl.  
I am interested in the voices of those girls, i want to hear these stories, i want to hear them loud loud loud impact-filled , injecting and influencing policy for other young young girls...for ME.

To our mothers, our sisters, our girlfriends, our female lovers, our women, our young young girls...to this feminine energy so potent it self destructs, destructs, dies a billion deaths to only sometimes survive, and if we are really lucky, bloom BloOm again.

fambul dem this is how we do....

....MARIAMA ADDRESS THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SIERRA-LEONE

I had to process this day before blogging about it. We celebrated our International Women's Day on March 23rd. It was fairly packed, hot and filled with very vocal Sierra-Leonean women who spoke to the issues that plague our society from the perspective of mothers, sisters, daughters, wives and care-takers. Mariama spoke on behalf of young mothers and women. Her story had some in tears, it touched the President as she burst into tears. Her story was heavy and she didn't want her experience of violence to be the stories of other women. She wanted men who abused young girls to get persecuted- she wanted this issue to be made visible and better yet something to be done. As i listened to her semi-scream into the micro-phone, i thought of my 16 year old niece who was pulled out of school because she was been sexually abused by her 60 something year old male teacher. When my aunt spoke out, she was condemned by the community. As Mariama spoke and told her story, i felt de-sensitized, this story has been told too many times in too many ways and i really don't like re-hearing it because i have very little faith that anything other than utterance of reassurances will come out of it. However, we must remain optimistic, the President reassures us that their is a new law to be passed that will hold the proprietors of these crimes responsible. I  then think of men who tell me that they too were sexually abused at a very young age, with no-where to process such an experience, it is internalized and their hyper-sexuality is often relegated to their gender, "boys will be boys". I sigh and continue to take photographs. Mariama is brave. For now, that is enough.

enjoy the photographs!
fambul dem this is how we do....