By Sylvanus Gooding
‘These growing feathers plucked from Caesar’s wing/will make him fly an ordinary pitch/Who else will soar above the view of men/and keep us all in servile fearfulness,’ says Flavius to Murellus (in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar Act 1, Scene 1). This he says in reference to their fear that Julius Caesar’s continued ascendency will spell slavery for them and all of Rome; hence, Caesar must be brought down; his wings must be clipped. And like scenes carved out of a Shakespearean tragedy, the conniving world of men has its new Caesars whose feathers need to be plucked - women.
Word on the streets is that women should not be allowed power - enormous; a tiny bit; in whatever shape or form; it doesn’t matter, a woman should not wield any. A typical Sierra Leonean man is sceptical about a woman in authority. It is believed that when a woman is given even a tiny bit of authority, she becomes too controlling (too bossy for the liking of the men around her). And even though this explanation does not account for what men become when in authority, it goes so unchallenged.
Peddlers of this theory, and they are in the majority, fail to see that their mothers are persons of power and authority. Well, sometimes, some street exponents of this no-power-to-women theory agree that motherhood is a place of authority and power, but they also say that the way their mothers used to behave or still behave at home, checked or unchecked, bears testimony to this sad supposition: women in authority is a bane to all men.
In the elections of 2017, in spite of her brilliant ideas, Femi Claudius Cole, a woman presidential candidate, was only talked about in public transportations and spaces in a general term, that of being a woman. Her ideas weren’t questioned or applauded; her gender was what came under scrutiny.
The illiterate half of the population of Sierra Leone, holding to ancient pieces of advice on women, dismissed her readily; well, to be fair, the educated half of the population didn’t pay her a well-deserved attention either.
In truth, the philosophy of most educated people is similar to the philosophy of the uneducated, where women are concerned. Sure enough, the city ended up with a mayor who is a woman. But her candidacy, at the time, on the streets, were discussed in light of her relationship with the APC party. It could be heard, most times, in a poda-poda, a taxi, etc., that her fortunes in the mayoral election depended on her loyalty to the APC party. Men and women alike, loyal to APC, confessed that they were bound to vote for her, a woman, because she bore the party’s symbol. Her gender, to them, was still an issue, however.
Perhaps, it is safe to say that the only thing Sierra Leonean men love more than demeaning women is voting on tribal and party lines. Other than that, these men’s favourite pastime is telling of what women are ‘worth’.
The mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Akie Sawyer, sure does merit her place as mayor and a number of neutral voters were prepared to vote her into office for her track record of excellence; there is nothing anyone can take away from her deservedness. The harsh reality, however, is that had she not aligned with a major political party, like she did, and had the political party overlooked her for the post, thus forcing her to align with some minor party, she might have been completely dismissed for being a woman like Femi was dismissed. Her (Akie Sawyer) excellent track records would have been ignored altogether. This is sad but true.
Given this mind set men carry about them in the streets of Sierra Leone about women and their place in society, vices such as rape; sexual harassment; domestic, physical and mental abuses of women; prevail. It is because of this self-same mind set that the ancient tradition of female genital mutilation continues to wax strong, in spite of efforts to see an end to it.
For some inexplicable reasons, a great many Sierra Leonean men don’t see merit in uplifting women to true echelons of power or social statuses of respect and unadulterated admiration; nor do they feel the need to allow women walk their way through to those corridors. A persistent woman is likely to be labelled a prostitute or given some other negative appellations. A bad day for a feminist would be every day in public transportations where many odd theories from the lips of men, on women, are spewed. From the battle cry of ‘uman dɛn nɔ bɛtɛ uman’ to such denigratory comment like, ‘dɛn pikin dɛn ya dɛn fulish bad’, all discussions centred around women are cringe worthy and disgusting; no one who thinks highly of women would come out of those discussions as sane as they had gone into them.
But worse than men denying women their place or a smidgen of respect is women acceding to roles chosen for them by a rather cruel society. While there are a few hundreds of women fighting to be treated as humans here in Sierra Leone, there are thousands and thousands of others who are still content to stay put and not upset the apple cart of the country’s socio-politics and the gods that rule thereof. Supportive roles, for a woman, is fine, the gods of our socio-politics believe. But an outright lead by a woman is an anathema. To understand this dynamic, no one needs look further than to the two major political parties, which for over sixty years have had men at the forefront as party leaders, chairmen and presidential candidates, and women as their ‘Santa hairy helpers’.
Women’s wings in the major political parties are vibrant and are always looked up to for the political mobilisations. After all mobilisations are done, the women’s wing becomes nothing but a lobbying group, begging crumbs from the powers that be. Their demands are mostly peripheral to the grand scheme of things for whichever party is in power.
At this point in the life of the country, it is impossible to know who are those who really hate the negative treatment of women. Men? Women themselves? Political parties? The government?
Yes, there are NGOs dedicated to the fight for women’s and girls’ empowerment. But which of these are paying lip service, which of these are genuine, are a matter of consistency and effective execution of their plans and programmes. Many have gone before; many are here and many will come. The problems besetting women, by extension, girls, are still here, but hopefully, will be chipped away at, little by little. There is of course the need for those who are genuinely involved in the lives of women and girls, to stay strong and stay true to the vision of seeing that the growing plumages of women and girls remain un-plucked. There is no telling whether or not the socio-political salvation of this country lies in the hands of a woman or women collectively. It will be odd to not see that as a possibility, amidst the obstacles against women. People must keep in mind that it took a woman, Joan of Arc, to free the French from their one-hundred-year beleaguered relationship with the English. So it was that it was a woman General, Queen Massarico, who led the Manes from Mali to places like Sierra Leone. To the shame of the many men in today’s world politics, it is a woman-led government, Jacinda’s, that blazed the trail in the fight against COVID-19.
Akie Sawyer’s lead in the Freetown City Council is similarly a shining star in the midst of the darkness that inhibits women’s progresses. But Sierra Leone needs more women to lead, and lead not in intermittence. Their leadership should not be likened to a sporadic gunfire in the war for the soul of this land. And if this should happen anytime soon, the holistic education of girls must overshadow all agendas put forward by the government, the international community, NGOs, etc.
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