FGM ACTIVIST MARIATU CONTEH NARROWLY ESCAPED DEATH
@salmanconteh
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) activist in Sierra Leone Mariatu Conteh of Robis Village, Port Loko District in the North part of Sierra Leone narrowly escaped been killed by the Sowies and Poro society people after she was caught talking to a group of women in the market square about the barbaric nature of FGM which depict a gross violation of women’s right and dignity.
Mariatu who was forcefully initiated into the Bondo society in the village by her stepmother was seen as a betrayal of the sacred tradition and an inciter to the community aiming to cause upheaval or chaos in the small village. Had it not been for her swiftness, Mariatu would have suffered serious torture before being burnt alive at the market square as tradition demands, according to one anonymous eye witness who always follow Mariatu in her engagement with the young girls.
Robis Village is a small remote village in Port Loko district of Sierra Leone but highly notorious for her traditional beliefs, culture and values, to the point that nearly every young girls and boys are initiates of either the Bondo or Poro society. Even her surrounding villages like Kafunka Village, Eukaya Village, Gbaraymamankie Village, Rogbary Village and Yaliba Village respectively would always converged at the Robis square for initiation and traditional display, and it was assumed that Robis serves as the custodian of such values, therefore talking against such practices is considered a taboo warranting painful death of anyone found culpable.
Born in Freetown on the 6th January 1983, Mariatu at aged 14, joined her stepmother in the Village of Robis after the demise of her biological mother in 1997 and was unfortunately initiated the following year by her step mother who was a devout member of the Sowies and held in high esteemed.
The news of Marietta’s activities spread like the harmattan wind as villagers thronged into the small village to have a share of her flesh for the taboo or traditional upheavals she had caused.
This reporter caught up with the fugitive Mariatu in her hiding place in Freetown during an investigation and in tears narrated her ordeal why she has been targeted by the Sowies and Poro people.
She said after the death of her mother in Freetown there was nobody to look after her and the only remedy was to go back to her father in Robis Village and stayed with her stepmother who initially appeared to be very nice and accommodating.
Whiles staying with her stepmother, one evening her step mother coming from the farm asked Mariatu to escort her to a place she never disclosed. Mariatu never bothered to ask because it was her stepmother’s usual game to take her out in the evening, introducing her to neighbors and friends in the village.
Little deed Mariatu realized that that very moment would serve a better experience in her life time.
‘We walked through the village into the bushes by then darkness began to engulf us, yet we still keep on walking to the point that I hadly see the narrow path. I was in the front whiles my stepmother was behind me telling me to continue walking we will soon be there,’ Mariatu lamented.
She continues, ‘the place get darker and the wind getting cold, fear took over me as I now realized that there were other voices behind us.
We finally reached at a particular place where my stepmother grabbed me from behind and I saw a group of people standing by a hut tied with red cloths. The group of women started singing traditional songs and beating of drums, then I realized that I am in the society bush. I tried to escape but to no avail as the sowies were all over the bush. Then my stepmother hits me with a hard object and handed me over to the initiators who started beating me all over my body and tore my dress. They pinned me on the ground naked, opened my legs, with my mouth and eyes closed. While I was struggling with them, I felt sharp pain on my right leg and my private part, and at the end I saw blood oozing out from the injuries on me. I wept bitterly in vein as nobody was there to console me, one of the sowies then brought white cloth and wrapped it between my legs and the right leg to stop the bleeding.
As if that was not enough, she explained, two years later I was given to one Mr. Abu for marriage who had initially sexually abused me and I gave birth a son for him out of that encounter.
The fugitive activist, further revealed that she engaged into such activities due to the inhuman and barbaric nature involve in the process which totaling violates the right and dignity of a woman, and this angered the sowies including my stepmother.
I started engaging young girls in the village, telling them about the negative effect of FGM and that the pleasantries that people often profess to be when once you are initiated is negative and very demoralizing, she emphasized.
However between 2009 -2010, I brought a guest speaker from Freetown whose name I would not mention for security reasons, to talk to the young girls and older women about the bad effect of the FGM practice and the moral values of life. The engagement was held at the market square and it was well attended. The young girls some of whom had gone through the initiation explained their ordeals and regret of being part, also some older women made confessionary statements after the eloquent address by the guest speaker. This show of brevity annoyed the sowie women and traditional leaders, who forcefully came to the meeting place and disrupt everything, leaving a deadly threat. I swiftly escaped for me life to my house that very day.
Later in the day (evening hours) a large crowd of Sowie’s led by my step mother dressed in their traditional white dress and red headtie singing societal song shouting my name bumped into the house searching for me, by then I was at the back of the house with the kids (two in number).
Since the place was dark, I quickly took the kids and escaped to the nearby village called Kafunka Village where I met a friend who gave me money to aid my escape to Freetown, she narrated, adding also that though it was late, she straightly located her uncle Pa. Lakkoh who out of suspicious that Mariatu would be traced her stepmother, took her to one Pa. Sundufu who onwardly took Mariatu to his (Sundufu) sister.
According an anonymous speaker in the Village, Mariatu noticing such barbaric practices been done on young girls most of whom lost their lives in the process spurred her to raise her voice against such practices. This exercise was never welcomed by the sowies including her stepmother who always threatened to either killed her or have her tongue cut off in the market square.
Despite the threat, Mariatut continues in her protest against such practices talking to young girls not to be lured by the elders or their parent by consenting to such practices, the risk involve is high, noting that what is being protracted as traditional rights and values, and the pride of a perfect women are all wrong and only a life ending agony.
Pa. Lakkoh - uncle to Mariatu, speaking from his hiding place in Freetown, intimated this reporter that he had stressful knock on his door at around midnight followed by a voice, ‘uncle den wan kill me oooo,’ (uncle they wants to kill me).
Recognizing Mariatu’s voice, he rushed and get the door and surprisingly saw her with the two kids shivering heavily.
After calming her down, he said, Mariatu narrated her ordeal and suspicious that Mariatu’s stepmother may likely traced her, he then took her to his friend Pa, Sundufu.
Had it not been for God’s grace they would have killed my daughter just for this so called tradition which I don’t believe in, at least everybody has the freedom to express his/her option on any issue(s) bordering him/her, he angrily said.
Traveling to Robis Village the following day in disguise using a hired motorbike wasn’t an easy tasked considering the road network and the risk involved, however for my story to balance, myself and the rider reached the village at around 5:30pm in the evening.
Concealing my identity, I told them that I am seeking medication, and I was directed to an old women, the leader of the Sowies in the Village. I saw many women in white and red attire with angry looks, but since I came for medication they allowed me to enter the shrine and there I heard her (Y-Bomposseh) indignantly saying, ‘that witch called Mariatu has desecrated our land, therefore we must use her blood for cleansing.’ I swiftly pressed my recorder which was inside my pocket to record the conversation quietly in the corner where they asked us to wait a while.
Also an old man entered the shrine with a pot of concoction made some cantations and giggled, ‘the gods are angry and they have revealed to me that she (referring to Mariatu) was sent in disguise by the West to disgrace our tradition, therefore her head should not stand on her neck or else disaster is eminent.’
I tried to take pictures with my camera, but someone spotted me and shouted, the entire gathering turned towards me and furiously they asked me out or they will give me my manhood for food. I jumped out, my recorder and camera fell on the ground I could not picked it because inside the shrine was not too bright and the atmosphere was tensed.
So we on boarded our bike and left the village hastily at around 10pm of that very day.
However, it could be noted that the whereabouts of Mariatu is still unknown to the Sowies and traditionalists who are furiously looking for her to cleanse the land with her blood.
It is curtained that at Robis the propagation of FGM is considered highly a taboo and any defaulter must be burnt alive and his/her blood use to appease the gods of the land.
