“Is the country ready for a female president?” Student perspectives on gender, violence, and politics in Sierra Leone

• In Event: Gender beyond the basics: Critical studies of gendered violence in education

Proposal

On August 10, 2022, violent anti-government protests broke out in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown and other towns in the northern region over rising fuel and food prices. Students and their families have been significantly affected by these precarious economic and political conditions, which have worsened during the COVID pandemic. Yet there are few opportunities for students, especially young women, to share their perspectives on the current state of the country. In this paper, we discuss student views on gender, violence, and politics in Sierra Leone and the direct impact that these issues have had on student’s experiences both in and outside of school.

The historical significance of Sierra Leone as an education hub in West Africa and its experience with civil war from 1991-2002, the 2014 Ebola outbreak, and 2020 COVID-19 pandemic all resulting in school closures for over 2.5 million students makes it an important case study of the politics of contemporary education in Africa. Nearly two decades after the end of the civil war, the country continues to face many challenges in the education system, especially at the secondary school level due to partisan politics between the country’s two main political parties in Sierra Leone: the All People’s Congress (APC) and the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) (First author, 2022). Adolescent girls have been disproportionately affected by a broken education system resulting from crises amidst existing cultural norms, gender-based violence, and teenage pregnancies (Menzel, 2019).

This paper shares emergent themes on education, gender, and politics from 24 interviews the first author conducted with secondary school students in Freetown and Makeni as part of a larger study on Sierra Leone’s 2018 Free Quality School Education Program. In addition, the second author, who was one of the student interlocutors in the main research study, conducted an independent project on the effects of COVID-19 on school-going pupils in their community. Together the two authors provide a range of insights on how students in Sierra Leone understand and articulate current political tensions in the country and their impact on their education and their everyday lives.

The first emergent theme in this paper is that while studies have shown education and schooling increases civic engagement and political participation (Adely, 2012; Nuamah, 2019), young, educated women in Sierra Leone are being discouraged from talking about and participating in politics. In a focus group discussion with female secondary students in Makeni, young women said “girls coming up these days have a passion for politics”. They went further in stating that “nowadays, we are seeing when the male are ruling the country, the country is not like developing. So, we think, let's say if all of us put our heads on deck, put a woman in power, let's see how the country will be. But like for now our parents, they'll say, ‘No. Women don't lead people.’” In addition, they expressed feeling marginalized in their communities, especially when it comes to politics. One student explained how “For now, in our community, they see us as little kids, so we are not allowed to talk about politics.”

Students also got into a detailed discussion about tensions between Sierra Leone’s main political parties. “Especially like now they are using this party system, like let's say the APC and the SLPP. If you say you talk about politics, you wouldn't side with both sides. You like focus on one side. Let's say you side the APC. The ones that are in the SLPP, they will start to say, "this girl is talking about APC." It would be like a threat to you cause if they let's say those youths, they hear that word from you, like seriously, some of them will try and harm you. Yeah. Especially if you're saying something that is relevant towards the wrongdoings of them, they will try and harm you and then get rid of you. So, now as kids or ladies, we are not able to protect ourselves from them. So, we just keep quiet.” These discussions demonstrate how students, particularly young women, are politically marginalized in Sierra Leone.

Another emergent theme from student interviews is that current laws against on gender and violence are insufficient in protecting schoolgirls sexual and gender-based violence. Students are asking for stronger community by-in to hold perpetrators of violence accountable. These concerns were well-articulated in an interview with a female student. “Well, like, um, the First Lady has passed a law that says, "Hands Off Our Girls". That a child below 18 years, we are not supposed to tamper with her. But that thing. I will just say, it’s just a law but it's not going through because you can see lots of it happening. Teenage pregnancy is plenty. Even though the law is there, but it is still plenty.” When asked how to make the law more effective she stated, “The law is there already. We only need the society to support it. The law is there. If the society can cooperate with it, like, let me say, if I'm passing by, I see an older man with a young girl, playing with her in a manner that I'm not satisfied with, I have all the right to report that older man. So, if the society can do that, I think it'll be a better place for all of us, because the law is already there about who will go and report the case?”

These findings demonstrate that young women in Sierra are excluded from political participation even when they are educated. In addition, education has not been able to protect young women from various forms of violence, especially sexual and gender-based violence. Findings from this paper raise important questions about social justice and inclusion of young Sierra Leonean women in their schools and in their communities.

Author

• Christiana Kallon Kelly, University of Pennsylvania