Journee International de la Femme a Badou!!

This year I did not attend WWEC, Women’s Wellness and Empowerment Conference. It fell around the same time as International Women’s Day, for which some of the ladies I work with and I wanted to do something special here in Badou. We began talking about what we wanted to do back in January. We wanted to prepare sketches, hold a parade, and maybe a small picnic amongst a few. Simply, March 8 would be to celebrate what women do for their community, their family and how that community should, in turn, show their appreciation. Leading up to it, a few of us distributed ‘envelopes’ to authorities, local NGOs, and businesses. More than just inviting them to our event, of course, it was our local fundraising effort. And they came through. I partnered with Madame Chang (SuperStar #1). We spent two very hot mornings walking across Badou, first to distribute and then collect. It made me very comforted to see (at least at this superficial level) that some of the ‘grands hommes’ in town were respectful and supportive of our intentions.

Now on to what we did. I’m not going to get into the village politics behind why it ended up on Mar 20 and not the 8^th; just know that the whole event was (sort of) taken out of the hands it started in and controlled by the Affaires Sociales and the state library (CLAC) director. I will assume some responsibility for this. I wasn’t sufficiently assertive about what we wanted to do, as in keep the scale manageable and the attention on the information/message the women wanted to give. We prepared the sketches on the importance of empathetic communication between mothers and daughters. We placed emphasis on how mothers can be the primary source of support for their girls, in their education and at home. I left Badou right before the event for 1) a SED close-out meeting in Kpalime and 2) for the migraine-inducing responsibility of collecting our t-shirts. Upon return, I learned that one of the national political parties was to say a ‘few’ words during our presentation…and that they would pay for the center and the chairs and the media coverage (still waiting on the last). I was piqued. I felt the blood pulsating in my temples, as I do when I feel a frustration I can do nothing about. Our parade, however, livelied up my soul. We were a raucous mass of girls and women parading through town – singing songs, dancing, simply feeling good about being female.

When we arrived at the center, my heart plummeted as I saw the party had hung their slogan up on stage. They, essentially, were using our presentation, the collection of these women, for other purposes to dole out their political messages. Someone had pulled a fast one on us.

Erin and I sat outside, waiting for the political representatives to leave the center. I felt no desire to greet or acknowledge them in any way as I walked past them into the center.

Our sketches were AWESOME. All the women got into it, sporting ‘costumes’ as young girls, gendarms, seedy zedmen, mean moms and nice moms. It made me really proud of them all. They performed their parts well, confidently, no nervous-laughter or faint voices from anyone.  It was enough to quell the irritation I felt about the political usurpation that morning. From the laughter and sounds coming from the audience I gathered that they were into it too. I have videos of their performances, which malheureusement, Togo internet is not strong enough for me to upload. But enjoy the images!!