Women in village vs. city

I recently read the book Monique and the Mango Rains about a Peace Corps volunteer in the 80’s stationed in Mali writing about her experience. The book focused on women’s rights and Malian culture. I thought I could give a brief profile of two different women that I have worked with during my service

Fatamata Sydibe

Fatamata (age 26) grew up in Segou Mali and went to high school up to grade 10 then dropped out to get married off at age 17. She is the first wife of her husband and she has three children under the age of eight. She works as a secretary at Miselini (my work) from 9-4 Monday threw Friday, and because she has a one year old child she gets an hour off every morning to breast feed. She wakes at 5am to start making the morning porridge and because her house servants left her she and her mother take turns preparing the daily meals in the morning before work. On Saturday it is laundry day where she washes by hand the family laundry for the week, which is no small task. She owns her own moto that she has worked hard to afford and the majority of her money goes to her husband who makes all of the monetary decisions for the family. From her salary her husband gives her an allowance for herself that she purchases her cloths. She is in charge of food shopping every week and rationing the food amongst the family.

Aminata Berry

Aminata (age 52) grew up in a small town in Guinea. She was one of 15 siblings and was the top female student in her class up until grade 5 where she was forced to drop out so her younger brothers could go to school and she would have to take care of the house. She was married by 14 years old and soon started having a family. Her husband moved around and married three other wives. When Aminata’s first son started going to school, she would take his text books at night and teach herself math, French and even English when they lived in Ghana. She ended up settling in Doune Guinea, and was working as the town mid-wife, activist against women’s genital mutilation (excision), president of the women’s group, village pharmacist, hospital nurse, village chef and host. She was living on top of a hill and was often seen carrying heavy buckets of water for her family. Due to her busy schedule she often got to skip making family meals and one of the other three wives would prepare while she was off working. She received very little money for any of her work and all of her money went straight to construction of her own house. After 40 years of living with a man she never loved she was moving out, something unheard of in village. She saved her own money and on the outskirts of town was building her own three bedroom house. She was also taking moto lessons; in Guinea it is almost unheard of for women to drive a moto. She was the president of the group I worked with and was by far the most influential person I had ever met.

Both of these women have a lot in common however they are very rare exceptions. In village it isn’t unheard of for women to never leave their compound with no contact with people other than their family.

Also women are in charge of all cooking, cleaning, fetching water, field work, raising children, selling in market and buying in market. All of those things are done by hand year round. Now I am not advocating polygamy but it is easy to see when there are several wives that the work gets split and life does become much easier.