“I knew that getting my high school diploma was the key to freedom for me” - Clémentine Yannagda (Burkina Faso) - 1/3

Clémentine Yannagda is a sexual and reproductive health rights activist from Burkina Faso. In this interview, she tells us about the tragedies she experienced during her adolescence and the resistance that followed. First, for her education (Part 1) and then for her participation in an organisation dedicated to sexual health to honour her friend (Part 2). In the end, Clémentine talks about the influence of her resistance on her community and shares with us her dreams for the future (Part 3).

Clémentine was interviewed by Françoise Moudouthe in late 2019, as part of a global project documenting girls’ resistance. Nana Bruce-Amanquah and Chanceline Mevowanou edited the conversation into this three-part interview for our #GirlsResistWA series. You can learn more about the series here. 

Trigger Warning: This conversation contains mentions of violence and abuse that may be triggering for readers. Kindly take a moment to decide if you want to keep reading. If you proceed, we encourage you to focus on your well-being and stop reading at any point if you need to

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Thank you for talking to me, Clémentine. Let me start by asking you this: when you think about the time you were a young girl or a teenager, what age bracket comes to mind? 

I’d say from 12 to 18. My mother passed away when I was 12. She was the most important person in my life at the time, and I could tell her anything. She listened to me and advised me. Soon after her passing, I lost my best friend, Delphine. She was a year older than me. She was a sister from another mother, the one I turned to after losing my mom. I also lost her after an unsafe abortion. I lost the two most important people in my life too soon. So, I found myself alone. I didn’t have anyone in my corner, and I had to grow. It was a painful time; I was deeply upset.

I’m so sorry for your loss. As it was a turning point, I assume these experiences truly had an impact on you as a young girl. When you look back on your adolescence from 12 to 18, what kind of girl were you? How would you describe yourself back then? 

I was a shy girl, very fragile. I almost didn’t talk. At a minor opposition, I would cry. This personality shaped the woman I am today, but it was difficult back then. Especially at school where I was bullied by my male classmates. 

My parents made me transfer schools in the first grade because the first school didn’t fit their standards. In the new school, a group of boys waited for me at the end of the day to threaten me or beat me when I had better grades than them. They didn’t like that a girl was doing better than them. I stayed in that school for 3 or 4 years, and I was traumatised. My grades plummeted; I went from being first in class to being ranked 11th in the third grade. My father wasn’t happy, so I had to reveal what was happening in school. I had been too afraid of retaliation from my bullies to talk about it to my parents. At first, I told my teacher about it, and they were punished in class. Sadly, they retaliated on the same evening and attacked me after class, so I got scared. 

I’m so sorry! Going to school was distressing for you! Was it more peaceful at home? How were you brought up and with whom? 

I lived with my parents until the sixth grade, when I subsequently lost them; my mother first and then my father two years later. After our parents passed, my siblings and I were separated. My younger sister was with an elder in another city. One of our brothers graduated from high school and went to college in Ouagadougou. 

I lived with my first tutor, a close cousin of my father’s who had lived with my parents while he was doing his professional training. He then got married, and I lived with his wife and their kids. However, while living with him I experienced the same trauma as in primary school. It was as if I wasn’t a family member; they would have family meetings without me. I wasn’t valued. Besides, my guardian was against letting girls go to school. For him, girls had to stay home and undertake the house chores. My place was in the kitchen with my aunt. When I wanted to study, they would always find something for me to do. And it was worse during the strikes. 

During your adolescence, what social events were significant for you?

The political context was marked by repeated strikes. There were many protests and strikes in educational institutions. I couldn’t go to school and my studies meant a lot to me. I couldn’t leave the house. I had to stay at my guardian’s and while I lived there, I couldn't study because I was overwhelmed with chores. 

You couldn’t study at home, but you graduated high school. How did you manage to get some studying done? 

When I was able to go to school, I used my free time to study there, during recess or off-peak periods. Before going back home in the evening, I would study. I also worked late at night when my uncle and his family weren’t there. I needed to get my high school diploma. I needed that degree to reunite with my brothers in Ouagadougou and go to college. Otherwise, I would have had to stay with my guardian and endure everything I was going through there. I worked relentlessly to get my high school diploma because I knew that it was the key to freedom for me. Later, I went to live with my maternal grandmother, and I graduated high school at 18. 

Finally! And I realise that we circle back to the age that marked the end of your adolescence. 

Yes, 18. That’s when I got my high school diploma, and it was very important to me. It meant that I could have a future career. I could leave my town of Koudougou where I didn’t have good memories. I felt I had grown and that I could move on. Graduating from high school freed me from the memory of my late friend, and of my suffering in school and at my guardian’s. I left all these hardships behind to start over. Today, I live with my siblings in Ouagadougou in a house our parents built. It’s a place where I feel at home, more than at my guardian’s, in the past. 

Clémentine truly fought for her education, but it wasn’t her only resistance as a teenager. In the second part, of our conversation, we talk more about how losing her friend influenced her, and how she started to fight for sexual and reproductive health rights. Click here to read the second part.