“Resistance is really refusing a system that is completely wrong” - Josephine Kamara (Sierra Leone) 2/2

We are in conversation with Josephine Kamara, girl advocate, environmental activist and young communications professional from Sierra Leone. 

Josephine shared about her growing up with a desire to go to school and heal from the abuse she experienced in the first part of the interview. In this second and final part, she talks about what inspired her resistance and the advocacy she now does with Purposeful. 

Josephine was interviewed by Aissatou Bah in late 2019, as part of a global project documenting girls’ resistance. The conversation has been edited into this two-part interview by Nadia Ahidjo, for our #GirlsResistWA series. You can find out more about the series here.

Trigger warning: this conversation contains mentions of sexual violence and abuse which may be triggering for readers. Kindly take a moment to decide if you want to keep reading. If you do proceed, we encourage you to centre your wellbeing and stop reading at any point, as you need. 

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What was it like to be you back in the day? What made you angry? What made you afraid or filled with hope?

As a girl, men made me angry. Men made me afraid. And school was what filled me with hope. Because I saw my mom and my grandma didn't have the opportunity to really go to school, stay in school and graduate from school. And I was doing that. I had hope not just for myself, but also for my family. I saw myself as the light of the family.

When I was a girl, most of the time when I went out, I’d go to a space called the Peacelinks Education Center. There, I’d escape and be able to paint, play, dance, you know, do things freely. And I had a mentor there. His name is A.J. He always made time to talk to me and believed in me. He's the one that actually saw the Josephine I am today. He said: “you are going to travel the world, and you're going to empower others. You are going to bring out the voice for girls. You're going to make sure their inner power is out because girls already have power.” 

He kept on saying that to me and he helped me to know that it's not only about school work, but you have to get involved in extra activities, just to keep yourself alive. And that's where I started dancing, writing music, and painting. I used to love painting. I don't paint now, but I just love art.

Who were your other allies and champions? Did you have others besides A.J.?

I had my grandmother. She’s the best. She’d tell me stories about her childhood - most of them were not happy stories, by the way. She’d talk about her marriage, and how her husband used to beat her up. But she told me the amazing story of how she had had enough and moved out of her home with her two daughters. She had to leave her sons behind, sadly. But she got out. That’s when it clicked for me: ah ah! There are women in my family who have been fighting for years.

As a girl, men made me angry. Men made me afraid. And school was what filled me with hope.

Tell me about how you resisted as a girl - how you pushed back against everything you were observing and experiencing. What was your first act of resistance?

Let me think. Yeah, that’s easy. My first act of resistance was deciding to become a member of the Children’s Forum Network, which was led by this young man called Chernor Bah. 

As a child, I had been so inspired by Chernor. I still remember that one time when I had seen him on TV. He was talking about child marriage, and he was championing the Child Rights Act. He was talking about all these figures, the number of girls that are out of school everywhere and I said to myself, this is exactly the kind of person I want to be. 

I was a small girl in primary school, but I knew I wanted to be part of that network. I would see these children speaking on TV programs and leading campaigns, and I wanted to be part of that. Those children marched the streets of Freetown. They went to parliament; they went to the president and said, this is what we want, this is what is going to make the children of this nation safer. They set the stepping stone for this new generation of people who are resisting the system.

And I did! We felt as if we were part of something great. We were changing the world for children. When I was young, I carried the Child Rights Act with me everywhere. I knew all the words by heart, like the Bible! I mastered it. I worked with it. And I started helping other children learn about the Act and all of that. 

That is a big act of resistance for a little girl!

There were smaller ones too. Going to school was a strong act of resistance. The very moment Mr. Mohammed took advantage of my childhood, it started for me. I have always grown with that in my mind. I question everything. When people see me passionately addressing issues, like I am in the forefront of the Black Tuesday campaign that engages communities about rape and sexual penetration, people think these things don't happen. It happens. And most of the time it's not strangers; it's people that they are very close to. 

What was it about your life that made you want to or need to push back?

People I grew up with, my parents, like my mom and my grandma. I love them, but I said to myself, I am never going to be them. Now, they can accept things the way they are, but I was not going to accept it. I was going to school. I was going to complete school. I was going to college. I was going to complete college, and I was going to make something sustainable, something wonderful out of my life. And another thing is the experience with the men who abused me. I said to myself that I'm going to have power and voice and no man is going to take advantage of me. And it's not just for me. I was going to protect other girls.

As a girl, what sort of backlash or challenges have you faced in your resistance and in your journey? 

The church pushed back a lot when I was a girl. Because the church's idea of women and girls is to submit. Even after college, a lot of people were telling me to get married. Like it's time, it's time for you to get married now. I think the church is one institution that really keeps girls from speaking up and speaking out. Same for the school system - you're made to believe that home economics is for girls and only the boys thrive in maths. 

What was the hardest thing you experienced as you resisted?

That you are just a girl. People do not really value you or respect you. They think your voice is not necessary. You don't matter at all. It took a long time before I could have the courage to speak up. Even when I had great ideas, I didn't talk about them. 

What does resistance mean to you?

Resistance is really rebuking, refusing! Resistance for me doesn't even have to be a group, because personally now I have been able to resist. I have managed or trained myself to resist. If it's not right, it's not going to be settled with me. Resistance is really just refusing a system that is completely wrong.

I see a lot of resistance work, and I'm leading some of it. For example, the pregnant girls’ rights to education - a group of girls and their allies who are really devastated by this ban. You know if you're pregnant in Sierra Leone, you're not allowed to go to school. And the most important thing is the system even suppresses girls when they want to go back to school after pregnancy.

In 2022, Josephine was able to give us an update regarding the ban: 

When I gave this account, the ban was still on but now the situation has shifted drastically. The ban has been lifted and a sexual reproductive health task force was established by the Ministry of Education. I was part of this task force, representing Purposeful. Purposeful co-chaired the working group that drafted the radical inclusion in education policy. I was directly involved in convening the Coalition for Girls Education, an alliance of 30 organisations that successfully used different strategies including strategic litigation, strategic engagement and public campaigning to overturn the ban on pregnant girls from school and enact a new radical inclusion in education policy in Sierra Leone. I convened activists, supported girls and survivors to speak up, led engagements with development partners, parliamentarians and religious leaders among others and was often the face and voice of the resistance against the ban on national and sometimes international media platforms.

What is it like to be you now?

Now? Fun, exciting! I am this amazing person to be around. Some of my friends refer to me as an extrovert, very loud and lights up the place. I'm the life of the party and it feels good to be me. And I'm sure I have built strength from my past.

And what would you tell your younger self, now that you’ve grown so much?

I wish I could tell my younger self to not be afraid, that the world is safe out there, but I'd be lying to her. But I will tell her no matter what, something good is going to come out of you. You just keep believing in yourself and don't allow anything or anyone to intimidate you or take that dream away from you.

If you think about the Josephine that you were as a girl and the Josephine that you are now, clearly in both parts, you've cultivated your voice. But how has your resistance evolved?

The Josephine that I am now is trying to save the Josephine that I was. I am truly trying to save myself from the past. Not just that one girl, but a lot of other girls that I believe might be going through what I went through.

Before, my resistance was more personal, just me making up my mind that I am not going to accept this. I'm going to do things differently. Just me always reminding myself: you are great, don't allow any man to tell you this or that. But now my resistance is a more in-your-face kind of resistance. If it's not favourable for girls, I go forward and I say this is not a good system. We must smash the system, especially the system of patriarchy in Sierra Leone.

I wish I could tell my younger self to not be afraid, that the world is safe out there, but I'd be lying to her.

And now?

Right now, my resistance is very powerful. It's the kind of resistance that people stop and listen to. Right now, I am the kind of person that really campaigns, works with people, who is an ally for girls and works with them. And my voice is even louder. My advocacy has evolved, mainly because I'm with this fabulous team at Purposeful that cares so much about girls and their rights. Like I said, it has always been in me, but it was just looking for the right opportunity to come out. 

But part of that evolution is also that I have found my voice. A lot of people just think girls don't have a voice. I hate people that say we work for the voiceless. Who told you they're voiceless? They always have a voice, it just needs to come out. Right now, my resistance is more powerful. It is like the kind of resistance that makes people stop and stare. I go into offices and people are like: "We heard you on the radio! This issue you're dealing with, it's very controversial, but we think it's worth fighting for".

Now, my resistance is power. It is fire.

This has been a powerful interview, thank you so much Josephine for sharing your story! 

You can explore the other stories in this series here.