“Activism allowed me to be myself, meet other people, and share experiences” – Kadiatou Konaté (Guinea) – 3/3
This is the third and final part of our conversation with Kadiatou Konate, a Guinean feminist activist.
We have talked about her adolescence and her commitment to girls’ rights, as well as her first acts of resistance (Part 1). She spoke to us about the situation of girls in Guinea, the challenges she faces, her motivations, and the impact of her actions (Part 2). In this third part, Kadiatou explains the impact of activism on herself and her community, her prospects, and her dreams for girls.
Kadiatou was interviewed by Françoise Moudouthe in late 2019 as part of a global project documenting girls’ resistance. The conversation was edited into this three-part interview by Nana Bruce-Amanquah and Chanceline Mevowanou 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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You’ve been involved in this work for over six years now. If you had to reflect on these years, what changes have you witnessed? What impact has your resistance had on your life and the lives of those around you?
Activism allowed me to be myself, find my reality, meet other people, and share experiences with them, interact with people, share emotional moments. Girls reach out to me and tell me that I inspire them and that they want to get into activism like me. It genuinely makes me happy. The prevalence of early marriages has dropped from 64% to 51%. We don’t act like we’re the only ones to have worked for this, but we significantly contributed to achieving this result. The FGM rate went from 97% to 95%. People are increasingly reporting rape cases. Our work is paying off. We don’t only use the media; we’re working directly with the people in their communities. Our work is covered by the media, and it has a huge impact on people because now they reach out to us often when there are cases of abuse. That’s a positive change that we made in the country. I have noticed that in the last 3 years, there are more girls in primary and middle schools in Guinea. And they are now taking the lead in the schools. This will only go on if we keep the focus on girls' education.
What importance does solidarity have in your resistance? First, tell me what solidarity means to you.
Solidarity is helping each other out, holding each other’s hands, and not letting go. It’s working together. I believe solidarity is being a team. I like teamwork a lot. I work better with a team when I can ask for other people’s opinions. I’m used to collective labor. I truly want to share all I can do with people. Seeing a smile on everyone’s face makes me smile too. I also like it when people disagree with what I say. I don’t like being told that everything I do is always good.
Besides solidarity between the young people of the club, do you feel solidarity with older women? Have you experienced it, personally?
On the road, in our caravans, during our public awareness campaigns, our marches, or our panel discussions, we are joined by groups of older women. They speak with us, embrace our causes, and even agree to come and share their experiences with us. That’s an example of solidarity from older women whose experience helps us work better.
When you look to the future, how do you imagine the world that you are trying to build for girls? What does it look like?
A big world, a big family. I often say that the club is a big family, and that all the girls who meet there are at home. The goal is to create a big family to gather all the young girls in Guinea and beyond so that we speak in unison, give the same information everywhere we go, say the same things everywhere we show up and fight together. So that we can say one day, that we have been able to change something in the world. It is to be granted our rights, to be listened to, and to be able to impose what we want in life.
It's about setting up a safe, protective environment where women will be free to do what they want, and where they won’t be judged. A place where no one will say “You are beautiful” just because you are a woman; where they won’t hear “we put you in this position” because you are a woman; where they won’t be told, “because you’re a woman, I forgive you”, “because you’re a woman, I abandon you”. A place where nobody will say “because you did something wrong, I punish you”, or “because you made a mistake, I’ll fire you”, or “No, because you’re a mother you can’t take on this job”. All over the world, girls are born with an inferior status that’s given to us by society. Directly or not, it’s a feeling we always carry.
My vision, my dream, is to see all over the world, women presidents, ministers, entrepreneurs...who will be able to say that they succeeded thanks to the club. Because they met great girls who made them who they are.
That’s a really powerful vision. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us, Kadiatou!
This conversation is part of a series of interviews with women from West Africa on the theme of resistance. Click here to see all the interviews.