“You either decide to follow your own path or suffocate” - Tchonté Silué (Côte d’Ivoire) - 3/4

We continue our discussion with Tchonté Silué, an Ivorian blogger and entrepreneur in the education sector. She previously talked about her love for books, how hard-working she was as a girl during her childhood (Part 1), and her conversion to Islam (Part 2). In this third part, she talks about how she started to blog and the creation of her library, the Eulis Centre.

Tchonté was interviewed by Françoise Moudouthe in late 2019, as part of a global project documenting girls’ resistance. The conversation was edited into this four-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 may contain 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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How would you explain resistance in your own words?

It’s making my own decisions. For instance, today I consider myself a feminist. I don’t want anyone to tell me that I can’t do this or that because I’m a woman. When I think of resistance, I think of freedom of choice and respect for the choice of others as well. One of the values that is very dear to me is respect for choices. I am delighted to have had parents who respected my decision to convert. Resistance for me is my freedom to make my choices and have them respected by others.

How would you describe the way you resist today?

Today, I see myself as someone who wants to educate herself and who wants to help others to educate themselves. My goal is to help others to educate themselves. My resistance is against ignorance. It is against being limited in terms of thoughts and ideas. It is to be able to say to myself, for example, that when I see information on the internet that may be fake news, I should not relay this information but rather go beyond what I have read. My resistance is to bring people to think, to educate themselves, to learn, and then to be able to have the foundation to take off. For me, education is the basis of everything. I want to provide the necessary tools so that everyone can choose their path.

What are some examples of resistance you see or have seen around you?

When I think of resistance, I think of female figures that I see as role models. So, I take Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for her fight for feminism, for women's rights, for everyone's rights. I think of the blogger Anne Marie Befoune because, for me, she doesn't fit into a mold. I love her writing and I love the fact that she also gives herself the freedom to act as she likes for her own life, regardless of what others might say.

I love Mylène Flicka, who is a blogger as well for the same reason, and because she does something different. They are doing jobs that are not jobs that you would have said, "When you grow up, you’ll do this." These are things that we discovered growing up. I'm talking about activism. If you take the case of Mylène today, she decided to highlight African talents. It's something that you come across at some point in your life, and you tell yourself that the world needs that and that's what you're going to bring to it. For me, these are people who don't let themselves be put in boxes.

As you mention bloggers, I’m thinking about the fact that you chose your laptop as the second important item. Why did you pick that?

I wanted to show two items linked to my passions: books and writing. I write more on my computer or my phone than with a pen. I picked the computer because if I’m somewhat renowned today, it’s thanks to my blog and my writing. Writing is one of my biggest passions. I started blogging in 2012 when I was 18 years-old.

What happened that made you want to blog?

I was a freshman in college. I had a friend who had a blog, where she would post her pictures and she would put little texts with them. So, I discovered her blog, I liked it, and from her blog, I discovered another blog that she followed. It was Yehni Djidji's blog. She would sometimes post short stories that she wrote. I was already writing stories in middle school, and I thought it was a good opportunity to start a blog so I could share my stories too. So that's how I created my blog.

Why do you think people resist? When you think about these people that you admire or yourself, what’s the driving force behind this resistance?

I will say it is because we have no other choice. You either decide to follow your path or suffocate. What I do today is promote reading, promote books, and promote education. After I did finance in college, I could have said, “OK, I'll continue there, get a good job and sit in an office.” But I wouldn't have survived. I think I would have felt oppressed. I don’t think we have a choice. We need to do what’s thrilling for us. But I also think that we who say we have no choice but to do what makes us tick are privileged.

Could you tell me more?

I was lucky to have my parents. I don't pay rent. So, I can allow myself to say that I'm going to do things that thrill me, even though right now I'm not making a ton. Whereas if I were in a different situation, maybe I wouldn't have thought the same. Other people in our generation have huge financial burdens and feel like they can't afford to do this. I also think of my parents who followed a classical path. My mother is a teacher. I think that was a very considerable status at the time. My father was recruited to one of the top schools in the country. Those were good opportunities, and they took advantage of them. I think people of their generation were not people who were like, "We want to pursue our dreams." They were like, "We want to do a job that allows us to have money to take care of our family."

What do you think makes this generational shift from your parents' generation to yours? What makes it possible for you to have the privilege of doing what thrills you?

It's education. I think my parents had an education of: "You have to work well and then you're going to take care of your family". I feel like now education is less rigid, compared to their time. Then, if I take my case, not about the generation, but as a person, I had books that opened so many possibilities for me! So much so, that I was thinking a little differently. Then I had the opportunity to travel, and my travels opened my mind even more. In terms of generations, there is also a big gap and there is the internet. We don't think like our parents, because with technology and all the information we have access to, it's clear that we can see things differently.

Speaking of information and technology, I realise that the common point between the bloggers you mentioned and the people who initiated your reflection on Islam is social media. And you describe yourself as a person who is addicted to social media. Can you tell me about the role of social networking in your life?

I started using computers relatively early. In eighth grade, since we didn't have an internet connection at home, I went to internet cafés. My relationship with the internet was really to go and watch Lorie's videos on YouTube or to go on dating sites for teenagers like Chat.com or 1,2,3 Love. And there was only one person that I had a long correspondence with, and then we saw each other years later. Then there was the Hi5 era. I discovered Hi5 through one of my classmates in tenth grade, and by the time I said, "Oh, I'm on Hi5," they said no, the thing now is Facebook. So, I switched to Facebook.

At the time, we were just posting pictures and status updates that were a little childish sometimes. In my senior year, there was a crisis, so we were venting a bit on social networks. That's when I discovered Facebook columns. Then, there is the first year of university where I discovered blogs. I started to learn how to use the internet to publish things, stories I was writing, and my thoughts. My relationship with social networks now... it's a relationship with a platform for expression, for writing, and for meeting people. Social networks play a very big role in my life. In terms of education, in terms of expression, and in terms of activities, even the lucrative ones.

And in terms of resistance?

The blog allows me to share my ideas that are sometimes different from the norm. For example, when I converted to Islam, I wrote an article about my conversion. It was on my first blog at the time that I used to share what I was going through. Whether it was things that frustrated me, things that made me happy, or things I was passionate about.

And can you tell me about a time when you found that using social media was crucial to your resistance today?

Social media helped me when I opened my library, the Eulis Center. I started with just a hundred books. And then when I posted the picture on social media that I was opening a center, I received many, many, many books! Today my library is stocked with almost 90% of the books that were donated by people who discovered me on the internet.

Wow!

Yes! I can say that I measured the impact that social networks could have on my life. The same goes for when I put my culture on display. When I started to learn Senufo, I had a lot of people telling me "I'm learning the language thanks to you, thanks to your videos". I realise daily that there is an impact.

Can you tell me more about the Eulis Center?

The Eulis Center opened its doors in April 2017. The library was born out of this desire to transform education. After doing my master's degree, I returned to Côte d’Ivoire and went to teach at my old university in Grand-Bassam. While I was teaching, I told myself that I would keep my salary and invest in a social enterprise. Emphasis on social enterprise, not an NGO. I wanted a project that would be lucrative and that would solve an issue in society.

During this time, I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. He talked about how when he was nine years old, he created a kind of library in his friend's father's garage. I thought, well, I could do that too because I love to read. And so, I thought that if I created a library, I could use it for educational activities, to test the ideas I have about education.

What does the Eulis Center look like today, a few years later?

Today, the library is open to everyone. I now organise some kind of book club there every month with adults. We each read a book that we bring back and then we discuss and eat together. But in the end, our main target is children from elementary to middle school. And so, we have the books and the children come to read. We offer computer classes, English classes, and art workshops that are all given by volunteers. I'm so active on social media that a lot of people find out about the center and want to help. Frankly, it's great.

But at the same time, I realised that we were always reaching the same group of kids. I wanted to go inland because I did not know the realities there. We visited two localities. We went to my village and a village in the west of the country. Our host in the west of the country was a high school teacher who followed me on Twitter but whom I did not know personally. Now I want to visit more communities, bring them trunks of books so they can have book clubs and open their mini-libraries of sorts.

Is there an encounter with young people that you had through the Center that has left an impression on you?

One of the encounters that left the biggest impression on me was a little girl who couldn't read when she was in sixth grade. She came from an underprivileged background. She repeated her grade because she was going for a walk with her friends and was missing some classes. During this time, her friends moved up to the next grade. She and I were talking, and I said, "But look at you, you have shortcomings to address. You're a girl but you shouldn't be told you're just going to get married." Her mother didn't go to school. Maybe that's the model she saw too, and she didn't realise how important school is. I would tell her, “This year we must get more done because you're not going to waste your life”. I tried to explain to her that she had to get out of this, that her education was what was going to save her.

As an adult, what did this experience of counseling a young girl mean to you? How did it feel to be the leader in this context?

When I first started being active, I didn't particularly think that it was girls that I was going to help. I just thought it would be the next generation, both girls and boys. Still, I am involved with a nonprofit, Ahiman Women, which does a mentoring program for young girls in college. I came in as a mentor in 2014 and I am super happy when we do our activities. I see that our mentees are getting the things that I, myself, would have wanted to have when I was in college. In school, I wish they would have talked to us about the importance of being in clubs, doing community service, and trainings to learn things that unfortunately we don't learn in school. Honestly, it makes me extremely happy. It's something that you feel deep inside that you can't describe.

I feel it as well when I work in the Eulis Center. I think, "Wow, we're educating people! We're giving them the right tools that maybe we didn't have." So that makes me happy. That's how I feel when I think about this young girl.

In the fourth part, we’ll talk to Tchonté about solidarity and the impact of her resistance. Click here for the final part.