Ejemplos de Notas Aclaratorias

Taking control of a situation, being in control, and controlling herself are frequent themes for Isatou. Being out of control is something that she wants to avoid. She believes she will gain control through education. Isatou likes to talk and she relishes the topic of an educated woman vs. an uneducated woman. She will happily pontificate on this theme repeatedly. In the second interview in May 2010 in her primary school headmistress’ office, she explained her views as such:

60. Jordene: So let me ask you, what is the difference between a girl in school and a girl not in school?

61. Isatou: A girl in school is more important than the girl outside because the girl outside she won’t learn anything unless to cook in the

this (pointing to a book). She won’t know how to . . . won’t

know how to pretend, umh, to present herself, how to secure herself from sickness. She won’t know anything like what we children are saying. Because I won’t put myself out there although I didn’t dream of do that. Many of them are saying, “Bad water no de clean”; that is what we are saying.

In this brief monologue, Isatou claims her place as an educated young girl who knows about books, how to present herself, and how to keep herself healthy. She affirms that she will stay in school because once you are out of school you will be tarnished forever.

Later, Isatou affirms that it is better to be a girl: 62. Isatou: I think it better to be a girl. 63. Jordene: How come?

64. Goldy: What’n do?

65. Isatou: Because if I'm a girl, like right now, they said girls are important more than boys. Because they have seen our

strengths. Now they say, if a girlchild is educate, they may help you. But if, like if I'm a boy, if I'm a girl, de another one is a boy, if I sat my exam, my WASSCE examination (West Africa Senior School Certificate Exam), if I am I the boy pass me or I pass the boy, if we carry our results any place, they may take me first before the boy.

66. Goldy: Hmm, so if they have the same results they make take the girl first. Everyone say. Who na de say say if the girlchild is more important?

67. Isatou: They de talcum. Talcum. (Translation: They say)

Later in the same field visit, Isatou’s father gives the exact same example. He says: 68. Isatou’s Father: More especially for women them today. Yeah for

woman little education what’s she gets in her head, the man no matter how big or how far he done go in education. The woman wey gets small in her head, and

na man na get big in his head, na go for a job. The

woman na the first person na they take today. We know that. (Translation: Even if the woman has only a little knowledge and the man has a lot of knowledge, the woman will be given the job.)

69. Jordene: Yeah?

70. Isatou’s Father: Yeah! It de happen. 71. Jordene: Why?

make na do that today. We see um boku signs in the offices today. (boku= many)

73. Jordene: But that is not fair to the men

74. Isatou’s Father: Not fair but if in order to for the girlchild for to emphasize see the example they not go bother to learn but if they de see that the motivate them for let them learn.

I wonder if Isatou and her father have discussed this or if they both listened to the same speaker over the radio. Isatou’s father adds to her content by sharing his view that the purpose of hiring women before men is to encourage women to learn. He agrees that it is not fair to men but is willing to see his fellow men be passed over in order to ‘motivate them [women] for let them learn.’ I have discussed this idea with many men and women in Kono and although there are certainly men who agree with Isatou’s father, there are many more men who believe that men should be the primary breadwinners for their families and given preference for jobs.

4.1.6. Cooking (An educated woman and a wife)

Isatou’s ambition is not only that she be a breadwinner but also that she will be better than anyone in her family. She wants to better herself more than anyone else and is quite competitive with her friends and classmates. Yet she knows that she must perform traditional womanly duties, particularly cooking. I am frequently asked if I can cook, what I cook, and if I cook every day, as some sort of measure of the woman I am. Cooking in Sierra Leone seems to be a marker of womanhood and worthiness:

75. Isatou: My mother sometimes flog me that I don’t love work. Only when they said, “Come and do this,” I go and take my book this. “Come and do this,” I go and take my book. That is what I know; she said if I think that if I am educated, I won’t be in the kitchen to cook. This is what she asks me.

76. Goldy: You will be what’tin? 77. Jordene: In the kitchen to cook.

79. Isatou: But I always tell her that, “Mommy, I can practice how to cook. Also I want to know education than how to cook. Cause If I know education, I won’t be suffer to cook. Because if I have only me and my husband, I may buy some things, outside, but not things that they are selling on the street, that dust area just packing on them. I will buy some things that is very secure. That the person is very clean that making it. That is what I will buy for us to eat.

80. Isatou: Then my mother says, “One day I must put my hand in the pot to cook.”

81. Isatou: I tell my mother that sometime I will cook but I want to educate. “You are the one that send me to school. You say I should learn. Don’t flog me to cook then. Don‘t flog me to cook. Don’t flog me to cook. Flog me, to let me learn. That I will be the better in our family than anybody because my father’s sisters, they don’t have any control.” (May 2010 interview) [Flogging is when the authority figure whips the child with a kind of stiff rope called rattan. Usually the

flogging is done around the buttocks, hips, or back of the legs. Sometimes the child must stand in a circle drawn in the dirt or with chalk so that they cannot move away from the flogger.] In 2011, Isatou’s mother confirmed that no matter what, her daughter would learn to cook:

82. Isatou’s mother: Isatou de learn for cook, go to school, get married. She go learn. I go learn her for cook. The days Saturday and Sunday na time. Saturday she can be with me if she no go for class. Sunday she de go to class. But the days she no go to class, Saturday and Sunday, she can be with me. Sunday she can be with me. Isatou sit down and for watch. Some time go she de reach. When they say holiday, big holiday with me in the house. She boku, boku small-small thing. But schooldays if I say, lef me do her u all things, one thing she go learn if she does all things she no de go learn for now I say that she suffer for education. Until God he does help right now I left for live. (Translation: “Isatou will learn to cook, go to

school, and get married. I will teach her to cook. There is time on Saturdays and Sundays when she doesn’t go to school; she can sit by me and watch how to cook. She definitely will learn to cook. She does many small things now. If I were to ask her to do all of the housework now, she wouldn’t learn her school education. So for now she has to do small things and suffer in order to get an education. God has helped because he left me to live.)

Isatou’s mother is hard working, and she takes care of her family by petty trading, cooking, and supporting her daughters in their selling. She is proud of her domestic skills and Isatou frequently talks about learning these skills from her mother. It is important to Isatou’s mother that her daughter knows how to cook and perform the other duties customarily given to women.

Although Isatou agrees with her mother that cooking is very important, she is also trying to plan for a professional life. One of my joys in interviewing Isatou is watching her grapple with these modern women questions and seeing how she tries to solve these conflicts as she grows from a young girl to a young woman. We had this conversation about cooking in 2011:

83. Jordene: What is the most important knowledge to have in your head? 84. Isatou: Me like educating and how to cook.

85. Jordene: Okay, and when you have your own house and you are a big woman, what are you going to do?

86. Isatou: That time if I would be having my, if would be having somebody that is helping me.

87. Jordene: Hmm.

88. Isatou: If I cook today and tomorrow if I feel tired I would just say you are going to assist me today because I have not, I have feel tired so I would not able to cook.

89. Jordene: Hmm.

90. Isatou: I think that, that person will not say no or say anything; the person would help me.

91. Jordene: Do you think it’s possible for a woman to work for example, in, at bank all day long and then come home and cook. What do those ladies do that work in the bank? What do they do? 92. Isatou: Sometime they have house girls or when they went to the bank

and they have girls will. . . they will leave the house girls at home and she will cook and after the bank when the person comes she will just eat and relax.

93. Jordene: Hmm.

94. Isatou: Cause if you are working … whole, at the whole of the day, the time that you will wanted to relax and you saw other work, you will be very weak, you won’t do anything.

95. Jordene: Hmm. So what about buying food on the street? Do people do that?

know how you are making your food or whatever. If I buy that and I don’t eat and I eat anyone in my mouth, then I pull it. I don’t love that. So I prefer that somebody left a home and cook for me.

Other times, Isatou has told me that she will buy food on the street for her husband and herself.

She has also told me that she will cook for her husband on Sundays because it is important for a wife to cook for her husband. Sometimes I wonder what Isatou would think of the countless women’s magazine articles devoted to the topic of how to prepare good food for the family and still be successful at a professional job.

4.1.7. Ambition

The first day I met Isatou, she walked into her headmistress’ office erect and composed. She sat down and answered the introductory questions, about her family and school, with ease. I then asked her what she liked about school. She responded:

97. Isatou: I love school because I want to be a minister for a future tomorrow.

98. Jordene: You want to be a minister? 99. Isatou : Yes.

100. Goldy: What kind of minister?

101. Isatou: For the whole world. For Sierra Leone. I want to build a better Sierra Leone/

102. Goldy: /For the whole world?

103. Isatou: For Sierra Leone. I want to build a better Sierra Leone.

When I asked her if she knew any ministers she said that she knew of some and that she had read about them in her social studies books.

For Isatou, school will make her a leader. She knows that ministers are leaders so that seems like a good thing to say. When I interviewed her four months later she was a bit vaguer:

104. Jordene: What do you think will happen if you stay in school? 105. Isatou: I will be very glad because I want to be a future leader for

tomorrow. I want to, I want to be, I want my mother to be very happy with me. They tell me that to send girls to school is important not only boys are important to go to school but girls also are important.

At different times, Isatou has wanted to be a bank manager, lawyer, and President of Sierra Leone.

I spur on these bold proclamations and frequently tease her about becoming president. In 2011, we had a serious conversation about the reality of her chance at actually becoming president:

106. Jordene: So why do you want to be educated? In the end, you might not Be president. (Pause) I’m sorry/

107. Isatou: /Yes/

108. Jordene: /But reality is—maybe you won’t be president? 109. Isatou: Yes.

110. Jordene: So why work so hard?

111. Isatou: I just want to be educated that is why I’m working hard. I don’t want to be like that girl (Fatumatu). She’s not now going to school. (Continue discussion of Fatumatu).

Isatou is clear about wanting to be a professional but she is also clear that the real goal of education is to be ‘educated’ by whatever standards are set in your community.

In her family, Isatou has already achieved more than anyone else has. Isatou’s mother never went to school and she cannot read or write. Isatou’s father went

through grade four or five but then dropped out because his father could not afford the school fees. He is ambitious and speaks of his regrets, including not being able to do more in life because of his lack of education.

4.1.8. Friends

position as top student in the class. On the WASSCE exam, Isatou scored 299 and her best friend got 300. When Isatou transferred to a different school, it took her a

semester to become the second girl in the class and she was determined to be the top student by the next semester. Isatou and her friends frequently discuss how they are going to be president and vice-president or bank manager and lawyers working together. When they are hanging out on my porch, they tease each other by saying things like- “Ms. Bank Manager, go get Jordene a glass of water” or they claim the seat in the front of the truck saying that they will be president of the world so they need to see what is happening on the road. That they want to be important women is one of the criteria Isatou uses for choosing her friends.

Isatou also relies on the opinion of her mother when choosing her friends. We have had gossip sessions about the girls in the neighborhood with whom Isatou’s mother does not want her associating. Isatou, her mother, Isatou’s aunt, and I sit and watch the women parade by on the street and although Isatou’s mother is very quiet, she will snort or shake her head when Isatou delivers the gossip on each person passing by. In 2102, Isatou and I had the following conversation:

112. Jordene: Okay. Last year you told me about one girl who jumped in the street.

(Translation: jumped in the street = exchanged sex for money or items)

113. Isatou: Yes, sometime I think about her because she was my friend. 114. Jordene: Hmm.

115. Isatou: But my mother warned me to stay away from her. 116. Jordene: Hmm.

117. Isatou: She said that girl is not a better girl. So I should stay with, away from her. Then after, I don’t know one month, then her mother said she is pregnant.

118. Jordene: Oh. How do you think that happened?

119. Isatou: I don’t. That day, that day that they told I said “HO! It thanks to God. I said because if my mother had told me stay away from that girl and I didn’t she should have pushed me in bad things then a cont den I go on doing it. Stop my mother’s work.

What my mother will tell me I won’t do it again, I will just be doing bad things, and her, will be bad company.

Isatou’s close relationship with her mother is not unusual. Many of the schoolgirls who live with their mothers enjoy a close relationship. Girls are expected to help their mothers with the cooking, cleaning, and tending to the younger children. Most of the time, young girls are expected to be sitting with their mother, ready to run for more water or stir the cooking pot. While girls may spend a great deal of time with their mothers, they do not always respect their mother’s views of the world; yet Isatou listens to her mother and bases many decisions on how her mother would react. Isatou’s mother has none of the assets that Isatou values in her friends --—she cannot read or write, she does not know English, and she is not ambitious—but she values education and wants her daughter to succeed at both school and cooking.