International Women’s Day

Today was the first day of the Harmatan Winds (very warm winds that sweep across the deserts bringing a fine dust to cover the West of Mali with it!) It just so happens that today is also the International Day of Women!
I was pleased to receive an invitation and agenda for the days events organized by the Malian Women of the mining village. (Sadly a separate celebration was being held in nearby Sadiola Village.) The activities began at 9 am while school was still in session but I feel pleased to be able to attend the program in the afternoon.

The morning activity was a street clean-up! While this may seem like a nice community effort, shouldn’t this be a day off from work of any kind for women? Not here, instead the women swept the streets, with small wicker brooms, from one end of the village to the other! These Malian women stooped over brushing away dirt (no real trash in the streets here) and surrounded themselves with great clouds of dust. Hmmmm, how is this honoring the women exactly? Frankly, I’m glad I missed this part!

Next on the afternoon’s agenda was a lecture followed by a discussion. This piece interested me in particular, as the topics were: Female Genital Mutilation; Women in the Workplace; and AIDS awareness and health issues. These talks were to be followed by related sketches, and the afternoon to conclude with dancing! This looked to be fascinating. Even if I had to challenge my French to understand the speakers, I was willing to try!

Unfortunately, things did not go according to plan. This is Africa, time moves differently so I knew things wouldn’t start on time. I arrived instead at about 5:30 (with a Filipino and a Canadian) to find that the sound system was not in working order. Instead of commencing at the scheduled 4:00, about 80 women were sitting waiting in a large circle while children played in the middle. During this time, 15 or so men fiddled with the sound system, finally solving the problem at about 6:30! Oh dear.

The waiting wasn’t bad actually. The sun was low, the veil of dust providing even more protection. I amused myself by watching the tiny children, practicing my French and teaching the older kids near me how to ‘thumb wrestle’. The Malian women seemed content to chat, dance a little, and relax in the chairs (they had carried from their homes). It did feel nice to be there. I felt welcome, though clearly provided an odd attraction.

Speaking of chairs, this is fascinating. There were two small couches set up on one part of the circle. When we arrived we chose to sit in some of the few remaining plastic chairs behind these soft cushy ones, assuming that they were to be for the speakers or performers. Ha! When a few men arrived in fancy dress, they were led directly to these couches by other men! This is International Women’s Day? These men, it turns out are the mayor, and heads from the company, but……


Well nonetheless, the evening came to a fine crescendo once the audio system finally began to work. A couple brief speeches, in French, were followed by two quite clever sketches. The first message encouraged women not to let their daughters be mutilated through circumcision. Its dangers were clearly depicted. The second skit was about women in the work force. Two women humorously acted as men who were intolerant of their wives’ interest in getting jobs. The women spoke up against this intoleration, and in the end won the ‘freedom’ to try to work. Interesting and enlightening.


The best part of the evening was the last. 40 or so women got up to dance in a line that continuously moved in a circle in on itself. It was simple. A dance, it seemed that everyone had done before and the real reason they had all come and waited so long. I know that moment was what I had really come for. In fact the majority of the women wore bubu’s (dresses) made from a beautiful batik fabric on which had been printed “Jour des Femmes International 2006 Mali, Afrique”. Turns out that the government had had this fabric made and had sent it to any group organizing an event! That’s amazing.

The dance expressed a desire from the women to share a common energy, a moment of freedom; from work, from talk, from home, from children. They sang, they moved, and they laughed a lot. Though we didn’t have to be, we were invited to join. I did, and it felt wonderful to participate, to share in the spirit of freedom and of sisterhood.
Here’s to the International Women ….aren’t we all?!




CSN