In Casamance, hope and the future are female

The conflict in Casamance began in the 1980s, pitting fighters from the Mouvement des forces démocratiques de la Casamance (MFDC) against government forces. Four decades later, this conflict, which has claimed thousands of lives and forced tens of thousands of people to flee, has still not been resolved. But the mobilisation of women, active from the outset, has not wavered. Together, they intend to bring peace back to their home. In 2010, they set up the Plateforme des Femmes pour la Paix en Casamance (PFPC), now an HI partner, to bring women together and coordinate their initiatives in Casamance.

Fatou Gueye, co-founder of the PFPC and its member association USOFORAL, and Fatou Bintou, project manager for the PFPC, talk about their engagement.

Women united in the same fight

Traditionally, women are sacred in Casamance. They have always played a major role in society and in conflict management, interposing themselves between belligerents to force them to lay down their arms. However, in the 1980s, we saw that the conflict that had broken out in 1982 was getting worse. The violence was escalating and no one was stepping in... So we asked ourselves why this time, the women hadn’t lifted a finger.

You should know that, culturally, the women of Casamance never remain unstructured and do remarkable work through their mobilisation. However, this conflict had forced many of them to move and their structures had broken down. Everything had to be rebuilt and groups had to be reorganised and federated.

This is why, in November 1999, we organised the Women's Forum for Peace in Casamance, which brought together women from all walks of life: sacred voices, Muslim and Catholic religious associations and representatives from all over the region. Thanks to this mobilisation, we were able to make our concerns heard.

"We, the women of Casamance – mothers, wives and sisters, who were seeing their sons kill each other - we made our heartfelt cry heard. Because the soldiers, like the combatants, were our children. Nobody was winning in this war, and the big losers were the women," says Fatou Gueye, a founding member of the PFPC and USOFORAL.

Unfortunately, the women's associations became dispersed again. Then, in September 2010, they decided to come together once more and coordinate their actions in order to speak with one voice and ensure their concerns were being properly taken into account. This is how the Plateforme des Femmes pour la Paix en Casamance came into being - a structure that now has 15 member associations and more than 250,000 women members.

"We've done some good advocacy work. Before, people used to say to us, 'It's heating up in your region!’, as if the other regions weren't affected! Our work has revealed the seriousness of the conflict and its consequences for the whole population. Everywhere in Senegal, there are victims or relatives of victims. So all Senegalese have a role to play in resolving it. We campaigned for people to stop talking about the 'Casamance conflict' and start talking about the 'conflict in Casamance'", explains Fatou Bintou, project manager for the PFCP.

Re-establishing dialogue between the cultures

As early as the 2000s, we noticed that the conflict was no longer between belligerents of the same culture. The soldiers came from all over Senegal and were unaware that, in Casamance, women are sacred and that they could interpose themselves between adversaries.

Our first priority was to strengthen the potential for peace, because we were convinced that the solution would come from the people themselves. We began in the commune of Enampore, where the women had single-handedly managed to stop the fighting, the rapes and the murders. They rose up and created a little oasis of peace. So we strengthened this oasis of peace by training the local women in conflict management, with the idea of inspiring the surrounding communities.

"In 2002, when you spoke about the conflict, no one responded. We realised that to recreate a dialogue we had to use theatre. Our plays depicted everyday life, families torn apart, siblings divided, and then we organised a workshop-debate. Then people were obliged to talk about the conflict," says Fatou Gueye.

We also discovered some extremely deep identity divides. In one village, for example, the women had grouped together by ethnic group, whereas before they used to do everything together. At their request, we rehabilitated their market garden, which had become extremely overgrown. We trained them in non-violent conflict management, administrative and financial management, and so on. But most importantly, we organised the plots in their garden so that women from different ethnic groups would work side by side. In market gardening, you sometimes have to ask your neighbour to look after your plants when you're away. Helping each other is essential, and that's what enabled the group to re-establish its links. And then one day, a Toucouleur woman said to us: "It's been 20 years since I drank the water of a Diola woman. But today, I trust her again.” 

"Wherever we went and there were problems, we used this technique, because we are convinced that if women get along, husbands and children will do the same. They are the gateway to restoring peace," continues Fatou Gueye.

Preparing the future: healing and educating

There has been significant progress in resolving the conflict and we are beginning to prepare for the future. However, although the situation has improved a great deal, we civil society organisations must continue to promote dialogue and the emergence of women leaders who are financially and politically independent.

We are working with key partners in the reconstruction of peace in Casamance, partners like HI, to raise community awareness on issues of social cohesion, non-violence and inclusion, with a focus on women's and youth leadership. With HI, we have also started work on violence against women.

"Women have been exposed to extreme violence during the conflict, both physical and psychological. They want to meet in a safe place, to have somewhere where they can express themselves and talk about what they feel, the rapes they have been subjected to or witnessed. HI is helping us to meet the financial needs of a reception and listening centre,” concludes Fatou Bintou.