Story Of Change – From Traditoinal FGM Practitioner To Zuo Clan Chief

By staff writer

All her life, Ma Jumah White had desired leadership in her town Zuo Clan, but the male dominance, the patriarchal system and traditional beliefs that women cannot make good leader limited her dream for a long time. 

But Jumah says everything changed when ActionAid Liberia and the Domafein began working with her clan, Zuo Clan under the Just and Equal community project (JEC). 

From being a traditional practitioner of Female Genital Mutilation for over two decades, Jumah has abandoned the practice of FGM. She’s now the acting Clan Chief of Zuo Clan in Gbarpolu County and a now a champion of change.  

The Just and Equal Communities (JEC) project, was launched in 2019, being implemented in four counties, include Montserrado, Grand Cape Mount, Bong, and Gbarpolu to promote human rights and gender equality, democracy and rule of law, and sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). 

Under the project, Juman is among the over 38,000 women and young people are being supported with empowerment programs that have helped her to claim and defend their rights and the rights of other women and girls. 

Now it its fifth year, the JEC is reaching out to about 460 FGM practitioners with awareness campaigns, helping to strengthen community accountability mechanisms for gender-responsive service delivery and working with traditional Female Genital Mutilation practitioners transition from and Jumah is one of those former FGM practitioners. 

Jumah says, it is the JEC project that help her to find her voice and now the first in command in her local clan. She has rose an FGM practitioner to now a clan chief. 

“We the women, were seeing the men serving as leaders, and often times they as leaders don’t even recognize the women to participate in any decision, so that is why we the women said among ourselves that we will take this leadership.” ” She said in an exclusive interview recently. 

Jumah and others ascendency to Zuo clan leadership she narrated came as a result of their appointment by the area Commissioner following a major dispute that ensure after male traditional leaders  refused to abide by government’s moratorium that ban all traditional or the bush school practices for 3 years. 

The men action was predicated upon the fact that the Jumah and many other women FGM practitioners had abandoned FGM after getting the awareness and gotten trained about FGM impact on girls and women, coupled with the Government’s imposed 3-years ban on the practice; something the males traditional leaders of Zuo, Deward and other towns saw as an affront to the tradition. 

They then went and ahead and hijacked the traditional bush and forcefully initiated the scores of young men from the towns into the traditional bush without the consent to the abducted victims nor their parents. This result into t big clash that wounded some resident. 

When the news of the violence and forceful abduction of the young children reached the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the government ministry responsible to oversee all traditional matters in across the country, investigated the matter and then appointed the Jumah as the action Clan chief of Zuo clan, Jartu B. Johnson as acting clan chief of Deward Clan. 

Jumah has got some big dreams she says she is endeavoring to influence change in her clan. Key among her plans Jumah says are to ensure that the harsh laws and restrictions on women be removed and ensure that good sanitation practices are carried throughout the clan. 

“We want to work with the youths, and the women to remove those laws, such as ‘woman can’t ware trouser, and when a woman ties her hair, she should not untie her hair, so there are so many laws that we are not supposed to be honoring.” Jumah explained.  

With Jumah and other women capacity and leadership skills being built by ActionAid Liberia, her negation skills has far improved, and they are championing change and at the decision-making table.

Taking over the leadership of Zuo Clan, Jumah said all connecting roads within the clan had been overtaken by grass, as such, her leadership putting sanitation and advocacy for girls and women rights at the core of her leadership in the coming weeks. 

“All the in-roads are dirty, and even inside the towns are all dirty, so I am working with my people to clean everywhere.” 

Jumah has vowed to ensure that local laws and regulation that are in place within the clan respects everyone’s rights.