GoWoman Podcast: The uncomfortable truth of being an African woman

At the age of 12, Bakie joined the all-female Bondo Secret Society where she was circumcised. At 13 she was sent away to live in the US as a means of protecting her from child sexual abuse. When she joined Sierra Leone's foreign service in 1978 she was told that she would quit after she got married. She didnt.

During her time as a career civil servant, she was propositioned for sex on countless occasions. A man once told her he wanted to put his head on her buttocks at a high-level general assembly meeting at the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. When she got married she almost left her husband when he told her she could take an opportunity that would offer her a chance at professional development. When she had her first child, she decided if nothing else her daughter should be able to stand on her own two feet, and she must be an independent and free thinking woman. This is Bakie's story but it is also my story because Bakie is my mother. This is the GoWoman Podcast.

Host: Vickie Remoe

Guest: Bakie, 64, Retired Sierra Leonean Diplomat

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