Three sowies recently gave up their practice in Waterloo.This was during a training organized by the Women Advocacy and Agricultural Development Organization (WAADO) and funded by Purposeful for ambassadors and change agents to promote the rights of victims of Sexual and Gender Based Violence in Waterloo, Maboikandor and Tombo Communities.
The training which was conducted at the Prince Turner Hall, Black Hall Road- Waterloo, featured women’s leaders and sowes from across the three communities.
One of the sowies, who voluntarily resigned from the practice, stays at Maboikandor, a village on the outskirt of Waterloo. She said she had been a sowe for almost seven years.
“But I felt a reason recently to discontinue the practice. Firstly, I am young and also a suckling mother. Secondly, my husband doesn’t like the trade and the ways it takes me out of our home. And mostly importantly, the laws and times have changed, and I don’t want to get into a conflict with it,” she added.
She stated that she had inherited the trade from her mother because she loved her and didn’t want to disappoint her.
“My mother was a sowe. And when she died some years ago; I was forcefully convinced by her siblings that if I didn’t take after her trade her spirit would run me mad with misfortunes. I was obliged to join but would later realize all they had said would happen to me if I didn’t join were shackles of superstition.”
She promised to work with WAADO in assuring the rights of victims of sexual and gender based violence.
For fifteen years, the other woman, seemingly in her late 60s, worked as sowe in Ibo Town-Waterloo. She said she had to join the trade because she needed cure to a sickness she had long suffered. But averred she can no longer continue with it for religious reasons.
“I just want to pray these days. I want to be in the company of God while doing right for the communities.”
The last of the three stays at Fire Mambo in Waterloo and had decided on her volition to stop the practice. She revealed she was lured into the trade by a friend and had to practise it for 6 years.
“My friend led me to join the society even if my mother was a strong member of it. Of course I had been using my mother’s tools and support, but when my friend died it became bored. And there’s no one to practice with anymore.”
She said she had used the trade for survival purpose but considering her age and the nature of the trade now, she was obliged to give it up for good.
Doris Fatima Webber, Executive Director of WAADO, welcomed the three women and thanked them for their cooperation. She assured them of her personal and organizational support at all times. She noted the fight against FGM and SGBV is a fight that should concern every woman, and it’s significant that the three women weren’t forced to relinquish their practice as sowies. She entreated them to be steadfast and not renege from them promise.
Webber believed the incorporation and intervention of women’s leaders and sowies at the grassroot level would largely aid the minimization of FGM and SGBV. She has therefore extended accommodation to women’s leaders and sowies who would want part of their show.
