Personal Narrative: Let Girls Be Girls-My Journey into Forced Womanhood

Abstract

Musu Bakoto Sawo takes readers through her personal journey as a former child bride. In demonstrating the relationship between menarche and child marriage, she explains how parents deny girls their right to education by sending them to their marital homes prematurely. Sawo explores the factors that contribute to the high prevalence of child marriage in The Gambia and identifies mechanisms that support curbing it. The chapter then moves to drawing attention to her activism and work in debunking social norms that prevent girls from reaching their potentials. Sawo concludes by sharing her optimism in the eradication of harmful traditional practices in The Gambia and her dream for Gambian women and girls: empowering, uplifting, and safe spaces.