Using Poetry in Activism

“Bride and child should never be used in the same sentence. Clean and mutilation should never be used in the same sentence. Abuse and freedom from justice should not be used in the same sentence”

Hamda performing her poem

Somalis are renowned poets, in times of joy, happiness and despair the spoken art is used to translate a message. In the rural communities the art of poetry is vibrant and alive. Men use poetry to court women. Intricate laid verses are sown to describe love for a woman or even a marriage proposal. Women are equally lyrically gifted drafting poems to reject or requite the love interest. Poetry and social change go hand in hand in Somaliland. During the Bare regime, poetry and song were used as methods to share covert messages about the regime. 

Gender-based violence (GBV) in Somaliland is prevalent and is manifested in many forms including but not limited to; abuse, rape, domestic violence, intimate partner violence, power abuse and sexual exploitation. It also encompasses harmful traditional practices such as, early and forced marriages and female genital mutilation. 

The CARE Changes project aims to challenge the negative social practices facing Somali women. The CHANGES program embarked on a night of cultural delights fusing poetry and activism to raise awareness of harmful cultural practices, Female Genital Mutilations (FGM) and Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Early forced Child Marriage. The objective of the evening was to celebrate women using the traditional arts. An all women panel of poets played to an impressive all women audience. Five panelist each composed a poem describing the traditional roles of women and the negative cultural stereotypes in an emotional tone that brought the audience to tears. Concerning itself with the breadth of human experience.

The panelist poems raged from the experience of FGM, to rape, domestic violence to the power of women. In Somalia/Somaliland you can ask any women about her experience on FGM and tears will well up in her eyes. She will get a lump in her throat as she recounts details about the day she was cut. She will give details on who was there, the size of the room the smell of frankincense’s and being held down screaming and crying, only to be told girls should not cry and this was a good thing happening to her. She needed to be brave or she would be ridiculed. Each woman no matter the age, can give a detailed account like it was yesterday.

A friend of mine hated knifes, growing up I could not understand it. She cut vegetables with a bread knife. When I asked her nervously one day why do you hate knives so much? She stopped for a minute and got that far way look in her eyes so familiar to many Somali women and said. “When they cut me they used a knife. We lived in a village that had no razor blades.” That was enough for me to understand what she meant and what knifes meant to her.  

The power that FGM has on a Somali women transcends the event of cutting. It is a lifelong horror that lives with a woman all her life. During her labor, during her menstrual cycle, during her marriage. Then when her daughter reaches the age deserving the cut, she is torn between conforming to societal demands and the pain she knows only too well what her daughter will go through for the rest of her life. 

That is why CARE advocates for education, awareness and the total eradication of FGM. Engaging social change agents, religious leaders, community groups, and government officers to provide the legal frameworks to protect young girls from this abuse. The SNAP/ CHANGES project combines awareness with advocacy for legal policies within government.

Hamda’s poem brought goosebumps to the audience. She was young, only 17 at most, slightly nervous to preform to such a big crowd. She started off softly, her voice grew with every word. Her poem, FGM and Me, spoke of her recalling her mother and grandmother calling her into the front room where other family women awaited to perform an act they described as blessing.

“Was it a blessing when they cut me? Was it a blessing when they held me down? Lit frankincense to cover the smell of the blood. Was it a blessing when I couldn’t go to the toilet? Was it a blessing when I couldn’t walk? Have I missed the blessing in being mutilated, where was the shame of a 8 year old girl”

Having women poets come out in support for the eradication of FGM is a powerful message of support. It is a step in the right direction to breakdown the social stigma attached to openly condemning this horrific harmful practice.

By Hodan Elmi