Zainab Bangura rose from humble beginnings to become the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Sexual Violence in Conflict
NAIROBI (TrustLaw) – Her mother was illiterate and her father was a Muslim cleric who did not believe in girls’ education.
Yet Zainab Bangura rose to become the second female foreign minister in Sierra Leone, a presidential candidate and now the second United Nations Special Rapporteur on Sexual Violence in Conflict.
“I have a lot of confidence that with strong political will and working together, we can end sexual violence,” she said at a recent press briefing in Nairobi.
“I’m sure there will come a time where the only place we can read about sexual violence in conflict is in the text books.”
It takes an unrelenting sense of optimism to take on such a job, travelling the world listening to horrific stories of rape, mutilation and shame.
A few weeks ago, she was in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo – often nicknamed ‘the rape capital of the world’ for its long-running epidemic of sexual violence. There, she met 260 children who had been abandoned as babies because they were born out of rape.
“The communities call them ‘snakes’ because they are evil and the mothers don’t want them,” she said.
Since Bangura succeeded Margot Wallstrom as special rapporteur in September, she has made it a priority to shift the blame from the women who are raped to the men who attack them.
“Too many women live in the shadow in their countries. They cannot come out because of the stigma, the ostracisation,” she said. “What we are trying to do is point the lights on the perpetrators. They are the ones who should be ashamed.”
MY LIFE IS A TESTIMONY
She admits the job can be “traumatic” and “very difficult”. But her own life experience has given her an unshakeable sense of confidence about the possibilities for change.
“I feel strongly if I can do it in my life, with all the challenges and obstacles I went through ... I tell everybody I meet, if we can do it, so can you,” she said.
“My life is a testimony and the country I come from, Sierra Leone, is also a testimony.”
Her mother, who had never been to school, is the one who insisted that Bangura get an education. She went to university and trained as a chartered insurer.
But it was when Sierra Leone descended into a brutal civil war that Bangura found her true calling.
In 1991, Foday Sankoh’s Revolutionary United Front began their rebellion against the government on the border with Liberia. They abducted children for use as soldiers, cut the arms off countless civilians and captured women and girls as sex slaves. Half of the population was displaced and 50,000 people were killed.
During this period, Bangura set up two rights groups to push for a return to democracy: Women Organised for a Morally Enlightened Nation and the Campaign for Good Governance. She later won several awards for her work, such as the 2006 Democracy Award from the National Endowment for Democracy.
The transformation of her home country since the end of the decade-long war inspires her today.
“Our country was described as a failed state and a collapsed state,” she said.
Today, its economy is enjoying double digit growth and is one of the fastest growing economies in West Africa. It has had three successful elections since the war ended in 2002.
Sierra Leone’s soldiers – who were once so bad they earned the nickname ‘sobel’ – soldiers by day and rebels looting by night – are now contributing troops to the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
“I had so much pride seeing our police and military officers in Somalia,” said Bangura, fresh off the plane from Mogadishu.
She is now counting on her nation’s troops to contribute to change in another of the world’s most infamous failed states.
Read more about Bangura’s mission to Somalia here.
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