Our partner organisation Aprofes runs the only counselling centre for victims of domestic violence in the district of Kaolack, a city located in the the groundnut basin, a vast area in the centre of the country. The last years, Aprofes acknowledged that the number of victims of domestic violence had not decreased, thus leading the organisation to rethink their strategy and to come up with a new approach. IAMANEH program manager Maja Hürlimann advised Aprofes to try a gender transformative approach, which means re-negotiating the role model for men and young males. The patriarchal societal structures of the region come along with the notion that men have all the rights but little obligations, while women, at contrary, have little rights and all the obligations. Thus, violence on women is quite a wide-spread phenomenon: Beating a woman not complying to certain rules is a commonly accepted sanction.
Aprofes accepted the challenge and started to look for men and husbands who could serve as good examples for non-violent and cooperative behaviour towards their wives and daughters and to women in general. The organisation approached totally ten men, two each in five villages, and trained them for the purpose of teaching a positive role model. They were supposed to serve as an example to the members of their communities, treating their wives with respect and not with violence.
These “hommes champions”, as they are called, in turn formed larger groups of men who were positive to this idea and, therefore, were ready to re-negotiate their own gender role. In Kacothie, a little town in the district, Maja Hürlimann visited such a group of nearly 30 men.
As she toured along with the group of men, Maya acknowledged extraordinary results. Usually, there is no doubt that women in Senegal have the sole responsibility for any kind of household work. Men doing dishes is perceived as just ridiculous. Not so for the “hommes champions”: Regardless of what others might think of them, they relieve their women with the ménage, collecting wood or fetching water, even cooking or looking after the kids, gardening and many other things. And these men honestly mean it.
“Some outcomes are pretty astonishing”, Maja says. “There is that married couple where the husband decided to buy a motorbike”, she reports, “so he would eventually go and fetch water instead of his wife, who previously had to take hour-long walks to the well and back. As the husband started to use his bike to fetch the water or bring the grain to the mill, his wife had more time for gardening, which in turn yielded more food that she was able to sell on the local market. Thus, they quite improved their income.”
This kind of collaboration is what leads to more mutual respect between husband and wife. It brings peace and harmony into the marriage. A good understanding among the partners hence prevents violence. And in that case, collaboration can well have a financial turn-out.
And the word is spreading. “These men are so genuinely convinced of the advantages of their new lifestyle. They are never going to fall back into old habits.” Even two men of a neighbouring camp of nomadic herdsmen, intrigued by these “hommes champions”, passed by one day to inquire about it, and eventually joined the group.
The ten men trained by Aprofes regularly organise information events and even occasionally participate on radio shows – radio is still utterly popular in Senegal – thus motivating men to follow their example and to respect women as equal members of society. They show how the advantages of being good husbands overweigh the sacrifice of patriarchal privileges. Maja knows: “Even women were really wary about that all, at the beginning”, Maja reports, “saying that they couldn’t think of taking such a kind of man seriously.” But they truly changed their mind as the “hommes champions” started to get accepted within the community. “Now, really everyone is positive about it”, Maja constated.
Men often enjoy having a chat among each other on their ritual tea. These exchanges among men have a huge influence on their set of minds. “It is very important that men talk about their role models and that the positive effects of the change of behaviour is discussed”, Maja knows. Even the local imam of Kacothie is very supportive to this approach. He explicitly points out that the Qur’an demands men being respectful towards women. Patriarchy might be deeply rooted within Senegalese society, but in matters of interpreting the Islam, society is very open towards more gender equality.
“Having a couple more local opinion leaders with us would be a big help”, Maja states, and she is confident that the persuasive work will soon yield some results in that sense. At last, there is a whole new generation growing up in the households of the “hommes champions” and their wives. These now little children will be the best witnesses and ambassadors of a more equal society, where violence on women is taboo.
