Sierra Leone Women's Movement

The Sierra Leone Women's Movement (SLWM) was a Sierra Leonean women's organization founded by Constance Cummings-John in 1951 in collaboration with women leaders from Sierra Leone markets.[1]

The SWLM was founded in the aftermath of a 1951 Freetown demonstration of ten thousand women protesting the high cost of living and proposed increases in market dues. The women, led by Mabel Dove Danquah and Hannah Benka-Coker, blamed Lebanese wholesalers for the rising food prices, and petitioned for women to be given a monopoly to buy palm oil and rice directly from the governmental agricultural station.[2]

The Women's Movement campaigned on a mix of issues of importance to women, including trading rights and education, and lobbied for a farmers' bank. It published its own newspaper, set up a women traders' cooperative, and ran evening classes.[3] Though several prominent women in the SLWM were Creole, the organization also included Temne women, such as Haja Sukainatu Bangura, who served as the SLWM's vice-chairperson.[4]

In 1955 Milton Margai managed to win the SWLM's active support for the Sierra Leone People's Party.[5] In 1960 the SLWM became a founder member of the Federation of Sierra Leone Women's Organizations.[3]

References
  1. Bonnie G. Smith, ed. (2008). "African Liberation and Nationalist Movements". The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History. Oxford University Press. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-19-514890-9.
  2. Filomena Steady (2005). Women and Collective Action in Africa: Development, Democratization, and Empowerment, with Special Focus on Sierra Leone. Palgrave Macmillan US. pp. 62–65. ISBN 978-1-4039-7949-0.
  3. Marika Sherwood (2003). "Constance Cummings-John". In Hakim Adi; Marika Sherwood (eds.). Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and the Diaspora Since 1787. Routledge. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-134-68933-0.
  4. Joseph J. Bangura (2012). "Gender and Ethnic Relations in Sierra Leone: Temne Women in Colonial Freetown". History in Africa. 39: 267–292.
  5. West Africa. Afrimedia International. 2001. p. 17.

Further reading
  • Diary of the Sierra Leone Women's Movement, 1951-1981. Freetown: Government Printer, 1981.
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