GRIOTS REPUBLIC - An Urban Black Travel Mag - Jan 2016

GRIOTS REPUBLIC | JANUARY 2016 19
end of the tradition and when she
finished and took her seat, she tucked
into her friend’s shoulder and cried.
"Let us not call it child marriage
because it's not marriage,” said African
Union Goodwill Ambassador and
secretary general of the Young
Women’s Christian Association
(YWCA) Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda
from the stage. “It is abduction, rape
and a criminal act."
Musu was 10 when she developed a
love for activism, joining the child-led
advocacy group “Voice of the Young” in
her native Gambia.
At 14 years old, her family told her she
was to be married to a man of 27. A
patriarchal society, Gambian fathers
and uncles make these decisions while
most mothers remain quiet- bound by
tradition and often, internal conflict.
Musu was in junior high and thought
her world had come to an end. She
didn’t eat for weeks.
"The morning after my marriage was
consummated I didn't feel like it was
something to celebrate. I was hurting,”
she said. “I felt like all my activism
didn’t matter since I became a part of
what I was advocating against."
By the age of 22, she was a widowed
mother and a student- a law graduate of
the University of Gambia and then LLM
graduate student at the University of
Pretoria. Her husband died in her third
year of renal failure. This tragedy and
her mandated time of mourning made
her degree completion seem
impossible.
“Never in a million years would I have
It is a double-edged sword of
young advocates opposing
the customs and the older
community seeking a space
for long-entrenched
tradition.
thought I’d come this far,” said Musu.
“At 14, I was forced to grow up; I
became someone’s wife, but education
was always the main priority of my life.”
The social activist and lawyer has now
made it her life’s mission to show girls and
women in Gambia that they too can
succeed no matter their circumstances.
Currently the program manager at Think
Young Women, she speaks and works
throughout the country advocating for
women.