One aspect of my current research centers on the creation of a West Africa-based oral history archive of domestic violence. The interviews in this collection range from 2014 to the present. Participants are residents from West and Central African countries who have recounted their experiences with domestic violence and how such violence was shaped by political disruption in their countries. The interviewees span a vast array of cultural, national, and ethnic backgrounds ranging from young girls fleeing child marriage or pawn marriage to widows resisting abusive rites to victims of domestic violence to escapees from female genital mutilation to women forced into sex trafficking. Each interview fills in the gaps in written records or data by providing a more nuanced understanding of women’s experiences, values, and social realities.
This project captures the collective memory of communities in Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, Guinea, Mauritania, Angola, Benin, The Gambia, and Central African Republic.
Organizations in West Africa that have supported or contributed to this work include: The Cameroon Association for the Protection and Education of the Child (CAPEC), the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Yaoundé, the Roman Catholic diocese of Buea, Cameroon, the Catholic Men’s Association of Douala, (Association des Hommes Catholiques- Douala), the Mission Catholique de Mvolye, the Archdiocese of Calabar, Nigeria, the Initiative for Equal Rights (Lagos, Nigeria), Centre Kayam (Dakar, Senegal), la Maison Rose (Dakar, Senegal), the Association des Juristes Sénégalaises, Protection Fille Femme de Guinée (PFFG)- Conakry, Guinea, Femmes, Développement et Droits Humains (Conakry-Guinea), International Organization for Migration (Nouakchott, Mauritania), Association des Femmes Chefs de Famille (AFCF) (Nouakchott, Mauritania), the Diocese of Nouakchott, the Archdiocese of Luanda, the Associação das Testemunhas de Jeová, Luanda, the Igreja Adventista Do Sétimo Dia Central De Luanda, the Igreja Evangelica Pentecostal em Angola-Ebenezer (Luanda, Angola), the Oblates Catechists Little Servants to the Poor (OCPSP) (Cotonou, Benin), the Network Against Gender-Based Violence (Banjul, The Gambia), and the Centre for the Socio-Economic Empowerment of Women and Girls (CASEF – Centre d’Autonomisation Socio-Économique de la Femme et de la Fille (Bangui, Central African Republic).
Oral histories collected with the collaboration of these local organizations uncover previously overlooked African women’s and girls’ perspectives and provides a fuller picture of history, particularly of the period since the “liberation of Libya” and the official end of the war on 23 October 2011, which spurred insurgencies across the Sahel states and West Africa throughout the 2010s. The unresolved and unexamined loss of women’s rights in West African states attendant with the rise of insurgency movements, terrorist attacks, and militarization is the focus of much of the oral narratives collected in this region by Dr. Walker-Said and her colleagues from the region, including, most notably, Béatrice Yolande Badiane (based in Dakar, Senegal) and Charles Osu Ogun (based in Calabar, Nigeria).
Relevant articles and talks:
Charlotte Walker-Said, “Oral History Collecting in West Africa and Its Utility Over Data Sets,” New York University, the Institute of French Studies, New York, NY October 9, 2024.
Charlotte Walker-Said, “Militarization and Christianity in Central African Republic and southern Chad, 1940-1980,” Invited speaker at the Columbia University African History Workshop, “ New York, NY, April 26, 2024.
Charlotte Walker-Said, Human Rights First “Nurturing Change: The Importance of Women-Led Movements,” Event, presented by the Emerging Leaders Advisory Board, New York, NY, April 2, 2024.
Charlotte Walker-Said, “Cameroon: Internal Crisis and International Impact Case of the Anglophone Regions,” The Bar Association of the City of New York, African Affairs Committee, July 2021, New York, NY.