Tenin Samake – Feminist breaking down taboos and clichés
In Mali, at only 24 years old, Tenin Samake is the founder and editor-in-chief of the WoManager website. She promotes everyday women there, defends their rights and tackles all subjects, even the most taboo.
Profiled by Emmanuel de Solère Stintzy.
The devil is sometimes in the detail. As a young girl, Malian Tenin Samake was already protesting against daily inequalities. “At home, after eating, it was up to my sister or me to take the boys' empty dishes to the kitchen. An uncle explained to me that their role was to eat and go about their business. I protested. People were sometimes shocked that a teenage girl like me would say things like this...”, remembers the founder of the site WoManager, l'excellence au féminin.
So as not to displease his father, Tenin, who wanted to become a “journalist and writer”, opted in 2016 for a BA in Business Communication at the Higher Institute of Training and Business Management, then for a Masters in Law. at the Faculty of Public Law of Bamako. But, she has not forgotten her fight... “When we were students, Tenin was courageous on several occasions. She was already campaigning for equality between women and men”, recalls her friend Aminata Guindo.
In 2017, Tenin Samake participated in a session at the Dakar Regional Leadership Centre of the Young african leaders initiative in Senegal (Yali, President Barack Obama's initiative for young Africans). A revelation!
“I met women who left me speechless, far from the usual image of the submissive woman, unable to take charge of her destiny”. Inspired by these role models, Tenin created a blog that same year to “meet women, give them a positive view and talk about subjects that concern them on a daily basis such as polygamy.”
Incest, FGM, harassment
WoManager ewas born. And Tenin assumed the conscience of an activist.
“Being a feminist is like being pregnant, either you are or you are not! I like this quote by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian writer. Some people say they agree with girls going to school and working but remain convinced that they must submit to their husbands... That doesn’t make sense!”
Georges Attino Coulibaly, friend, journalist and blogger, says in appreciation: “We found on the WoManager blog original pieces on the rights and the place of women in Mali, with principled positions. But, Tenin is not hiding behind a screen! She says the same things in real life too.”
In 2019, as part of the Sahel Dialogue, project, Tenin Samake took part in CFI coaching on the development of online editorial projects: “It helped me refine my idea and professionalise WoManager.”
The blog thus became a website with a team of four people, diversified sections and delicate subjects covered in depth and without taboos, such as incest, violence against women, street harassment, female pleasure, etc. “We are breaking taboos to eradicate stereotypes. Acting as if the problem didn’t exist is often an excuse for excluding people!”, says the founder and editor-in-chief in summary. “In Mali, it is a first to have a site dedicated to the emancipation of African women, with shocking themes such as homosexuality”, confirms her colleague and namesake Tenin Nassoun Diallo.
Modest as ever, the editor-in-chief qualifies this: “We receive a lot of messages from young girls who ask us for advice on such and such a topic and encourage us to continue, but when it comes to the authorities, there are no major changes forthcoming yet. The transitional government (appointed on 5 October 2020 after the military putsch of 18 August, editor's note) only contains four women out of 25 ministers ... That’s less than before!”
More combative than ever, Tenin Samake is already preparing a campaign against FGM, a practice still common in Mali.
In 10 years...
In an unstable country, with progressive and conservative forces, Tenin Samake wants to believe in a “more egalitarian Mali” with “more girls in school, more women in strategic positions in the bodies of power, administrations, large companies, the media and on the electoral roll in the future”.
Aminata Guindo, her friend, is convinced that Tenin, “through her website WoManager, will be a source of inspiration for young girls”.
Her colleague and namesake, Tenin Nassoun Diallo, goes even further: “In ten years, Tenin will be the new Oprah Winfrey when it comes to violence against women! WoManager might have a talk show, a digital channel and a foundation for women’s aid.”
Tenin Samake hopes to have “as much positive impact” as the star American producer and presenter but above all, she wants to stay just as she is in the future, connected to the everyday realities of society: “I hope that we will have improved the site’s content and that WoManager will be followed by even more Malians (more that 9000 Facebook subscribers as things stand, editor’s note) to provide a new way of looking at life and women.”