The path to socio-economic empowerment of “manjacas”
Reportage from Guinea Bissau: Here’s how Mani Tese focuses on micro-credit and new women’s savings groups, as part of the project “Involve Allə to Build Our Future,” co-funded by AICS
Political borders, cultural barriers
In the early 1990s, escalating armed clashes between the Senegalese army and independence fighters in Casamance province, on the border between Senegal and Guinea Bissau, led to the abandonment of many villages on the Senegalese side, whose people fled to Guinea-Bissau.
Located 3 kilometers from São Domingos in northern Guinea-Bissau, Beguingue 2 is a village founded in 1994 by Senegalese refugees on the land of Beguingue 1, with the support of UNHCR and the Guinean government. Today, the village is mainly inhabited by the Manjaco ethnic group from the village of Nhafena in Casamance, but actually originating from Guinea-Bissau itself.
The Manjaca is an ethnic group characterized by strong religious-traditional values, presenting a patriarchal society in which women remain in a subordinate and dependent relationship. For example, Manjaca women do not have the right to inherit from either their father or husband. Exceptionally, a daughter may inherit some of the property acquired by her mother during her lifetime.
Only recently, manjacas have acquired the right to education, but they continue to be relegated to household chores and agricultural work, engaging in petty trade or other income-generating activities that must, however, be approved by their husbands.
Socio-cultural empowerment passes through economic empowerment. In this sense, Mani Tese’s intervention in the territory of São Domingos, Cacheu region, aims to create 10 new savings and (micro)credit groups – in English Village Savings and Loaning Groups (VSLG) – thanks to the project Involviamo tuttəper costruire il nostro futuro: Policies, training and work for an inclusive business!, co-funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS).
A booklet for economic empowerment
VSL groups constitute a kind of community savings bank, usually composed mostly of women who can thus manage their earnings independently and take out loans to carry out income-generating activities without having to rely on the approval of their husbands, fathers or brothers.
Since last February, Mani Tese has been training new groups that will receive a fund from the project to activate the savings/loan mechanism, thus ensuring the group’s cash self-support and sustainability.
In the Biguinge 2 community, training takes place, as usual, in the shade of a large mango tree, near the gnawed and pothole-filled asphalt tongue that leads up to the border with Senegal and Casamance. In the early afternoon sultriness, the Manjaca women of the VSL group called “No djubi” (literally “let’s see,” meaning “let’s see how the experience goes…”), somewhat sleepy and rehearsed from the morning’s work in the fields or at the market, listen to Mani Tese animator Mama Zanda explain how the cash box works, the group’s bylaws, and the role of the members of the management committee.
To make the training more dynamic, the facilitator gives practical examples by showing the kit that each VSL group was given: a portable safe, savings books, cloth bags (for different “funds” in the cash register), calculator, notebooks and stamps.
The stack of yellow booklets stands on the small table in the center of the manjacas‘ circle of colorful robes and headdresses. Each will receive a booklet on which the “shares” corresponding to the francs deposited will be stamped. One stamp for every 500 francs. More stamps mean more shares, meaning a bigger slice of earnings at the opening of the year-end cash box, when the interest rates(juros) accumulated by the group will be apportioned. But saving more also allows you to borrow more, according to the 1:3 ratio. For example, if you save 10,000 francs, you can borrow 30,000 francs.
General attention is reawakened when the savings test comes around. One by one, the manjacas of the “No djubi” are called to deposit their savings for the week in the small bowl provided. Tempers flare, the tone of voices rises, causing some confusion among the two accountants in charge of receiving the francs, counting them and announcing them to the rest of the group. Mama Zanda is good at restoring order, serving up a few jokes that make the burlier women shake with laughter.
The minimum amount to deposit is 500 francs, but it is not always mandatory to save, depending on the availability of the moment. To start applying for loans, however, you will have to wait for the fund to be disbursed by Mani Tese after the training cycle is completed.
Three women and a safe
“I am a daughter of this community,” says Aminata Mendes, 24, proudly, referring to Beguingue 2. She is not yet married and is one of the few girls in her community enrolled in 12th grade, equivalent to our last year of high school. “In the community not all girls attend school, sometimes their parents don’t let them go also because of poverty.” Because of her level of education and her abilities-during the training she was one of the most participatory and receptive-the “No djubi” group chose her as one of the two accountants.
Aminata is determined to study medicine, saving the money she earns by working the land during the rainy season and borrowing from the group’s treasury to pay for her studies in Bissau. “I feel the calling inside me, I want to dedicate my life to it.” Unlike many young people her age, she does not plan to emigrate. “I am proud to stay and work in my homeland.” When she is an established doctor, she wants to help her people by building a school in the community.
The leader and president of the “No djubi” group, Eli Mendes, 42, is married and has six children. Like most of the women in the group, she works the land and sells her produce at the market in São Domingos. With her husband, she shares a cashew field. “He is happy that I am part of this group. I had heard from other nearby communities that they already had a savings bank like this, so I expressed our interest to Mani Tese.” With the money he is able to save, Eli wants to buy things for himself, land to leave to his daughter who, according to Manjaca tradition, can only inherit what belonged to her mother.
Isaura Gomes, 30, is originally from Caio in the Cacheu region. In 1997, three years after the founding of Beguingue 2 village, where Senegalese refugees in Guinea Bissau were resettled, little Isaura joined her aunt who was already living in the village. She later married a young manjaco with whom she had five children.
Last year, her husband died after a long illness. He was a public transportation driver. The car she used in her job was sold by her husband’s siblings, theoretically to support the expenses of Isaura and her fatherless children.
Previously, her husband had inherited a cashew field from his father and had another field that he shared with his brother. At present, however, it is her late husband’s brothers and family who manage these fields. Isaura cannot claim any inheritance rights and remains excluded from managing the fields. During the cashew harvest, she is employed as a simple picker and is paid a percentage of the quantity harvested.
“I will continue to fight for my survival and that of my children, which is why I have enrolled in the community savings and micro-credit program so that I will have the opportunity to qualify for funding for the agricultural and small local produce business I plan to start,” Isaura says. “This will help me not to lose my dignity and establish myself among the women of Beguingue 2.”