Mary: An Exceptional Woman

Mary is the head of the Basic and Environmental Science Department at Eastern Polytechnic.  There are few women faculty at our school, and most of them are in the Home Economics or Education Departments.  Mary and Marie, who is the head of the Computer Technology Department, are the only women in the STEM fields.  Mary was to be my counterpart, the person with whom I would work most closely on my original STEM teaching assignment (that fell through), so I switched to the Mathematics Department. But I have continued to use her as a resource because she is forthright, capable and forward thinking. As a professional woman in Sierra Leone, I thought Mary’s story might be interesting to hear.

Mary in her office.

Mary grew up in the small village of Lalehun, on the eastern border close to Guinea.  She is the only child of her mother, Sally, one of ten wives of the village chief.  Mary came to Kenema to attend the all-girl Holy Rosary secondary school run by an order of Catholic sisters. At the time it was the only all girl secondary school in the region. Mary’s mother, a Muslim, thought it was important for Mary to be “protected” from boys, even though it meant sending her daughter to a Catholic school.  Being exposed to the religious teachings of the nuns, Mary converted to Catholicism.  Mary can see the advantages of attending Holy Rosary, but she also thinks that girls attending a mixed school are pushed to higher achievement by the boys who she says tend to be more serious in their studies. 

Mary’s mother was poor.  She sold palm oil to help pay for Mary’s schooling.  Mary says that women in Sierra Leone are used to the idea that men are the leaders and women are dependent on them for support.   At an early age, Mary realized that if she and her mother were to escape poverty, it was up to her. As the only child of her mother, Mary could not rely on anyone else to look after her mother as she aged. In return Mary’s mother moved to Kenema with her and looked after Mary's young children after Mary graduated from college and began working as a teacher.

The nuns at Holy Rosary saw that Mary had an aptitude for the sciences and guided her toward those disciplines.  Mary says that she likes to read and find out more about the world and the laws that govern it.  She graduated in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in biology from Njala University, the mother institution to Eastern Polytechnic.  As many graduates do, she taught secondary school immediately after getting her degree. She was invited back to Holy Rosary to be a teacher and role model for the students.  This is a tradition at Holy Rosary.  There she taught sophomore and junior level classes of 35-40 students.  She began as a lecturer for Eastern Polytechnic in 1994.  At that time there was a push to hire more women in the STEM fields and she believes this helped her land the college job.  In 2004 Eastern Polytechnic granted her one year to pursue a master’s degree in environmental science.  

Mary is a single mother of three children.  Mary’s oldest child, Kanko, is an agricultural student at Eastern Polytechnic.  Her middle child, Leonard, is finishing his undergraduate studies at St. Olaf in Northfield, Minnesota.  He got there by winning a scholarship from the London-based organization United World.  I had a chance to meet Leonard in December when he came back to Sierra Leone for a month to work on an intersession travel abroad project.  His project involved using computer technology efficiently in the Sierra Leone educational system.  When he graduates in May, he will return to Sierra Leone.  Mary wishes that more students from Sierra Leone who get a chance to study overseas would come back to their home country when they are young to help advance the country.  To be sure, this is a challenge. Her youngest child, Pattan, is just beginning high school in Freetown.  He is interested in engineering.

I asked Mary about living in Kenema during the war years, roughly 1992 – 2002.  She said that the war, which started in the east definitely touched our city. Those with money escaped to Guinea or Liberia.  Those who didn’t, dealt with it the best they could.  If fighting broke out in one part of Kenema, residents moved to a more peaceful sector.  I imagine that this might not be too hard to do as many relatives could be counted on for temporary housing. Staying in Kenema was preferable to going to the villages, as soldiers would immediately come to the aid of larger cities, but leave the villages to fend for themselves. Towards the end of the war, the rebels recognizing that their cause was essentially lost, began “Operation Pay-Yourself,” an official sounding name for looting any property that you could get your hands on.

Needless to say, the war affected the college’s operation, as did Ebola.  Mary helps some Ebola survivors by giving them money to start small businesses. They sell palm oil, charcoal and flavored ice on the street. These endeavors are not tremendous money-makers, put could bring in $2/day, the average earnings of a Sierra Leonean.  Leonard had solicited money back in the States to get this program started.  Theoretically, the survivors would pay back their “loans” from the profits of their businesses.  That hasn’t happened yet, but Mary is working with them to be successful, doling out the cash bit by bit.

Currently Sierra Leone is  not distracted by war, Ebola, or political conflict.  Elections are scheduled for 2018.  The president, Ernest Bai Koroma, is constitutionally bound to step down then, although there may be an effort to change the constitution.  I asked Mary what she thought the future of Sierra Leone would hold.  She said that Sierra Leone should learn from other West African countries in similar situations.  How do these countries solve their problems?  She said that the Sierra Leonean spirit can be summed up in one word - hopeful.