Persecuted Women Series: Senegal, Mali, and Nigeria
- Angela Umphers Rueger
- Feb 20, 2017
- 5 min read
The stories of persecution in Senegal, Mali, and Nigeria are very closely related. All three of these countries lie in the Sahel, the geographical region of Africa between the Sahara Desert to the north and the Sudanian Savanna to the south. The Sahel spans the continent from the west to the east and includes all or portions of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan, and Ethiopia.
Statistics on religion vary from one website to another, but basically the countries of Senegal, Mali, and Nigeria are 92-98% Muslim, with the rest being Christian (mostly Catholic). Animism also remains in practice as a part of the culture, the other religions having been mixed with the original forms of worship rather than replacing them altogether.
Why is this area important? These countries have been predominantly Muslim for centuries, but the infiltration by radical Islamist missionaries has brought about a dramatic increase of intolerance, creating a problem not only for Christians, but also for Muslims who do not practice religion as these militants do. Local governments are being overthrown, churches and other places of worship are being looted and desecrated, and people are being slaughtered by the thousands in the name of Allah.
The Fula people, or the Fulani, are perhaps the largest nomadic group in the world. About 20 million in number, they reside predominantly in Nigeria, Mali, Guinea, Cameroon, Senegal, and Niger. For centuries the Fulani have led a pastoral life, herding cattle, sheep, and goats. They adopted Islam early on, participating in jihads as early as the 16th Century. The 2015 Global Terrorism Index, published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, characterized Fulani militants as one of the five deadliest terrorist organizations in the world. The recent insurgence of radical Muslim missionaries in the region has fueled much of that fervor, combined with a practical need to find pastures for their flocks and herds. As the desert to the north engulfs more land, the nomads are forced to move south in search of pastures for grazing. As a result, they encroach on the fields of the farmers in the more fertile lands below them—farmers who also happen to be predominantly Christian in religion. The particular version of Islam to which the Fulani adhere states that everything belongs to Allah first and to his followers second, and they believe this gives them the right to take the land by force. By day and by night, they fall upon the villages with cruel attacks on men, women, and children. Reports by survivors indicate these attacks are not simply for the acquisition of property, but they are focused on Christians and their homes and churches. Muslims and their mosques are generally left alone during these raids, which suggests a religious motive beyond the economic one that lies on the surface. And these people are hard to defeat, for they hide among their brother shepherds who are not interested in jihad.
Another major concern is the chief source of funding for these jihadist attacks: drug and human trafficking. Human trafficking is defined as “the acquisition and exploitation of human beings by improper means, such as force, fraud, or deception.” Trafficking takes place in the form of sexual exploitation, forced labor, forced begging, and organ trafficking.
One of the most horrendous things I’ve learned in this study is the practice of female genital mutilation. Without going into detail, I will say that it is very painful, performed without anesthetic and often in unsanitary conditions. Why? To decrease the pleasure women receive from intercourse. This is thought to make them less likely to commit sexual sins before marriage and more likely to remain faithful to their husbands afterward. In fact, a young woman who has not undergone FGM has a harder time finding a husband. The tradition is steeped in superstition and is the cause of many complications, from chronic infections to death during childbirth. This is not a religious issue, but a cultural one, and one that affects women and girls specifically, with the average age for FGM being 8 years old. The practice has been outlawed in Burkina Faso, Djibouti, the Central African Republic, Ghana, Guinea, Senegal, and Togo, but still it goes on. At first I assumed this practice was directly related to sex trafficking, but not so, for as many as 95% of the women in these countries are subjected to this cruel treatment! It has been compared to the ancient Chinese practice of foot binding and to the Western practice of wearing corsets. All such practices are harmful to the body and serve little to no purpose. But just as foot binding and the wearing of corsets came to an end, it is the hope of many that FGM will also become a thing of the past as people are willing to give up their superstitious ways.
The purpose of writing this article is to help open the eyes of us women in the Western world to the conditions women in other countries face every day in the name of culture and religion. How can we complain when we are allowed to enjoy our husbands as much as they enjoy us? when we are free to travel from state to state as we wish, and even leave the country? when we enjoy religious liberty that is unheard of in many other countries? How many of us have Bibles on the shelf, collecting dust? How many of us skipped church this past weekend in order to put dinner on the table “on time”? How many of us have given a thought to the women in Africa who were killed for owning a Bible or for going to church? They cannot meet in their church building next week because their village was just raided and their churches and homes burned to the ground. Some of them did not survive the raid.
The situation is sad in the Sahel region of Africa, but not hopeless. They have the same hope that men and women all around the world have—the Lord Jesus Christ. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). Their health and safety are important, but the most important thing of all is eternity. These precious women need to know and trust the God who made them, who loves them far more than they can imagine, and who cares about the trials they face. The problems in society stem from a rejection of God and His commandments. “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Romans 1:28). “But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)” (Ephesians 2:4-5, emphasis mine).
Islamic militant missionaries are spreading hate and fear throughout the land while we who know the God of love and peace sit comfortably in our homes and do nothing. The men, women, and children of Senegal, Mali, and Nigeria need to hear the good news of salvation. Do you care enough to do what you can to help them? Whether your part is to go, send, write a letter, or pray, please do it now!
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