Women in Sierra Leone Grow Weary of War, Suffering : Africa: Groups work to reverse the lack of power and the high rates of death and illiteracy that females suffer in a male-led society.

The young woman who already looks middle-aged bends at the waist, hacking at potato leaves with a machete, two babies strapped to her, one at each breast.

Over in the shade, under a tree at the refugee camp, men sit drinking corn whiskey, playing cards and gossiping.

The scene is typical for rural Africa: While the women do the back-breaking work in the fields, the men argue village politics over a game of cards and a calabash of palm wine.

And in this West African nation, while the men kill one another, the women watch their babies die.

“In our culture, the women are always behind the men, everything the men say is fact,” said Mary Swara, a public health nurse at a squatters’ camp outside this southern city that houses 22,000 refugees from Sierra Leone’s civil war.

A colleague, Mary Musa, added, “Well, we want to be out there in front now because we know our right from our left.”

The two women are members of the Women’s Movement for Peace, one of several women’s groups in Sierra Leone gaining recognition in West Africa for demanding a voice in how society is run.

The 5-year-old war between the military government and rebels who claim the regime is corrupt has hit women hard. Most of the 10,000 people killed have been women and their children. So are most of the 1.5 million people who have fled their homes to escape the fighting.

The war compounds an already dismal life for women in a country the United Nations ranks as the world’s second poorest: 90% are illiterate; 90% of Muslim girls undergo female circumcision; female life expectancy is 45 years; the maternal mortality rate is 640 per 100,000 live births, one of the highest in the world.

While men here mostly work in trades, such as tailors and blacksmiths, the women of Sierra Leone make up 80% of the agricultural work force and 83% of the small retail trade. Yet the women cannot buy land or take out loans unless a husband co-signs.

“The entire continent has always believed that women are second place, and up until now the women in Africa have accepted this role,” said Miatta Koroma, director of culture for the military government. “We are many years behind other cultures.”

Women’s groups are campaigning for stiffer laws and punishments for domestic violence and rape. They want property and inheritance rights for women. They seek better education opportunities for girls.

But most of all they want the men to end the war.

“When women saw that their children were being killed, their daughters being raped, they saw they were being cornered and this seems to have gathered all their energy to stand up and say, ‘Enough is enough,’ ” said Hadjia Alari Cole, a school principal and head of the Federation of Muslim Women’s Assn.

Grass-roots women’s groups are sprouting up nationwide, and women are mobilizing at refugee camps to form farming and health cooperatives. Groups are distributing pamphlets encouraging girls not to marry young, and a group of college women is trying to put together a network to offer family planning advice.

“This country will never be the same again for women,” said Zainab Hawa Bangura, an insurance executive and president of the Women’s Organization for a Morally Enlightened Nation. “People have lost confidence in the political class, so it’s the time for women to step in.”

Her group puts on workshops to promote the role of women in business, encourages women to enter politics and stages peace marches.

Most people in Sierra Leone are Muslim, as is Cole, the principal. She created a television and radio program broadcast every Friday night to discuss the tenets of the Koran, Islam’s holy book--through a woman’s eyes.

“The men handed out what they wanted the women to know and usually it was not in their [the women’s] best interest,” said Cole, who attended the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing last September. “What we are trying to do is let people know the truth so they can make their own choices. The men don’t like it one bit.”

The women are quick to add that they like the men.

“In the West, when all of these women’s movements started, they thought there would be a global sisterhood,” said Nana Pratt, a chemistry professor and president of the National Organization for Women. “That was just a myth. We are all oppressed by men; but in the south, we still want our men. We just want to be side by side--not in front.”

Western women could learn much from Africans about keeping their families together, activists in Sierra Leone say.

“Babies sleeping alone in a room, that is unthinkable here,” exclaimed Koroma, the director of culture. “And your old-folks homes, all those old people alone, waiting to die.”

Down the street at Vine Memorial public high school, the girls know they are lucky to have made it this far, as most girls drop out after primary school.

“Some say school is not the place for girls,” said 12-year-old Umu Comber. “They think if we girls learn things we will go into the street and get into trouble.”

When the class of 25 sophomore girls is asked how many want to be nurses or teachers, all their hands shoot up. One girl timidly says she wants to be a lawyer, like her father. Her classmates roll their eyes and many of them murmur, “Good luck.”