Happy book birthday to TOUFAH: THE WOMAN WHO INSPIRED AN AFRICAN #METOO MOVEMENT, by Toufah Jallow with Kim Pittaway, from Steerforth Press!
“This powerful story shouldn’t be missed.” Publishers Weekly (starred)
“A fiercely readable, potent memoir of a survivor who refuses to be silenced. . . . An inspirational page-turner.” Kirkus Reviews (starred)
Toufah is the story of an inspiring young woman who, after she was forced to flee to Canada from her home in The Gambia, bravely bucked taboo and named herself as a survivor of a sexual assault by the country’s dictator—launching an unprecedented protest movement.
In 2015, Toufah Jallow was the nineteen-year-old daughter of the second wife in her Muslim father’s polygamous household. Her mother, outwardly conforming, had made sure that her daughter was educated and had ambitions of her own. Dreaming of a scholarship, Toufah entered a presidential competition designed to identify the country’s smart young women and won.
Which brought her to the attention of Yahya Jammeh, the country’s dictator. First, he proposed marriage. When Toufah turned him down, Jammeh drugged and raped her. Toufah could not tell anyone what had happened. Not only was there no word for rape in her native language, Jammeh’s critics were routinely imprisoned, tortured and murdered. To protect herself and her family, she escaped across the border to Senegal, eventually finding refuge in Canada.
Then Jammeh was deposed and, in July 2019, Toufah Jallow became the first woman in The Gambia to make a public accusation of rape against him. Her testimony sparked marches of support and launched a social media outpouring of shared stories among West African women, setting Toufah Jallow on the path to reclaiming the future that Yahya Jammeh had tried to steal from her.
Toufah Jallow is an African anti-rape activist who inspired a #MeToo movement in West Africa. A compelling and poised speaker, she has told her story to her nation on live television, as well as to reporters from the BBC, CBC, NPR, New York Times, Globe and Mail, Guardian, Al Jazeera and more. She has spoken before the United Nations, presented at the International Criminal Court at The Hague, and given testimony at The Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission. She lives in Toronto, Canada, where she is studying to become an assaulted women and children’s counselor, and travels frequently to The Gambia, where she heads The Toufah Foundation in support of survivors of sexual assault. Toufah is represented by Marilyn Biderman.