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Paris Street Style

Binx Walton

Photographed by Phil Oh for Vogue.com

It is an album for Black women made by one Black woman. In speaking her personal truth, Solange has created a meditation not just for herself but for so many seeking safe space, asylum, and peace, for those who seek to maintain their dignity and regality in the face of condescension, lies, aggression, violence and murder.

TW for child marriage, CSA, rape

“When she was 13 years old, Memory Banda’s community told her that she was an adult. Like 40 percent of girls living in Malawi, she was pushed to attend an initiation camp to ready herself for marriage. Fully aware of what went on in those camps, Memory refused to go, despite being called “stupid” and “stubborn” by her family.

The camps are used to teach girls about satisfying a man, Memory explained during her speech at the TEDWomen 2015 conference. The final act includes what’s known as kusasa fumbi, or a sexual cleansing, in which a man hired by the community has sex with the young girls to rid them of their “childhood dust.”

In many cases, this unwanted sexual act results in an STD or unwanted pregnancy. Memory’s younger sister, Mercy, became pregnant during her time at the camp when she was only 11. Facing pressure from her parents, Mercy married the man who impregnated her. Five years and two failed marriages later, Mercy is 16 and has three children.

Memory rejected the cultural ritual that drastically derailed her sister’s life, but she didn’t stop there. Hoping to end child marriage in her country, she used her sister’s experiences to galvanize young women in her community.

At 18, Memory is happily unmarried and believes that with cultural and political advocacy, every girl will be able to say, “I can marry when I want.” 

Read the story and watch the video here