Maquette Page One
The Story of Her Life
"Eventually I was so exhausted that I decided to leave my husband."
My name is Maguette N'Dour. My father was born the same year as Hermann Gmeiner, in 1919; my mother in 1925. She lives here in Kaolack, not far from the SOS Children's Village's mother and child clinic. My father died in 1989. He was a secretary in the peanut factory in Kaolack. Neither my mother nor my second mother, my father's second wife, ever went out to work. They still live in a house together. My mother had one son and five daughters and the second wife had one son and two daughters. The first wife's son financed his mother a trip to Mecca and some time later he did the same for the other mother. There was always a certain amount of harmony.
I have eight children, four girls and four boys. After primary school I went to secondary school and then to a school for home economics. You normally complete this school after three years with a qualified trade, but after I had done two years the school was closed down because the state didn't recognise it. I wasn't able to finish my training. I got married when I was sixteen. After the wedding I went on a two-year course to train as a secretary but I was never able to find a job.
Were you the only wife in your two marriages?
Yes, I was the only wife. My husbands only married again after the divorces. I got divorced the first time in 1970. My husband was a relative. He was a cousin. We lived with my mother-in-law and her behaviour wore me out. Then I got married again and divorced once more in 1989. Two of my children are from the first marriage and six are from the second.
Was your first marriage on the suggestion of your parents or was it of your own wish?
I wasn't forced. My second husband was also one of my cousins. He saw how I was suffering under my first marriage and said to my parents, "This is a woman who needs to be married so please give her to me." I agreed. We were married from 1974 until 1989. Problems started occurring after fifteen years. He didn't come home, drank alcohol and didn't give me enough housekeeping money. Eventually I was totally exhausted and decided to leave my husband. I fought for the children because normally they stay with the husband's family, but he gave me all six.
Is divorce very common in Senegal?
Yes, very common.
How old were you when you had your first child?
It was one year after we got married and I was seventeen. It was a girl. She's thirty-six now and the youngest is eleven. Two of my children are married; one lives with his brother in Dakar and five are living here with my family; that is, with my mothers and my sister. My married daughter has taken in one of her sisters to help out. It is the size of my family and the fact that they all help each other which allows me to work here and to fulfil this task.
Maquette's Story:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
All these mother's stories come from SOS Children's Village Hermann Gmeiner Academy. Copyright is reserved and no unauthorized use permitted. Use for non-commercial purposes may be requested. The interviews telling about the lives of some SOS Mothers form part of an interesting study on being a replacement Mother to children in need in SOS Children's communities worldwide.