Toufah

The Woman Who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement

By: Toufah Jallow, Kim Pittaway

Narrated by: Toufah Jallow

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

“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)

An incandescent and inspiring memoir from a courageous young woman who, after she was forced to flee to Canada from her home in The Gambia, became the first woman to publicly call the country’s dictator to account for sexual assault—launching an unprecedented protest movement in West Africa.

In 2015, Toufah Jallow was a nineteen-year-old dreaming of a scholarship. Encouraged by her mother, she entered a presidential competition designed to identify and support the country’s smart young women, and she won.

Which brought her to the attention of Yahya Jammeh, the country’s dictator, who styled himself as a pious yet progressive protector of women. At first, he behaved in a fatherly fashion towards his winner, but then he proposed marriage. When Toufah turned him down, he drugged and raped her.

She could not tell anyone what happened. Not only was there no word for rape in her native language, if she told her parents, they would take action and incur Jammeh’s wrath. Wearing a niqab to hide her identity, she gave his security operatives the slip and fled to Senegal, eventually making her way to safety in Canada.

Then Jammeh was deposed. In July 2019, Toufah Jallow went home to testify against him in a public hearing, sparking marches of support and a social media outpouring of shared stories among West African women. Each bold decision Toufah made helped secure the future Jammeh had tried to steal from her, and also showed her a new path of leadership and advocacy for survivors of sexual violence.©2021 Toufah Jallow and Kim Pittaway (P)2021 Random House Canada

Critic reviews

“Toufah details her story in a Le Carré-like pace few will want to put down. . . . [An] extraordinary book . . . With subject matter like this, you’d expect the book to be worthy, important, but hard-going. You’d be two-thirds right. The same qualities that prompted Toufah to break the barriers she did have allowed her to leaven the tale with humour, and a lot more of the good she encountered along the way than the bad that set her on her path. . . . [Toufah is] a figure of national importance, a woman who spoke out, fought back and prevailed.” —Toronto Star

“A fiercely readable, potent memoir of a survivor who refuses to be silenced. . . . [A] harrowing story with moments of humor and humanity that make the book an inspirational page-turner. . . . [Jallow] vividly describes her fear, strength, and sorrow, always cognizant that her experience, no matter how raw, can be a source of comfort to fellow survivors." —Kirkus (starred review)

“[A] riveting autobiography….The tale of Jallow’s escape is harrowing and propulsive. While her trauma is extreme, the real story takes place in its aftermath, in the ways it defined the victim’s life….It takes extraordinary courage and vision to induce social change in a single lifetime, and Jallow has done just that.” —The New York Times