My short trousers/skirt

I must start off by saying that I’m not auditioning for another one of Eve Ensler’s monologues. But I do tend to get shooed out of government offices for turning up in linen capris which end way below my knees and are not short by any measure.

This first happened when one of my reporters Ibrahim took me to court. The guards at the entrance made a huge fuss about the fact that I was wearing trousers and that my head was not covered. Apparently it’s an unwritten rule, yes, unwritten that women must appear in court only in skirts. I caught a couple of women in pencils so obviously knees are not the problem. Coming back to my own trouser trials, Ibrahim argued with the guard and ushered me in before he could protest.

My second time at court I was not that lucky. I was wearing capris again—same style, different colour—and was standing by the cafeteria minding my own business. At this point a guard came up to me and said that I was in contempt of court because of my attire. I scurried off to the top of a flight of steps where evidently I wasn’t in contempt anymore. The distance between the two positions was approximately 5 metres.

I was fortunate to run into a prominent female lawyer and asked her if there was a formal rule about skirts and head dresses. He got all excited and said that they had been trying for months to get the guards to stop harassing people. Obviously this has not worked and easy targets like me—I’m whiter than most people here—are still wagged fingers at. So I’ve decided to relent and put on a skirt the next time I go to court, just so I don’t court any more trouble.

But that’s not the end of my wardrobe woes. The other day I accompanied my reporter Kai Samba to Parliament and was stopped at the gate by a couple of female guards who stared disdainfully at my crumpled capris (we haven’t had power at home so I haven’t been able to iron anything). “We only allow formal wear and Africana,” she said. I put on my ‘I’m so stupid’ look and my strongest British accent and tried to be as foreign as I could. I promised to cover my legs completely the next time I showed up. So they let me go with a warning. I haven’t asked but I’m pretty sure that there’s no written rule about women wearing Africana to parliament either.

I came to Freetown with exactly four pairs of trousers (capris included) and two skirts, one of which happens to be short. Why is Sierra Leone threatened by my short(ish) skirt and trousers? Hey this is turning into an Ensler piece after all.