A Call to Greatness

In Act 2, Scene 5 of William Shakespeare’s play, TWELFTH NIGHT, the character of Malvolio says that “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

It’s an oft-quoted line from an oft-quoted man. A great man, even. But as anyone paying even a little attention knows, at least half of our greatest people are women—probably more than half. Perhaps this is because, in a world where patriarchy is the norm, women are generally born with the deck stacked high against them. This forces greatness upon them. So they do what the great have always done. They rise.

It is our honor and pleasure, then, to introduce you to the coordinator of SIL LEAD’s work in Senegal, Béatrice Konfe. Although Béatrice would (and did) have her doubts about being called “great,” we believe that with her dedication to our mission of helping local, community-based organizations use their own languages to improve their quality of life; her joy in her own learning process; and her perseverance in the face of adversity, we can’t think of a better term to describe Béatrice.

Béatrice KONFE, SIL LEAD staff in Senegal.

Education has always been extremely important to Béatrice, who grew up in a home directly across the street from a good primary school in Ouagadougou, the bustling capital city of the African nation of Burkina Faso. As a little girl, Béatrice was so excited to begin classes that although the school had a policy of never accepting students under the age of seven, an uncle intervened on her behalf and she was enrolled at the age of six.

From her early success in primary school, Béatrice went on to seven years in secondary, then four years in University, where she studied English. After that, she taught English in a secondary school for three years, during which she took a Linguistics course each summer, and then a linguistic survey course in England. Then she returned to the University in Ouagadougou, where she continued her studies in Linguistics.

Her initial linguistics training completed, Béatrice was hired by the National Association for Bible Translation and Literacy (ANTBA) in a joint project with SIL Burkina Faso to conduct  linguistic surveys in the western and southwestern parts of the country as well as in the neighboring countries of Mali and Côte d’Ivoire. The days were very long (she began at 6am, and some nights did not get home until 10pm) and the work was hard.  “I think that I would not be able to do it again now,” she says with a laugh, but adds that at the time she was very young and was very excited about the work—so it was worth it.

Béatrice laughs when she talks about the hardship she’s had to endure and speaks with gratitude of the good life she has had despite her many challenges—both professional and personal.

Although Béatrice first worked with SIL LEAD as a consultant in Ethiopia in November of 2014 and then with our All Children Reading project team in Senegal in 2017, in August of 2018 she came on board as the coordinator of our work in Senegal, a position that required her to move with her now twelve year-old daughter to the capital city of Dakar. All this, on the heels of a great personal tragedy—the death of her husband of many years.

picture taken by Jeff Attaway with camera attached to a kite

So for over a year now, Béatrice Konfe and her daughter have dealt with completely new circumstances.  They have left behind their network of extended family and friends to contend with the challenges of a new city, a new local language (Wolof), new work and school, and a new community of faith.

Béatrice does not complain, though.

Instead, she speaks of the pleasure of working with SIL LEAD to make a difference in the lives of children. Most of her previous work in the field had been with adult education, she says, so there is just so much for her to learn. Her voice positively glows with pleasure when she speaks of the joy of learning. It has been a pleasure, she says, to work with her SIL LEAD colleagues and others involved with the ACR program. She appreciates the expertise that SIL brings to the program, including the Bloom book-making software.

Whether she’d accept the honorific of “great” or not, for our part we are grateful to have Béatrice heading up a part of a truly great team.