Badass Women: Rose Lokissim

In celebration and recognition of Black Women’s History Month, here is my first Badass Women post of April: Rose Lokissim. This post will be short and sweet as not much is known about her early life, and she was murdered while still young. Lokissim was one of the first female elite soldiers from Chad, who fought for freedom from dictatorship for her country.

Not much is known about her life before becoming an elite soldier, but she was born in a small village and was known to be peaceful and ambitious with a strong will that refused to let gender stereotypes or roles stop her from becoming an elite solider, which she did at the age of 23.

After years of smuggling information and speaking out against the regime, Lokissim was arrested along with several others and sent to the infamous La Piscine prison, where she continued the struggle, writing about the abuses within the prison on the cardboard pieces from boxes of soap. She also helped the other prisoners keep their morale up, always encouraging them to never give up hope.

She was set to be released in 1986, but word leaked about her writings and she was instead executed and buried in a mass grave. Although she was murdered when she was only 31 years old by the DDS secret police of the dictatorship, her legacy goes on and can be seen in the documentary film titled “Talking About Rose”, which was released in 2015. She once said: If I die, it will be for my country and family. History will talk about me and I will be thanked for my services to the Chadian nation.” That is surely true—let us fulfill her prophecy by remembering her name and the sacrifices she made for freedom from violence and justice for the people of her nation.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *