“Is it possible that some women may choose to undergo female circumcision?”

“Is it possible that some women may elect to undergo female circumcision?” This was the question that popped up on my face book after I had joined a group against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Some may want to get into a debate on the term FGM. There is a difference. The practices vary from circumcision which involves cutting the tip of the clitoris. Then there is what couldn’t really be called circumcision, it involves removing everything except for a tiny opening to pass water and for an excruciatingly painful intercourse. That is mutilation and any other name is nothing more than euphemism. There is also something called introcision involving an elderly man who enlarges the girl’s vaginal orifice by tearing it downward with three fingers bound with a string or a stone knife.

Back to the question, luckily I know the person who asked about women who may chose to be circumcised. He is someone who applies his mind. So instead of flipping out, I probed him to say more because I was genuinely curious of someone’s take that is different from those who blindly follow certain causes just because they are fashionable. I also thought it would be interesting to get a man’s perspective on an issue that I normally discuss with women.

I suspected that what may have been the issue for J was how most Westerners cry barbarism in most of African cultural practices. Like him I find that kind of empty cultural arrogance offensive. But his argument went further to point out that “there was this other issue about individual rights and freedoms. The right to determine for oneself what is wrong or right, good, bad or even harmful. Remember in South Africa people died for these rights. The liberation movement was pretty much about these rights, the right to determine our own destiny.”


Again this was the point I fully support. I am all for basic reasonable codes that serve as a form of social cohesion to avoid chaos but when they begin to take away my personal choice I balk. I begin to have a problem, when certain practices in culture pay unwanted attention on girls body parts to control procreation. I am enraged when it comes to a fact that such acts as FGM and circumcision are performed not on women but on girls. I am all for women making their own choices, but the thing is that infant girls and teenagers do not have a choice.


Sadly, the elderly women who oversee these practices have always been custodians of frozen tradition, how things were in their days. This is where the power of hegemony lies, it ensures that the practice is approved and seen as way of life by elders including women themselves.


As for Westerners thinking their cultures are clean and superior, it should be duly noted that FGM or female circumcision is not a uniquely African cultural practices. History would show that:
“The origin of FGM has not yet been established, but records show that the practice
predates Christianity and Islam in practising communities of today. In ancient Rome,
metal rings were passed through the labia minora of slaves to prevent procreation; in
medieval England, metal chastity belts were worn by women to prevent promiscuity
during their husbands' absence; evidence from mummified bodies reveals that, in ancient
Egypt, both excision and infibulation were performed, hence Pharaonic circumcision; in
tsarist Russia, as well as nineteenth-century England, France and America,
records indicate the practice of clitoridectomy. In England and America, FGM was
performed on women as a "cure" for numerous psychological ailments.” (UNCHR, Fact
Sheet No.23,)

As the global village becomes smaller, I have had the pleasure of befriending women who at a tender age have had to endure unimaginable pain of being circumcised . The issue of sex for them is a thorny issues. Excuse the pun since some them were literally stitched with thorns.

The question however remains, is it possible that there could be women out there who would offer to be circumcised and be left nothing but a tiny bit to pee with? Well, we have people piercing every part of their body. We have people who inject poison on their lips and faces, we have those who have operated on their tongues to a shape similar to snakes or kept they nails until they look like claws. People have done amazing sometimes bizarre things to their bodies. They have one thing in common – Choice. They chose. So yes J, there is a possibility that some adult women may choose to do it. But genitally mutilated and circumcised girls are mostly pinned down kicking and screaming and bleeding and shitting scared.

Special Lesson from Susan Boyle

Yesterday I watched a you tube clip of Susan Boyle and it’s still on my mind. She is a 47 year old woman who had a dream of becoming a professional singer for over 4 decades. She couldn't realise her dream because she put her life on hold to care for her sickly mother who has since passed on.

When the chance presented itself through the "Britain’s got talent" show, at 47 years of age Susan grabbed it despite the cynicism so prevalent in most of these shows. Her looks are the total opposite of the wanna-be successful singer - the X factor. Susan is neither young, tall, slim nor blonde as it would be expected. The cynics chuckled and looked rather amused by the sight presented to them.

The moment of truth arrived and she blew their socks off. Susan sang "I Dreamed A Dream" from Les Miserables, she sung it beautifully with such ease. She affirmed my constant support for the underdogs, those forced to survive on the sidelines by society's fake norms.

If you haven't had a chance to see this special lady's lesson to society's plastic rules, do yourselves a favour check www.youtube.com and key in Susan Boyle. Watch and weep. Thanks Susan Boyle for affirming the power of simplicity.

HOW MANY?

HOW MANY FRITZL’S ARE OUT THERE PREYING ON THEIR DAUGHTERS?

What of the daughters? Who is to protect them when their mothers are too weak and terrified to stand up for them? Could it be love that blinds these mothers from seeing the monsters who sleep next to them at night? Is it helplessness? Are they co-conspirators in such crimes?

What of the children born out of such violations? Born to witness violence, ugliness and weakness? Should such fathers be called animals? But what animal rapes? Do animals rape each other? Should they growl and take offence on being equated to rapists?

How many are they? These things in the form of men? These things with inhuman thoughts and plots for their own flesh and blood? What have the girls done wrong to deserve such heavy punishment?

These are the questions that came to mind when I read that yet another man and his son have been busy raping their own flesh and blood for decades. It is nauseating to read these stories that are far stranger than the fiction we use to make sense our realities. It churns my stomach, it is beyond sick.

Reading "A Mercy" by Toni Morrison

I am reading and trying to understand "A Mercy" by Toni Morrison. There seems to be layer after layer of meaning that is illusive in this narrative. It's always the case with Morrison's works of genious.

I find myself reading ten pages and having to go back again to see if I missed something. Slavery without racisms or is it is without? There is a Portugese trader who sells Angolans, a young slave girl's hunger for love and approval, and a freed black blacksmith who confidently looks at Europeans in the eyes. It seems to me race still plays a large part although Morrison maintains a point of departure from race in this novel. It is a fascinating but complicated read.

So far I like the character of Lina the most because she seems to be very clear when it comes to why she has chosen to stay out of the misery of belonging to some man. She did once but what she learnt was her own limits. She says: "I will walk behind. I will clean up after. I will not be thrashed. No"

Perhaps when I finally get to the end of it, I will have gained some understanding. I should be done soon because after that I am keen to get to the "Lost Colours of the Chameleon"