Yetunde Arebi
9 August 2007
opinion
Lagos — Hi, No sooner the first few editions of this running discourse was published, I received a mail from a reader of this column from Rivers State.
Juliana Okoh of the University of Port Harcourt sent me two books published by her on the practice of female circumcision, titled: Female Circumcision in Nigeria: Myth, Reality and Theatre the piece was put together with the help of The five College Programme in Peace and World Security Studies in association with the Five College Women's Studies Research Centre and the UMASS Everywoman's ACentre and published in 2001. I found the two books (the first a research work and the second a play) not just very interesting, but informative and educating.
It is also very short and precise which allows for easy reading and understanding. Juliana did not include her phone numbers, so I could not get in touch personally and thank her for the books. However, I know she wanted to pass them on for the purpose of public enlightenment. I have therefore, selected four chapters of the book which I know will be very useful to our readers. I am also using this opportunity to say that Juliana may reach me through the e-mail address provided on this page first, and we may pick things up from there if she so desires. I want to know how readers can get her books.
Dearest readers, please do remember that you too can reach me on any issue of your choice for the purpose of public enlightenment. You may also write in on any story of your choice, but based on true life experiences. Our address remains: The Human Angle, Vanguard, P.M.B. 1007, Apapa, Lagos. Or e-mail address: humananglepage@yahoo.com Happy reading!!
Prevalence of Female Genital Cutting in the States of Nigeria
Another survey carried out, by The National Baseline Survey of Positive and Harmful Traditional Practices Affecting Women and Girls in Nigeria (Egunjobi: 2000)reports that the highest rates of FGM were found in Osun State (98.7percent), Oyo State(96.8 percent) and Ondo State (91.6 percent).Edo followed with (74percent). In the South-East, the highest rate was found in Imo State (95.4per cent), Abia and Anambra have rates of (82.4 per cent and 75.5 per cent). Significant rates were also recorded in the South-South, Cross River (93 per cent), Delta State (91.4 per cent), Akwa Ibom State (65 per cent), and Rivers (58.3 per cent). In Kano State, the rate is 55.5 per cent, in Kaduna State is 36.5 per cent and in Jigawa, it is (32 per cent).
The lowest rates are recorded in North-East, with (14.4 per cent) in Bauchi State and (6.9 per cent) in Borno State.
Judging from the above two research reports, it would appear that whereas the practice is diminishing in some States such as Borno, it is increasing in other states such as Edo. It would be interesting to find out what is responsible for this increase instead of decrease of the practice in some part of the country in the presence of accelerating urbanization and western education. Could it be traced to some enculturation insurgencies? An empirical research on this issue in the area so affected is worthwhile undertaking.
Occasions for the Practice: The modality of performance differs from place to place. Among some ethnic groups, it is performed as part of the annual harvest festival. While in other groups, it is performed on individual basis, or as the occasion may demand.
The age at which the rite is performed varies also from one ethnic group to another or even from village to village. In some places, girls are circumcised as early as infancy, before puberty or at puberty. In Calabar for example, it is performed on female as early as seven days after birth, during childhood, adolescence or even during pregnancy. Among the Ijaws, the coast people of the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria and the fourth largest tribe in the country, Clitoridectomy is performed when the girl is pregnant and the pregnancy is visible. A female expert is invited to perform the rite. During convalescence, the girl is fully attended to by the younger children in the family. When she has fully recovered, a big party is thrown for her.
Parents, members of her family, friends and her intended husband and family shower gifts on her. The husband in particular, brings her a box filled with wrappers. There is feasting, eating and dancing. Her body rubbed with cam wood, a wrapper tied round the waist, with the other naked parts of her body heavily decked with beads, she comes out to dance with the aid of a walking stick. But in most places, since circumcision forms part of the initiation ceremony, it is performed on girls when they are of marriageable age, this may be between 14 and 17 years old. However, the marriageable age of girls in these areas of Nigeria has shifted to extend to about 19 years of age since the last two decades, because of the emphasis placed on Universal Primary Education.
There are some exceptional cases. In some places, girls are circumcised at seven months of pregnancy (Asuen, M I,1977) or just before the first child is born as among the Abors in the present Delta State. According to Robert Myers(1985: 581-8) in some extreme cases; among some ethnic groups in Southern Nigeria, if women who have escaped the rite die, their relatives may insist that the practice be performed on the corpse before burial can take place. It must be pointed out that this observation has not yet been confirmed by our research among the ethnic groups of South-southern Nigeria.
So far, our discovery shows that the operation is performed not on the dead but on the living; and purely for the purpose of social integration. Moreover, due to the strong cultural background of the people in the area, the dead, considered the latest addition to the list of ancestors, are usually treated with reverence. No one tampers with the dead, except perhaps when a person is suspected to have died of some strange disease then an autopsy is performed to extract the infected area so that the person may not come back to life with that disease. This is done strictly for the purpose of reincarnation. A belief very strongly adhered to in the Southern part of Nigeria.
Myths Surrounding Female Genital Mutilation
A number of assumptions ranging from religious, sociological, psychosexual to hygienic are generally associated with the performance of female genital mutilation in Nigeria, some plausible, others remote from reality, yet strongly adhered to by the people.
(a) cultural identity: First and foremost, the practice of FGM is a means of cultural identity. This view usually propounded by men is well articulated by Jomo Kenyata of Kenya in his essay(1938:128) when he asserts: "Excision and Infibulation unite us tightly, they prove our fecundity. Clitoridectomy and indeed circumcision among Jews is a bodily mutilation, viewed somehow as the condition sine qua non for receiving a complete religious and moral education "As a rite of passage", therefore, the ceremony initiates girls into the community's way of life.
Bestows on the initiates a sense of responsibility and also of social belonging in the overall social activities of the people. It is a status determinant and a stepping- stone to other social hierarchy. For only the initiate is eligible to claim her rights in the community, undergoes other rites of passage and climb to the apex of social ladder as the case may be. For these reasons, any woman who is uncircumcised is not only subjected to frequent embarrassing innuendoes from other women reminding her of her precarious status in the community, looked down upon by women younger than herself, but virtually remains a social outcast for life.)
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