My brother Issiaga often wears a shirt (one
of ~3 that he owns) that says “ L’excision est un crime.” One day I asked him
if he knew what his shirt said. He can’t read and no one had ever told him what it said, so
no, he didn’t know. I told him what it said and he just kind of shrugged his
shoulders and said OK.
Female excision rates in Guinea are
disturbingly high, some of the highest in the world. At
some point, probably due to international pressure, the government declared
that it was illegal to do female excision. People continue to perform excision,
but have become much more secretive about it. There has been some encouraging
news that perhaps female excision to its fullest extent isn’t really being
practiced, but instead they’re just ‘nicking’ the skin a bit to draw blood, as
evidence of having gone through it, and practicing the other cultural
traditions that go along with it (wearing a certain type of clothing, singing
certain songs).
Since
being in Guinea I have not heard anyone speak about it nor have I head any
reference to it. I have only ever broached the topic with two people. One was
my host mother in Dubreka who said she wasn’t planning to do that to her
daughters. The second is my host brother (technically cousin), Abou, at site
who is my best friend/confident. Other than talking with these two people, the
issue of excision has never come up, and, I was enjoying the
“ignorance is bliss” way of life.
I
found myself wholly unprepared for the first time since starting my service for
the cultural shock I experienced tonight. My host aunt (Abou’s mom) came to our
house from her village (two hours away) and brought her daughter (~8 years old)
and two other girls around the same age. In itself this is not at all strange.
My aunt and other villagers occasionally come to visit us and go to our market.
I thought nothing of it.
Later that night Abou called me from
Conakry, where he has been spending his summer vacation, to say hi. I told him
that his mother and sister had come to our house. He asked if I could pass the
phone to his mother so that he could say hi. When she handed the phone back to
me, Abou asked me if I knew why they had come. "No," I told him. He asked if his
mom had come with three young girls. “Yes,” I said. He paused and then very
solemnly told me that it was to do the excision for the girls…I had absolutely
nothing to say in response to that. After a few moments I asked where they
would be doing it – traditional healer? Karamoko? No, he said they would be
doing it chez nous. Abou,
understanding the dangers and knowing my sentiments towards it, sincerely
apologized and asked me to forgive them but to understand that it’s a part of
their culture.
The girls in question were sitting on my
front porch playing. Did they know or understand what they were about to
undergo? I couldn’t look at them, or any of the girls in my family. I felt so
many emotions at the same instant that I’m not sure I even know exactly which ones
I felt except that I was utterly speechless and at the same time wanted to say
so much - a feeling of helplessness.
I
immediately called the only person I knew I could talk to about this, Fatime, a
Terminale student who just got her BAC. I’ve been a mentor to her during the
last year and I knew that she would be both willing to talk about such a taboo
topic and understanding of my stance. I asked if I could come over to her house
to talk to her about something. By this time it was dark out and so Issiaga had
to accompany me to her house on the other side of town. When I arrived, her and
her family were in the middle of praying on the front porch so I waited by the
side of the house. After they were done Fatime introduced me to her family
which I hadn’t met before and then brought two chairs out to the side of the
house where we could talk in private. I explained everything that happened and
before I finished the tears started to flow. I don’t know why I felt so
overwhelmed, though it must have been the feelings of helplessness and anger
that something so deplorable could happen at my house, and the fact that I couldn't express the way I felt.
Fatime
listened carefully and shared her ideas about the cultural reasons for
excision. If a girl doesn’t undergo excision, people
will gossip about her and ruin her reputation, which could damage
her chances of getting married and could also shame the family. Since it's an initiation, many girls actually look forward to it, and some families have celebrations to honor the girls who have recently gone through it. Fatime herself
went through this initiation process, and even shared some personal details. In
school, after the fact, she learned from her teachers that excision is not
good.
We
finished our discussion, I had let all the emotions (tears) out that I needed
to. We came to the conclusion that there wasn’t anything I could do to stop the
excision of these three girls, at least nothing culturally sensitive or
appropriate. However, Fatime encouraged me to bring the subject up with people
and even to do sensibilisations to inform people of the dangers. Fatime also
helped me with some SuSu vocabulary so that I would be able to bring up the
subject with my family and villagers which don’t speak French.
I
just don’t know if I can look at the women in my household the same. I feel a
sense of betrayal by my family, though completely unfounded since they had no
idea that I would know or be affected by excision.
EPILOGUE
The day after I found about the girls
coming to do the excision, I left my site to go to Conakry to attend the
swearing-in of the newest education volunteers. I came back two days later,
presumably after they had done the excision. The girls were wearing different
clothing and had their hair wrapped up. I also heard them singing songs in the
house during the evening. The girls were happy and pretty active, considering
what I thought would have been a very painful experience. This, along with the
fact that my family is very poor and probably can’t afford whatever tools are
needed, makes me think that maybe, after all, they just went through the
motions and didn’t actually do much in terms of excision. I can hope.
