FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION RITUAL,PARTIAL RESTORATION!

Female genital mutilation or circumcision has a wide range of effects to the mutilated girls(women) as well as to their children and husbands. Their sexuality is deeply injured and consequently it is reflected in how they behave, their eyes are empty of sexual light, I simply lack the proper expression but you can tell the difference by looking into the eyes of an affected lady and those of an unaffected one. They also do not actually fall in love but simply follow the expected trend and get into relationships which turn out to be sour later after their male counterparts start sensing they have been shortchanged from the sexual hollowness encountered. This bad feeling is tolerated up to a certain point where it begins to show and in some instances put into words, the outcome is pain to all involved and may spill over to the kids. As mothers, such women tend to be mere feeders to their children, their emotional attachment to the kids is weak and in some instances they bully them.

Husbands caught in such situations sometimes venture outside their relationships clandestinely or remarry, this may explain the correlation between regions in which polygamy is prevalent and those in which FGM is practiced, they are mostly the same societies. There are also other repercussions to the husbands including seeking refuge in alcoholism.

In 1972 I witnessed my aunt, the youngest sister of my father doing a mbasa ,(this is a dance performed by women during these initiations),she was bleeding profusely, her legs were covered in blood and her face had an awkward artificial smile on it. There was a huge crowd around her at my grandma’s compound my father was one of the onlookers, he had on a terribly sorrowful look,I have reasons to believe this is how come my sisters were never circumcised, he could not stand the brutality.

There is now an interesting development about the subject in our neighborhood.Grown up women in Usari,Orori,Tella,Ulali and Manushi villages say the younger generation,though some in the new generation have undergone the ritual,lack character,are immoral,lazy and generally do not measure up to being "wife" to any worthy husband.

It is claimed that during those mutilations there were other concurrent coming of age initiations involving training about morality and other virtues that made them the type of ladies they are now,this,they say is lacking in todays' girls and action needs to be taken.

In the old days the old laddies used to sing and tell stories used to ridicule bad habits,thrash people deemed failures in life and praise good conduct in the society,now they want to re install the trend by organizing annual events of singing,dancing and story telling just like the old days,except the cutting itself.

This year's event was to take place in September,just after the harvesting of maize but the crops failed so they plan to start next year in September.

It remains to be seen whether the district authorities in Hai and Moshi rural,Kilimanjaro region will issue the necessary permits considering the stigma associated with Female Genital Mutilation after being banned legally.

This blog will follow the affair bit by bit,stay tuned.