From a Girl to a Complete Woman

Foibe proudly walks out of a red plastered hut, leading a line of five other girls dancing and singing. Outside, they join a group of men, women and children in a dance to celebrate their coming out. Adorned in their new kaniki, a black cotton material used as clothing by some communities in Tanzania, Foibe and her friends elegantly swing their heads and shoulders, looking down and smiling shyly to the crowd.

Today, they have all the reasons to smile. The girls have officially entered adulthood-after seven intense days of training and coaching by the elders in the community. More important, these girls have been spared the agony and trauma of female genital mutilation (FGM) which usually kicks off the rites of passage for many Gogo girls of Dodoma region in central Tanzania.

The parents of these girls decided not to mutilate their daughters but instead allowed the respected elderly women in their village to teach them all the traditions accompanied with the practice-the songs, dances, folk tales and the basic traditional values and responsibilities of a Gogo woman.

"I feel very lucky today," says 14-year- old Foibe a class four pupil. "I have been spared all the pain which other girls have gone through! I have heard the stories associated with cutting. I'm really happy I don't have to go through it," she says.

Although FGM is illegal in Tanzania, a lot of girls are still forced to undergo FGM with the excuse of maintaining cultural or religious practices.
Like Foibe, all her peers have heard the implications of FGM to girls and women through the radio, community theaters and sometimes from the experts who visit their school from time to time. Nobody wants to get infections or bleed to death because of the cutting. (Go to album)

This is part of the efforts of Women Wake Up (WOWAP)-an NGO advocating for eradication of all forms of harmful traditional practices that endanger the lives of women and children. WOWAP, a partner of Pact Tanzania and based in Dodoma, works with communities to campaign against FGM through songs, dances, video shows, public meetings conducted in schools and through the radio.

Of late, WOWAP has been holding public forums where communities discuss alternative means to FGM. Since FGM serves as an initiation rite, any efforts to eradicate it must take this into consideration. Some of the most successful eradication efforts have taken place in areas where FGM was replaced with "initiation without cutting" programs. The girls still go through most of the initiation rites but this time, without any blood.

"We showed them graphic videos of girls being mutilated, girls suffering as a result of FGM from the nearby villages and some even dying," says Fatma Tawfiq the coordinator of WOWAP "Some of the videos, touched a lot of people."

A few days later, a ngariba (a person who performs the circumcisions and does the cutting) and her assistant decided to try the initiation without cutting, just to see if their daughters would miss out on anything significant besides the cutting .

No, they did not miss anything. The girls got their seven days of training away from their homes and under the charge of 54-year old Hellen Makole, an experienced initiator trusted by the village. Each day, mothers took turns in preparing food for the group.

At the end of the seventh day, the community, including village and religious leaders came together to celebrate the successful transformation of their daughters. Mothers joyously played drums for their daughters and lead the singing and dancing. Women brought in food, men brought their local brew. The girls got their new kaniki, slippers, new earrings and beads. The community ate and drank through the night-just like any other rites of passage celebration.

"I'm happy we decided to include our daughter in the group," says Lucy, a mother of seven year old Neema who also was initiated. "I was slaughtered like a chicken and I didn't want my daughter to go through the same-besides the government is very strict these days."

This is the first time that something like this happened in Dodoma-one of the areas notorious for FGM--and maybe in all of Tanzania "We are pleased that at least people start to understand the implications of FGM and they have accepted to do the alternative rites of passage," says Tawfiq.If the word goes around, Tawfiq believes many other parents will opt for the initiation without cutting since they begin to understand the implications of the ritual to the lives of girls and women. (Go to album)

FGM is mostly done in unsanitary conditions in which a midwife uses unclean sharp instruments such as razor blades, scissors, kitchen knives, and pieces of glass to excise the clitoris and other cutting of the labia. . These instruments are frequently used on several girls in succession and are rarely cleaned. Antiseptic techniques and anesthesia are generally not used, or for that matter, heard of.

The unsanitary environment under which FGM takes place results in infections of the genital and surrounding areas and often results in the transmission of the HIV virus which can cause AIDS. Some of the other health consequences of FGM include primary fatalities as a result of shock, hemorrhage or septicemia.

Long-term complications include sexual frigidity, genital malformation, delayed menarche, chronic pelvic complications, recurrent urinary retention and infection, and an entire range of obstetric complications whereas the fetus is exposed to a range of infectious diseases as well as facing the risk of having his or her head crushed in the damaged birth canal.

It is also important to note that even though FGM is currently illegal in many countries in Africa and the Middle East, this has not reduced the number of the girls that are mutilated every year. The governments of these countries have no way of monitoring the spread and practice of FGM. Trying to fight FGM on legal terms is not enough since those who practice it oftentimes do not report it. FGM is also widely practiced in villages and remote places where the government does not have an easy access.

At the moment, initiation without cutting seems to be the best alternative in the campaigns against FGM. WOWAP hopes to use this experience in all the other areas where FGM continue to destroy the lives of hundreds of girls and women.This way, girls like Foibe and her peers can be spared from a life of pain and trauma and instead be given a chance to dream. After the dance, Foibe is already thinking of going back to school, this time as a complete woman, and tell her friends how the efforts of one NGO saved her life.

Story by Jamilllah Mwanjisi of Pact Tanzania
Photos by Mwanzo Millinga (See the Photo album here..)