AFRICAN WOMEN; Our Culture, Our deaths. i “The best judge of whether or not a country is going to develop is how it treats its women. If it’s educating its girls, if women have equal rights, that country is going to move forward. But if women are oppressed and abused and illiterate, then they’re going to fall behind.” - BARACK OBAMA, To say Africa is lagging behind the rest of the world would be like reiterating the fact that the sky is blue……and as is the unfortunate truth, in any community that has fallen behind, it is the women and children that suffer most. Today, we are focusing on the African woman….our mother….our daughter…..our sister…..our aunt….our wife…..our friend. Africa is a continent that is rife with culture….and as we were taught in primary school, culture is our way of life. It is said that traditional cultural practices reflect values and beliefs held by members of a community for long periods, often spanning generations. Every community in the world has specific traditional cultural practices and beliefs, some of which are beneficial to all members, while others are harmful to a specific group, such as women. Unfortunately, this ‘way of life’ includes female genital mutilation (FGM); early marriage; the various taboos or practices which prevent women from controlling their own fertility; nutritional taboos and traditional birth practices; son preference and its implications for the status of the girl child; female infanticide; early pregnancy. As if we don’t already have enough to deal with, I recently learnt about breast ironing in Cameroon. With global access to information now, I’m sure what I’m talking about is not new to most people, but for those who don’t know, I’ll just mention a few of these practices briefly. FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION (FGM) This is the one practice a lot of people have heard about. Also known as female circumcision, it’s defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons”. There are different types of FGM; in some instances, just the tip of the clitoris is removed; in some, the entire clitoris is removed; while in others, the entire clitoris is removed, plus all or part of the labia minora & the labia majora. This is then stitched up allowing a small hole to remain open to allow for urine and menstrual blood to flow through. It is mostly carried out on young girls sometime between infancy and age 15 by traditional circumcisers. The girl is held down by older women to prevent her from moving around. [ see image of young girls lined up, awaiting circumcision - tinyurl/5vqf6fp ] The instruments used by these circumcisers vary and could include broken glass, a tin lid, razor blades, knives, scissors or any other sharp object. These items usually are not sterilized before or after usage. Once the genital area for removal is gone, the child is stitched up, The wound is then treated by applying mixtures of local herbs, earth, cow-dung, ash or butter and her legs are bound for up to 40 days. https://facebook/pages/Gogodrive-Technologies/420827128030679
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 10:30:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015