Elders’ backing heralds hope for war on female genital mutilation

Last month, cultural elders in Lenkisem, Loitoktok, Kajiado County, blessed 363 girls who chose to forego traditional female circumcision as a rite of initiation into womanhood.

The girls instead had an alternative rite of passage (ARP) ceremony, which was preceded by two days of lessons on Maasai values and traditions, sexuality and sexual health, and life skills.

ARP promotes the use safe rite of passage alternatives to avoid harmful female genital mutilation (FGM) while retaining harmless cultural meanings and rituals.

The biggest challenge in ending FGM is that it has always received the support of cultural elders, who see it as a defining part of their communities’ culture.

This is, however, changing.

The Maasai cultural elders’ support for the ARP ceremony in Loitoktok demonstrates this change. This is a compelling statement of their new vision for their girls and the Maasai people in general. They want their girls to go to school instead of getting married off at a young age.

There is direct causality between FGM and girls’ school dropouts rates, with areas where the practice is prevalent experiencing low school enrolment of girls. Conversely, areas where FGM has been phased out through initiatives such as ARP have experienced higher girls’ enrolment.

The statistics are still grim. 100,000 girls undergo the cut each year in Kenya. Consequently, 21 per cent of girls and women in Kenya (around 2.5 million) have undergone the cut, according to the Kenya Demographic Health Survey 2014.

The dangers of FGM are well documented. In addition to the drop in enrolment of girls in school, FGM causes a wide range of long–term medical complications such difficulties during childbirth, chronic genital infections, anaemia, cysts and abscesses, keloid scar, damage to the urethra resulting in urinary incontinence, dyspareunia (painful sexual intercourse) and sexual dysfunction and even infertility. The sharing of unsterilised blades during circumcision has also exacerbated the spread of HIV.

ENDING CHILD MARRIAGES

The campaign to end FGM is, therefore, closely related to the equally important one of ending child marriages, improving the girl child’s enrolment in school, and curbing the spread of HIV. ARP, therefore, needs broad support.

The most critical part of any campaign is not achieving desired results, important as this is, but sustaining these outcomes over the long term. How do we ensure that communities in areas such as Kajiado do not revert to their old ways? One approach is giving the local community a sense of ownership of the initiative.

Cultural elders, moran chiefs, traditional birth attendants, and female circumcisers, who are the cultural decision-makers and community gatekeepers, should take ownership and leadership of the ARP for the girls in their communities.

Community-level institutions and systems such as local police officers, the judiciary system, children’s officers, provincial administrators such as chiefs, school teachers and school management committees, water committees, the Nyumba Kumi leadership, faith-based organisations, and civil society need to be strengthened to enhance law enforcement and community-level child protection mechanisms.

ARP has helped communities that practised FGM to rediscover the beauty of their culture by positively redefining what the rite of passage into womanhood means.

The battle to restore the dignity of girls and women by rooting out FGM is at a critical point because the cultural elders, who had previously imposed the unjust practice on girls, are the ones now at the forefront of ensuring that it ends. They want their girls to go to school and blossom into women of outstanding merit.

Dr Gitahi is Group CEO, Amref Health Africa. [email protected].