April 2005

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

One Pledge At a Time: Stopping Excision in Mali

Mme. Kaniba Baguiya is one of the core volunteers with Healthy Tomorrows, a Malian organization dedicated to ending female genital cutting. She recently started getting a stipend of 50 dollars a month from a donor who responded to the sister-to-sister program on the organization's website. Susan McLucas, who contributed background material to this piece, is a US-based activist who helped found Healthy Tomorrows. Kaniba Baguiya can be reached through Susan McLucas at SusanMcL@StopExcision.net.

I learned of the problems with female genital cutting (or excision) from our guest, Susan McLucas. She lived with our family for 6 months in 1997 and we became friends.

Female genital cutting (FGC), also known as excision, is the traditional practice of cutting off all or part of the clitoris and often the small vaginal lips of girls, with no anesthesia, to make them more marriageable. People assume that women who have less sexual feeling will be more faithful wives. (For many excised women, sex is quite painful.) There are also people who think it's more hygienic and improves childbirth, whereas it's the opposite. The large majority of women in Mali are excised.

My first experience in the movement was when I invited about a dozen neighbors to our house to listen to a colleague of Susan's. After that I started showing people a poster we had made, explaining to people the problems with FGC.

At first it was difficult. If there were lots of people, I was afraid. But my husband encouraged me and helped me to see how to convince people. He said it was useful to sing to attract people. So I went to a "griotte" (traditional story-teller and singer) and together we wrote the song "Laila" (something like Alleluia). I had a little tape player and I played the songs on the tape "Stop Excision" (produced in 2000 with 8 songs in 5 local languages, all focused on the importance of ending excision).

I would go somewhere and try to get people to listen, and they always did. I wasn't used to speaking to groups, but with practice it got easier. Now I have a reputation and people come to get me at my house to convince people not to excise their daughters. Even if they wake me out of a sound sleep, I can lead a discussion. That's happened twice.

We speak to the whole population, with a special interest in excisers. The first exciser I met with, Mariam Samoroa, was at Same, a rural part of Bamako. A woman at another meeting told me about her and offered to go with me to speak with her. At first she hid from us, then she insulted me, saying my high heels didn't impress her. I said I knew we were going to finish by being friends. It was during the second visit with her that she decided to stop. Our pictures of complications of excision played a large role in convincing her; pictures of women who couldn't give birth to their babies and pictures of still-born babies, for instance. Also, a midwife near their family supported me in my arguments and together we convinced her that the practice was bad.

It seems that she was really convinced, because later, when I was speaking with another exciser, this exciser told us that Mariam had come to her house to tell her about her decision. That made our job a lot easier, and this second woman, too, decided to stop excising. Our Project Stop Excision now has a list of over 100 excisers who've promised us that they've stopped.

One day, during one of my meetings, someone asked what she would do if someone insulted her girl, calling her "unexcised." I said, "If you have to choose between an insult and a lifetime of very serious problems, which is worse?" Everyone started laughing and seemed to get it.

Sometimes, at the end of a meeting, when I invite the participants to sign the Pledge Against Excision, people ask me if I can stay a while to give them time to go home and get people who weren't there for the meeting, so that they can sign, too. When we've had a good meeting, people don't want me to leave. They ask me to sing another song or they ask if they can sing. It can be a lot of fun, sometimes.

We concentrate on prevention, but occasionally when we come across seriously injured girls, we give their families the money to take care of them. One such case was a 5 year-old girl, who had recently been excised and had such a bad infection that she couldn't walk. Just the other day, she and her grandmother walked to my house, quite a distance, to say hello and to thank me, again. The grandmother refuses to show me the exciser who cut the girl, but the girl says she will show me, herself.

It seems like the moment is right for a big change. Most people have by now heard something about problems with excision and they just need someone to give lots of explanation. With all the public conversations that we and the other groups in the movement have organized, the shows and songs on the radio, and all the people who've signed the Pledge Against Excision, the people who don't like the practice see that they are not alone, and that gives them the courage to stand up to others in the family who still think it's important to excise little girls. We really have the feeling that we're making progress.

The Pledge Against Excision grew out of discussions in 2001, when a number of people were asking what they could do to help the movement. It is a promise that people can sign, promising never to excise a daughter and to protect any daughter from others in the family who'd like to have her excised. There are now 16,000 signatures on the Pledge Against Excision. Sini Sanuman (Healthy Tomorrows) is one of a number of NGOs in Bamako working on trying to convince parents not to genitally cut their daughters. It was founded by Malian colleagues of Susan McLucas in 2002.

The Penal Code is now being revised and consideration is being given to including a new law against FGC. Most of the other countries which still practice FGC have passed such laws. Sini Sanuman may turn in its list of pledgers soon, if the people working on the new code tell us that they would help. We had planned to get 50,000 signatures and then turn them in. Besides working on the signature campaign, we produce songs and music videos, which have been shown quite a few times on Malian television. Sini Sanuman is applying for funding, and is subsisting for the meantime on personal money along with a few contributions.

If you want to help support the project, donate to Healthy Tomorrows, 14 William St, Somerville, MA 02144. Or learn more and contribute through our website, www.StopExcision.net. The Stop Excision CDs are also available through AFSC-NERO, 617/661-6130.

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