FGM: International, Local and Personal
Between the international organizations, local NGOs and musical activists there are people, institutions and communities invested in the eradication of this practice. They all operate at different levels of change, not necessarily interacting but all striving toward the same goal. While the international institutions focus on changing the laws and governments of these countries, the NGOs sponsor social change in the form of dialogues and conversations. Two of these NGOs, while based and funded by foreign countries sponsor artists from the communities who have become token activists, fighting against an ancestral tradition. It is important to note that both Bafing Kul and Sister Fa no longer live in their native communities. While they may be interested in helping eradicate FGM from their home communities, they are funded by foreign forces. As representatives of foreign interests, their status as ‘Senegalize’ or ‘Malian’ veils the outright sponsorship by western sources for the eradication of this practice. Their ethnicity is used as a useful tool, both by the organizations that sponsor them as well as by their own representation of themselves to the world, establishing their rights as ‘native’ people to enter into the conversation about this practice.
Sources:
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“Bafing Kul – Site Officiel.” Bafing Kul – Site Officiel. Bafing Kul, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2013.
“Female Genital Cutting Is Ending.” Orchid Project. N.p., Jan. 2013. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.
Media Co., WHO. “Female Genital Mutilation.” WHO. World Health Organization, 01 Feb. 2013. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.
“Sister Fa Attacked at Her Sensitization Tour.” Sister Fa. Sister FA, May 2013. Web. 08 Dec. 2013.
Steffen, Charles G. Mutilating Khalid: The Symbolic Politics of Female Genital Cutting. Trenton, NJ: Red Sea, 2011. Print.
“You Can Help Create Generational Change in Three Years!” Tostan. Tostan NGO, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2013.
Van, Zyl Paul. Female Circumcision: Cultural Right or Human Wrong ? Johannesburg: Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, 1994. Print.
Wangila, Mary Nyangweso. Female Circumcision: The Interplay of Religion, Culture, and Gender in Kenya. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2007. Print.
“Welcome to S.A.F.E.” Welcome to S.A.F.E. SAFE, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2013.