FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION THRIVES IN SECRECY (PART 1 )
May 28, 2019
Story
OYO STATE-WESTERN NIGERIA
We sat on a long bench amongst Baba Oloola’s clients- in- waiting. This is Oloola Akande’s house, he is the first in the lineage of his present Oloola’s family. His great grandfather and grandfather were the leaders of Oloolas in the Oyo -Yoruba kingdom, Western Nigeria. In front of the compound is the Giant picture of his great grandfather on the wall. They are well known for bodily incision on children who suffer convulsion. This has earned them the popular name “kobomoje” which literarily means that bodily scarification does not destroy/spoil the beauty of a child”
Baba Oloola is a professional herbalist who takes care of all bodily ailments. According to him, he is an expert in child delivery, he is well known for his roots and herbs for curing convulsion in the traditional way by making incision on the sick people’s bodies ( indigenous scarification and body markings in traditional medicine) and ethnic facial marks, above all, he circumcises male children and cuts female genital too.
Looking around the compound reminds me of our house in the village, built with hand-made- brown- mud; without bricks or building blocks. The building is neither cemented nor painted, yet it displays the beauty of a rural African village.
Although, it is a very old building, that has witnessed centuries in years, but it must have also witnessed the successful mutilation of thousands of innocent girls. Girls in different ages and size who had screamed under the sharp knife of this skilled generational lineage of Oloola (traditional ‘circumciser’/female genital ‘cutter’)
As we waited for our turn to meet and speak with baba Oloola, I began to think about the law that has abolished female genital mutilation in Africa, which Nigeria is a party to, even as female genital mutilation thrives in this part of Africa.
Article 5 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa titled Elimination of Harmful Practices says that states Parties shall take all necessary legislative and other measures to eliminate such practices, including: (b) prohibition, through legislative measures backed by sanctions, of all forms of female genital mutilation, scarification, medicalisation and para-medicalisation of female genital mutilation and all other practices in order to eradicate them.
When it was our turn to meet the Oloola, we explained our mission and he decided to sit with us outside, the courtyard instead of sitting inside his room, where he consults with his clients. There were two long benches facing each other, outside, and he sat on a bench that was facing us before he informed us that her great grandmother, who was the first Oloola , was buried right under the bench which we sat.
According to him, his great grandmother was the last female Oloola in the family, because after his great grandmother, women were banned from the Oloola’s profession because when they get married, their skills were automatically transferred to their sons and daughters who were not the direct descendants of Oloola.
At the inception of the discussion, baba Oloola said that both female and male children’s genital must be cut on the seventh day. This is the tradition and according to him, that is how it would remain forever. He revealed that there are more than two hundred Oloola like him in the town and each of them cuts female genital too; that, to him is the cultural practice that cannot be erased.
He gave a comprehensive analysis of Female Genital Mutilation in Yoruba language as he continued to boast about his consultancy meetings with UNESCO and Nigerian government officials, who visit him for learning purposes
He gave the assurance that he would even allow us to witness and video record the cutting of the next female child that is brought into his compound the following morning.
Oloola said that cutting the flesh that covers the clitoris of a female genital in order to show the germs underneath each clitoris, in the presence of everyone will prove to the world that female genital mutilation is the right thing to do for every girl child. To baba Oloola, that is the only practical aspect of his work that would convince a doubting Thomas that a female child’s genital must be cut.
Therefore, he promised to take us through female genital cutting the next day. Unfortunately, there was no female customer the following day; but there was a male child, whom he circumcised to show the whitish substance which he referred to as the germs beneath. We agreed to pay him another visit to do the video recording of a female genital cutting at another opportune time.
As this point, a woman came, in to book an appointment to cut her girl child the following morning, she had only a thousand naira and baba Oloola refused the amount and the woman walked away to search for a lesser Oloola, who will happily accept a thousand naira.
He boasted that there is no single girl whose genital is not mutilated in the community because according ot their belief and culture, it is a shame to leave a girl child uncut. He further revealed that his grandfather had laid it down, and it must be followed because the Quran says, woe unto a son who rejected his father’s profession.
He pointed out that it is written in the Bible that every child should be circumcised and the according to him, the unidentified verse says “e ko omo na ni ila” which literarily means ‘circumcise the child’.
There are more than six young men between ages twenty five to forty, who are working for Baba Oloola and according to him, they are his lineage, either his siblings or his sons and they are all interested in following their grand father’s step.
Hidden inside baba Oloola’s pocket is a very sharp knife which was revealed when it was time to circumcise a baby boy after an accepted negotiation. The short and sharp knife was wrapped with a rag. He is the only custodian of the knife, he only releases it to those young men when-ever he is too busy to work, and during the long interview and recording which he granted to us.
The baby boy, gave baba Oloola the opportunity to display his skill in our presence and he invited us to a small table that was placed at the center of the compound.
The baby was laid naked on the table and he began the minor surgery on the boy. He told us that the sharp knife is what he uses for both female and male cutting and the general body cutting for anyone suffering from convulsion.
Within a few minutes, he cut the foreskin, pushed the skin downward to expose the whitish “germ” underneath the foreskin. According to him, the whitish substance causes everlasting scratching if any child is not cut or circumcised as the case may be.
Healing the Wound
After the cutting, a black substance known as “ADEJE ada eje” a concoction that stops bleeding was applied on the penis, it is a black powder. After which a rag was used to wrap the bleeding penis, according to him, the rag will be removed on the third day and ‘eko’ (which is a stable food in Nigeria, made from corn paste) will be mixed with alum and used to wash the genital until it is clean. When it is clean, the mother will begin to apply Engine oil on it for four days.
He wrapped his sharp knife with a rag, dropped it into his side pocket and handed the crying baby to his mother. He warned the mother not to breastfeed the baby in his compound, but place him on her back and leave immediately.
In Nigeria, there is no federal law banning Female Genital Mutilation or cutting in Nigeria, but Section 34(1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that states, "no person shall be subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment," as the basis for banning the practice in Nigeria.
Many Nigerians continue to practice female genital mutilation out of ignorance and the general belief that women who are not mutilated are promiscuous.
There are three major different types of Female genital mutilation in Nigeria.
Type 1 removal of the clitoral hood with or without removal of all or part of the clitoris.
Type 2 is the removal of the clitoris together with part or all of the labia minora which is also known as the inner vaginal lips.
Type 3 is the removal of part or all of the external genitalia, clitoris, labia minora and labia majora and stitching or narrowing of the vaginal opening, leaving a very small opening, to allow for the flow of urine and menstrual blood.
Baba Oloola explained further that the removal of the clitoral hood is what he practices and this cannot be done by any Medical doctor because it is the work of Oloola alone. He gave four major reasons why the "hood" must be removed:
in order to remove some whitish germs that hides under the hood which causes severe scratching in the vagina
The hood has the capacity to grow long and each time it touches the pants of the girl-child, she immediately develops sexual urge
The hood causes promiscuity
It is the injunction written in the Holy books and must be adhered to
If a girl child is not mutilated when she grows up, she will deliver a still birth baby
Inasmuch as baba Oloola’s ignorance cannot be excused but the fact still remains that he has enough misinformation to lead millions of people astray in the 21st century.
He has a conviction that is sustaining him spiritually, economically, socially and politically. He is well respected as bth the spiritual leader and a acommunity leader.
His clients hold him in high esteem and most of them refer to him as Agbomola, which means the savior of a child. If the general populace has
enough correct, adequate ad relevant information about female genital mutilation, baba Oloola will live without a client who needs his service to mutilate female genitals.
An uneducated/semi educated, educated but culturally immersed mother, whose only convincing information about female genital mutilation is “ijoba ni ko need ki a maa dabe fomobirin mo” which means, our government says there is no need to mutilate the genital of a female child, does not have any genuine reason to stop Oloola from mutilating her daughter’s genital. In as much as baba Oloola continues to reiterate his easy answer to that statement as “is it the government who helped you to carry the pregnancy for nine months or the government will soon help you to repatriate your promiscuous uncut girl from Italy when she turns to a dog in the nearest future?”
Passage of law is very important and radio, Television, newspaper announcement are very good way of warning people against genital mutilation but adequate information, engaging parents; especially mothers and health workers in continuous empowerment programmes and constant work and talk with the religious institutions in order to change their mindsets about this issue are some of the genuine measures of ending female genital mutilation. Female genital cut can only end in Nigeria if there is a mindset shift from parochial belief about gender inequality.
Note
This is a #Reportwomen Project. I Report for WorldPulse as Nigerian Correspondent. Video recording and Pictures of my journey are available
