I was forwarded a video lecture by Amie Bojang on Female Circumcision. It was a well presented lecture. She opined that their approach is always to respect the community and deliver the message in traditional manners.
That may be true, but one cannot miss the fierce confrontation between Amie and co with community leaders in the past. I thought she was going to mention the unpalatable confrontation she and others had with the likes of the late Abdou Gitteh and co.
The Gambia is a traditional cultural society, winning the hearts of the men and women in the country will likely depends of the skills employ in passing a message. Amie and co shouldn't be defensive and blame the religious leaders for hampering the efforts. Societies revolves around a tradition, even those societies that thought they have no tradition ends up finding ways and means to locate one.
When things fall apart and children lose their ways, then the requirement for tradition is all the more important. For Female Circumcision to be abolish, the courts can do very little in stopping it. The message should be delivered by a panel of men and women. The frontal onslaught by women alone will yield little fruits. The organisation need to hide away their association with external foreign agencies who are taking the credit for the methods and the funds use to deliver the message. Gambians like other nationals have always suspected NGO's. One can cite countries like Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia etc where NGO's are mistrust and unwelcome by the tribal people. NGO's use means that are clearly against lots of cultural practices, that evident methods alone disqualifies them in the eye of the people.
This is Amie's vidoe: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4795686703191031896
i applaude her courage!..aleast she is a bit culturally sensitive in this video. The amazing thing... we all have a different version of the FGM experience; that's the unique nature of cultural pratice.
ReplyDeleteIndeed Aisha, I hope Amy bojang continues to be culturally sensitive. That way, she will be able to affect a lot more women. Gambians like other traditional folks are proud, a little respect goes a long way.
ReplyDeleteThanks