could not continue going on blithely, as if this weren’t happening. As if this were not a part of what’s wrong with Africa. Of what’s wrong with us. I firmly believe that the reason AIDS spreads faster in Africa is because of these genital mutilations. And I think that if it continues, it will depopulate the continent—maybe not in my lifetime, or even my child’s lifetime, but it will happen.
P.G.: There are those who will say that clitoridectomies are now only performed in isolated areas....
A.W.: I love the people who say, “You’re only talking about ten women, so what are you worrying about?” Of course, the point is that if it only happened to one little girl, that would be too many—but the estimation is that [almost] one hundred million women have been mutilated. One hundred million! Imagine that you’re in Chicago and you could walk and meet everyone between there and the Atlantic Ocean. Then imagine that all of those people you met had had this done to them. That’s what one hundred million would look like. Now tell me, how do you expect to have a healthy continent with this going on, when this is wrecking the very foundation of it? How do you expect healthy anything?
P.G.: The first thing I’ve heard a lot of men say is that this is done in secrecy by women and that men don’t know very much about it.
A.W.: It’s been happening for thousands of years, and they don’t know? Some of the men have to take their wives to the hospital because they are so hard to break into, and they don’t know? If we’re going to lie about it, why don’t we just say that we are a people who lie? Let’s just be out front about it.
P.G.: Now, you know what the main thrust of the criticism against you will be: How dare this American judge us? What gives this Westerner a right to intervene in our affairs?
A.W.: Slavery intervened. As far as I’m concerned, I am speaking for my great-great-great-great-grandmother who came here with all this pain in her body. Think about it. In addition to having been captured, put in the hull of a ship, packed like sardines, put on the auction block, in addition to her children being sold, she being raped, in addition to all of this, she might have been genitally mutilated. I can’t stand it! I would go nuts if this part of her story weren’t factored in. Imagine if men came from Africa with their penises removed. Believe me, we would have many a tale about it.
The other answer is when Africans get in trouble, whom do they call? Everybody. They call on people they shouldn’t even talk to—trying to raise money, appealing to people to fight their battles, buying guns from Russia and the United States. They [Africans] invite all of these experts from Europe and the United States to go there to say their bit about AIDS, to sell them condoms. So they can accept what I—someone who loves my former home—am saying. They don’t have a leg to stand on, so they better not start hopping around me!
P.G.: What about those who say that this casts aspersions on the homeland?
A.W.: I don’t really care where the child is who’s suffering. I really don’t. I just know that the child is suffering. That she’s been held down and cut open. That she will never forget it. You know, you don’t forget anything. You may not remember, but you don’t forget. It’s inexcusable, it’s indefensible.
P.G.: It’s hard to imagine living a life after being mutilated like that.
A.W.: It’s such a shock to the system. You know everything you’ve been taught about African women, that they are “hot” and “lascivious”? It makes you wonder.... In Hanny Lightfoot-Klein’s book [ Prisoners of Ritual: An Odyssey into Female Genital Circumcision in Africa (Harrington Park Press, 1989)], she talks about visiting, in the Sudan, a place where at night all the women go in, like chickens. There are no windows, they lock the door—practically nail it
P.G.: There are those who will say that clitoridectomies are now only performed in isolated areas....
A.W.: I love the people who say, “You’re only talking about ten women, so what are you worrying about?” Of course, the point is that if it only happened to one little girl, that would be too many—but the estimation is that [almost] one hundred million women have been mutilated. One hundred million! Imagine that you’re in Chicago and you could walk and meet everyone between there and the Atlantic Ocean. Then imagine that all of those people you met had had this done to them. That’s what one hundred million would look like. Now tell me, how do you expect to have a healthy continent with this going on, when this is wrecking the very foundation of it? How do you expect healthy anything?
P.G.: The first thing I’ve heard a lot of men say is that this is done in secrecy by women and that men don’t know very much about it.
A.W.: It’s been happening for thousands of years, and they don’t know? Some of the men have to take their wives to the hospital because they are so hard to break into, and they don’t know? If we’re going to lie about it, why don’t we just say that we are a people who lie? Let’s just be out front about it.
P.G.: Now, you know what the main thrust of the criticism against you will be: How dare this American judge us? What gives this Westerner a right to intervene in our affairs?
A.W.: Slavery intervened. As far as I’m concerned, I am speaking for my great-great-great-great-grandmother who came here with all this pain in her body. Think about it. In addition to having been captured, put in the hull of a ship, packed like sardines, put on the auction block, in addition to her children being sold, she being raped, in addition to all of this, she might have been genitally mutilated. I can’t stand it! I would go nuts if this part of her story weren’t factored in. Imagine if men came from Africa with their penises removed. Believe me, we would have many a tale about it.
The other answer is when Africans get in trouble, whom do they call? Everybody. They call on people they shouldn’t even talk to—trying to raise money, appealing to people to fight their battles, buying guns from Russia and the United States. They [Africans] invite all of these experts from Europe and the United States to go there to say their bit about AIDS, to sell them condoms. So they can accept what I—someone who loves my former home—am saying. They don’t have a leg to stand on, so they better not start hopping around me!
P.G.: What about those who say that this casts aspersions on the homeland?
A.W.: I don’t really care where the child is who’s suffering. I really don’t. I just know that the child is suffering. That she’s been held down and cut open. That she will never forget it. You know, you don’t forget anything. You may not remember, but you don’t forget. It’s inexcusable, it’s indefensible.
P.G.: It’s hard to imagine living a life after being mutilated like that.
A.W.: It’s such a shock to the system. You know everything you’ve been taught about African women, that they are “hot” and “lascivious”? It makes you wonder.... In Hanny Lightfoot-Klein’s book [ Prisoners of Ritual: An Odyssey into Female Genital Circumcision in Africa (Harrington Park Press, 1989)], she talks about visiting, in the Sudan, a place where at night all the women go in, like chickens. There are no windows, they lock the door—practically nail it
Similar Books
