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A Scalpel’s Memoir

The room was dimly lit. Two hurricane lamps cast shadows of the woman on the wall of the hut as she moved about. The crickets in the surrounding bush continued their chirping. The moment she picked me up from the Sharps, I knew just why – we were doing it again.

Her four attendants, who had stepped out of the hut briefly, came in with the first child. Dressed ceremonially, the woman straightened up and met the child’s glistening eyes.

β€œIt is to make you clean”, she said, smiling.

The girl whimpered.

The woman motioned to the attendants, maintaining her grip on my handle. Amidst cries and shouts, firm hands held this first girl in place and then the second, and third, fourth… There always was screaming, struggling and writhing …and then stillness sometimes, as the lifeless body lay limp on the cloth-covered floor.

Her face was devoid of emotions as she made me slice and cut. Fresh blood coursed down my edges and she dabbed me with an old cloth.

They happened regularly – my cuttings. Young girls were brought in and held in place. The woman picked up the little piece of cloth I was in, unwrapped me swiftly and within seconds, my sharp edge was slicing away. The community says they have to cut the girls to make them “clean.”

β€œClean”, the old woman announced.

The young girl laid still for a few minutes on the cloth-covered floor.

One of the attendants, ’Mọkẹ́, helped her up. Each step taken was hell. The blood kept coming too and tears rolled down her mother’s cheeks.

They headed to the healing hut, which was about the same size as the cut hut. It was an overcrowded room with several young girls strewn on the floor. Each spent two days, at most, before the painful walk back home.

This community calls young girls β€œclean” when I cut them.

I wonder what dirt they had in the first place.

95 Responses

  6. This is really good and it depicts the goriness of FGM really graphical too. Well done Ebun, this is a great step towards steering us closer to the right direction, an end to FGM.

  8. To think all these are still happening in this new age is crazy. Nice write up bruh, you penned it well. “I wonder what dirt they had in first place”

  11. Oh my, this narrative is soo pure. Reading it feels like I were in the room where the cutting is being done. This dastardly act really needs to stop. And we would not rest till it’s completely eradicated.

  17. An exposition and reflection on inherent dangers of FGM; It alarms us on the deep sense of worry created by this phenomenon and the roles of all stakeholders. A must read by all!

  18. FGM, so much myth about it.. ‘it makes girl clean ‘, how??? It’s such a painful ordeal, that no girl child should be subjected to experience.. Ebunoluwa, well done.. it the visual imagery for me..

  56. I’m wowed and at the same time touched by this beautiful work. To think I almost got goose bumps reading this; I mean, this is a very vivid picture of the plight of the victims as painted by the talented Ebunoluwa. Thank you

  68. Wow! I love the narrative. I could visualize it in my head.

    I also love the ending. Who said they were ever unclean in the first place? Ignorance is a disease!
    Well done, Kolade. I’m rooting for ya!

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