“Not my child!” she shouted after listening to her relative talk about the rite of passage.
Chinweamara is a 32-year-old widow, who lived in the village of Amobia with her 7-year-old daughter. She lost her husband to a ghastly car accident 7 months ago.
They had just concluded her husband’s burial ceremony. She was observing the compulsory 3months mourning period of no outing when her mother and grandaunt visited and began talking about the right of passage into womanhood.
The visit was peaceful until they insisted that the 7-year-old must be circumcised. Chinweamara quickly reminded them that she lost her only sister to circumcision. As she reminded her mum how her sister died, she quickly added, “I am not losing anyone else to that barbaric culture, let alone my child!”
“Do you want your daughter to be an outcast? How will she marry if we don’t do it? Has it ever occurred to you that it’s not just a right of passage but a way of including her in the community of women of Amobia?” Her grandaunt queried.
“I almost died in the labour room because of this bizarre tradition! Imagine if I had died, would you still be telling me of inclusion in the community?”
“Pausing to take a breath, she turned to her grandaunt, “Speaking of inclusiveness, I was 8 years old when you and my mother, smuggled me and my sister to that forest and chopped off our clitorises in the name of taming us. My sister bled for days and died. You were busy praising me for being strong, but condemned my four-year-old sister for being a child.”
“I had to do it, the same thing was done to me. It is called a rite of passage and no woman or girl can escape it unless you don’t live in this land. You will do it for her sake. If you don’t, she will not marry,” her mother finally said, cutting her short.
Marriage? Did you know that I couldn’t consummate mine in peace because it was severely painful? There is no written law that she must marry from Amobio.In case you didn’t hear me, let me state it again, not my child!
That was all she said and closed as her guest left her house.
Three days later, Chinweamara was seen leaving Amobia with her belongings in a vehicle.
Nice story