What inspired your fight against Female Genital Mutilation? The interviewer asked me.
I sighed and I said answering this question means taking a stroll down memory lane.
After I lost my parents, I lived with my grandma in a community bounded by several rituals and norms one of which included the practice of FGM for their 12 year old daughters.
I was privileged to have schooled in the city for a while, so I had little knowledge about the harmful effects of FGM. Therefore, when my grandma woke me up a few days after I turned 12 to prepare for the ritual, I vehemently refused and ended up being dragged to Alagi’s house(The old lady incharge of the ritual) and then violently forced to partake in the ritual. My grandma said the ritual was done to prevent promiscuity in girls as they approached their reproductive age.
Two days had passed since the ritual and I had not stopped bleeding like Alagi said rather I was getting weaker by the day. My grandma invited Alagi who tried to handle the situation but failed miserably. By the end of the week, my condition had deteriorated. When Alagi saw how bad my condition was, she said that I was a witch with intentions to snatch people’s husbands with my powers and that was why I wasn’t healing from the ritual that was meant to curb my promiscuity. like wildfire the news had spread and people began to avoid my grandma and I. Even the herbalists, stopped selling herbs to my grandmother. She then gathered the little money she had saved up and took me to the city hospital where the doctor explained that the highly valued FGM practiced by my community was a harmful traditional practice and I wasn’t a witch like Alagi had said rather I was one of the many victims of the adverse effects of FGM. Unfortunately, other victims died before they could get help.
Subsequently, my grandma and I were introduced to an NGO who after listening to our story decided to help us. Then I vowed to prevent as much young girls as possible from going through the same ordeal as mine and also educate guardians on the dangers of FGM so they don’t make regrettable decisions just like my grandmother.
MY NAME IS NANA AND MY STORY IS MY INSPIRATION.