I ordered pizza, the menu blinked red and the order was declined. Aaaaarg! Our health records and genomic data are now merged and synchronized with all digital devices. Choosing food is crazy, they dictate what and when you eat. The menu gave an option of broccoli with cheese soup or sauteed spinach. I begrudgingly settled on the broccoli. Our grandparents died from many diseases but still had freedom of choice. Anyway, just like us, some decisions were made for them too.
As I wait for my order I switch on my palm TV and I am met by a documentary. “Strides from the Past” is it’s title. Today they are talking about an abolished procedure that was known as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Be not mistaken, this was not a procedure carried out in prison as punishment but by ‘well meaning’ members of the community. I remember my grandmother explaining the horrors of this procedure.
When I turned 12, a traditional practice known as ‘aishontoyie saen’ (beading) was held for me.This was in line with our traditions as the Samburu people. Here my parents and relatives adorned me with many colourfully beaded jewelry pieces. My grandmother held a red necklace on my neck and staring at it with desiderium said, “With this you would be ready for marriage and would have to be circumcised.” The red necklace symbolized betrothal.
She narrated to me her story of shame and pain. She told of the fear she felt when she was whisked off to the circumcisor’s house at the age of 12. Her best friend Naisula was with her, but she didn’t make it out as she bled to death on the circumcision table. My grandmother almost died of tetanus after the procedure, due to the unhygienic conditions. She was married off as soon as she was healed but that was just the beginning of her woes. Her marriage bed provided more pain than pleasure. She had to endure the shame of fistula after giving birth to her first child at 13. These were complications of FGM. This was the price she paid to be a complete woman in the community. She was happy I did not have to go through all that and could wear my red necklace to school with pride.
The documentary told this story. I guess there are worse things in life than eating broccoli instead of pizza.