I’m Not The Only One

A few days ago I received an interesting piece of mail which reminded me why I should be proud to be an American.

This piece of mail was from Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere or CARE, a nonprofit that appears to only care about impoverished females in Third World countries.  Not being a woman, I’m not sure why an organization that only serves women would solicit donations from me; I guess they’re really desperate.  CARE’s letter informed me of their campaign in Africa against female genital cutting (FGC).  CARE President Dr. Helene Gayle wrote a very compelling and occasionally graphic four-page letter describing what FGC is, the gruesome manner in which the procedure is executed, why FGC exists at all and the myriad short and long-term health risks and psychological damage done to the young girls whose clitorises (or is it clitori?) are carved out of their bodies.  What CARE does is go to these villages and “educate” the tribal elders on the medical dangers of FGC and how it permanently damages the victim psycholgically, etc., etc.

As graphic and compelling as Dr. Gayle’s story was, even if I wasn’t broke I wouldn’t be compelled to send them any money.  Here are a few reasons why:

• I understand that a four-year old girl cannot defend herself from a village of tribal elders who wish to carve out her clitoris with a shard of glass, but surely one of the able-bodied adults (maybe the girl’s parents?) should have some concern for the health and well-being of the child, especially if that adult has experienced or witnessed the lifelong pain and suffering that follows female genital mutilation. If the girl’s parents don’t care about their children’s well-being and instead accept this mutilation ritual as part of their culture, aren’t we just the stereotypical ugly Americans arrogantly telling foreigners how to live their lives?  The kind of Americans that liberals are always complaining about?
• FGC is not the result of a male-dominated tribal society.  In the letter, Dr. Gayle actually admits that the women, not the men, of the village are the ones holding the child down for the duration of the procedure.  An American or any other Westerner would automatically assume that the women who have already had their clitoris removed would be the last ones to hold a little girl down for this traumatic procedure.  But then again, we don’t live in that tribe.  We live in a far different tribe, dare I say, a better tribe.
• The practice has deep religious (mostly Islamic) and cultural significance associated with it, especially in the African villages where it is most frequently performed.  If a parent didn’t want their child to be subjected to this cruel practice, couldn’t they just leave the village or convert to Christianity?   Most African nations have a lot of religious diversity among its populations, so converting or turning away from a specific interpretation of Islam doesn’t require a passport.  While I’m sure that many people do leave their villages to protect their daughters from FGC, the fact that CARE is so worked up over the issue tells me that many others chose to remain in the village even though it guarantees their daughters will have to endure FGC.  While it is true that many African countries do not have laws against FGC, I have not been able to find a country that legally mandates that all girls must have their clitorises removed, so refusing to have one’s daughter suffer genital mutilation is not illegal.  While leaving one’s village, family and culture, the only one they’ve ever known, sounds like a big deal, immigrants come to the U.S. all the time, and they’re just looking for work.
• I’ve always had a sort of indifference towards Africa and Africans.  I know it’s politically correct to care about Africa, but it’s hard to care about modern-day Africans many of whose ancestors played a central role in the African slave trade.  While European and Western governments obviously began and supported the enslavement of black people, the acquisition of these slaves would have been much more difficult if not impossible without the help of other black people.  Africans often enslaved each other, and saw the selling of human beings to these white strangers as nothing more than a fair exchange of goods.  European slave traders rarely captured Africans themselves, but instead traded with other Africans who in turn either seized free human beings or sold the slaves they or their tribes owned.  Some of these slaves sold to the white strangers were prisoners of war, incarcerated criminals or just indentured servants.  But apparently the ancestors of today’s Africans did not care what was going to happen to my African ancestors (and the ancestors of millions of African descent throughout the Americas); all they knew was that they liked the manufactured goods the white men had to offer.  The Benin Empire (now part of modern-day Nigeria) was one of many African kingdoms that grew rich by selling human beings to Europeans. I think about the many millions of black people who came to this hemisphere in chains, and the millions lying at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean who did not survive the Middle Passage and I bear in mind all of the parties involved.  Not to say that I think Africans deserve to suffer, just that I’m kind of indifferent to any hardships or tragedies they may endure.

So just like no one is legally forced to wear a yarmulke, pray to Allah five times a day or take Communion every Sunday, no parent is forced to have their daughter mutilated in such a way.  If they want to spare their child from a lifetime of pain, good for them.  But if they don’t and wish to abide by the rules of the tribe, whatever.  I wouldn’t bother to spend a dime on such a poor excuse for a cause.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 7th, 2008 at 10:24 pm and is filed under Africa, Spirituality, Race & Ethnicity, Gender. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.