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In Somalia, infibulation is practiced by the entire population - indeed by all ethnic Somalis wherever they live. This practice has existed for as long as anyone can remember and is recorded in the earliest historical accounts (see "History"). Though it is traditionally called "circumcision ", the extreme form of the mutilations to which little girls are subjected is not accompanied by any rituals, festivities, or celebrations such as is done traditionally in Sudan or other African countries designed to disguise the harshness and brutality of the violence.

Here below is an eyewitness account of what is done to all Somali girls because men still today refuse marriage with an uninfibulated, or what is called "open", bride. And without marriage there is no future for a girl: "With the Somalis, the circumcision of girls takes place in the home among women relatives and neighbors. The grandmother or an older woman officiates. At each occasion, usually only one little girl or at times two sisters are infibulated; but all girls, without exception, must undergo this mutilation as it is a required for marriage. The operation itself is not accompanied by any ceremony or ritual. The child, completely naked, is made to sit on a low stool. Several women take hold of her and open her legs wide. After separating her outer and inner lips, the operator, usually a woman experienced in this procedure, sits down facing the child. With her kitchen knife the operator first pierces and slices open the hood of the clitoris.

Then she begins to cut it out. While another woman wipes off the blood with a rag, the operator digs with her sharp fingernail a hole the length of the clitoris to detach and pull out the organ. The little girl, held down by the women helpers, screams in extreme pain; but no one pays the slightest attention.

The operator finishes this job by entirely pulling out the clitoris, cutting it to the bone with her knife. Her helpers again wipe off the spurting blood with a rag. The operator then removes the remaining flesh, digging with her finger to remove any remnant of the clitoris among the flowing blood. The neighbor women are then invited to plunge their fingers into the bloody hole to verify that every piece of the clitoris is removed. This operation is not always well-managed, as the little girl struggles.
It often happens that by clumsy use of the knife or a poorly-executedcut the urethra is pierced or the rectum is cut open. If the little girl faints, the women blow pili-pili (spice powder) into her nostrils. But this is not the end. The most important part of the operation begins only now. After a short moment, the woman takes the knife again and cuts off the inner lips (labia minora) of the victim. The helpers again wipe the blood with their rags. Then the operator, with a swift motion
of her knife, begins to scrape the skin from the inside of the large lips.

The operator conscientiously scrapes the flesh of the screaming child without the slightest concern for the extreme pain she inflicts. When the wound is large enough, she adds some lengthwise cuts and several more incisions. The neighbor women carefully watch her 'work' and encourage her.

The child now howls even more. Sometimes in a spasm, children bite off their tongues. The women carefully watch to prevent such an accident. When her tongue flops out, they throw spice powder on it, which provokes an instant pulling back. With the abrasion of the skin completed according to the rules, the operator closes the bleeding large lips and fixes them one against the other with long acacia thorns.

This bandage is applied from the knees to the waist of the girl and is left in place for about two weeks. The girl must remain lying on a mat for the entire time while all the excrement evidently remains with her in the bandage.

After that time, the girl is released and the bandage is cleaned. Her vagina is now closed - except for a tiny opening created by insertion of a straw or reed and remains closed until her marriage. Contrary to what one would assume, not many girls die from this torture. There are, of course, various complications which frequently leave the girl crippled and disabled for the rest of her life."

This description by Jacques Lantier matches a very similar report published by Annie de Villeneuve , who watched the operation performed on two sisters one morning at dawn in Djibouti, where the same Somali ethnic groups live and practice the same mutilations. Infibulation continues to be done today on almost all female children throughout Somalia and wherever ethnic Somalis live as Edna Adan Ismail, who headed the Midwifery Training Department of the Ministry of Health in Somalia, confirms.

Dr. Guy Pieters, who worked in Somalia from 1966 to 1968 as a gynecologist and surgeon in the Hospital of the European Common Market, reports that the Somali nurses whom he questioned described to him the procedure much as above; it continues today in all rural areas where Somali families live because Somali men insist on it and will not accept for marriage a girl who is not infibulated. However, in Mogadishu, the capital, and in other Somali towns, the operation recently was "modernized". It was performed in some government hospitals by specially trained Somali male nurses: boys were circumcized and girls were infibulated in sanitary ways.

This modernization of infibulation affected only a small part of the most modernized sector of the Somalis living in urban areas. The vast majority of Somalis traditionally are nomads following their herds; they have no contact with the modern world or urban life. Dr. Pieters writes about his experiences practicing medicine in Mogadishu: "Each Sunday (Sunday is not a holiday in Moslem countries), the General Hospital in Mogadishu does about fifteen circumcision operations on little boys, and an equal number of infibulation operations on little girls.

One team of male nurses works on a table on the boys and another team on the girls in the main operating theater of the hospital. The little girls, aged 4-8, are brought by their parents to the door of the surgical unit of the hospital; the parents wait outside. Each little girl is brought into the large operating room and strapped onto one of three tables in the gynaecological position with her legs held apart by two male nurses dressed in surgical gowns with masks and gloves.

The operation starts by disinfecting the child with Mercurochrome. Local anesthetic is given by four injections into the small lips and under the clitoris, but it is not sufficient to control pain. The small lips are then clamped and cut off with surgical scissors; next the entire clitoris from top to bottom is excised. 'This is the nerve that must be taken out', the officiating male nurse explained to the doctor. The bleeding usually is not very profuse and wiped off with tampons. The two sides where the cuts were made are then brought together along the entire length of 2- 3 centimeters, sutured with catgut and sewn together with silk, about 5-8 stitches. It is important, the operator explained, that only a tiny opening as small as a pencil point remains. . .

After more disinfectant is applied locally, the little girl, who frequently screams, is taken off the table and returned to the parents at the door. They pay about a dollar for the operation and take her home. At certain times, when infections seem more frequent, each child is given an injection of penicillin on two consecutive days. But there are rarely any immediate complications. . . "

CASE HISTORY: NIGERIA
Nigeria is the most populous country of Africa with a multi ethnic population estimated to be at least 115 million - though for political reasons this figure is contested. Nigeria's population is growing at about 3.5 percent annually despite the recent introduction of government supported family planning programs. The country has been recently reorganized as a federation of 30 states - following the United States model - with considerable autonomy for each state. There are great differences between ethnic groups - with the people following very different religious teachings, mainly Moslem in the North and Christian in the South, as well as various traditional beliefs. Yet despite these differences a Ministry of Health survey established that in every state of Nigeria, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is practiced.

Polygamy is also widely practiced especially by the Moslem majority. Pushed by the desire of each man to boost his self-esteem by having as many children as possible, the already huge population is growing rapidly. Nowhere else in Africa can one see as many pregnant women as in the streets of Lagos and other Nigerian towns. A new, planned capital Abuja in the center of the country is being built to replace the overcrowded traditional federal capital in Lagos, located on the coast on a series of overcrowded islands connected by overcrowded highways and ringed by squatter settlements. There are large new high-rise office buildings, stadiums and sports palaces, but adequate sanitation and water systems are lacking, electricity and telephones function intermittently and garbage removal works hardly at all. Personal security is a great problem not only in Lagos but in many other areas of Nigeria.

The recent oil boom, which led to the building of superhighways, high-rise-buildings, and projects of all kinds all over the country including universities, as well as the construction of the new capital, started a building boom that was short-lived and ended by plunging the country into deep debt. Inflation and corruption are rampant, affecting life especially in the overcrowded urban areas.

Women in southern Nigeria and in Lagos actively participate in politics and in the busy markets as traders and entrepreneurs. Lagos, with its large port, was the hub of the Nigerian oil boom, while the north - where the Hausa predominate - is the area of Moslem traditions.

Most of the subgroups of the three main ethnic groups in Nigeria - the Moslem Hausa of the north, the Yoruba in the southwest including the area of Lagos and the Ibo in the southeast - subject their female children to genital operations, mostly excision and clitoridectomy. The Yoruba traditionally practice these operations on newborn babies.

Among other groups, excision is practiced as a coming-of-age rite. Infibulation is said to be practiced by some groups in the Moslem north, as well as Gishri or Gishiri cuts into the vagina of girls just before puberty. Child marriage and seclusion of women are also widespread among the Moslem Hausa - with terrible results for women's health. A survey by the federal Ministry of Health gives an overview of the current status of Female Circumcision in Nigeria as FGM is locally called. This official document of March 1981 is signed by Dr. O. A. (Mrs.) Adelaja, Senior Consultant/Medical Statistics and gives an overview of the situation:

 

"According to the response obtained from questionnaires completed by most Nigerian states, female circumcision is still being practiced in most states of this country. It is practiced mostly on babies and small girls of Christian and Muslim parents. But certain tribes perform the ceremony when the female is ready to wed or when the first pregnancy is about seven months. Very few tribes perform the ceremony after marriage and in such tribes, it is the duty of the husband to perform the operation.”

Next, the circumstances of the operations are described: "The ceremony is usually performed on a group of girls, though some report that individual girls are circumcised in their respective homes. A token fee is paid and ranges from two naira to ten naira The operator may be a man or a woman. Male operators usually perform it as a business and circumcise male children as well. Tools in use vary and include a small knife, a sharp blade, or a razor. Post operative management also varies, some report hot fermentation with charcoal daily and feeding with roasted meat and some gruel. Snail juice
and palm oil are poured on the incision by some. Native soap and native medicine are also used by another tribe.

 

Complications: Some deny any complications. But among those who admit complications, bleeding is the commonest problem reported. Other complications include tear, septicaemia, fistula, stenosis, delayed second state labor, tetanus, urinary obstruction, and dyspareunia. Reason for Circumcision: The majority attribute the operation to age-old custom, culture and tradition. Some claim that circumcision will prevent promiscuity and reduce sex urge, while others believe that if the newborn baby's head touches the clitoris, such a baby will die.