Female Circumcision and Sorcery

Not your everyday title in the good ole U.S. of A, huh? Not that there isn't any sorcery going on, it's just not associated with female circumcision very often in America. I am currently reading a book by Sarah Erdman where she tells of her two years in a small village in rural Ivory Coast. Sarah was a Peace Corp volunteer.
It is an amazing book, and I would think a must read for anybody considering mission work in Africa......especially West Africa. The title of the book is "Nine Hills to Nambonkaha". I want to let you in on a conversation she had with a local health worker concerning the practice of female circumcision. For those who might not know what that means, just before a young woman is to be married an older woman in the village will take a razor blade or knife and cut out the clitoris of the bride to be.
No pain killers, no deadening of the area......nothing. And usually no antibiotics to fight infection either. Peace Corp workers, missionaries, and any other outsider you can think of have been trying to get the people to stop this horrible practice for many years. With education, the situation is getting better. But, as you might guess there is still a LONG LONG way to go. Most of the people in rural Africa are NOT educated......at least in the way we mean when we use that word. I want to share with you an exchange Sarah had with a local health worker named Dramane. The main obstacle to the ending of this practice is sorcery. The local medicine men (witch doctors) say that the village of Nambonkaha has been cursed, that children of uncircumcised mothers will not live. So here is part of the conversation Sarah has with Dramane.


Sarah: Why won't it just die out after today's older generation are gone? You have learned about the dangers of female circumcision. When you are the generation in charge, don't you think you can overturn the curse? Won't people be more likely to listen to educated leaders?

Dramane: Most educated villagers believe in sorcery too. And even if they don't, there will always be enough of the unschooled population to keep the curse alive. Anyway, sorcery isn't just a phase, Sarah. Even if we were to somehow get rid of this curse, another would come to take it's place. As long as people are scared, they won't take any chances. The women themselves want to be fertile wives. They'll accept circumcision if that's what it takes to keep their babies alive.

Sarah: But how do they know it's a curse that's killing their babies? Why won't they accept that it's just malaria or dehydration or a geniune miscarriage?

Dramane: Those are all tools of sorcery. That's what people believe. Why are people sure there's heaven? Why do people think God can hear when they're praying? Sorcery is what we've always believed in. There's no way to prove that we've been wrong all this time.

Sarah goes on to ask him what would happen if EVERY woman decided to NOT go along with the circumcision and defied the curse? Surely then they would see the error of believing in the sorcery in that not all the babies would die......and most likely only a few would. Dramane looked at Sarah incredulously and asked "What woman would do that? Maybe standing up to witches and genies will only bring a WORSE curse. No one would risk that."


Does this give you maybe just a small dose of what our missionaries are up against? What priority level do you think drums in the assembly ranks at? Yeah, not on the radar screen. Satan's darkness still has power in this world, and not only in Africa. Let's be praying for the light of the Good News to expose the truth, at home and in the Ivory Coast.....and all over the world. And let's be ready to ask "WHY" when somebody says "that is what we have always believed". Longevity is not always a good thing. It can physically cause people to die, and more importantly, it can kill spiritually too. We've all seen it. Maybe somebody is asking our generation why WE don't stand up to some untruths also!

May the truth of the Cross soon reach all people, especially those who go thru what these women of Africa have to endure. How are they going to know unless somebody takes it to them? "The fields are white".