Brotherhood of the cross and star. (Ossing) December 28, 2001 Mike Tabe.

TESTIMONY

"I was circumcised at the age of nine. My mother told me that they were taking me down to the sacred woods to perform a certain ceremony, and afterwards I would become a real woman. As an innocent child, and young girl I was taken away and when I came back I was never to be the same again.

Once we entered the so-called sacred bush, I was taken into a very dark room in a hut and undressed. I was blindfolded and stripped naked. There was dancing and drinking outside and all was festive. There was nothing that could indicate to me that I was going to live a nightmare that would change my life forever and haunt me. I was made to lie on my back, strong women held my legs tight. One woman sat on my chest in a bid to prevent my upper body from moving. A piece of cloth was forced in my mouth to stop me screaming and the operation began.

I could not put up any fight .The pain was excruciating and unbearable. I was badly cut and lost a lot of blood. All those who took part in the operation were half-drunk with alcohol and seemed to be in a trance or in another world where only spirits could dare. Others were dancing and singing, while I was being mutilated with a knife that would have been used on many other girls of my age.

After the operation, no one helped me. I was abandoned in my pain and anguish and told to walk . I was dazed from the pain. Some herbs were crushed and the liquid from them put on my wound .I wanted to urinate, and it turned out to be another experience. The urine would spread over the wound and would cause fresh pain all over again. At such moments I tried not to urinate for fear of the terrible pain. I had nightmares and still have them today. I was not given any anesthetic in the operation to reduce my pain, nor any antibiotics to fight against infection. Afterwards, I hemorrhaged and became anemic. This was attributed to witchcraft. I suffered for a long time from acute vaginal infections. I was branded a witch who had refused to accept the will of the "gods" or been rejected by them. I was an outcast even in my own home.My brothers and older sisters all made me become estranged and my mom suggested that I undergo a cleansing ceremony to appease the "gods" and ask them for forgiveness. I ran away from home with the help of a neighbour and went to live in Mamfe with the her sister-in-law "

This is testimony from a twenty five year old woman who has elected to stay anonymous. She is today living in Douala where to earn a living she is a prostitute

Two national surveys carried out in Cameroon between 1988 and 1999 have shown that many girls and women have undergone one form of female genital mutilation (FGM) or the other and a lot more are at the risk of the practice.

The negative effects of FGM on the health of women and girls have contributed to maternal morbidity and mortality, and traumatic psychological and psycho -sexual effects.

"Female Genital Mutilation is a procedure, which involves partial or total removal of the external female genitals whether for cultural or other non - therapeutic reasons" said Miss Tabe Philomena a victim of the practice herself and currently working with, and NGO for the enhancement of Women's rights. Studies show that women subjected to the practice are likely to have health complications during their lifetime. Complications such as severe bleeding and infections may occur at the time of the mutilation or after it is performed. Immediate complications are haemorrhage, shock, urine retention, injury to adjacent tissue while long-term complications are in the nature of bleeding, damage to the urinary canal, recurrent urinary tract infection, incontinence, chronic pelvic infection, risk of HIV/AIDS, problems at child birth and many others.

Additionally, removal of part or the whole of the clitoris, which is the main female sexual organ may lead to painful intercourse or reduced sexual sensitivity because of clitoridectomy and narrowing of the vaginal opening. The more severe types of FGM, like infibulations remove larger parts of the genitals and close off the vagina, leaving tough scar tissue in place of sensitive genitals which cause damage and dysfunction.

The effect, researchers said, leave feelings of incompleteness, anxiety, depression, chronic irritability, frigidity, marital conflicts, conversion reaction or psychosis.

On the other hand the traditionally inclined minds would tell you that the practice of the FGM will make women more faithful to their men as it cuts away all desires to have sexual intercourse by the woman. In other words FGM transforms the woman into a sex object at the beck and call of her man. To them this is a way of curbing promiscuity. Studies have however shown that FGM instead promotes sexual mis-behaviours and has led to the wide spread of diseases linked to sex. The high rate of prevalence of the HIV and AIDS in Africa cannot be over emphasised and FGM is not totally independent or innocent. Most youth deaths today can be remotely linked to sexually transmissible diseases and FGM is to blame for this situation. This is a situation, which all traditional African men from north to south and from East to west would accept and be proud about. The question however is whether they are the right ideas and opinions to have. Traditional rulers and the Roman Catholic Church have started thinking of alternative rites of passage into womanhood as the outcry against FGM becomes louder. In some areas of the South west province of Cameroon where tradition demands that girls be taken to secluded areas of the forest for weeks where they have to go through inhuman and degrading rites they are being taken to residential homes where health experts talk to them about personal hygiene.

However a census of primary and secondary school girls show that at least 65% of the girls between the ages of 9 and 14 are enlisted for FGM rituals. However this percentage will increase as many of the girls at a lower age who are in the majority in the schools come of age. The goodwill of the people who advocate for change is always not shown as sooner or later those they pull out of the humiliating rituals are soon dragged back into the same rituals this time with impunity.

The most awful cases of FGM have led to deaths of innocent youths whose only mistake if I may put it thus is to belong to a tribe, which is still leaving in the past. It would be difficult to find cases of FGM in metropolitan areas like Douala and Yaounde.The result is that courageous young girls who want to flee from the practice end up in the streets of these towns as prostitutes at the mercy of pimps who pose as either uncles or aunts and are considered guardian angels.

Clear cases abound. In Ossing Village. The young girls are moving to major cities around where the chief who is the major proponent of the safeguard of traditional values cannot extend his reach on them, as he would have to drag them back to the village for the operation to be carried out. Opponents of this destructive practice have for one reason or the other been made to leave the community. Some have had all their belongings reduced to ashes in just one night by the chief's brutal henchmen. Some have been killed in the most unexplained situations and circumstances and others have fled leaving behind loved ones and family their whereabouts unknown.

There is the case of a young preacher who had to flee overnight when his colleague died and he was threatened with death by witchcraft by the chief whose notoriety could only be got from his acts of witchcraft. All those who have opposed the chief have had to leave giving him a free hand in his diabolic mission of exterminating the youth.

The international community has to stand by the side of the advocates of the abolition of FGM. Mere words are not sufficient. action should be taken. The state of Cameroon has no legislation against FGM and thus has nothing to hold against those who practice it. The international community should look into this situation and I am certain it has many ways of coercing Cameroon and other African countries that carry out this practice to put a ban on it.

Cameroon has signed and ratified many international agreements geared towards the protection and enhancement of the rights of children but its application is always linked to the caprices of unscrupulous politicians who would close their eyes to all, just to advance their political gains. These practices have to stop if the Cameroonian youth has to stay. All that is being done today tends towards a total decimation of the youth. Actions by Mrs Chantal Biya first lady of the republic of Cameroon should not just be limited to hospitals in the capital city of Yaounde. They should not be limited to media campaigns in favour of the actions of the WCPM. They should also address the fundamental issues of the rites of women.

Movements that have been created have been ruthlessly crushed or their leaders molested to make them abandon their fights. These molestations come not only from the state but also from their political cronies like local chiefs who identify themselves with the ruling party the CPDM and therefore are above the law. Religious houses have been burnt and their leaders forced into hiding because of such treatment. Young men and women have been taken into police custody and charged with disturbing the peace when the bases of the charges are fabricated. This by the same people who are supposed to protect them. The police is so deep in corruption that a complaint lodged at a local police station would not be found the next day because the police chief is also involved in politics and do not want to lose their positions.

The only hope for the Cameroonian youth today is the international community. Something has to be done and soon. The UN and its affiliates have to stop their policy of double standards and do something about the Cameroonian situation. It is time that the world knew that the Cameroonian youth needed help. The world community does not only have to be aware of the situation in East Africa and the North of Africa it should pay some real attention to the situation in West and central Africa as well.

Men who have been approached on the subject would not be very willing to discuss it. This is not because it is not worth discussing but because they think other men would sideline them. I have in the course of my work as preacher approached a good number of men and all or most of them have out rightly refused to comment on the subject. Those who have, do it reluctantly. Some of the reasons that men refuse to accept that this practice should be abolished are embedded in old cultures that are unfortunately being accepted even today.

There is no legislation in Cameroon, which accepts that women be mutilated. There is also no legislation, which prohibits that they be mutilated. This situation leaves the advocates of its abolition with no legal backing. An ambiguous clause in the Cameroonian constitution allows for customs, cultures and traditional practices that are not repugnant to natural justice and equity to be admitted into law. The questions are many as to this text. Does female mutilation not qualify as one, which is repugnant to natural justice and equity and so, be abolished by some form of constitutional text? Women are considered as property owned solely by their men. How would putting a woman at pars with items of cutlery not be considered as being repugnant to natural justice and equity especially when we know that we are all made by God male or female alike .

Men fear that they would stop being the centre of their universe. They fear that they would no longer have control of their marital homes .The truth is giving the woman a chance to live her natural life in the way God created her and having full sexual fulfillment would enhance the respect they have for their men. No woman in the world aspires to be in the man's place so there is no need for men to think that they would lose the respect they have or deserve from their wives.

The earlier traditional dances such as Nkim that have as pre-requisite for membership genital mutilation are outlawed the more we would be moving towards a society that would not have any gender in-equalities.