A Reflection on the Cultural Meanings of Female Genital Cutting ...

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older women to the girls through the excision ceremony and the following initiation
ritual. The uncircumcised girl or woman is called solima, which is Mandinka and means
‘uncircumcised’ and ‘the one who knows nothing’. 9 The word is commonly used to
insult girls with bad manners, excised or not. With few exceptions, all women in the
village are initiated and form a sort of secret society, an association. An uninitiated
woman is not allowed to participate in the ritual activities of this female society and is
socially excluded in many respects.
Different Voices in the Negotiation
In Casamance, the views on female genital cutting are many and conflicting. According
to my experience it is foremost the older women who defend the practice of female
circumcision. Only a few middle-aged women told me that they would not have excised
their daughters today. Many of the old women were among the first Joola to go through
excision and convert to Islam, and to be initiated into the ‘new’ form of secret society.
The cutting is an important mark of their authority in this female secret society. Older
women often reacted with aggression when I posed questions on what they thought
about the recent Senegalese law against excision. They are well aware of it and
answered with indignation that Islam demands excision and education, and they asked
“how are we to educate the girls in the future if they are not excised?” One of the oldest
circumcisers in the region told me she would save (sic) all the girls in her family and
excise them before she dies. Then added that she would gladly do her next excisionceremony
in the middle of the street: “And may they arrest me! They can’t prevent me
from following the Prophet’s recommendations.”
Above I mentioned that women who are not initiated into the female society are socially
excluded in many respects. But as long as they are excised, they are not insulted and
subjected to other women’s harassment as uncircumcised women generally are. Men
who are critical to uncircumcised women would express their critique not in public, but
more likely in paraphrases and tacit disapproval; it is considered indiscreet and
shameful for a man to talk of ‘women’s matter’. However, I have noticed that people
are tolerant vis-à-vis those un-excised women who have immigrated and are not married
to one of the local men. Those who did marry a local man however, seem to have been
more or less forced to go through the operation in order to be socially accepted,
especially by the women.
Young women and teenage girls rarely expressed any doubts concerning excision in
front of me. A few whom I know well told me that they thought about not excising their
daughters, if they should give birth to any in the future. But they would not tell their
mothers and grandmothers about their thoughts. Respect for elders is an important
element in the education of young people. Respect was the reason why the young local
imam I came to know in Casamance could not express his critique of excision in front
of his mother, who is a circumciser.
It is rare to hear old men speak out against excision. In fact, I never met an old male
villager taking an open stance against excision. Like the old women, they say it is a
9 According to Skramstad (ibid: 12) solima means ‘uncircumcised person’. However, Weil (1976:187)
says it means ‘sexually licentious person’. Skramstad (1990) critisises him for not explaining how he
comes to this conclusion. Her study, also carried out in Gambia, does not support his interpretation and
neither does mine.