Despite calls to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) known in the local dialect as ‘Bondo’, it Practice in many parts of the country still remains a threat to life and government is turning a blind eye to several secret initiations that have cost the lives of many young girls.
Global reports have tagged Sierra Leone as one of the world’s worst places for FGM with 90% of women undergoing the harmful practice.
According to the 2019 Demographic Health Survey in Sierra Leone, 83% of women age 15-49 have undergone FGM. The report indicated that 87% of Muslim women are more likely to have had FGM compared to 69% of Christian women. The figure shows a 7% increase since 2019 which involves the partial or complete removal of the Clitoris using knives or razor blades that often results into serious health complications such as bleeding and sometimes deaths.
The prevalence of FGM is highest in the North-West province (93%) compared to 74% in the Southern Region.
About a month ago in PortLoko district Northern Sierra Leone, three girls: Adamsay Sesay aged 12, Salamatu Jalloh, 13 and Kadiatu Bangura died during a ‘Bondo’ initiation. In a related development, 21-year old Maseray Sei in Bonthe district, Southern Sierra Leone also succumbed to similar fate as she passed away during ‘Bondo’ rituals.
A Sierra Leonean, Fatmata Turay aged 21 also lost her life in the ‘Bondo’ bush.
A group of women in Masungbala Chiefdom in Kambia district, North-west Sierra Leone also narrated the ordeal they went through in the ‘Bondo’ bush saying their lives had been on the knife edge.
As the practice continues in urban and rural communities, women and girls are not safe especially those working for anti-FGM organisations.
Information reaching this press also confirmed that two volunteers of a civil society organisation that campaigns against several anti-social practices, the Youth
Educative Network (YET), Abibatu Mansaray and Hawa Turay, were captured on the 10th August, 2023 by the ‘Bondo’ leaders (soweis) and some ‘Poro’ members in Lunsar town in PortLoko district, Northern Sierra Leone to initiate them. The two activists have been educating residents in several communities in Sierra Leone on drugs and FGM.
They were taken hostage while educating the people in Lunsar town on the negative effects of FGM, and their capture has been confirmed by the Director of YET, Emmanuel Patrick Robert, a resident in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown. The two volunteers were said to have spent two days in the ‘Bondo’ bush before they fled for their lives.
When news broke of their abduction by the ‘Soweis’ and some members of the ‘Poro’ society, journalists went to their residence in Freetown to confirm the news, only to be told by their neighbors that the society men went to recapture them and they fled without anyone knowing their whereabouts. The neighbors also confirmed that before they fled, they were initially admitted at the Super Life Clinic.
Had the process gone as planned, the two YET volunteers would have become ‘soweis’ who should be initiating others in the ‘Bondo.’
However, effort to end the harmful practice in Sierra Leone continues.
The Amazonian Initiative Movement (AIM), a registered non-governmental organisation, founded in 2000 by refugee women in neighbouring Guinea is taking the lead in the campaign against FGM in Sierra Leone.
Led by a Sierra Leonean former Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, Rugiatu Neneh Turay, AIM has the main objective of ending the harmful practice in Sierra Leone through awareness raising on the negative impact of FGM on the lives and health of the people.
Once a trained teacher, Mrs Turay became a popular anti-FGM activist owing to her personal experience in the ‘Bondo’ bush while undergoing initiation. Her first documentary titled: ‘Razor’s Edge, the Controversy of Female Genital Mutilation’ marked the beginning of her vigorous campaign against the dangerous practice.
The campaign against FGM is also a never- ending project at the international stage as February 6 has been set aside as a day of zero tolerance for female genital mutilation.
In the annual celebration, Dr Natalia Kanem commended survivors who are leading the way to eliminate the harmful practice. The day was observed with the theme: ‘Her Voice, Her Future…Investing in Survivor-led Movements.’
In a global joint statement by the Executive Directors of the UN family in Sierra Leone (UNFPA, UNICEF, OHCHR and WHO), said “Female Genital mutilation is a violation of women and girls’ rights that endangers their physical and mental health and limit their potential to lead a healthy and fulfilling lives.”