THE DEATH SENTENCE OF BEING A GIRL CHILD Ebrima Sajaw GTU (Gambia Teachers Union)
The story I want to write about is between my humble self and my beautiful Fula wife called Fatoumatta. I met Fatoumatta in 1988 while I was on a posting in her village teaching. Her beauty attracted me. So, I decided to approach her and eventually asked her if she would be the queen of my life, but only under one condition - that is whenever we are blessed with a girl child, she must not undergo female genital mutilation (FGM). It is a traditional belief in our tribe that every girl child should undergo such a horrible and degrading act. However, her response was let’s wait until that day comes. The knot was tied and we became husband and wife. Later, we were blessed with two girls. Gass was five years while Abbie was three years younger. We were all living happily. One sudden day, while together on the bed, my wife said to me that it’s now time to circumcise our girls. I was so shocked to hear her utter such words. I told her never to utter those words again. Then she started to cry and make all kinds of noise. I just couldn’t sleep because I wasn’t expecting it from her, but I was ready for the challenge. To my surprise the day had been set by the community for the girls to be circumcised without my knowledge. While in the village, a friend of mine called Ousman asked me whether I was through with the necessary preparations for my girls. In two weeks his girls were also going and he was really happy about it. I told Ousman my girls weren’t going anywhere. He told me I was a disgrace to the community, due to my ignorance of my traditional responsibilities. Before I could respond, he gave me a hard slap on my face and walked away.
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