Throughout the colonial period, both indigenous communities and the colonial authorities fought for control of the bodies of African women and girls in Kenya, as women’s bodies were (and remain) primary sites of cultural identity formation and expression. Indeed, the level of control over women’s reproductive potential, labour, migration, hygiene, health and clothing became indicators of the success of the British civilising mission. Both the ritual and the results of body modification have served as conscious markers of difference not only between Kenyans and colonialists, but also within and between indigenous Kenyan ethnic groups. Given the unrelenting focus on women’s bodies, the regulation and attempted eradication of female genital cutting (FGC) is, unsurprisingly, a recurring theme in the history of colonial Kenya and was at the centre of existential struggles between the colonial regime and the ethnic communities that practise it. In the Kenyan context, resistance to FGC and the promotion and perpetuation of the practice have been interpreted as the two halves of a dichotomy. However, Kenyan women’s motivations are much more complex than merely supporting either colonial or cultural authority.

Here, I examine three instances in which female genital cutting was a central issue in political contests during the colonial period, focusing on how women’s public, political statements relied upon their sexed bodies and gendered identities. These alternative accounts trouble earlier histories which interpreted these acts as statements of proto-feminist autonomous action, directed towards the liberation of African women from the compound patriarchal burdens of both the colonial regime and their own ethnic communities.