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“Tonguing the Body”: Placing Female Circumcision within African Feminist Discourse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

Natasha M. Gordon
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Extract

This paper focuses primarily on current debates regarding the place of female circumcision in Third World and western feminist discourse. In examining these debates, I will also draw from its fictional and autobiographical depictions as presented and discussed in contemporary African literature. While female circumcision (FC) is not practiced solely in Africa, I will be limiting my analysis to the effects of the practice within the continent. The paper is divided into three sections. Part one places the discussion on FC within current feminist discourse. Part two provides a historical and cultural background on the practice. The final section wades into the debate on FC and African Feminism.

Chandra Mohanty, in her article “Under Western Eyes,” presents a rather intriguing “Third World Woman’s” argument, reflecting as well something of the debate on African feminism.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Issues , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , 1997 , pp. 24 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1997 

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Footnotes

*

Natasha Gordon is a graduate student at the Department of African Literature, University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

References

Notes

1. Mohanty, C., Russo, A., Torres, L., eds.,Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism, p. 51 Google Scholar.

2. Ibid., p. 64.

3. Ibid., p. 514.

4. Suleri, Sara, “Women Skin Deep: Feminism and the Postcolonial Condition,” Critical Inquiry, vol. 18, no. 4, 1992, p. 760 CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5. Mohanty, p. 55.

6. Slacks, Alison T., “Female Circumcision: A Critical Appraisal,” Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 10, no. 4, 1988, p. 439 Google Scholar.

7. Dorkenoo, Efua and Elworthy, Scilla, “Female Genital Mutilation: Proposals for Change,” Minority Rights Group: London. 1992 Google Scholar; “Female Circumcision: A Twentieth Century Atrocity,” Fair Lady Magazine. August 7, 1996; Kouba, L. and Muasher, J. , “Female Circumcision in Africa: An Overview,” The African Studies Review, vol. 28, no. 1, 1995 Google Scholar.

8. Hosken, Fran P., “The Hosken Report: Genital and Sexual Mutilation of Females,” WINN: Massachusetts, 1994 Google Scholar.

9. Assad, Marie B., “Female Circumcision in Egypt: Social Implications, Current Research, and Prospects for Change,” Studies in Family Planning, vol. 11, no. 1, 1980, p. 4 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10. Ibid., p. 443-44.

11. Kouba and Muasher.

12. Ibid., p. 447.

13. Thiam, Awa , Black Sisters, Speak Out: Feminism and Oppression in Black Africa, London: Pluto Press, 1978, 69 Google Scholar.

14. AAWORD, “A Statement on Genital Mutilation,” Davis, Miranda (ed.) Third World —Second Sex: Women’s Struggles and National Liberation, London: Zed Press, 1983, 219 Google Scholar.

15. Kenyatta, Jomo, Facing Mount Kenya, London: Heinemann, 1938, 132 Google Scholar.

16. Thiong’o, Ngugi wa, The River Between, London: Heinemann, 1965, 26 Google Scholar.

17. Molyneux, Maxine, “Women in Socialist Societies: Problems of Theory and Practice,” in Young, Kate (et al.) Of Marriage and the Market: Women’s Subordination Internationally and its Lessons, London: Routledge, 1984, 55 Google Scholar.

18. Bass, Margaret K., “Alice’s Secret,” CLA Journal, vol. 38, no. 1, 1994 Google Scholar.

19. The mention of ‘American’ here is simply to denote that there has yet to be a body of African Feminist criticism on Alice Walker, other than African and other Third World Women who oppose Walker’s work of FC on the grounds of ‘exposing’ and denigrating aspects of traditional African societies.

20. Ibid., p. 4.