Initiation practices among Ejagham Cameronian women and patriarchy : a womanist perspective

Abstract

The persistence of the ‘genital mutilation’ problem is still a concern for Africa and the world today. Could this crisis be described as one that was never meant to be? Inspired by second-wave feminist clitoral debates in America, which critiques practising cultures in the Global South, we engaged the Ejagham community of Cameroon to understand the reasons for the persistence of what has been termed “female genital mutilation” in the area. Some of the questions raised are: could the persistence be the result of patriarchy and its suppression of women’s sexuality as feminist theorists suggest; or is there more to this practice that gives meaning to Ejagham women’s sexual life? Is the cultural worldview of the people a motivation? And if so, is there something about the Nkim culture that needs to be engaged or taken into consideration before the practice is labelled as the destruction of women’s sexuality? Are other practices of the Ejagham laced with patriarchal violence towards women’s sexual well-being? An exploration of the Ejagham contextual realities then exposes the sexual complexities that are intertwined within in the ‘genital mutilation’ and orgasm discourses, thus revealing the control factor which still maintains coloniality in the Global South.