Telling the Story with All of Its Elements: FGM as a Samburu Tradition

Our local village library has a devoted group of volunteers, the Friends of the Cotuit Library, that hosts a monthly speaker and luncheon. This month, I am that speaker, and the topic is ESHA's Kenya experience. I decided in short order that the focus would be limited to the week we spent among the Samburus in Ngurunit. Nevertheless, what a challenge to try to synthesize and select 30-40 minutes of key ideas and photos!

Many of the thoughts that I plan to share have been articulated on this blog over the past several months. A theme that we had not explored in print (electronic or otherwise) is the internal conflict one can feel when -- while wishing to treat all people with respect and dignity, appreciating the richness of cultural differences, and feeling a strong desire to help ease human need -- one is faced with the clear sense that one's own core values conflict with that culture.

Such was the case as Laurel and I were introduced by Steven to what we came to call the "wedding village." Here we met a just "circumcised" fourteen-year-old girl about to become a bride. How can I both wish to preserve cultural diversity and feel abhorrence with coming face to face with the practice of female genital mutilation?

While I don't plan to dwell on this question in my remarks at the village library, I believe I need to include this aspect in the telling of the story. I will tell about the warmth of the Samburu people in Ngurunit, their remarkable perseverance, and their needs. But I'll tell the whole story, in the hope that it gives those present a more complete picture, a fuller understanding.

I had a bit of a warm-up this week when I spoke with a reporter from my local paper, the Barnstable Patriot. Thanks to Kathleen Szmit for capturing the essence of my comments and the nuance of the issues with sensitivity and respect in her article: "African Adventure," Barnstable Patriot, 2/11/11.

Claudia