Villagers agree to end female genital cutting
Published 10:00 pm, Saturday, January 20, 2007
On Dec. 3, 2006, the village of Lalya in Guinea, West Africa, and 149 villages of its intramarrying group declared publicly they were abandoning the harmful traditional practices of female genital cutting and forced/child marriage.
More than 1,500 people attended the formal declaration ceremony, and many more participated in lively celebrations beforehand. Because of this decision, young girls will not be cut, nor will they be married off while still a child. Although nearly a third of all practicing villages in neighboring Senegal have made similar declarations, the Lalya declaration was particularly significant because FGC is a nearly universal practice in Guinea. Here in this isolated village in the wooded mountains of Middle Guinea, villagers publicly pledged to protect human rights, including the rights to health and bodily integrity.
On sabbatical from the University of Washington-Bothell, I had the privilege of witnessing the declaration and the accompanying celebrations. I am studying the approach of Tostan, the non-profit organization whose interactive educational strategies with village communities led to this abandonment.
In Wolof, the predominant national language of Senegal, tostan means to share and spread knowledge. The name was suggested to Molly Melching, Tostan's executive director, in 1984 by renowned African scholar Cheihk Anta Diop, who worked with her on culturally based approaches to education and community development. Since that time, Tostan has refined its participatory education program in rural, often remote villages in West Africa. Having received much needed support from grant-giving agencies such as UNICEF; AJWS; USAID, which funded the project in Guinea; and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Tostan stands poised to expand its program throughout Africa.
What makes this program so successful, and why should we care that its approach works?
Tostan's educational method is based on interactions with villagers in their national languages. Understanding the nature of someone's language is central to teaching and learning because language is embedded in the ways people think and solve problems. Wolof and other West African languages are rich in metaphors and proverbs, many of which hold tantalizing contradictions. Speakers delight in thinking in contexts with multiple meanings.
Village chief El Hadji Moustapha Ndiaye, in describing Tostan's holistic educational work in his village, did not invoke the common image of the teacher as separated from and above learners. Rather, he said, "Tostan is like salt in rice; without it, life tastes flat." Good educational practices, his metaphor suggests, disperse throughout the community and are egalitarian and empowering. Because they draw out the learner's previous knowledge, metaphors, parables and words that hold rich meanings are woven into Tostan's pedagogy. This facilitates learning concepts and leads participants to take new action in their communities.
The results of this interactive approach were evident at the Lalya Declaration when two young female participants in Tostan read the declaration in Fulani and French. They stated: "We have joined together to make the solemn and deliberate decision to put an end to the practices of FGC and child/forced marriage, in order to guarantee and protect our girls' rights to health, to physical integrity and to ensure the respect of their human dignity. ... [Tostan's] program included human rights education, community awareness-raising activities and intervillage meetings."
On a large white board, Tostan participants had written the names of the 150 villages that met to make this declaration; they had organized all the activities for this celebration themselves.
Tostan stresses the importance of collaboration with all members of society. The Lalya Declaration was attended by adolescents, women's groups, religious leaders, local elected officials, villagers from all regions of Guinea, villagers and government officials from Senegal, the president of the National Assembly of the Republic of Guinea; a large delegation from USAID and the U.S. Embassy; the UNICEF country representative and a WHO representative, among others.
Each contributed diverse perspectives. The son of one of the most influential religious leaders of the region, Cerno Abdourahmane Bah, emphasized that FGC is not a practice required by Islam. Dr. Bilghissa Savané enumerated the many serious health consequences that frequently result. The presence of all of these organizations and individuals signal to the abandoning villagers they are part of a larger supportive social network.
Finally, Tostan's educational program provides the time needed for deep social transformation. In classes, each community deliberates about its most important issues. Tostan facilitators listen carefully and respond back. The process pays off. Over the past decade, Tostan staff listened to participants envisioning a future in which justice, peace, health, education, security and equality were the norm.
Tostan then realized the need to introduce a new module on democracy and human rights education. This module, now the first in the curriculum, has accelerated the learning process as participants understand why they must research for themselves the problems in their communities and take collective actions to remedy them. The decisions to abandon FGC and forced/child marriage emerged from public discussions and debates about democracy and human rights. Through research, participants linked these practices to negative health consequences. Community participants also recognized that intramarrying villages needed to abandon collectively in order for their daughters to remain accepted members of their communities and societies.
Tostan's educational program recognizes the complexity and richness of participant thinking, reaches out to and collaborates with diverse members of society and teaches problem solving in an egalitarian context. Its interactive approach has given birth to a dynamic social movement that is ending harmful traditional practices that have persisted for more than 2,000 years.
Why should we care that Tostan is so effective? Because it is significant that a program that believes in the capacities of learners and their communities is having such success. And because community engagement, democratic practices and recognition of human rights and responsibilities are essential to creating a safe, secure world, no matter where we live. The courageous action of the villagers of Lalya reminds us that democratic education is critical to creating a better world.