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9. CIRCUMCISION: AN AFRICAN POINT OF VIEW
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~ 106 ~ CHAPTER NINE CIRCUMCISION: AN AFRICAN POINT OF VIEW [This chapter was first published in MALE AND FEMALE CIRCUMCISION: Medical, Legal, and Ethical Considerations in Pediatric Practice, edited by George Denniston et al., New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, pp. 183-193, 1999] ABSTRACT Circumcision, by which I mean any surgical intervention on the genitals of a human being for cultural, religious or purely secular and profane reasons, has recently become a highly controversial issue reminiscent of such other issues as the abortion debate. Pro-circumcisionists have marshalled as many arguments in its favor as anti-circumcisionists have marshalled against it. Quite interestingly, both sides have used science and the work of eminent scientists to support their respective positions, making it evident that science can be a double-edged sword which lends itself readily as an alibi for strongly held preferences or cultural biases. In this paper, I discuss circumcision as a rite de passage within an African culture- that of the Nso’ of the north-western grasslands of Cameroon. I then attempt to provide what I consider cross-cultural arguments against circumcision without prior informed consent, especially routine infant circumcision. But then, I also argue for the availability, in principle, of circumcision under the best medical conditions possible, for well-informed adults who, for any reason, freely insist on undergoing it. ~ 107 ~ CIRCUMCISION: AN AFRICAN POINT OF VIEW Those who eat turkey on ‘Thanksgiving Day’ should think carefully before condemning those who eat porcupine on similar occasions. PREAMBLE Before 1996, I was not very aware that the practice of circumcision raises serious medical and ethical problems. I had, of course, especially from 1994, increasingly been aware of the great Western campaign against ‘female sexual mutilations’, a campaign which looked like an off-shoot of the feminist movement, and which, perhaps because of my own peculiar cultural background, I considered quite appropriate and timely, even if somewhat a little exaggerated. I had heard stories about how, in the USA, some African women, in danger of being deported as illegal immigrants, had successfully used the ‘female genital mutilation card’ to avert the danger of deportation by claiming that they ran the risk of being forcibly circumcised if they returned to their mother-land. Throughout this paper, I have preferred using the, admittedly inadequate, term ‘circumcision’ which is more appropriate when the practice is looked at from within a practising culture, rather than the value-laden, morally condemnatory term ‘sexual/genital mutilation’ which is more current in Western discourse and literature on the subject. I had first become aware of the existence of the practice of female circumcision during my University student days (1974-1984) in Nigeria where the practice is common among some indigenous groups. I considered it then an extremely strange practice, not knowing at the time that it also existed in some parts of Cameroon. When I tried to enquire as to why anyone would do such a ‘senseless thing’ as ‘circumcising a female’, I gathered that it was believed to reduce promiscuity and to facilitate childbirth. ONE PERSON’S SNAIL IS ANOTHER’S TERMITE My experience with snails (which Nigerians fondly call ‘congo meat’) prevented me from passing severe critical judgement at the time on this practice and the purported reasons in its favor. In effect, I had summoned the courage to taste snails (taboo among my own people, the Nso’) for the very first time in Binin City, Nigeria, sometime in [54.89.70.161] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 10:20 GMT) ~ 108 ~ 1975. I was pleasantly surprised that snails, towards which I felt a certain cultural horror, in fact, tasted so good. While back home on holidays, I related my experience with snails in Nigeria to my family members, and I could see everyone instinctively recoiling away from me as I told the story, until I added that I had met people who were shocked and horrified when I told them that in Nso’ we greatly cherish termites, crickets and certain grasshoppers as delicacies. MYTH AND REALITY Professor J. O. Sodipo, who supervised my M. A. at the University of Ife, Nigeria, once drew my attention to certain very pertinent remarks of Professor Michael Novak in his book, The Experience of Nothingness (1970, p.16). According to Novak, every culture differs from others according to the ‘constellation of myths’ which shapes its attention, attitudes and practices. In his view, it is impossible for any one culture to perceive human experience in a universal, direct way...