Women Development Children and Gender (WDCG)
Domina Chacha escapes FGM
Domina, a girl aged 17 was born in Kigunga village coming fifth in a
family of 12 children from the same mother and father. She is the first
girl child and has two younger sisters. She went to school in Komuge
primary school, completed class seven in 2010. Afater finishing primary
school she continued to live in the village helping her parents in
various family chores. In April she was “engaged” by a young man aged 17
from neighboring village (Kuruya). Parents consulted and agreed on
brideprice of 5 cows which was paid to Domina’s parents June 25th 2011
and was later followed by traditional wedding celebrations. After the
wedding celebrations, Domina was walked to her husband’s home by her
paternal grandmother Wabori aged 70 which is a normal tradition to
Wasimbiti community. The groom lived with his parents and this is where
Domina was taken to. The grandmother had this to tell: “The day I walked
Domina to her husband’s place we were met by Domina’s in law and the
first thing they asked me was whether Domina had undergone FGM, of which
I responded no. They asked why that had not happened and the grandmother
responded that FGM was no longer practiced in her community. They were
disappointed by this response and the inlaws wondered how their
homestead had been invaded by an uncircumcised woman. However the
groom’s family promised they would look into the issue of performing FGM
to Domina to enable her fit into their community and be allowed to
perform expected domestic chores. They decided that they would arrange
for Domina to undergo FGM after two weeks. This surprised Wabori and
left feeling sorry for her granddaughter Domina.
In Kurya traditions, a daughter in- law is supposed not only to cook for
the family but also open gates early morning for cows to get out as well
as other people in the compound. However no daughter in law can open
gates if she has not been circumcised.
After two weeks Domina heard about plans for her circumcision. A village
woman circumciser had been identified and a date had been set for the
act. Everyday Domina would tell her husband of her intention to refuse
the act which she thought was not right to her. Her husband on the other
side did not sympathize with Domina but rather supported his family in
arranging for a circumciser for Domina to enable them share sex which
traditions had prohibited them until Domina had undergone FGM. Domina
planned to run away to her parents’ house.
On a set date she woke up early in the morning and walked to her
parents’ home in Komuge. She shared with her parents reasons for running
away from her husband that they had planned to perform FGM to her that
material day. Her parents were surprised that there would be communities
who are still practicing the harmful tradition. Her father in particular
Chacha Mhere (55) had earlier attended anti FGM programs organized by
CCT in his village and had been highly sensitized against FGM. Both
parents agreed to have her back home and her father said he was ready to
give back the cows which had been given to him as bride price. When
asked how he managed to be bold to accept her daughter back from
marriage, he had this to say: “I did not want my daughter to undergo FGM
since I had received information about the long term effects of FGM
through CCT advocacy programs and had made my mind that not a single
girl child in my family will undergo the harmful tradition. So when
Domina’s inlaw came for their cows I was ready to give them back which I
did for the sake of my daughter”. On the day of giving away the
brideprice, Domina’s parents had invited his village headmen and the
return of cows was a shock to every man in the village most of whom
thought Chacha Mhere did not make a wise decision. They wondered how a
man from their community would give back cows which would help the
family address poverty facing them. In general most men in that village
felt sorry for Chacha and thought he would live to regret afterall a
girl child to undergo FGM was expected of. A few village people
supported Domina and her parents for their courage to break the silence
of the long and harmful tradition still practiced by a few in their
village.
When CCT volunteer visited Domina to get to know what exactly had
happened, Domina concluded her narrations with him by saying she had no
plans to get married but instead will be more than happy if she gets a
position to attend a technical school to build her skills in tailoring.
After visits to this family CCT established regrets from Domina’s
parents that they had made a wrong decision to have married off their
daughter at a tender age and were more than willing to work with CCT to
get Domina to a technical school as she had wished.
Currently Domina is in a boarding school at a Roman Catholic church run
centre in Musoma township undertaking a two year certificate course in
tailoring with support from CCT.
Posted By Mary Shuma
Program Officer
20th December 2011
