Description
Empathy and Rage – these words bracket a spectrum of feelings people confront when they think about the millions of women and girls who have undergone bolokoli, takhoundi, tukore, or gudni’in – names in local languages for a procedure that mutilates women’s private parts or Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
This pioneering collection discusses representations of female genital mutilation as a theme in literary art. The contributors – both scholars and activists – join together to analyse African and African American literature in the context of the debate between those who see FGM as a time-honoured tradition and those who recognise it as a human rights abuse.
Key Selling Points
• This collection is a first – scholars analyse this subject as a theme in literature.
• In an unusual symbiosis, activism and scholarship join hands to hasten the end of this egregious human rights abuse.
• The collection examines representations in creative writing by African and African- Americans including Nura Abdi, Mariama Barry, Calixthe Beyala, Osman Conteh, Waris Dirie, Nuruddin Farah, Fatou Keita, Fadumo Korn, Ahmadou Kourouma, Christian Mambou, Nawal El
Saadawi, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Awa Thiam and Alice Walker. et al.
• In their efforts to end FGM, the governments of Germany, the UK, Italy and the European Union (Brussels) have drawn on the expertise of Tobe Levin who has written many articles and chapters for books on FGM.
• Contributors to the collection include Anne V. Adams, Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, Muthoni Mathai, Marianne Sarkis and a translation from the French of contributor Herzberger-Fofana’s obituary placing it in the context of the work as a dedication to Sembene Ousmane, a true African pioneer of the exposure of this practice through film.
