At first, I was surprised to learn that the local understanding of excision did not include the idea of sexual control. As Skramstad (1990:3) contends, it may be valid to argue on an analytical level that the practice is intended to control female sex­uality, but the question is whether such an argument is relevant towards […]

oldest female circumcisers in the region told me she would save (sic) all the girls in her family and excise them before she died. Then she added that she would gladly do her next excision-ceremony in the middle of the street: “And they may arrest me! They can’t prevent me from following the Prophet’s recommenda­tions”. […]

In Casamance, views on female circumcision are many and conflicting. In my ex­perience, it is primarily older women who defend the practice. Only a few middle — aged women told me that they would not have excised their daughters if they had been faced with the choice today. Many of the old women were among […]

At present, excision is generally performed when a girl is about four and the ini­tiation rite into the secret society is ideally carried out at puberty. Some decades ago, excision was performed at puberty, in direct connection with the initiation ritual. People told me the wound heals better on little girls and they therefore cir­cumcise […]

religious, and ritual authority decreased (Hamer 1983; Journet 1981, 1985; Linares 1992; Pelissier 1966; see also Weil 1976). Before the introduction of peanut cultivation, at the beginning of the twenti­eth century, the Jola took part in the rubber and palm oil trade on a family basis. During the dry season, husband and wife migrated to […]

The dramatic social changes of the last century, with influences from the Mand­inka, the local version of Islam, and French colonialism have affected Jola women and girls in a very specific way. In addition to the introduction of female circum­cision, the Mandinka social system, with its crucial separation of the sexes, in many ways reinforced […]

The relatively recent adoption of female circumcision was due to complex cultur­al and socio-economic influences from the neighbouring ethnic group Mandinka, A Reflection on the Cultural Meanings of Female Circumcision with whom the Jola have been in close social interaction (trade, slavery, intermar­riage) for at least three centuries (Mark 1992). The Mandinka proselytised their style […]

Making women religious persons According to the Muslim Jola, circumcision is a religious recommendation for women and an obligation for men. Both male and female circumcision is referred to as sunnaye,[65] and in practice it is an obligation for women as well. The prayers of a woman who is not circumcised will not ‘take’ as […]

people that they will actually expose their children to the pain and risks related to excision. Anthropologists are often accused of cultural relativism. This, however, is not the same as moral relativism. It is important to emphasise that the inner under­standing I am advocating does not imply acceptance, or refusal to take a stance. In […]

This ethnographic account stands in sharp contrast to the Western public debate on female circumcision, according to which the practice is to be understood in terms of male domination, mutilation, and sexual control.[63] The discrepancy be­tween the Western and the Jola cultural understandings of excision presents the researcher with an ethical problem. As an anthropologist […]