I had a shocking experience several years ago noticing a neighbor’s young daughter would constantly cry in the morning while her mother was bathing her. Upon inquiry, the young girl’s senior sister casually told me in Hausa that “An yi mata kachiya ne” (she had a circumcision). To say I was shocked by what I heard is an understatement. I could not believe my ears. I had heard about such practices but thought they had long been stopped. When I asked my mother about it, she told me it is alive and still practiced in certain communities. Further inquiries showed the principal reason given in most cultures for this practice is “to prevent the girl from becoming promiscuous” while others regard it as an important rite of passage.
