CULTURE

Elders in the Sebei region in eastern Uganda have drafted an alternative rite of passage for girls to adulthood, which they say once adapted, will lead to the total elimination of the illegal practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the Uganda.

Third Deputy Prime Minister Rukia Nakadama (right) and gender and culture state minister Peace Mutuuzo (2nd-R) attending the meeting on Thursday

Jesca Kisuro Yego, the minister of gender in the Sabiny cultural institution, revealed on Thursday that instead of mutilating girls as a sign of ushering them into adulthood, the elders have agreed to instead anoint and pronounce blessings upon them.

“The elders have agreed that the fathers will pronounce blessings on their daughters. They anoint their heads with oil and bless them,” she said on the second and last day of the 3rd Inter-Ministerial Cross-border Meeting for Addressing FGM in Munyonyo, Kampala.

Jesca Kisuro Yego, the minister of gender in the Sabiny cultural institution

Kisuro presented the Sabiny elders cultural institution’s draft Sabiny Womens Alternative Rites of Passage (SWAROP).

The draft alternative seeks to enhance accelerated abandonment of FGM, promote dignified living for the Sabiny girls, and ensure that women and girls attain an education.

It is understood that between November 2018 and February 2019, 450 girls and women in Sebei underwent FGM, 150 families were involved in FGM-related conflicts, 300 school girls dropped out in Kapchorwa, and 10 government officials especially got threats of being mutilated.

ALSO RELATED: A push for an alternative 'rite of passage'

The 3rd Inter-Ministerial Cross-border Meeting for Addressing FGM closed on Thursday

Lydia Chesang, a resident of Bukwo district, told the meeting that FGM has taken on a new form. Women who give birth with the help of traditional birth attendants are now being mutilated without consent.

“They wait for the time when you are pushing out the baby to cut you,” she said.

Bukwo resident Lydia Chesang weighed in on the discussion

Chesang called for heightened joint efforts by the ministries of gender and health to ensure that all child-bearing women give birth in government health facilities.

Her son, Josiah Kwemoi, who is in Primary Six, said that to erase FGM in the region by 2030, there is need to tackle cross-border FGM.

He added that also important is to construct schools for girls, offer study scholarships to girls who excel in national exams and athletics, and start skilling centres for the women who dropped out of school.

Josiah Kwemoi talked of the need to tackle cross-border FGM

'We are now enlightened'

Simon Peter Nangiro, an elder from Karamoja, noted that they have agreed to stop entertaining the practice in their communities.

“We are fighting it. We are not going to allow our children to continue practising it. The practice thrived on ignorance but now we are enlightened and won't encourage it,” he said.

Simon Peter Nangiro from Karamoja said they are determined to put an end to FGM

Gender and culture state minister Peace Mutuuzo said that once the proposed alternative rite of passage is supported, FGM will be eliminated in the country.

FGM is an internationally recognised violation of the human rights of girls and women. Despite reports that the prevalence of the vice is declining around the world, the practice still affects around 200 million women globally.

In Uganda, it is mainly practised in the districts of Kween, Moroto, Kapchorwa, Bukwo, Nakapiripirit, and Amudat.

Gender and culture state minister Peace Mutuuzo

On the opening of the meeting (on Wednesday), Minister Mutuuzo said that the fight against the vice has been hampered by a lack of understanding of the root cause of the practice in these areas despite its negative consequences to women and girls.

A 2021 study by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) indicates that 26.7% of the people in the said districts, aged 15-49, practise FGM. The national average prevalence rate is 0.3%, which, according to the latest Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS) of 2016,  remains one of the lowest in East Africa.

Most of the affected category of people have been found to be disadvantaged women from poor households, who have low levels of education and who reside in rural areas.