3 Comments
Sixty Sierra Leonean women have successfully passed into womanhood through the Bondo society without genital mutilation at the Rosenbgeh village, Koya chiefdom, Port Loko district.
The said initiates were lactating mothers and students between the ages of 19 and 33 years.
They are the third batch of women who have gone through the Bondo without cutting in Sierra Leone.
The Bondo used to be a secret society in Sierra Leone when women and young girls had to undergo FGM. The Society, which is more like a sisterhood aims to prepare young women for adulthood, their traditional role as housewife, spouse and mother, and recognizes their move towards maturity and puberty. It is regarded as necessary by many communities, and young women who go through the Bondo initiation are celebrated and accorded a high social status.
As time passes, the Bondo Society became attractive through the help of activists including the Director of (AIM-SL), Rugiatu Neneh Turay, who stood firm for Women and girls to go through the Bondo Society without undergoing genital mutilation.
Neneh Turay believes that the practice is harmful to women’s Health especially in giving birth. According to her, a lot of women faces so much constraints during childbirth due to the absence of their clits which is supposed to help them deliver safely.
Because of the suffering and psychological trauma as a result this inhuman practice, she said they are working alongside the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, Ministry Health and Sanitation and with Social Welfare Ministry to end such practice and ensure women to go through the process without spilling blood.
The Bondo without harm ceremony, she said is a demonstration of their focus on protecting women and girls in Sierra Leone.
This is a very good practice than the old method. It’s really painful to our girls especially the younger ones. Papa government please continue to stand firm so that you can be able to achieve this goal. And again papa government, if you want to achieve this, I suggest you take one person in a Chiefdom who can serve as an eyes for the government to report any soway(digba) who may want to do the mutilation practice to the people concern. And to be given intensive by the government monthly. So that the people would respect and have regard for them.
My dream comes true but please let the bondo serve as an education center,to teach them our culture in our mother tongue until it’s well understood before graduation.
Thank the good Lord, God bless you my Sister Nenneh, for saving the living of our future roll models!