By Ebenezer Tabot-Tabot, Development Practitioner (Originally published in The Post)
Nkuma (Female Genital Mutilation). An AFRICAphonie Production in Collaboration with OSIWA
There have been many interventions purporting to sensitise communities on the necessity to put an end to the practice of female circumcision, pompously referred to as 'Female Genital Mutilation' (FGM) by development practitioners.
Despite these numerous interventions, the practice still continues in many parts ofCameroon, essentially because the practice is portrayed as an entrenched negative cultural tendency (which it is), and the methods utilised to combat it are necessarily confrontational.
'NKUMA', a telefilm released in December 2006 by AFRICAphonie and broadcast over Spectrum Television (STV) on Monday March 5, 2007 from 9:15 pm to 11:00 pm and Tuesday March 6, 2007 from 1:30 pm to 3:15 pm, as well as Wednesday, March 7, 2007 (with focus by a panel discussion on 'Violence Against Women') from 11 pm, treats the same issue by adopting a more subtle, respectful, non-confrontational, yet forceful stance.
Unlike other interventions, it targets not just the immediate custodians of that 'culture' (FGM practitioners themselves), but also other stakeholders, including FGM victims, the local administration, elected officials, human rights activists, medical doctors and traditional leaders.
Using a composed and knowledgeable cast, from the outset the film plunges us into a seemingly disturbing divide between modernity and tradition, but this soon melts down to a struggle between diehard traditionalists and neo-traditionalists.
Through this approach, the film succeeds to dissipate the obstinate reluctance of FGM practitioners who voluntarily discard their frightening array of hatchets because they find themselves squeezed between tradition and posterity.
Posterity because, as one of the characters points out, in trying so dutifully to initiate girls into womanhood, the FGM practitioners of fictional Yoba are actually destroying the very source of the womanhood of these young girls.
In the end a win-win situation is created through reason, compromise and the recognition that the persistence and tangential spread of this practice can be partly attributed to societal stigmas, ignorance and especially poverty and deprivation.
Written to appeal both to the reason and emotions of viewers, Nkuma is a balanced rendition of a complicated, often sentimental issue. The film outlines the difficulties inherent in mobilising communities for behavioural change and posits for alternative and innovative methods to resolve community conflicts.
This explains why it approaches Female Genital Mutilation from a developmental perspective, advocating for a soft platform of multi-stakeholder participation in finding solutions to inter and intra community problems.
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