AFRICAN DATING TIP #3

Dating an African is like walking through a minefield of taboos, cultural inhibitions and practices. Some of these practices are understandable but there are others that beat me hands down, even as an African. Take the case of what is now popularly referred to as female genital mutilation – the practice whereby girls are forcefully and deliberately mutilated by removing the clitoris.

You never get to know the origin of some of these cultural practices but I have it on good authority that female genital mutilation has been practiced in Africa for several centuries. The proponents of FGM, for short, say that it was introduced to reduce female promiscuity. It is generally believed that when the clitoris is removed at an early age, the girl grows up with inhibited sexual feelings and therefore less promiscuous.

We could spend the next few months debating this assertion but as a non medical professional, I do not see how the clitoris suddenly became the storehouse of female sexuality to the extent that its removal will inhibit those feelings!

As for sexual promiscuity let me just say here that promiscuity – or the lack of it – is a very personal matter, the absence or presence of a clitoris notwithstanding. Ask any commercial sex worker and she will readily tell you that she does what she is doing not because she enjoys doing it but because she was forced into it by circumstances.

The good news is that the practice is gradually being phased out – thanks to donor Agencies like UNICEF and western education. Some girls are known to have absconded from their parents’ homes just to avoid being forcefully mutilated. The bad news is that the mutilation is so thorough in some cases that the result is irreversible as the clitoris is not known to have the ability to regenerate with time.

Unfortunately, I am not in a position to tell anybody what role the clitoris plays in the life of a woman as, being a man, I never had one. All I can say is that God would not have included the clitoris in the female anatomy if it was completely useless. As for the argument about curbing promiscuity, I think some men should have the male equivalent of the clitoris cut off because promiscuity is the middle name of most men.