Kurima, from Dorimon in the Upper West Region, only discovered she had been subjected to female genital mutilation as a teenager at boarding school — when she noticed her body looked different from her southern Ghanaian classmates.

She was a week old when it happened — far too young to remember, let alone resist. Kurima, who hails from Dorimon in the Upper West Region, grew up with no knowledge that part of her clitoris had been surgically removed in infancy as part of a generations-old tradition. It was only years later, in the communal bathroom of her boarding school, that the truth began to surface.

In an interview with media personality Serwaa Amihere, ghanaweb news reported, Kurima recounted how the realisation dawned on her while she was a student at Islamic Senior High School. Bathing alongside classmates, she noticed a physical difference between girls from the north and those from the south of the country. Confused, she approached a male teacher, who explained that part of her clitoris had been removed — a procedure known as female genital mutilation, or FGM. She says she was between 15 and 16 years old at the time.

She returned home furious. Confronting her mother, she demanded answers. Her mother confirmed what the teacher had said, adding a detail that made the conversation even more striking: the procedure had been performed on Kurima at just one week of age. And the family, part of a royal lineage in their community, had no plans to stop. As Kurima recalled her mother’s words to Serwaa Amihere: “They have done it to your great-grandmother, they did it to your grandmother, even your senior sister, you, and we are still going to do it.” Her mother then took her to meet the woman who had carried out the procedure.

What was done — and what it means
Kurima explained that FGM is classified into four types internationally, but that the form practised in Ghana is typically Type 1 — the removal of the tip or all of the clitoris. “They take just the tip of the clitoris, the pointed part that gives pleasure. It will be hanging there, but it will not be sensitive.

Source: Ghana Web