Turning up the volume: female genital cutting and music

March 19, 2012
RuthieT
Orchid Project

Three empowered and dynamic voices of today’s music scene have been using the power of their musical talents to reach out to thousands of people and raise awareness about female genital cutting. With unwavering voices, they are calling for international attention and change at the grassroots level. And, with vibrant, popular music on their side, people are listening. We take a look at our top three musical ambassadors for ending FGC.

Sister Fa

Sister Fa is a Senegalese hip-hop and urban soul artist and recent recipient of the prestigious ‘Freedom to Create’ Prize. She raises awareness about FGC in Europe and the UK and performs extensively in Senegal in order to engage local young people around this important issue. Her tour ‘Education sans Excision’ (Education without Cutting), is set to begin its third phase when she returns to Senegal this coming May with the support of Orchid Project. Sister Fa and her band will travel across the country – holding concerts, working with local artists, speaking on radio and television shows, and running school workshops. Through these efforts, Sister Fa expects to spread her message to over 15,000 young people.

Herself a cut woman, Sister Fa’s history and music hits a nerve amongst Senegalese youth. Young people not only feel as though they can relate to Sister Fa’s story, but they can also connect with the magnetic sound of her music. Her home village, Thionck Essyl, has now officially abandoned FGC largely thanks to Sister Fa’s previous tours and efforts in Senegal.

Her charisma on and off stage demonstrates the power of musicians to speak out loudly for social change. Sister Fa is a strong, inspiring role model for girls who want to grow up free from FGC. She has been called ‘game-changing, taboo-breaking and inspiring’. It is her vivacity and fearlessness to speak about a unspoken issue to a generation which make Sister Fa the perfect candidate to take on FGC in her home country.

Caroline Henderson

Recently listed as one of the most powerful black women in Europe, jazz singer Caroline Henderson is also raising her elegant voice in support of the cause. A UNICEF Ambassador for Denmark, Henderson strives to raise international awareness about violence against children. After earning critical acclaim in 2007 by winning the Danish Grammy for best recording, Henderson started headlining campaign events. During the ‘Day of the African Child’ celebration in Mozambique in June 2010, Henderson’s voice rang out alongside Mozambique’s top artists in advocating for children’s rights.

Returning to Denmark, Caroline Henderson took the issue of FGC in her stride. “Violence against children can be physical, sexual and emotional, and should be prevented by all means,” Henderson once explained. Working alongside Orchid Project Denmark Association, Henderson headlined a benefit concert in Copenhagen on International Day against female genital cutting this year. The event was attended by over 500 people. The audience were treated to a truly special evening as Caroline Henderson’s rhythmic melodies and powerful lyrics dazzled and inspired. Her voice has found a place in the international arena, and her words have brought much needed attention to the neglected issue.

Angelique Kidjo

In our list of motivating musicians, Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist Angelique Kidjo most definitely deserves a place. A UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2002, Kidjo has been listed by BBC as one of the African continent’s 50 most iconic figures, and one of the 40 most powerful celebrities in Africa by Forbes magazine. Kidjo is particularly passionate about the rights and wellbeing of women and girls. In 2009, in cooperation with the International Federation of Human Rights, Kidjo launched a campaign entitled ‘Africafor women’s rights.’ Since this time, she has been working to gain support and funding for girls’ education, maternal health, and the end of FGC.

At the Commission on the Status of Women held between February 27th and March 9th in New York City, Angelique Kidjo created a unique concert entitled ‘Raise Your Voice to End Female Genital Mutilation,’ with support from the Italian Mission, UNFPA, and UNICEF. The event was held in the packed United Nations General Assembly Hall at the UN Headquarters, where an estimated 2,500 NGO representatives and delegation members were in attendance.

The General Assembly Hall was never so alive. Hands clapping, audience members raised their voices alongside Kidjo’s, calling for an end to the practice. “What I want to try to do… is to pledge and to convince all nations of the United Nations to sign a resolution to ban the practice of female genital mutilation…We cannot live in a modern society with FGM still around!”Kidjo explained.

Listen to Angelique Kidjo’s concert at the UN Commission on the Status of Women from February 2012.

Music unites people

Music has a way of uniting people. We often feel empowered and motivated through song. Sister Fa, Caroline Henderson, and Angelique Kidjo have not only inspired interest in this critical issue from the grassroots to the international levels, but they have also fostered a sense of solidarity among us. Today, more than ever, we stand united in a common goal: to create a world free from female genital cutting. These three women are helping to make this world possible, and we thank them for that.

And watch this space – we are hotly tipping Malian born Fatoumata Diawara who has raised her voice to speak up against FGC, and just last week were sent this song by Kenyan hip-hop artist MC Kibo – it’s just as vital that men are singing up and speaking out about ending female genital cutting, too.

To read the full story on Orchid Project's website, click here

Women’s Month Spotlight: Angelique Kidjo Raises Her Voice to End FGM

March 14, 2012
Chevelle Dixon
Africa.com

Recently, I had to pleasure of attending the United Nations' Raise Your Voice To End Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Benefit Concert, featuring UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Angelique Kidjo. Noted by Forbes as one of the most powerful celebrities in Africa, the Grammy-Award winning artist has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2002. Kidjo is a native of Benin and the founder of the Batonga Foundation, a Washington D.C.-based charity which funds and empowers education for young African women.

The concert the was presented by the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations in cooperation with the Department of Public Information, UNFPA, and UNICEF. Female genital mutilation refers to all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 100-140 million women and girls around the world have experienced the procedure, including 92 million in Africa. Approximately three million girls and women each year (8,000 a day) is at risk of mutilation or cutting. According to WHO, FGM is practiced in 28 countries in Africa, in parts of the Middle East, and within some immigrant communities in North America and Europe. Italy made FGM illegal, once having an issue with FGM amongst its immigrant community, and is pushing for a resolution to be passed at the UN this year.

The concert celebrated the strides made collectively by UN programs, African communities to end FGM, and by governments to take solid legal and policy action in favor of total abandonment of the practice. According to UNFPA and UNICEF 2011 findings, approximately 2,000 African communities have abandoned female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C), bringing the total of communities renouncing the practice to 8,000 over the last few years. The primary attendees of this concert were UN country delegates, who sat on the main floor while I watched overhead in the balcony.

If you have yet to see Angelique Kidjo in concert, you must know the she is her own back-up singer and dancer. She is a true artist! Shed belted out some of my favorites such as “Malaika” and “Afrikia,” and a new favorite song, "Petit Flor," which Kidjo’s father used to sing to her in French. Kidjo dedicated "Petit Flor," as she said, “to all those young little girls that are being born at the very moment that we are talking, for them to bloom without care without mutilation, but in freedom, laughter, health and education.”

My favorite part of the concert was the middle, when Kidjo stopped and addressed the crowd stating her mission:

Tonight is not just a regular concert of Angelique Kidjo; it’s a concert that I want to dedicate to all the little girls and women of the world that suffer from FGM. I’m born in Africa, and raised in Africa…. and I have been going around the world, talking to people through this microphone, empowering every single human being because we individually and collectively have the power to change the world. Today I’m hear to let you know, and to tell you, that the resolution has to be passed.

Kidjo excited the pan-Africanist in me, when she spoke further of her pride in being African and the role of Africans must play in addressing dangerous cultural practices,

We Africans, we can deal with our own problems. We can find solutions to it. And I always said, everywhere I go, ‘Don’t speak for me because I’m African. I have a brain. I can use it. Thank you’. If I stand tall and defend my continent and my culture so well, it's because growing up in Benin has showed me that being a girl, is not only being a daughter of a father or somebody else’s wife. I am a human being before all. We have the duty of preserving the next generation, and I know we can with the help of our friends…that really think the best for us and give us the freedom to do whatever we want to do. Let’s take that freedom and let’s take this opportunity to show the world that we Africans can make long-lasting decisions for ourselves. It’s about time that we play hardball and big ball with everybody else. I know we can, we surely can. And please let’s do this. I’m too proud of my continent to walk with my head down ashamed of not having an answer for this call tonight.

UNFPA-UNICEF joint programs on FGM uses a culturally sensitive human rights-based approach to promote local abandonment of the practice irrespective of religious or cultural beliefs. According to the UNFPA report, Kenya is has made a significant dropping rates of FGM in women aged 15-49 of 15.8 percent from 2003-2008. In September 2011, Kenya’s parliament passed the bill Female Genital Mutilation Bill, making it illegal to practice FGM. The bill proposes a jail sentence and fine, including a provision for a life sentence should an offender kill a woman in the act. Other African countries that stepped up against the practice of FGM include Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gambia, Senegal, Kenya, Somalia, Egypt, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau.

I felt a sense of pride to usher in Women’s Month with a concert where Ms. Angelique Kidjo raised her voice to end FGM and reminded me of the continuing struggles of women worldwide. As Women’s Month progresses, let’s continue to highlight the impact of African women on women-specific issues.

Check out the entire concert on the U.N.'s website.


To read the full article on the Africa.com blog, please click here

World Leaders Urge UN to Ban Female Genital Mutilation

November 15, 2010

African Press Agency

Kampala (Uganda) Ugandan First Lady Janet Museveni was among international leaders from 42 countries who have called on the UN general assembly to adopt a resolution to ban female genital mutilation worldwide on Monday.

Through an appeal published on Monday in the International Herald Tribune, political leaders from 42 countries around the world call upon the United Nations General Assembly to adopt a Resolution to ban female genital mutilation worldwide.

Among the numerous prominent personalities who have signed are First Ladies Janet Kataha Museveni of Uganda, Chantal Compaore of Burkina Faso, Mariana Mane Sanha of Guinea Bissau, Chantal De Souza Yayi, of Benin, and Clio Napoletano of Italy.

Others are the Nobel laureates Nadime Gordimer, Desmond Tutu, Shirin Ebadi and Marty Ahtisaari, as well as parliamentarians, political leaders and civil society activists from countries concerned by the practice of FGM and others.

The appeal has been launched by the international NGO No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ), The Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC), the European Network for the Prevention and Eradication of Harmful Traditional Practices (EuroNet FGM) and the Senegalese association "La Palabre", in the framework of a campaign aiming at promoting the adoption by the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly of a Resolution to ban female genital mutilation worldwide, and by doing so to strengthen this decisive battle for human rights worldwide.

A United Nations General Assembly resolution to ban FGM worldwide would step up and signal the international community’s universal condemnation of this blatant human rights violation, with important implications worldwide. It would serve to strengthen laws that currently ban FGM and provide new impetus for those nations that currently do not have such laws on the books.

Critically, a UN resolution would contribute significantly to a global change in the perception of FGM as a clear human rights violation against millions of women around the world, instead of masking it merely as a cultural, religious or public health issue.

This is a shift that women’s rights advocates have tenaciously pushed for over the past two decades.