Women of secret societies of Ivory Coast still practices ancient traditions as the mutilation of female sex organs .
Apart from the daily chores, the women occupy a very important position in the social structure of the Ubi. As in the majority of the 60 or so different ethnic groups that live in the Ivory Coast, the women form secret societies, which have a decisive influence in the village about sex rituals.
In their meetings, which no man may attend, they deal with matters exclusive to the women, though their attention has been centred on just one subject for some time now. In the main cities of the Ivory Coast, associations have been formed to fight to eradicate the barbarous traditional practices, the mutilation of female sex organs. Periodically, women from these associations travel to the most remote villages, to speak with the leaders of the secret societies, and try to convince them to abandon this custom.
But it is not an easy task. They have to invoke the spirits and ask them about this delicate matter. The ones we see dressed in white are in a state of trance. Through them, the spirits express their opinion. Can the young women be initiated without subjecting them to ablation of the clitoris?
After a period in the forest, where they learn the traditional codes, the esoteric secrets and the rules of how to be good wives and mothers, the young girls are taken to the house where the operation is performed, and their clitoris is removed. A year later, the initiated dance in the village square.
The dances represent the teachings they have received. For example, these initiates show how to hunt a sorceress. Every movement, every tattoo, every gesture is loaded with symbolism.
The leaders of the women’s society preside over the dances. They dress in white because they are possessed by the protective spirits, who have come to see if the young women have assimilated the process of initiation.
It will still be a long time before the savage sexual mutilations these women suffer are eradicated. It is calculated that at present over sixty million African women are affected by these practices.
Female sexuality has, for as long as anyone can remember, been repressed in many ways, all around the world. In Europe, during the Middle Ages, women were forced to wear chastity belts, and cliterodectomy was used as a drastic means to prevent masturbation.
In Africa, the custom of genital mutilation has deep roots, above all among the peoples of the Sahara region, where the worst insult is to call someone “son of clitoris” – implying he was conceived with pleasure. But here it is performed not simply on the orders of a suspicious husband, as was the case with the chastity belt, but rather as a social symbol, in which the women themselves participate. A woman who has not been initiated is not accepted by the community, is ignored and despised. Today, the greatest defenders of this practice are precisely the women who have undergone the operation, perhaps wanting the young women to suffer as they have . What is certain is that, though the majority of African governments now recommend that these customs be abandoned, few dare to prohibit them. Genital mutilation of women continues, and they continue to dance to the sound of the drums, before an archaic, repressive community which denies them the right to pleasure.