Compilation of testimonies and poems about the humiliation of female genital mutilation, and about the resulting deprivation and loss. It encompasses accounts, factual in some cases and lyrical in others, of the experience of this practice lived or witnessed, and the visceral responses to the practice. The anger is palpable, the bafflement tangible. Beside the pain, though, is the hope borne of the voices raised by governments, organisations, institutions and individuals, urging an end to the practice and coaxing oft-unwilling communities into abandoning it. 170pp, UGANDA. FEMRITE.

It is no longer possible, in Africa or elsewhere, to think about the issue of female genital mutilation (FGM) - excision - in the same way as 25 years ago. Daily life is being transformed by the African information society: information and communication technologies (ICTs) are no longer a novelty, and as a result many beliefs and practices are changing, particularly among young people. How can we re-examine the impact of 25 years of concerted action aimed at eliminating FGM in Francophone West Africa? Why, how, by whom and for whom has the digital revolution been used over the past 10 years to achieve that end? If young people - both female and male - are the big winners in the digital revolution, how were they involved in this undertaking that concerns them intimately as victims, subjects, objects, actors, citizens, leaders and family and community stakeholders? Index, bib, 121pp, UK. PAMBAZUKA.

Attempt to apply Christian principles to argue against the practice of female genital mutilation in Ethiopia. 135pp, ETHIOPIA. ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY.

Now in paperback, this book examines issues, practices, remedies, case studies in Africa and the West, etc. 'Dorkenoo understands the subject from inside out'. Alice Walker.

1995 Paperback

A powerful photographic assault on the practice of female circumcision, this book follows the experiences of a four-year-old girl on the day of her mutilation. Devastating in its impact. B/w photos. AUSTRALIA. SPINIFEX PRESS.

The intense emotional responses of empathy and rage bracket a spectrum of feelings people confront when they consider the millions of women and girls who have undergone bolokoli, takhoundi, tukore ir gudni'in - names in local languages for a procedure that mutilates female genitalia. Contributors not content with silent acquiescence have shown the courage to oppose a harmful practice that continues to plague women of African descent sentenced to a life of suffering through a damaging tradition. 216pp, UK. AYEBIA.

Assessing the impact of 25 years of action to promote the end of female circumcision in Francophone West Africa, should consider the contribution of the digital revolution, and how young people have been involved. The book presents the results of an innovative action research programme conducted by ENDA Tiers Monde, with the participation of girls and boys in Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal. IN FRENCH. 146pp, CAMEROON. LANGAA RPCIG.

The issue of female circumcision catapulted into the mainstream after the publication of Alice Walker's novel 'Possessing the Secret of Joy' in 1992. Although Walker garnered much support for her depiction and denunciation of the ritual, many others decried her almost missionary-like stance. Excising the Spirit explores this sensitive issue by analysing it both from within and from outside the ritual community. Each of the texts it analyses offers a very specific insight into the complexities surrounding female circumcision and shows how writers grapple with them. 256pp, USA. AFRICA WORLD PRESS.

MATATU: Journal for African Culture and Society No. 37. Defended as customary or ritually-important, male circumcision and female excision are also irreversible amputations of human genitalia, with disastrous and at times lifelong consequences for both males and females. However, scholars and activists alike have been diffident about making a case for symmetry between these two practices. This book investigates the sociological, medical, legal, and religious justifications for male circumcision and female excision while it points to various symmetries and asymmetries in their discursive representation in cultural anthropology, law, medicine, and literature. 307pp, NETHERLANDS. RODOPI.

New in paperback. Gathers together African activists to examine the issue within its various cultural and historical contexts, the debates on circumcision regarding African refugee and immigrant populations in the U.S. and the human rights efforts to eradicate the practice. This work brings African women's voices into the discussion, foregrounds indigenous processes of social and cultural change, and demonstrates the manifold linkages between respect for women's bodily integrity, the empowerment of women, and the democratic modes of economic development. Index, bib, notes, 287pp, USA. UNIVERSITY PRESS OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Collection of essays arguing that insurgencies against female circumcision are symptoms of a disease emanating from a mindset that produced hierarchies of humans, conquered colonies, and built empires. Challenges foreign, or Western, interventions in the so-called Third World and shows how the resistance they generate can impede development work and undermine the true collaboration and partnership necessary to promote transnational feminist agendas. Index, 288pp, USA. GREENWOOD PUBLISHING GROUP.

A clearly written study which analyses the debates surrounding female genital cutting. The author explores the cultural foundations both promoting the practice and those opposing it. Index, refs, notes, tables, xiii, 188pp, USA. JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS, 0801870631

Discusses the definition and types of FGM and explores the common justifications for the practice, along with the incidence in Africa, global laws, legal issues, rights and religion. Ethical considerations are examined, as are progress and the role of culture. Personal interviews help to expand and enrich the discussion. The book concludes with thoughts on the movement from tradition to cultural evolution. BNS, 336pp, USA. McFARLAND & COMPANY.

A resource for those concerned with development, health and minority rights asking what action governments and NGOs should take in Africa to end the custom of female genital mutilation. Notes, map, diags, 42pp, UK. Minority Rights Group, 1946690901

The author, a child clinical psychologist, describes how female genital mutilation has resurfaced in the UK. Looking at the complex factors involved in the procedure, she shows how the country has, as yet, no effective means of identifying those at risk and offers little guidance for health care professionals and few support mechanisms for those who have undergone the procedure. Using extensive interviews with circumcised women she details their experiences and recommends ways forward for all those involved. Index, bib, viii, 198pp, UK. MIDDLESEX UP, 1898253900

Now in paperback. In five provocative essays, the contributors to this timely volume challenge representations of FGC through a range of perspectives: history, human rights, law, missionary feminism, cultural relativism, anthropology, and the intersex movement. Index, 169pp, USA. ILLINOIS, UNIVERSITY OF PRESS.

Explains in detail the effects and the consequences of female circumsision. It analyzes the practice from cultural, medical, social and religious points of view and calls for its abolition. Somali text, ix, 270pp, CANADA. SCANSOM PUBLISHERS, 0968855903

In 2006, a suburban Atlanta jury convicted Khalid Misri Adem, a 31-year-old Ethiopian immigrant, of two counts of aggravated assault and cruelty to children for allegedly circumcising his daughter when she was two years old. However, the trial against Khalid Adem was far from uncontroversial. This book explores the symbolic politics that surrounded the Adem case, showing how prosecutors, judges, reporters, politicians and activists set out to mould the public's image of Khalid Adem and to appropriate his symbolic values for their own particular purposes. 228pp, USA. AFRICA WORLD PRESS.

Shows how the debate on female genital excision has evolved over the last four decades of the twentieth century, in response to changing attitudes about ethnicity, nationalism, colonialism, feminism, and human rights. The author discerns a gradual evolution from the 1960s, when writers carefully wrote around the physical operation, to the late 1990s, when they situated their denunciations of female genital excision in a much broader, international context of women's oppression and the struggle for women's rights. 360pp, USA. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN PRESS.