Twice minister of State and personal secretary of the President Museveni, Jane Frances Kuka has campaigned to eliminate female genital mutilation from her tribe and devoted her life to the cause of women rights.
By Claudia Giampietri
Feature published on the issue 27 of African Woman. Check the magazine online at: http://www.africanwomanmagazine.net/
Honorable Jane Frances Kuka welcomes me in the living room of her house at the feet of Mount Elgon in Kapchorwa district. We sit on the couch while she pours out two glasses of apple juice and I get ready to listen to her story, the drama of a girl who escaped female genital mutilation and became a prominent politician determined to eradicate the thousand-year harmful practice of female circumcision from her tribe.
Jane Kuka is convalescent after a car accident that happened few weeks ago. The car turned three times and she wonders how she can be still alive. She suffered from minor injuries and her voice is often interrupted by bothersome coughs which cause pain in her chest, but nothing can prevent this relentless lady to speak about the rights of the Sabiny women.
Honorable Kuka belongs to the Sabiny tribe which inhabits the south-eastern part of Uganda and is one of the few ethnic groups in the country to practice female genital cutting. Twice elected minister and personal secretary of President Museveni, Jane Kuka has travelled around the world and involved international organizations in the fight against female genital mutilation in her region. Since July 2008 she is Resident District Commissioner in Kapchorwa. ”When I was officially appointed, I received a letter from the President who asked me to go back to Kapchorwa and make sure that circumcision dies. This is my commitment, the mission in my life,” Kuka states with a clear and firm voice.
Fifty years have passed since Jane, a young girl of six, witnessed her older friends undergoing circumcision. ”I saw the circumciser cutting the clitoris of my friends. I remember there was a lot of blood and I ran away.” This traumatic event, followed by the confessions of her grandmother who explained without preamble the permanent harms of the genital cutting, convinced Jane Kuka that the unchallenged practice passed through generations was harmful and demeaning to women. ”I knew from that moment that I would have done everything to avoid it.”
Among the Sabiny tribe, female genital mutilation is considered a rite of passage, an initiation ceremony that leads a young girl into womanhood. ”Through the ceremony a girl becomes a woman and is recognised as such by the community. It is a painful step into adulthood,” Kuka explains. An uncircumcised lady is believed to be immature and cannot perform activities like milking cows, climbing a granary, but also speaking in public, marrying and having children.
”This should have been my fate since I escaped the rite. But despite the cultural restrictions I managed to graduate as a teacher and also married a man from my tribe! When my husband proposed to me I put three conditions: I asked him to support me, defend me from female genital mutilation, and help me in raising our children so that I could pursue further studies and my career,” Hon. Kuka recalls, and smiles with tenderness adding that he has never failed to stand by her.
Kuka’s genius for tact and diplomacy helped her to dodge circumcision by convincing some intransigent members of the community that she was simply procrastinating it. However, after graduating from Makerere University, Kuka was promoted to principal and head of the department of a training college and inevitably, the influential council of the elders found unacceptable that an uncircumcised ‘girl’ was made head of a college. They intensified the pressure and started accusing her of contaminating the students’ minds with revolutionary ideas which were causing the destruction of the Sabiny culture. Jane Kuka admits frankly that the accusations were partly true: ”I have always spoken against female circumcision and I strongly believed that the practice needed to be abandoned. I am also convinced that female genital mutilation is not the only cultural aspect that defines us as Sabiny. Our identity can be kept alive but we cannot allow culture to prevail over human rights.”
In response to Kuka’s unorthodox views, the council passed a law which made female genital cutting compulsory. ”It was 1988 when this outrageous law was approved and I decided to take action,” she states vehemently. She rushed to Kampala and knocked at the door of the then minister of gender and cultural affairs explaining her the gravity of the situation in Kapchorwa. ”The minister was a woman and listened to what I had to say. After consulting with the president, she was given an helicopter to rescue the women of Kapchorwa,” Kuka says with her voice interrupted by coughs and laughters at the memory of the dumbstruck faces of the members of the community at the sight of the minister on the governmental helicopter sent to save the Sabiny women forced into circumcision.
”The minister went to Kapchorwa with two doctors who talked to the community describing the risks and the psycho-physical damages of the female cutting. As a result the law was revised and circumcision was made optional.” For Jane Kuka this was a great success: the impressive feat granted her the respect of her people and marked the beginning of her career in politics.
After several attempts, in 1996 Kuka became Minister of State for gender and cultural affairs and the crusade against female genital mutilation started officially. ”My goal was to promote women emancipation and equality of the sexes.” Kuka travelled to different countries where she attended press conferences and invited international organizations to support her campaign for the rights of the Sabiny women. ”I think that media in Africa have the responsibility to spotlight the issue of female circumcision, and also education plays a crucial role in helping young generations to open their minds.” Jane Kuka believes that girls must be given the opportunity to work in order to achieve economic independence. ”Only when a woman realises her potentials and is granted the right to study and work she can call herself emancipated from the family or the husband on whom, otherwise, she would depend completely.”
Since the the campaign against female genital mutilation was launched the number of women circumcised in Kapchorwa region dropped dramatically while the number of girls going to school increased. However, the picture is rather complex and emancipating women is only part of the solution. Among the key-figures who play a role in the practice of the female cutting are the circumciser and the mentor, who are payed by the families to perform the rite. When the fight against circumcision started, both circumcisers and mentors saw their incomes slowly being decimated by the lack of girls to circumcise, and as a consequence many of them fell into the spiral of extreme poverty. This is one of the biggest challenges that the organizations working to eradicate female mutilation have to face. ”Another big challenge is related to the cultural implications of circumcision regarded as the initiation into womanhood. The campaign against the practice has deprived the community of a fundamental moment that used to mark a woman’s life.” For this reason, Jane Kuka along with other individuals and institutions are trying to introduce an alternative rite of passage which seems to be a viable option to celebrate the beginning of a girl’s adult life.
Despite all the debates, lobbying and campaigns against female genital mutilation, it is unlikely that Jane Frances Kuka managed to convince every single member of her tribe to abandon the practice; rather, it is more likely that she managed to make her hardcore opponents doubt and has certainly given hope to the new generations. After her many achievements, Hon. Kuka looks back with contentment. There is no nostalgia in her expression, only the determination to keep on and do more. The secrets of her success are her strength and courage, and the conviction that alone she would have never managed to reach the altitudes where she is now flying. She is grateful to her parents who protected her when she was defenceless, to her husband and children who have always been understanding, and to all those who supported her strive for justice. Dreams for the future? ”I am open to new challenges. I wish I could become the defensor of women rights in the whole eastern Africa.” Since ‘Kuka recipe’ worked for her people it may well be successful elsewhere.
KNOW MORE…
What is FGM?
FGM is practiced in many parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East. It involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for cultural and non-medical reasons. It is estimated that 100/140 million women have undergone FGM and more than 3 million girls between 4 and 14 years old are at risk every year.
The complications of FGM include traumas, pain, haemorrhage, infections, risk of cysts and fistulae, HIV/AIDS, incontinence, formation of painful scars and infertility. Many circumcised women report the total loss of libido. FGM is mainly a cultural practice and is seen as initiation into womanhood, a prerequisite for marriage, but also a mean to control women sexually among other reasons.
Laws against Female Genital Mutialtion (FGM)
In East Africa only in Kenya and Tanzania FGM is banned by law, while in Sudan only the most severe forms are forbidden. Uganda is now in the process of passing a law which criminalises FGM. The Bill has been recently drafted and is under revision. FGM in Uganda is most prevalent in Kapchorwa, Bukwo and parts of Karamoja. There are other instruments like the international conventions and declarations which make provisions for the protection of women rights. The most widely known are: Universal Declaration of Human rights (1948); International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights (1966); Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979); Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women (1995); African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (1997).
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2 Comments
March 15, 2009 at 5:13 pm
…evviva! …sembra quasi che mi abbia voluto accontentare!! …perché queste storie regalano il sorriso della speranza …danno la forza di credere che anche un azione singola supportata possa essere in grado di portare un cambiamento!
March 16, 2009 at 6:54 am
“anche un azione singola supportata possa essere in grado di portare un cambiamento”- È vero. Questa é l’idea che ci si fa parlando con questa coraggiosissima donna. Persone come Jane fanno sorridere e danno speranza.