Beyond the Dance: Voices of women on female genital mutilation

by Violet Barungi (Editor), Hilda Twongyeirwe (Editor)

Overview

Female genital mutilation is the excruciating and damaging experience that Beyond the Dance a lot of women in many cultures across Africa and in many other parts of the world suffer. Even when the women find themselves, for one reason or another, relocate in what should be safe havens, this practice frequently follows them like a vengeance ghost. Beyond the dance is a 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 a stop to the practice and coaxing oft-unwilling communities into abandoning it or transforming it into a meaningful ritual that builds up rather than ruins. Through the pages of this volume we share the pain, thoughts, views and feelings of the victims of female genital cutting and of people concerned about the debilitating practice. We share the hope that they hold out for a firm and final end to the practice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789970700271
Publisher:	Femrite Publications
Publication date:	12/29/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	170
File size:	882 KB

About the Author

Violet Barungi was born in Mbarara district, Western Uganda. She was educated at Bweranyangi Girls’ School, Gayaza High School and Makerere University, Kampala, where she graduated with an honours degree in History. She is married and has six children. Violet Barungi’s works deal mainly with human relationships, gender issues and education of the girl child. Over My Dead Body was inspired by her deep concern for girls who are lured into early marriages to rich men before they finish their education. When things go wrong, and their marriages fail, they find themselves without anything to fall back on. - See more at: africanbookscollective.com/books/beyond-the-dance#sthash.MzmxaQj9.dpuf

Hilda grew up in Kacerere village, in Kabale district. She has co-edited two publications aimed at making heard voices of marginalized women; Farming Ashes (2008) and Beyond the Dance (2009). She has also contributed short stories and poems in different anthologies including; A Woman’s Voice (1998), Words From a Granary (2001), Tears of Hope (2003), Pumpkin Seeds and Other Stories (2009), Talking Tales (2009), Painted Voices (2008 & 2009) and Butterfly Dance (2010). She has published children’s books in Runyankore- Rukiga courtesy of Longhorn publishers. In 2008 she was awarded a Certificate of Recognition by the National Book Trust of Uganda for outstanding contribution to children’s literature for her book Fina the Dancer (2007). Fina the Dancer is used as a Reader in Primary Schools in Rwanda. Hilda holds a Diploma in Education, a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Social Sciences and an MA in Public Administration and Management from Makerere University. She is currently the Coordinator of FEMRITE – Uganda Women Writers Association.