Kukataa: An Afrocentric Exploration of Nongovernmental Organization Refusal in the Context of Female Genital Cutting in Tanzania

Female genital cutting is often depicted in media spheres through numerical statistics and one to two-lined captions that do not effectively capture the full humanity of the Black girls and women they are describing. The numerical statistics and pictorial captions provide myopic and ahistorical interpretations of African people and paint Africa as a homogenous continent riddled by its own barbarity. Through an Afrocentric analysis of the practice of female genital cutting, Tanzania people and people throughout the African diaspora can be imagined through a Sankofa return to their Maatic and ubuntu humanity. The Maatic and ubuntu lens opens the radical possibility to understand that Black girls and women do not need to be circumcised to reach the fullest potential of their humanity. Using the Afronographic methodology, rooted in the Afrocentric metatheory, I analyzed how young Black women can become rhetorically lost in translation through nongovernmental organization (NGO) rhetoric, an extension of the fieldwork I did at the Network Against Female Genital Mutilation (NAFGEM) in 2019. Additionally, I deconstructed NAFGEM’s refusal to allow me to conduct interviews in 2022 unless their NGO personnel were present. The refusal revealed how NGOs become discursive embodiments of Eurocentricity invested in maintaining victimizing narratives based on the debasement of African humanity. Therefore, an Afrocentric metatheoretical analysis proliferates Eurocentric algorithms by centering the Kemetic humanizing principles of Ma’at and ubuntu to prioritize the word magic (nommo) of Black women and girls.

Grantor dc:publisher

Temple University. Libraries

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Carr, Courtney

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Dove, Nah

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Asante, Molefi Kete, 1942-
• Anderson, Reynaldo, 1964-
• Smith, Aaron X.
• Abdul-Ghani, Casarae Lavada

• African studies
• Gender studies

Statement dc:rights

• IN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/10689

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarshare.temple.edu:20.500.12613/10689