Wither Freedom

Behind the façade of civilizing the uncivilized world, colonial masters played with the process of evolution of the third world and their culture. The white man in its quest to liberate the local populations from their ‘primitive’ life style only ended up adding more fuel to the fire. This is quite evident in the colonizers trying to out rightly ban customs practiced for generations in the Global South. One such controversy is that of female genital mutilation (FGM). One branch of FGM is the practice of Clitoridectomy practiced by the Gikuyu people of Kenya. Apart from practical reasons for its practice, it is a symbol of initiating the youth into adulthood and strengthening the bonds of the tribal people. It has practical as well as spiritual significance for the Gikuyu tribe.

There is no doubt that such practices must be condemned but there is a way to do so. A society must be given the time to evolve according to its own pace. By absolutely banning such practices, as initially done by the colonizers, they onlu succeeded at intensifying them. Going back in time, we see people of the colonized world had already lost too much power politically to the white man. The only part of their lives they could still regulate was the private sphere; familial relations. So when the colonizers stepped in as the saviors of the weak against inhumane customs, the indigenous population had had enough. By first taking over their physical space, the colonizers had already succeeded in birthing a feeling of remorse and resentment in the heart of the locals. The indigenous communities were stripped off of their right to self-rule. Still at this point, these people had control over their private matters.  But by interfering in the traditions of the local tribes, the colonizer took away not just the right of self-governance, but also stripped these people off of any will of their own, in the name of ‘liberation’. Is it really liberation when you forcefully bend the customs of a group to suit your definition of civil? Under the cover of liberation, the colonizer enforced a different kind of subjugation. By forcing the people to confine to the norms of a culture they had no connection to or no awareness of, the colonizer created an environment of rebellion and captivity. So the white man only made things worse, especially for women. The men’s role in the private sphere only grew stronger. In a way, colonization strengthened patriarchy in the third world because the men directed all their attention towards controlling the women, the only ‘property’ they still could own.

Jomo Kenhayatta’s account justifying the act of clitoridectomy is one such example. It’s understandable that the practice had significant importance to the Gikuyu people. The context in which this practice is carried out in is not of exploitative nature, but it is nevertheless an inhumane act. The colonizer was right in speaking against these practices but his way of doing so was wrong. As can be sensed through Kenhayattas account, you can’t force people to just abandon their generations old traditions. These things can’t be done through force but through gradual evolution of society and its practices. This force only fostered resentment and further intensified these practices as in the case of Satti in India. I think that this was the native people trying to hold on to their identity. The fear of loosing their way of life and traditions, the tribal people deepened these practices. So under the disguise of liberation, the colonizer did not free anyone from the chains of tradition. This liberation resulted in the egoist boost of patriarchy. The men made up for the loss of their freedom in the public sphere by intensifying their hold in the private sphere. These men compensated their damaged egos at the cost of the women’s plight. So being a woman, I ask, what freedom? To this day, we are fighting the boosted patriarchy that the colonizers have left us with.