Final Project- "My Plan For FGM in Africa"

For my final project I decided to create a plan to further my study of Africa. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), is one issue in Africa that I am concerned about. Learning about the harmful consequences that occur with this practice is ridiculous. I think that it is a horrible practice that shouldn't be done, because I feel it violates the human rights of women. Though my plan I hope to take part is gettting rid of this horrible practice.

Part of my plan is to take a trip to Africa. It would be very expensive to visit all the counties, so I chosen just to visit Senegal and Gambia. FGM is banned in Senegal and not in Gambia. So I am very interested in learning how it is banned in one country and not the other with them being neighbouring countries. While there I plan to visit various villages in each country and conduct interviews with key community leaders, religious leaders, chiefs and others. I also want to interview women who have had the procedure done and those who have not. I think it would help my study alot to hear how they feel about it and how it affected their lives.

Besides interviewing I will also conduct surveys. Prior to taking my trip I want to survey various people here in American and find out what they think about the practice and what they think should be done. Through these surveys I will get an idea of how many people in America actually know about FGM. I know that there will be people who are not well educated on the issue, so I will use that as an opportunity to educate them.

I'm planning to take my trip on March 7-22 of next year. The total cost of my trip will be approximatly $6,000. That is a pretty high expense but I've thought of some ways to help pay for the trip. Of course having fundrasier is one way, I'll also call/write letter to different corporations, family and friends. I know that some corporations have special programs to help individuals or groups with special missions. I may seem like alot but I think it is possible to raise a nice about to help with my expenses.

After I complete my study and trip I plan on starting a organization to help fight against FGM. The mission of my organization will be to fight against FGM until a change comes. I will develop ways to educate US families as well as those in Africa on the harmful consequences of FGM. With the information that I learned, I will organize community presentations to help generate interest. One way to help my organization prosper will be to work with other organizations/programs with the same objectives. I want to do what ever I can to end this practice.

Equality Now

Female genital mutilation is one topic and issue in Africa that I am very interesting in. This is an practice that I believe should be outlawed. My reason for saying this is because I believe it violates the human rights of women. Equality Now one of many organizations addressing the issue of FGM. The organization was founded in 1992 to work for the protection and promotion of the human rights of women around the world.

Equality now has participated in many women actions to fight against FGM. They have taken part in the enactment of a law against FGM in Mali, protested the failure to enforce the law against FGM in Tanzania, and participated in ending government censorship of the campaign to stop FGM in The Gambia just to name a few.

So other positive things that the organization has done to help address the issue of FGM, is in 1997 the created Awaken. Awaken is an forum designed to facilitate communication among activists campaigning against FGM and the exchange of information, ideas, and strategies to stop the practice. In 2000, they established the Fund for Grassroots Activism to End FGM. This basically provides funds to grassroots orgainzations working to fight FGM in their communities. I think that Equality Now is a wonderful organization making a positive impact on fighting against FGM.

Johnny Mad Dog

I can actually say that this book kept my attention the whole way through. I really enjoyed reading it, I couln't put it down. One thing that I really like about it is the way the it switches between the two characters. To me that made it alittle more easier to read. I really credit Emmanuel Dongala for that. To me this book really gave me a good picture of child soldiers. As I was reading I just couldn't believe some of the things that was going on.

First let me talk about Johnny. Maybe it was just me, but from the beginning I felt he was alittle arrogant. He had sort of a confidence like he knew everything and whatever he said was right. So that's why I really didn't like him much. Laokole's story really kept my attention. When I read about how her father was killed and what happened to her mother's legs I couldn't believe it. It was crazy to read how these people were running for their lives. One thing that I like about Laokole is that she did whatever she could to take care of her mother. I could only imagine that trauma that family along with others went through.

It's like those soldiers had know heart, they wanted to prove a point. One scene that I will not forget, is the one were the soldiers shoot that little boy while he was on his knees. I thought that was so cold blooded an innocent little boy lost his life for nothing. That was the scence that I knew that they were some cold hearted people. Overall I think this was a really good book.

Air Pollution in Africa

Air pollution in Africa is increasing and causing problems. Such problems include killing vegetations, corroding buildings, health threats, and it is a leading contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. It is a major issue for the industrial cities. Three major sources of air pollution in Africa is energy generation, industry, and transportation. The chemical emissions from these sources pollutes the air.

Indoor pollution is becoming a major concern, because of the health impact it can have on women and children. Some of the health concerns for women and children are lower respiratory infections in young children, and chronic bronchitis and emphsema in women. Lung cancer can also develop from coal smoke. These are just a few of the health concerns there are others. Many of the households in Africa rely on woody biomasses for energy, so this is were the concern for indoor pollution comes from. These biomass fuels are being burned on open stoves in poorly ventilated conditions which causes indoor pollution. More than 200 different chemicals can be found in the smoke from the open stoves. 1.6 million people are killed yearly from indoor pollution.

The way that transportation is affecting the air is due to the use of older used vehicles and the improper maintenance of vehicles. Leaded fuel is another contributor because alot the the vehicles run off of leaded gasoline. Public transportation in Sub-Saharan Africa not affordable to many residents. Walking is a major transportation source which causes them to inhale that polluted air for hours at a time. Switching to unleaded gasoline would eliminate part of the affect transporation has on the air pollution in the Continent.

The Bleeding of the Stone

I must admit, this book wasn't one of my favorites to read. Not saying it wasn't a good book, but I just didn't like it. I guess because I was expecting it to follow the flow of the other books we've read so far this semester. After class Tuesday I guess there was some what of a connection with this book to the class. One being from a religious aspect, with the Muslims and the Islamic traditions. I have taken a Religion class and we learned about the Islam religion. So some of the things that were happening weren't as difficult for me to understand.
After reading this book, one word that I will likely remember is Waddan. Half way through the book I was really interested to learn what a Waddan was. I could have read over it the first time, but I couldn't figure out why they wanted the Waddan so bad. I later found out it was because they were suppose to have magical powers. So that made alot more since as to why cain was after it. Overall it was interesting to read about apart of Africa from a different aspect.

Waiting for an Angel

This was a good book written by Helon Habila. It was cool to read book about the way things were for the african generation in the 90's. At first it was kind of difficult to keep track of what was going on because there were different narraraters. Once I put it all together the book made alot more sense. It was interesting to read how far the African generation had come from the colonial times. From reading the book I realized that times were still hard for them, but it was some what of a progress from where they were.

One character that I will not forget is Bola. Reading about his story was really touching. I could only imagine how it feels to lose your mother, father, and sister in a terrible accident. That was enough to make anyone go insane. A tragedy like that can really take a tole on the psychologically, that a hard blow all at once. You knew something was wrong when he was arrested, because the police beat him until they realized he wasn't all there. In a way I think Bola's situation took a tole on Lomba.

I also thought that Lomba and Alice had a very intersting relationship. In the beginning I thought they really had something, but once I read the part were Lomba went to her home and was introduced to her boyfriend I thought that was kind of crazy. I kind of wonder if what happen between them could have had something to do with him dropping out of school. It's hard for me to put into words the kind of person Alice was judging the reading. I kind of wished it could have worked out for them, but everything does happen for a reason. Overall I enjoyed this book and think that Helon Habila is a wonderful writer.

Oil....In Africa

This was a very interesting article to read. You would think that oil would be a natural resouce tha would help Africa, instead it turned out to be everything but good for the country. It was crazy to read how Nigeria has been corrupted by oil. The oil industrys came in and took over, not even taking into consideration of the living conditions of the people. The oil industry took a devastaing toll over the people, because before they came atleast they could survive. Now its hard for them to even get food. When I read that the government documented 6,817 oil spills between 1976-2001, I couldn't believe it that is alot of oil spills. It seems that Africa has never been in control of their natural resources. First the Europeans now the oil boom has corrupted the country.

When I read about how oil has corrupted the country, all I can think about is Selfishness. It's like no one cares about the people suffering from the oil industry all they care about is attaining wealth. In Nigeria, I believe the people had no choice if they wanted to survive they had to turn to the corruption of the oil industry to live. Life has they knew it was taken away other ways of survival had to kick into play. My hope is that one day Africa's natural resouces will work in their favor and help the country to become prosperous.

Gold Mining in Sierra Leone/Africa

In Ancestor's Stones the gold mining scene was a memorable scene. Hawa explained what was going on at the gold mine when the workers went on strike. The workers striked after finding out how much the gold was really worth and what they were being paid. I mean this was a serious strike, those workers was very upset. This shows that gold mining in Sierra Leone was important.

Some of the world's most valuable diamond mines can be found in Sierra Leone. Mining and diamonds have been their economic base. In the 1970's and early 1980's the economic growth rate slowed because of the decline in the mining sector. Sierra leone's formal economy was destroyed by the country's civil war. Most of the civil war fighting was brough about by the control of the mines. So this raises a question in my mind, was the mining and diamond resouces a curse or a blessing for the country? Since the war mining in Sierra Leone is back up and running.

Mining in South Africa has been an economic advantage for Africa. According to wikipedia the profitable mining in South Africa develop when Erasmus Jacobs discovered a diamond along the Orange River. In 2002, South Africa accounted for 15% of the world's gold production. the De Beers Consolidated Mines Company controls much of South Africa's sources of Diamonds. So South Africa's success with gold mining turned out to be beneficial for Africa.

Ancestor Stones (Part Two)

There was so many points in this book that focused on the struggles of women like women voting, polygamy, religion, and political aspects. It was cool to read about these points through the lives of the women who lived through those struggles. At first it took me a minute to get into the book, because it was hard to follow what character was who. Reading about the things that these went through was amazing. There was a few parts that really stuck out to me.

Hawa is one character that caught my attention, mainly because of the steralizing of women. It was hard to believe that they were steralizing women without them even knowing it. What hurt me about Hawa was that eventhough she may have had six children she had lost three and she was steralized. The whole steralizing of women was just crazy to me because that was not fair to the women.

Asana's marriage was also interesting to me. It was shocking to read how her husband was beating her while she was pregnant. To me her husband was a coward anyway because of the way he treated his wives. When he got the Xala he wasn't so tough then and he had the nerve to get rid of Asana and what was interesting is that she wasn't even the one who gave it to him. It was one of the other wives who gave it to him, she was helping out Asana. That was a powerful scene to me. After reading this book it opened my eyes to the struggles that women through.

Ancestor's Stones (Part One)

I'm really excited to get into this book. So far I've read the first four chapters and I'm already enjoying it. Before I even began to read the book, I was excited just to know that it was based off of Women. Rarely find books that just talk about women. I've read about Abie, Asana, and Mariama. I noticed that in each of their stories they are mainly talking about their mothers. By just looking at the family tree their are alot of members of the family.

With just reading the first few chapters, Pologamy plays a big part of the family. It is interesting because Asana's mother is the first of Eleven wives. This makes me wonder exactly how many wives one man has had in history based on pologamy, because eleven wives is alot. I enjoyed reading about Asana's relationship with her brother. Her feelings toward him were normal I feel because for example when your the only child you recieve all the attention, and when another sibling comes along the attention is no longer on you. So you may feel neglected and dislike the other sibling for those reasons. I was alittle shocked to read about him dying I wanted to see where their relationship would go.

I'm really looking forward to getting more into this book. I think their are going to be alot of interesting stories in the family. I want to learn more about women's survival in Africa during that time.

Xala

I must admit Xala was a very interesting novel. I was actually excited to read the whole book through. It was interesting to read about how polygamy was during that time. I've always known polygamy is when a man has more than one wife. I enjoyed reading in depth the conflicts that acually existed within the family. The relationships between the children was crazy because they chose on their own not to associate with one another. Another thing that caught my attention was how often El Hadji's first two wives had seen each other within a 17 year period. It was a surprise because most polygamist families I've heard about either live together or in the same area. Aleast that's how I would think it would be.

Rama is one character that I enjoyed. I like that fact that she was so outspoken about what she believed. She was sort of a sassy character to me. One of the parts that I remember most about her is when she told her father she wasn't going to the wedding. Even though he slapped her, she stood firm on what she believed. Yay Bineta was another character that was interesting. I don't know if it was just me, but I thought she was kind of annoying. She was always in the middle of things between El Hadji and N'Gone. I did wonder why she was cursed I could have just over read it.

One thing that I found funny about the whole novel, is how everyone knew about El Hadji's Xala. It's like everyone knew about it, it sure didn't take long for that news to spread. I guess because of the so called El Hadji held, that's what made the news of his Xala so important. That was another thing that was interesting about polygamy back then, the more wives you had the more you were respected. One quote that shocked me was when El Hadji's second wife was thinking about divorcing him. She said "without a man's help a woman has to fall back on prostitution to live and bring up her children." It's like women back then couln't survive without a man, so they all had that same mindset. I don't know why but for some reason would have even thought that prostitution happened back then.

Mau Mau Rebellion

The Mau Mau Rebellion was an African movement in Kenya against the british rule. The goal of the movement was to remove the British rule and European settlers from the country. It lasted from 1952 to 1960. The Appropriation of land is on key element that brought about the Rebellion. The African Community was tired of having their grievances ignored. The KiKuyu group were the first to lead toward resistance against the British. In 1952 they began a campaign of violence against the Europeans and disloyal Africans.

In 1952, Jomo Kenyatta, a leader of the Kenya Afrian Union, was arrested and charged with organizing the Mau Mau. He was sentenced to seven years in prison. In 1961 he was released and in 1963 he was elected prime minister in Kenya's first multi-racial election. He served as the first prime minister and president of Kenya.

By the end of the Mau Mau Rebellion , for the Mau Mau society 10,527 were killed in action, 2,633 captured, 26,625 arrested, 2,714 surrendered, and from 70,000 to 100,000 were interned. For the British Empire close to 100 Europeans and 2000 Africans were killed. There were quite abit of casualties during this movement but they wanted to be heard. Even though the Rebellion turned out to be a military failue, Kenya did recieve independence. A great deal of that independence can be credited to the Mau Mau Rebellion, the outcome of the rebellion gained recognition of African grivances and the efforts for correction.

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

I really enjoyed reading this article. It gave me a better understanding of the political and economic things that happen in Africa due to the Europeans. Walter Rodney does an excellent job with describing the effects of the colonial governments in Africa. I thought it was kind of interesting how the African workers were paid. The European civil servants in the Gold Coast was paid an average salary of 40 per month, while Africans got an average salary of 4. That to me was a huge difference in salary given the fact the African labor was reason for the amount of surplus in Africa. Another thing that I found crazy, was how they used taxation, which made it even harder for the Africans to survive. I think it was unfair for them to use the taxation system for exploitation.

The education issue was one part of the article that really got my attention. I remember reading in King Leopold's Ghost how the children were educated, but it didn't really go into detail like this article. I was amazed at the unevenness in education throughout the continent. It was shocking to know that secondary education was rare and other forms of higher education was almost non-existent. In the part of the admission that Dr. Kofi Busia gave he mentioned that the education he recieved taught him more and more about Europe and less about his own society. That is what was so unfair about the education system, what they learned was what the Europeans wanted them to know.

The part of the article about indiviualism was also interesting. I liked how Rodney compared the idea and affects of indiviualism in Europe and in Africa. It was completely opposite in both continents. In Europe it was action that contributed to its goal of conquering the rest of the world. Where as in Africa it contributed to the downfall of its independence. Overall it think this was a good article with wonderful analysis.

Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness is definitely a novel that is uniquely written. While reading the novel I found myself re-reading certain parts to make sure I had the right understanding. I'm glad that I read King Leopold's Ghost first, because it gave me a vivid idea of what was going on during that time.

I was intrigued by the character Marlow. Through all the situations that he came across, I felt that he was alway alert and attentive to was was going on around him. He went into his mission not knowing much of anything about Kurtz. As the mission progressed he began to get the true picture of who he was. One particular passage that got my attention, was when Marlow saw the picture that Kurtz had painted. The description that Conrad gave me a feeling of something evil. He even referred to it as sinister. Reading this passage and the part in King Leopold's Ghost really let me see how much of a horrible person Kurtz was.

I didn't really understand the whole rivets thing, maybe someone else understood it better than I did. I also enjoy his symbolic referrals. One in particular, was how he referred to the river as an Snake uncoiled. I thought that was an interesting discription. Overall, I think this was a wonderful novel.

King Leopold's Ghost (The Conclusion)

Our class discussion on Tuesday really had me thinking about how horrible slavery was. Reading King Leopold's Ghost, opened my eyes to an aspect of slavery that I had never knew. There are so many things in this book that I couldn't even believe. It hurt me to read some of the passages that were so graphic and in detail. One passage that got to me was the one on pg.132. Reading how they were dragged from their houses and were beatened, starved and had their babies thrown into the grass to die, painted an image in my mind that I will never forget.

After reading the first one hundred pages of the book, I had realized that King Leopold was a greedy man. Now that I have finished the book I just can't believe how greedy he was. The rubber boom in the Congo was great in Leopold's eyes, because he saw it as a way for him to get out of debt. However, the whole system of collecting the rubber was horrible. Even though he didn't make hostage-taking as an policy, it turned out to be. The other horrible aspect of his rubber system was the severed hand policy. When I read how this policy worked I was just stunned. It hurt me to see how those Africans had to suffer and die because of greed.

George Washington Williams, was one person that I thought was as a good man during this time. What I like about him was the fact that after he witnessed what was going on in the Congo he tried his best to bring it to the attention of everyone. His Open Letter to me was a cry for help that was ignored, because of how prosperous the Congo was.

Like I said before, after reading this book I have a whole new aspect on slavery. I have learned alot about what happened, that I had never knew. I more than likely would have never known about it if I had not taken this course. It's sad to know that their are alot of other people who don't really know about slavery from this aspect, because it is not taught as an important part of history. I glad I had the opportunity to read King Leopold's Ghost.

King Leopold's Ghost

Reading the first one hundred pages of this book was interesting. This book is more of a historical novel so it took me alittle more time to get into. However with reading the first one hundred pages I came across a few interesting things that grabbed my attention.

For me when the book started talking about King Leopold is where I really began to get into it. one situation that caught my attention, was his marriage to Marie-Henriette. It was a marriage that was bad from the start. Even though they disliked each other they had to deal with it. On page 39 when his son died, showed how masculinity was a major factor then. He believed that royalty was meant for men only, and that was his only son. Even though they had three daughters, I was amazed at the fact that when their last daughter was born, he was so upset that it wasn't a boy that he refused to have anything to do with his wife.

Another thing I've noticed about King Leopold is how greedy he is. I was just out done when he talked Stanley into going back to the Congo after he had been deathly ill. It is clear that he is on a mission to conquer as much of Africa as he can. He is a very ambitious man, I can't wait to see how far he will get.

Atlantic Slave Trade

The Atlantic Slave Trade involved the transportation of millions of African Slaves. These slaves were transported from Africa to locations in Europe and America, basically locations surrounding the Atlantic ocean known as the New World. It involved the largest intercontinental migration of people in world history before the 20th century. The majority of the slaves were taken from the west coast of Africa from a stretch of land below the Sahara Desert. They were transported by ship from Africa to the Americas( The New World). This voyage was known as the Middle Passage.

The trade began because of the growing need for labor on plantations. So Africans became the labor source. They preferred Africans over European natives because they were better immune to diseases such as measles and smallpox and could work better under the sun.The Portuguese were the first Europeans to trade for slaves. Going and stealing the slaves was their first method of getting the slaves. That soon became a problem because of violent confrontations with there owners. So they soon began trading merchandise in exchange for slaves. The Spanish and British soon picked up on the slave trade idea.

Ending the Atlantic Slave Trade was a long process. The Europeans began shifting from agriculture to industry in the late 18th century. With this shift slave-operated plantations had to compete for capital and preferential laws with textile mills and other industries that hired free laborers. Besides the economic changes, Antislavery sentiments started around Europe stemming from the roots of Christian religious principles. By 1807 Britain banned the slave trade and so did the United States in 1808 and others soon followed. It did continue throughout the 19th century, it did not completly stop until slavery was outlawed everywhere in the Americas.

African Image

In this image I see african people gathering for a meeting or a celebration. Judging from the background it looks like they are in a forest. I don't quite know what the center of attention is, but from the expressions of their faces they are very intrigued. When I first saw this image it made me think about different parts in Things Fall Apart. One particular part, is when they all gathered at the market place to be informed of the killing of Ogbuefi Udo's wife. We you read something you try to picture an image of what your reading. This picture gave me somewhat of an idea and a connection of different meeting scences in Things Fall Apart.

Things Fall Apart

This was my first time reading Things Fall Apart. I think it is an awsome novel that was greatly written. There were a few characters in this novel that stood out or grabbed my attention. I really enjoyed Okonkwo, I was really intrigued me seeing how much he really resented be like his father Unoka. I feel it was an internal fear that stuck with him throughout his life, and he did whatever he could to steer away from it. Because he wanted to be seen as this strong and successful man, to me he was more of an intimidator to his wives and children. I was really shocked when he killed Ikemefuna because he didn't want to be seen as weak. It did take a toll on him after the fact because he did consider him as his son, even though he didn't really show it. In the end I feel his fear is what played a role in his death.

Nneka is another character whose story got my attention. I was glad that she had joined the christians. I was amazed that she had four pregancies and child births, and each time she had twins they were thrown out. That is a feeling I believe no woman would want to live through. So it was a great sign of relief for her not to having to deal with the pain of losing her babies anymore.

The Marriage ceremonies with bride prices was also interesting to me. It takes a great deal to meet the bride prices. Here in America we have it easy compared to the Ibo tradition. They have to present something to just about everyone in the brides family. I just thought it was unique how their marriage ceremonies went. http://www.oraifite.com/culture-and-traditions/igbo-marriage.php

Geography of Africa

Africa is the second largest continent in the world, it is two and a half times the size of the United States. Africa has a total of 53 individual countries. Sudan is Africa's largest country and Seychelles is the smallest. The Mediterranean Sea, Suez Canal, Red Sea, Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean are the five bodies of water that surrounds the continent. The Mediterranean Sea separates Africa from Europe and the Suez Canal connects the northeastern part of Africa to Asia. So without this connection, Africa would be considered an island. Egypt's Sinai Peninsula which is located east of the Suez canal is often considered part of Africa. Madagascar is the largest African island and the fourth largest island on the Earth. Madagascar lies off the southeastern coast of Africa.


Africa straddles the equator, it is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones. Temperature is high through the continent because of the continent’s location relative to Equator. The northern region of Africa is very hot and dry. The largest desert in the world The Sahara is located in this region of Africa. The equatorial area is covered by tropical rain forests. In Africa's southern areas the heat is not as bad due to the moisture from the oceans, it consist of grassy flat highlands.


Mt. Kilimanjaro is the highest point in Africa. It is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. Lake Assal in the small country of Djibouti, is the lowest point with 512ft below sea level. The Nile river is the longest river in Africa and the world. The Congo river, Niger river and Zambeze river are other long rivers in Africa. Lake Victoria is largest lake in Africa, other lakes are Tanganyika, Albert, Turkana and Nyasa.

http://www.africanculturalcenter.org/1_0geo.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Africa
http://worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/af.html
http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/africa.html

About Me

I am a 21 year old senior attending Western Michigan University majoring in Human Resource Management. I was born and raised in Benton Harbor, Michigan a very small town with an estimated population of about 13,000. I have no siblings. I graduated with honors from Benton Harbor High School in 2005. I am a very fun and outgoing young lady. I enjoy shopping, sports and spending time with family and friends. Upon graduation from Western, I plan to continue my education by going to grad school.