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Title:Imperial Concerns and 'Women's Affairs': State Efforts to Regulate Clitoridectomy and Eradicate Abortion in Meru, Kenya, c1910-1950
Author:Thomas, Lynn M.ISNI
Year:1998
Periodical:The Journal of African History
Volume:39
Issue:1
Pages:121-145
Language:English
Geographic terms:Kenya
Great Britain
Subjects:gender relations
Meru (Kenya)
colonialism
female circumcision
Women's Issues
History and Exploration
Health and Nutrition
Historical/Biographical
Health, Nutrition, and Medicine
abortion
bibliographies (form)
Politics and Government
Genital Circumcision/Cuttings/Surgeries
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/183332
Abstract:Examination of campaigns to regulate clitoridectomy and eradicate abortion in Meru District, Kenya, illuminates the contradictory and gendered nature of the colonial State's efforts to fulfill the 'moral obligations' of imperial rule and secure local political control. In the wake of the 'female circumcision controversy' of 1928-1931, officials in London and Nairobi abandoned efforts to criminalize clitoridectomy and instead adopted a policy of discouraging the practice through education and propaganda. Administrators in the politically peripheral area of Meru, however, vitiated this policy by enforcing initiation at an earlier age in order to combat abortion. Despite the disapproval of most in Meru, they implemented a series of measures to lessen the severity of clitoridectomy and lower the age of female initiation. Their reliance on police-organized mass excisions, and women's clandestine performance of second excisions illustrate the forceful character yet superficial scope of colonial authority in rural Kenya. State interventions surrounding female initiation enabled male administrators to partially subvert the authority of women's councils and to situate themselves as guardians of 'the Meru'. Notes, ref., sum.
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