Rescuing victims of female genital mutilation

The Switch by Mary Karooro Okurut is a compelling book which invokes the oft-abused neologism “unputdownable.”

Although, it must be said, the author’s diction often plays fast and loose with the iron-clad rules guiding the use of idioms, it is a story well told.

Partly drawing upon her own experience as a former Cabinet Minister in Charge of General Duties in the Office of the Prime Minister, the author keeps you turning the page as she weaves her prose beyond the prosaic.

The Switch tells the story of the Minister for Culture, Tezira Chelimo, and her quest to rescue her daughter, Daisy Chemtai Twinobusingye from the fate inflicted upon herself (Chelimo), her mother and countless other victims of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Chelimo, or Cheli as her ex-hubby Dane Twinobusingye initially calls her, is a bewitchingly beautiful, hard-charging and charismatic politician on a warpath with FGM.

Of course, she did not become the woman she became all at once.

As a 13-year-old child, one early morning in December, she heard “the sharp whistles of the young girls who had come to pick her.”

No, they were not picking her, as it were, for a cotillion or debutante ball which, in the United States, is a formal presentation of young women, debutantes, to “polite society”.

Instead, she was to be initiated into “womanhood” at the onset of Wonset Season.

Yes, she was to come under the rotwet---the knife.

As a cemeriyandet, candidate for circumcision, she is garbed in “circumcision regalia (head gear, [colobus] monkey tail, whistle and a cloth tied at the back)” as a ghastly prelude to one of humankind’s most barbaric acts: FGM.

Terrified, young Chelimo then experiences enough pain and suffering to fill a horror story whose implications are felt long after the event, if you will.

That’s because, years later, when she meets the presumptive love of her life, Dane, the shroud of this childhood experience darkens her every waking moment.

As a woman in love, she gives herself fully to Dane. They fall in love and, in short order, they get married. But not before she warns Dane that the mutilation of her virtue is likely to drive a wedge between the romantic possibilities of their single soul dwelling in two bodies.

Dane, however, believes that love can conquer all.

Tragically, his belief is to be sorely tested when it comes to the consummation of their nuptials.

It starts innocently if naughtily enough, though.

Dane’s sister Millicent serves as chaperone to the sex a virginal Dane is about to enjoy with his Cheli (Cherie?).

“The meal has three courses at the barest minimum, she had told him solemnly, though he could detect a mischievous twinkle in her eyes,” the author writes of Millicent’s directions to Chelimo’s nether regions, and thereabouts.

“The starters---not the main course---are the most critical.”

By this time, I am sure that you know she is not talking about food in any manner but in the colloquial sense.  

This meal, traditionally set for two, is rudely interrupted by the indigestion that comes with an unforgiving third wheel: FGM.

In this tear-swept tale, Dane and Cheli’s shared passion is tested until the fabric of their love is stretched to breaking point.

Here, the author does well in informing the reader about the evils that come with FGM through the prism of a love gone sideways.

Evils which not only throw a proverbial spanner into the works, they launch the whole toolkit as the volleyed intensity of a nightmare firing on all cylinders.

It is truly heart rending

Soon, the life Dane fondly dreamt of becomes a casualty of FGM in much the same way Chelimo, her mother and Chelimo’s childhood best friend’s lives are warped into abysms of sheer hell.

This is when Chelimo decides that hers would not be a sob story. She would fight back by hitting FGM, hard.

However, her crusade becomes a double-edged sword as several persons of her tribe hit back, too.

Daisy, her 13-year-old daughter is kidnapped. Thereupon, the story pulsates with the suspenseful twists and turns of a riveting caper.

At wheel of this race against the downward thrust of the knife is the Inspector General of Police.

“A tall, pencil-thin man, whose sheer dedication to hard work was cult-like…”

Sound familiar? Well, he should since being called “Kare”, his name, is a letter short of spelling, er, weevil.

All told, this is a book which will touch every element of the human spirit.

The evils of FGM

Here, the author does well in informing the reader about the evils that come with FGM through the prism of a love gone sideways.

Evils which not only throw a proverbial spanner into the works, they launch the whole toolkit as the volleyed intensity of a nightmare firing on all cylinders.