5. Just One Small Cut

She cuts the flesh with a small razor blade today, but it is starting to be too blunt, and it will be messier than she likes. For tomorrow’s cut Etenesh will have to find something sharper. She really misses her knife, but the handle broke a few weeks ago and is in repair.

The baby’s legs are being held apart by the mother, while the rest of the family watches and celebrates. Etenesh concentrates on cutting and tries to blend out the clapping and happy singing of the baby’s relatives.

The baby cries when the cutting starts and Etenesh makes sure that the baby is held tightly before she continues. It is very small, and she has difficulties grabbing what she needs. She has watched her elder do this many times before she started it herself, but it is never easy. She still does not have the skills to cut in one smooth movement without any mess, but needs several strokes with the blade, hoping that she does not cut too far or too deep into the baby’s genitals.

 Once the flesh and skin are removed, the bleeding starts, and Etenesh has trouble seeing if she has cut everything that she needs.

Etenesh leans over to the side and reaches for the pot with hot honey. She stirs the stick in it once and then with a curling movement she hurries to hold the stick over the baby. Three drops of hot honey are enough to close the open wound and the bleeding stops.

The baby is a girl.

Etenesh leans back and smiles at the family who are now embracing her and lifting the baby high to show everyone that the deed is done. Etenesh cleans the razor blade and folds the little skin flap into a small piece of cloth to bury later. But now it’s time to celebrate. Someone hands her a strong steaming cup of coffee, and another gives her a plate of injera which she starts to eat immediately while watching the baby girl being handed from one person to the next, still crying.

She knows that she is suffering, and she feels a pinch of regret. She has heard about other baby girls dying after being cut, because they had an infection afterward. The risk of fistulas, swelling and fever is always there. But that the baby girl might have problems urinating in the future, or childbirth complications and difficult deliveries that is not on her mind yet. For now, the baby is crying strongly, and the ceremony needs to be completed. It is the right way. The only way.

“Now she will be beautiful,” an uncle says happily and tries to involve Etenesh in a dance, but she just smiles and waves him away.

She knows the reasons for this baby girl’s parents to go through with the ceremony, even though Etenesh disagrees. They had told her that they believe that their daughter won’t be physically able to have intercourse if she is not cut. But Etenesh knows that that is not true, as many families in her village in Ethiopia have started to refuse the tradition and the girls grow up healthy and beautiful. Doubt has already crept into Etenesh’s mind about the practice, but she likes the social respect, and what harm can just one small cut do anyway, right?