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Comment by Salma Maoulidi to
Ousmane´s contribution
I apologize for this late reaction. I am currently doing
some field work and can only follow the seminar when I have access to
the internet.IALLA and GEO Tanzania I read with interest a submission by Ousmane Diadhiou during the first part of this seminar on adult literacy. I appreciate very much his synthesis of continuing education in a traditional context and how children and young people go through a continous circle of learning via an education mechanism at different stages of their lives through their relationships as well as via important rites of passage. I, however, want to sound a strong caution over such arguments if not put in their proper perspective and analysed with regards their import vis a vis gender, class, ethinic and other considerations. Words as do symbols create meaning from which we construct identities. In view of the fact that we approach adult education as a tool for empowerment for active citizenship we need to constantly ask ourselves to what extent does what we attribute to adult education empower? How does it enable consciousness? That said, I wish to focus on Ousmane unpacking of the process of lifelong learning in an African setting. He writes, "At the third stage, that is very important: the initiation. This is the transition to adult age for a whole generation. All people undergo this test which is circumcision for men and excision for women. With colonization, the last practice has been and is still severely criticized. However, it hides many essential values for Africa that we will not enumerate here". One thing that I have come to value is not to over generalize especially when speaking on an issue that is not only greately contested but also contextual lest one also falls into the same trap you accuse others (in this case Europeans) of. Indeed while this piece is many about Senegal, it talks about Senegal as if it is all Africa or as if Senegal is homogenous. In this regards circumscision or excisions, as those who want to be politically correct would want to call female genital mutiliation, may be a process that some African youths go through but the implications are not the same for boys and girls such that we can totally dismiss the criticism around the practice. Indeed womens genitalia is mutilated not for health or aesthetic reasons but with a major objective of making them sexually submissive and to limit their sexuality. This in itself is objectionable. Moreover, while initiation may have served a purpose in a traditional society we need to interrogate that utility more closely in our present context and even dare to question whether what is presented as the universal was indeed that for everyone. If the utility of maintaing such a practice is so as not to upset the status quo where men remain priviledged and women the underdogs, we need to evaluate this in the context of citizenship rights and human rights today. Just to put this in perspective- I come from an African society where more than 95% of its inhabitants are Muslim. FGM or excision is unknown in Zanzibar. On the contrary men are circumscized but most are circumcised before they are 40 days old but many times to coincide with the umbilical falling off. If it is delayed then before they are 2 years old the argument being to do it when they are young so they dont experience or remember the pain. Initiation for us then is not a rite of passage in the sense other boys (or girls) from African societies go through with physical cutting or body marking but it is closely tied to moral responsibility especially with regards religious and social duties as well as hygiene and is normally marked by finishing religious studies around puberty. This then serves to remind us that our realities are context specific. Therefore whereas there is much to improve with regard formal education, the same applies to non formal learning contexts especially in traditional settings as both contexts are not neutral but layered with meaning that are gender specific.
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