Women, produced jointly by Alice Walker and
Indian filmmaker Pratibha Parmar in 1992–1993,
belongs to the latter group of literature on female
circumcision. These two activists collected
accounts, photographs, poems, interviews, and
medical testimony suggesting that female circum-
cision may contribute to the spread of AIDS. Prior
to this documentary, which is lauded by some and
deemed inflammatory by others, Walker released
another book,Possessing the Secret of Joy(1992),
in which she urged women to break their silence
and resist female genital mutilation. In recent
years, many works that are similar to Walker’s
have followed suit.
Thomas Houessou-AdinSeealsoClitorectomy; Rituals
Further Readings
Folly, A.-L. (1994).Femmes aux yeux ouverts(film)
[Women With Open Eyes]. Togo: Produit par
Amanou Productions.
Kassindja, F. (1999).Do They Hear You When You Cry?
New York: Delta.
Love, B. (1994).Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices.
New York: Barricade Books.
Walker, A. (1992).Possessing the Secret of Joy(1st ed.).
New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Walker, A., & Parmar, P. (1996).Warrior Marks:Female
Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of
Women. New York: Harvest Books.
World Health Organization. (1996).Female Genital
Mutilation:Report of a Technical Working Group.
Geneva: Author.
CLAY
Throughout Africa, creation stories according to
which the first human beings were created out of
clay are common. One may think, for example, of
the Yoruba creation story, in which Obatala, the
son of Olorun, the supreme Yoruba God, created
the first 16 human beings out of clay, which he
molded. The Shilluks of the Sudan also tell a
story in which God, Juok, made human beings
out of clay. The different colors that distinguish
the races are attributable to the color of the clay
available at the time of their creation. Similarly,
according to the Efe (a Bantu people), God
kneaded the body of the first human beings out of
clay, an account reminiscent of the Ewe story
about the coming into the world of the first
woman and the first man. In fact, a common
metaphor for God, as he or she creates the world
and all that exists in the world, is a potter.
Although clay is definitely not the only material
from which humans are said to have come, its ref-
erence as the very stuff of life nonetheless appears
frequently. This is understandable given the
omnipresence of clay in African lives: It provides
the ground upon which Africans walk and grow
their food, and it is a material commonly used to
make plates and pots, among other things related
to the sustenance of life.
Interestingly enough, throughout Africa, clay
pots have also been assimilated with women and
their power to create and regenerate life in an inti-
mate and profound way. Indeed, the clay pot is
often seen as a symbolic representation of the
woman’s womb. This is the case among the Bemba
people of Central Africa, for example, where a
woman about to get married is given a clay pot by
her father’s sister. Because the main purpose of
marriage is procreation, the clay pot stands for the
womb that is expected to be filled and blessed with
many pregnancies. A similar ritual can be observed
among the Shona people of Zimbabwe, when the
paternal aunt hands a clay pot full of water to a
bride. Water is also intimately associated with fer-
tility in Africa. Then, just like God made the world
out of clay, women are the sacred repositories of
life, a fact best expressed through the metaphor of
the womb as a clay pot.
In effect, the making of pots is an activity pri-
marily reserved for women. It appears that African
women have been making pottery for at least
8,000 years. Regarded as a spiritual undertaking,
many restrictions and taboos apply to pottery.
Among the Chewa women of southern and central
Africa, potters are not supposed to engage in sex-
ual intercourse during certain critical stages of the
pottery-making process, just like sexual inter-
course is forbidden during pregnancy. Similarly,
when women menstruate, they cannot gather clay,
as is the case for Manda women, or cannot make
pots, as is the case for Asante women.170 Clay