Moolaade! (Sanctuary)

Yesterday, my friend Dayang invited me to watch a viewing of the film Moolaade directed by Ousmane Sembene.  Moolaade means Sanctuary in the local language there (wherever that might be) in one of the African villagers.  It is a story addressing the issue of female genital mutilation prevalent in Africa...the synopsis of the story goes like this:

Collé Gallo Ardo Sy, circumcised, takes her only daughter away from the Purification. In seven years four young girls are saved from the Purification = Circumcision and request Collé Ardo Sy the Moolaadé. The village is in turmoil: two values come head to head: the right to asylum and the ancient tradition of female circumcision.

The setting was in a Muslim village where the men enjoyed power while the women had little power outside of their own households.  Of course, I was told that this need not be a Muslim village; in Africa it would be the same if it were a Christian village or any other religions...a lot of superstitions and cultural baggage like this issue of female genital mutilation.  However apart of female genital mutilation, the film actually addressed quite a number of issues:

1.  The gender bias of power/purity issue/rights (mentioned by my friend, Dayang) where they equate the mutilation with purity for which it belongs solely to women...there is no question as to whether men are to be purified also.

2. The need to conform; be it the women who actually didn't want their children to go through the "purification" as they call it or the husband of Colle who was pressured by his brother and other men first to confiscate Colle's radio, then to beat her in order to force her to revoke the Moolaade or even the headman's son who returned from France and yet for all his education, did precious little to help the women.

3. The issue of oppression - the act of suppression of the women through confiscating their radios (the only source of information for these women as they are illiterate). 

4. The issue of courage to stand up for what you believe in - as personified by Colle, and by the man who tried to stop her husband from beating her such that he was put to death for it.

These are real issues that perhaps to some degree can be found even here in Singapore.  It is something that we need to be aware of and to act upon for one of the moral of the film is that if you don't take the iniative, then no one else will do so and nothing will get better.  

So I hope that perhaps we can think on these issues and in our own small ways work to right these wrongs...May God give us strength to do so.

Sid