Tanzania: Inside the Trade in Body Parts Driving FGM

Hellen Nachilongo in Tanzania

Freelance journallist

Friday, 22 November, 2024

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In Tanzania, female genital mutilation (FGM) has been illegal since 1998. But the practice continues in many parts of the country – and one factor behind its persistence is a clandestine trade in body parts, which are used as traditional good luck charms by some communities.

Despite the secrecy surrounding the trade, IWPR found several people willing to speak on the record about their involvement.

“My friend told me that it was impossible to catch fish without using charms. That’s why I began visiting traditional healers, as I wasn’t having any luck with my fishing,” said Emmanuel Joseph Nyamuyanga, 34, a fisherman in the Mara region of northern Tanzania.

“When I visited the healer, he prepared charms for me. Little did I know they were mixed with a woman’s private parts. However, once I started using them, to my surprise I began catching fish.

“Despite the initial success, the fishing lull returned within a few months. I had no choice but to consult the healer again for additional charms to keep my catch steady.”

Nyamuyanga, a father of seven, asked the healer to reveal the components of the charm.

“The traditional healer asked me, ‘Where do you come from?’ I replied, ‘I am from Musoma.’ He then asked, ‘Isn’t it in your area where they commonly circumcise girls?’”

The healer told Nyamuyanga that if he wanted his help, he should bring him female parts cut away during FGM, and he would teach him how to make the charm.

“I hesitated, stammered a bit, and felt uneasy about the request. However, when I returned home to Musoma, I began asking around to see if I could obtain the female parts. I also tried calling people, hoping they might assist me in getting them,” Nyamuyanga recalled. However, he was unsuccessful.

Trade in Body Parts

Almost one in ten women in Tanzania have been subjected to FGM, according to a 2022 study. Today, FGM is still practiced in around 14 of Tanzania’s regions, predominantly in the northern and central parts of the country – most often as an initiation rite into adulthood for girls. 

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the trade in body parts is strongest in Mara, amongst the Kurya tribe, the region’s largest ethnic group in the region.

Between 2020 and June 2024, six cases of FGM were reported to the police in Mara region. Of those, two have resulted in convictions, while several other cases are ongoing.

But holding people to account for selling body parts is more difficult.

“It’s extremely challenging to determine whether body parts are being sold for making charms, as this is carried out in such a clandestine manner,” said Nendrad Sindano, Mara’s acting regional police commander.

Sindano told IWPR that while his officers had received several reports of body parts being used as charms, they have to date been unable to make any arrests.

Former FGM practitioner Matinde Kiselele, a Mara resident who declined to give her age, said she could not remember exactly when she stopped cutting girls.

But in years gone by, she said, the Tanzanian government did not apply the law rigorously, so she was able to offer her services openly. When the appropriate season came around – for superstitious reasons, usually in years with an even number – she would get up early in the morning and travel on foot to family homes.

“I cut a lot of girls,” Kiselele said. “In a single day, from around 5am to 12 noon, I could cut about 150 girls.”

FGM would usually take place during the school holidays, to hide the practice. Many of the body parts removed were then sold on to traders and fishermen, who said they were turning them into charms.

“After cutting the girls, we would take the excised parts home and dry them to prevent decomposition as we waited for customers. We charged Sh10,000 (3.75 US dollars) for each female part,” said Kiselele, a mother-of-seven, who used the money to support her family.

Eventually, she said, the parents realised that the body parts were being sold on and started to keep hold of them instead.

“That’s when the business stopped being profitable, because when the parents brought their daughters for circumcision, they only paid Sh1,000. (40 cents) We would make more money when parents didn’t keep their daughter’s clitoris,” she said.

Rhobi Samwelly, an FGM survivor who now runs Hope for Girls and Women, an NGO which campaigns against gender-based violence, told IWPR that most traditional elders knew that excised body parts were used as good luck charms.

They were most commonly used in traditional rituals to bring success in hunting or fishing, to attract business customers or as love potions among others.

“I myself underwent FGM, and I was never informed about where the clitoris was placed,” she said. “In fact, I never saw my clitoris at all. It is evident that a woman's clitoris is exploited.”

FGM is not only an agonising and humiliating procedure that stops women from enjoying sex in later life – it poses a very real risk to their lives. When Samwelly was 11, she said, her friend Sabina died from excessive bleeding after being cut. Her body was dumped in a nearby forest to be eaten by wild animals, since her community believed it was a curse to bury a girl who died during FGM.

Financial Gain

Historically, prosecutions and convictions for FGM have been rare, although Samwelly believes they are now on the rise. However, she told IWPR that community outreach and dialogue were just as important as law enforcement.

“We go into schools, churches and mosques to raise awareness,” she said. “Despite the education we provide, some parents and guardians have not let go, especially when the traditional elders emphasise the importance of practicing FGM.

“They push for FGM because it brings them financial gain; when a girl undergoes the procedure, payments are made, and these payments are shared between the cutter and the traditional elders.

“Every clitoris is seen as having the potential for various business opportunities.”

This year, Tanzania launched a second national plan of action to end violence against women and children, including FGM, by 2030. The World Health Organisation is also supporting Tanzania’s ministry of health to review the nursing and midwives training curriculum and prepare a competency-based module on FGM to help end the practice.

Samwelly said that many families feel torn about FGM. They might be worried about their daughter’s safety, but at the same time, they see it as a necessary rite to prepare girls to become ‘good wives’.

Stressing the harm caused is one way to discourage people from taking part in the practice. Kiselele, the former cutter, said that two of her five daughters had undergone FGM. When they were older, she said, neither had successful marriages. By contrast, her three daughters who were not cute were still happily married.

“I stopped because I witnessed the harmful effects of FGM and understood the damage it caused to girls,” she said. “Those who continue to carry out this practice should stop immediately, as FGM offers no benefits. A girl can get married even if she has not undergone FGM.”