The village chief, Issifou Seybou, a gaunt, barefoot old man in his 80s with a small white beard and a turbaned head, pursed his lips and sucked through his teeth to make the distinctive hissing noise that is used to insult a woman who has not had her genitals cut off. He summoned Rakia Idrissou, the elderly woman who is the village exciser. The fingernails of her gnarled hands were painted red. Her position had been passed down from her grandmother to her mother to her. She said that young, weak girls are held down by four women.
Stronger ones require five women, one to sit on their chests and one for each arm and leg.
The girls must be kept still. If they jerk suddenly, the razor blade, bought for a few pennies in the market, can cut too deep. As Ordeal Fades, Celebrity's Glare Just as Miss Kassindja has brought an awareness of Togo to America, so America has begun to seep into the life of the Kassindja family. The patriarch has been shaken by the persistent queries about a tradition he himself had never questioned. This practice came from my forefathers.