page_title: Malicounda Bambara
section_title: Declaration of Diabougou
hierarchical_section_title: Malicounda Bambara / Impact of the Decision / Declaration of Diabougou
context_page_description: Malicounda Bambara is a village in the M'bour Department of the Thiès Region in western Senegal, located approximately 85 km from the Senegalese capital of Dakar. Founded in 1902 by migrants from neighboring Mali in search of arable land, today the village counts ethnic bambaras, sarakolés, wolofs and socés among its population. Malicounda Bambara is especially notable for being the first village in Senegal to publicly abandon the traditional practice of female genital cutting.
context_section_description: Led by imam Demba Diawara of Keur Simbara, 50 representatives of 11 villages (Keur Simbara, Bagana, Médina Fajal, Diabougou, Boubacar, Samba Dia, Fajal, Soudiane, Kobongoy, Samb Diallo and Sorabougou) representing more than 8,000 people joined Malicounda Bambara and Ngeurigne Bambara in renouncing FGC on February 15, 1998. Diawara had made an important observation- women and men from villages frequently intermarried, and if the convention of FGC was abandoned only isolated instances, the uncut women of these villages would not be able to find willing spouses.
  Shortly after, then-First Lady of the United States Hillary Clinton, accompanying her husband on an official state visit where she received a delegation of women from Malicounda Bambara, Keur Simbara and Ngeurigne Bambara on April 2, 1998. This meeting brought a whirlwind of international attention to the movement to end FGC; the declaration of Diabougou "validated, in some sense, that of Malicounda Bambara and promised future progress."
caption: Imam Demba Diawara
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