Videos

Videos

These videos are being played regularly on Malian and regional cable TV.  Most are sung in the main local language, Bambara, except where noted.

I Abandon (Excision)

Composed and sung by Ténin Bomboté.
Arrangement by Dayé Koné with 17 actual former excisers in the chorus.
I was an exciser. I excised little girls.
When I was in bed at night,
I couldn’t sleep, thinking of the cries of the girls.
So I thought about it. I worried about it. I was scared.
From that day on I’ve never excised another girl.

I stopped excising. I won’t do it anymore.
It’s not good to excise girls.
I won’t do it anymore.
The bad things I’ve seen about excision are enough for me.
Excision is bad. There are too many terrible consequences.
Excision is bad. Women suffer a lot from it.
Excision is bad. Lots of diseases come from it.
Excision of little girls is bad, my family.
It causes lots of serious diseases.
Lots of diseases come from excision like tetanus.
Incurable diseases come from excision like AIDS.
Married couples have lots of problems because of excision.
In childbirth there are lots of problems because of excision.
Excision is bad, my family, women’s problems never end.
(2nd part repeated 3x)

Ca Fait Mal (It Hurts)

By Adama Yalomba and Hawa Diabaté
Directed by Susan McLucas.
"Unexcised woman!"
"I'm happy about that!"
If we have a daughter, we'll never excise her.
If you have a daughter, don't hurt her.
Exicsion hurts!
Excised women don't have feeling in their marriage.
It hurts! So much pain! It's dangerous.

Mother, Father, Auntie, my sister, this is a message for you: It's bad to excise girls. It complicates childbirth.
Many girls hemorrhage.
It causes many health problems.
Do not excise your daughter.
I won't choose that pain for my girl.
I don't want anyone else to excise my girl, either.
It's horrible!
It causes sterility.
It kills girls and women.

"Father, Mother, don't excise me!"
Excision is bad.

Anka Fo "Ante!" (We Can Say "No!")

Sung by Kandia Kouyaté
Anka Fo "Ante!" was started by a local producer and finished by Susan McLucas
Mother! Father! That woman has a knife, the knife of excision. I don't want to get close to her! (repeated)

We can't do much about the heat & it's hard to make it rain.
We can't do much about a lot of things but we can avoid a lot of pain, if we stop excising our daughters

That would make our lives much easier and our daughters would bless us. Excision is cruel.
It can spread AIDS.
We can say "No, we refuse. (repeated)
Don't cut me! Don't mutilate me!
Don't cut me, so many troubles come from excision.
Excision causes problems in childbirth (the guy's wife has died)
It causes troubles in the couple.
At the moment of excision, there can be a hemorrhage
We can't do much about the heat & it's hard to make it rain.
We can't do much about a lot of things but we can avoid a lot of pain,
My body belongs to me. My body is mine.
There are other ways of showing courage. (repeated)
We can say "No! We refuse!" (many times)
The making of "Anka Fo 'Ante'"

When the dance troupe was practicing for the music video of the song "We Can Say 'No!'", Healthy Tomorrow director Susan McLucas asked them to look scared and cry. She showed them how she would think she would feel, and started crying. The girls laughed at the white lady who cried real tears, thinking about female genital cutting. Then one of them started crying and one by one, they all started crying and, when it was time to do the next part of the video, they couldn't stop crying.

For the video, the girls were lined up on a bench in a traditional courtyard in Bamako, Mali, with tears streaming down their faces. Fear was in their eyes as they waited to be "excised" or genitally mutilated by the old woman near the bathroom. As the first one was taken, she cried out for her parents and struggled against the women who were dragging her toward the exciser.

The girls were helping film this music video to be used to convince Malians to give up the age-old practice of female genital mutilation. All but one of them had undergone the painful ritual and remembered all too well what it was like being held down by women in the family and having their clitoris, and maybe little lips, cut off, without anesthesia. They were working now to keep other girls from undergoing the same ordeal.

The video has come out on Malian TV and will be shown again, along with other videos from the same album.

One year earlier, in that same household, a little girl would get hysterical every time she went near the bathroom. She had been excised, or genitally mutilated, there a week before and still felt the terrible pain every time she urinated. She was the little sister of a friend of Susan McLucas.

The friend, Zana, had tried to stop the practice in his household, but his father told him that he'd have to leave the family if he kept talking like that. His sister hasn't been the same since. The father has now died and the others in the family are mobilized in our struggle.

Sariya  (The Law)

The Zotto Boys
Written and directed by Sanous Diakité
Leave her alone. Leave the girl alone.
“Every individual has the right to life…and to the integrity of their person.” Malian Constitution (article 1)
Let the old people listen and understand (2x) that it is time to stop excising.
Woman’s Voice: It can cause marital problems.
Let the old people listen and understand (2x)      
Woman: It makes childbirth hard.
Excision should be stopped. Let the fathers and mothers understand. Let the children and old people listen.
Let them try to understand.
Woman: Excision can cause death.
It is time to stop excision.
We beg the old people; we call on them to help. Togo, Benin, Egypt, Kenya, Liberia, the Ivory Coast, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Cameroon all have laws against excising.
The women of Malicounda got together in Senegal so that excision would be stopped.
Oh Father, cries Kadia, Oh Mother, cries Fanta,
Oh Mama, cries Oumou.
Let all Malian women rise up. Malian women, the authorities support you. Rise up, Malian women.
The Zotto Boys will follow your lead, as well.
The women of Malicounda got together in Senegal so that excision would be stopped. Let Malian women follow their lead.  Let the old people listen and understand that it is time to stop excision. 
Let’s make a law against excision now!

Takhoundi (Excision)

Sung  in Sarokolé language by Nayini Koné
Directed by Adama Drabo
Mothers, be smart and listen.
Stop excising your daughters.
Excision can spread AIDS.
Don’t excise your daughters.
If you do, it will make childbirth harder for her and may cause problems in her marriage.

Pulaar people, Soninké people, Kassonké people,
Bambara people, Moors, stop excising!

All the women of the world, stop excising.
Women of Africa, be good and smart.
All the women of the world, stop excising!
The video below is not played on Malian TV.  When Susan was in Mali, this was the song she often sang at meetings or other places.  Here she is singing to some of the ex-excisers who were working on the music video "I Abandon."

Leave Her Alone

Composed by Rick Goldin
A baby is born and what a wonder is this;
A perfect creation just the way she is
So tell everybody, everybody you know
“Just leave her alone; you’ve got to leave her alone.”
Now when you cut the baby, the baby cries and you can
Still see the hurt in the woman’s eyes.
So tell everybody, everybody you know
“Just leave her alone; you’ve got to leave her alone.”

Oh, you got to leave her alone;
hold her and love and call her your own but tell everybody…
For the story passes down as the years go by and Everywhere in town I hear the young girls cry,
So tell....Oh, everybody you know,
hold her and love her and call her your own
But leave God’s perfect little wonder alone,
you gotta leave her alone, just leave her alone.
Another baby is born and what a wonder is this;
A perfect creation just the way she is, so tell…
Share by: