Author: Violet Barungi

  • Beyond the Dance

    Beyond the Dance

    Female genital mutilation is the excruciating and damaging experience that Beyond the Dance a lot of women in many cultures across Africa and in many other parts of the world suffer. Even when the women find themselves, for one reason or another, relocate in what should be safe havens, this practice frequently follows them like a vengeance ghost. Beyond the dance is a compilation of testimonies and poems about the humiliation of female genital mutilation, and about the resulting deprivation and loss. It encompasses accounts, factual in some cases and lyrical in others, of the experience of this practice lived or witnessed, and the visceral responses to the practice. The anger is palpable, the bafflement tangible. Beside the pain, though, is the hope borne of the voices raised by governments, organisations, institutions and individuals, urging a stop to the practice and coaxing oft-unwilling communities into abandoning it or transforming it into a meaningful ritual that builds up rather than ruins. Through the pages of this volume we share the pain, thoughts, views and feelings of the victims of female genital cutting and of people concerned about the debilitating practice. We share the hope that they hold out for a firm and final end to the practice.

  • Taboo. Voices of Women in Uganda on Female Genital Mutilation

    Taboo. Voices of Women in Uganda on Female Genital Mutilation

    The oral histories, short stories and poems in this collection in which women in Uganda speak out revolve around the inhumanity of FGM (female genital mutilation). Tradition shrouds the practice in mystery but the societal norms which dictate such cruel interventions in women’s sexual development don’t take their welfare into consideration. It is hoped that after reading these perturbing testimonies by FGM victims, women and young girls in all parts of Uganda — and the world– will take more vigorous steps to denounce the barbaric tradition and reclaim their rights, lives and enjoyment of full womanhood.

  • Talking Tales

    Talking Tales

    In Talking Tales a variety of women tell their stories in prose and poetry. They cast their nets wide, hauling in themes that celebrate as much as they castigate and mourn. There is the delight of discovering oneself on the cusp of womanhood, and of hearing about success in the fight for women’s emancipation. There is also the wonder at the restorative power of love. However, the murkier side of human life is explored too: the failed search for love, unwanted advances, misunderstood affinities, incest, betrayal, disillusionment, unfruitful enterprise, domestic violence, corruption, brutality, injustice, the capriciousness of fortune…The realistic, the near-fantastic and the bizarre all find their place here. The themes are handled with forthrightness and humour as the writers take full advantage of the possibilities inherent in the different ways of telling tales: poetic, epistolary, expository, and straightforward narrative.

X