Privates the real home to a woman!

Joel Tsvakwi , Sunday Life Reporter
FEMALE novelist Ericah Gwetai is against genital mutilation but encourages women to undergo an initiation practice which she refers to as “becoming a full woman”.

Gwetai in her book, More than a woman, chronicles the socio-economic, cultural journey of women in pre and post-independent Zimbabwe. While Gwetai claims that she is the first writer in Zimbabwe to write about such “sensitive” issues, she told Sunday Life she does not want to die before she helps women understand the importance of “their complete woman concept”.

According to Gwetai, a complete woman is a woman whose “home” has been renovated in such a way that it gives her husband great pleasure to come in. She added that a “home” refers to female private parts and renovating means improving what God has given to women.

“Women’s labia minora are too small and they need to be elongated so that during foreplay husbands or future husbands will get pleasure playing with them as much as the women will experience the pleasure,” she said, adding that elongated “homes” also act as pants and keep “homes” cosy and warm.

She added that culturally there is an initiation done to girls around the age of about 17 after a demonstration by elderly women.

“It’s an easy and painless process which is done at secluded places usually near rivers. The ingredients needed are a mixture of peanut butter oil and ashes from burnt castor oil seeds which are carried in a gourd,” she said.

The initiation takes about two weeks after which girls who excel are rewarded.

“Girls lie on their backs on soft grass. After an hour of continuous pulling with fingers dipped in oil mixture from the gourds their supervisors will stop them. For two weeks the girls will come to the river to do the same activity and as an incentive a cow can be given to the girl who would emerge with the longest pair of things,” said Gwetai.

Turning on to genital mutilation, Gwetai said it was a bad and inhuman practice.

“The worse part of it is when they remove the entire clitoris and remove the entire genitalia which include the labia minora, the two sides are then sewn together with a needle or an improvised one like the thorn of an acacia tree. The sealing only leaves a small hole for urinating and for blood to pass through during menstrual flow,” she explained, adding that she was proud of our Zimbabwean culture of just improving “homes” for the good, not torture.

“I am a woman writer. It is other women who tell me these things. I am saying once upon a time. I am not saying do it. I am just saying this is our culture, why are you not armed with such female weapons?” she said.

Twitter: @Joeltsvakwi