Is Anti-FGM Legislation Cultural Imperialism? Interrogating Kenya's Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act

Abstract

Postcolonial feminists and anthropologists have criticised anti-female genital mutilation (FGM) efforts for being ethnocentric and for imposing ‘Western’ values onto African communities. Recently, a Kenyan medical doctor has petitioned against Kenya's Prohibition of FGM Act, arguing that the Act is unconstitutional and the entrenchment of Western values. This article critically interrogates the allegation that African legislation against ‘FGM’ (FGM) embodies the culturally-imperialist imposition of Western values by empirically examining how Kenya's anti-FGM Act was produced and became contested. The findings show that international power hierarchies influence who can speak and what can be said about FGM. However, the findings simultaneously challenge the Africa/West and cultural relativism/imperialism divide present in some of the critiques of anti-FGM legislation and interventions. I argue that the notion of ‘imposition’ does not adequately capture the African agency and the transnational collaborations that went into both producing and contesting the Act.