Mum’s refusal to have 5-year-old daughter circumcised tears family apart
Two royal families in Ekiti State are reportedly in heated conflict over the circumcision of a 5-year-old girl.
Sunnewsonline’s Wole Balogun reports:
Miss Olufunke Oyenekan, mother of the 5-year old girl and fiancee to Mr. Emmanuel Olaoye, son of a royal family in Ushi-Ekiti, Ekiti State, disagreed with the Olaoyes over their decision to perform the traditional circumcision rites on her daughter. The woman, sensing that her husband’s family wanted to perform the rites by all means, fled with her child in 2012 and her whereabouts has since remained unknown.
Recently, the Olaoye family again raised alarm through a representative, identified as Chief Olu Olaoye over the sudden disappearance of Olufunke and her daughter. The family said that their son’s fiancee did not mean well for the family by preventing them from performing the circumcision rites on the child. Their explanation is that it is a mandatory cultural practice to have all their children circumcised, considering theirs is a royal family whose duty it is to preserve the cultural heritage of the people in order to set a worthy example.
Meanwhile, Olufunke has vowed not to allow anyone, even if it is her husband, to carry out any circumcision rites on her daughter. A member of her family, who spoke to Sunday Sun on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter, said: “As for the Oyenekan family, we have no problem with whatever the Olaoye family wants to do with their daughter. In our part of the world, it is the man who owns the child and has the final say over him or her. But our daughter, Olufunke is more western-oriented than many of us. She has vowed not to allow any circumcision for her daughter. She says the practice might have an adverse effect on the girl in the future. We would have been able to intervene in the matter to ensure that peace reigns but right now, I can swear to you that we do not even know the whereabouts of Olufunke and her child. In fact, we learnt that her older son has also joined his mum where she was but we do not have any idea of where that is…there is nothing anyone can do,” the man said.
Mr. Emmanuel Olaoye, Olufunke’s fiancé, pitching his net with his family reportedly says, “My family demanded that we submit our children for circumcision rites. Funke, my wife-to-be, didn’t like this arrangement at all. She didn’t particularly want our daughter, who was then two years and four months old to be circumcised as she said she didn’t like what she experienced as a woman who was circumcised by her parents when she was young. But my people won’t be persuaded to spare our daughter of the treatment because our tradition forbids any of our blood not being administered the circumcision rites. My fiancée has since fled with our daughter since the disagreement in Ushi-Ekiti. As I’m going to succeed my late father as the traditional ruler of our town, it becomes more mandatory for my children to be circumcised. Here in our land, it is part of the prerequisites of a king-to-be to have all his children circumcised. We really do not have a choice here but my fiancee sees the practice as barbaric and outdated. She won’t have any of it for our daughter. That is why she ran away with our daughter…,” Olaoye said, wearing a defeated, melancholy look.
Source: sunnewsonline.com
Hmmmmmmmmmm Culture and its effects.