100 - 16 September to 22 September 2007

17 September - Finding Home

Were she back in London, Natalie would never have had the guts to go through with this. Were she there — home — instead of here in Burkina Faso, the new wife of a tyrannical prince, she would not have had to.

In London, little girls left uncircumcised weren’t anathema.

‘This will only tickle,’ said the Elder woman, in a language that was more flowery than clicking and whistling.

The Elder pushed Natalie’s knees apart. She felt the cool, smooth surface of a knitting needle slide deep inside her, and cried for the child she would never know, and for home.

I watched two really moving movies: Moolaade, about female circumcision, and Vera Drake, about abortion. The two of them warped into Finding Home. I didn’t intend for it to be a shock piece, but it ended up being a little like that. I’m disappointed, but happy that I got the story out of my system.